The 29th annual Key Peninsula Citizens of the Year awards banquet will be held at 6 p.m. March 30 at the Key Peninsula Civic Center in Vaughn. The keynote speaker will be Jane Parnell, the superintendent of the Washington Corrections Center for Women. Eighteen citizens have been nominated for the honor. Dinner will be provided by Dorne Webster of Mosquito Fleet Cuisine.

All Key Peninsula citizens are invited to attend the event, which is sponsored by the Key Peninsula Lions Club.

Tickets to confirm invitations and reservations may be obtained from members of the Lions Club, at Sunnycrest Nursery or at Crest in Key Center. A $25 contribution would help to cover costs of the event.

Kobe Frederick

Of his own volition, Frederick, 14, approached the office of the Key Peninsula Parks District, offering to help. He soon became a go-to volunteer for almost all of the parks district’s programs. He was an assistant leader for Eco Camp, a program helper for Cinema Under the Stars, an assistant coach for PeeWee Soccer, entertainment leader for Harvest Hayride, head elf for Santa’s Breakfast and is currently an assistant coach for PeeWee basketball.

Frederick has been inspired by those activities and is pursuing more leadership training, including becoming a junior lifeguard. He is an inspiration to children and his peers on the Key Peninsula. A home-schooled student, he makes a difference in his family. He loves skating on Friday nights at the Key Peninsula Civic Center and being involved with friends.

Jeff Harris

After his move to the Key Peninsula in 1995, Harris managed the Custom Camera business near Key Center and has served as director for South Sound March of Dimes and the director of Communities In Schools. He also was the first president and founding member of the Key Peninsula Community Council, which is entering its 10th year of service.

Because of Harris’ success, the community council is a recognized liaison for local, state and federal governments and is the only organization that advocates for the issues and concerns of the peninsula. He created the Key Peninsula Travel Club and coordinates its meetings and activities. With John Biggs, Harris organized the first and only Key Peninsula Zucchini Race in celebration of the 100th anniversary of Home. Carved zucchinis raced with the tide, and the first to pass under the Home bridge won.

Carolyn Wiley

Wiley’s leadership and endless volunteer hours helped to create the annual Longbranch Fiber Arts Festival, which several hundred people attend every year. She promoted the annual Key Peninsula Farm Tour and the Kids’ Christmas event among other events.

A member of Friends of the Key Peninsula Library board, Wiley is the program chair and brings music and entertainment to the community. This year, she was the major supporter in raising $30,000 to $35,000 needed for additional equipment for the library remodel. Wiley helped to raise the money in four months.

Dana Webster

Webster has served on the Key Peninsula Community Council since its inception in 2004. She has served as its president two years and was re-elected president for 2013.

As chair, Webster has initiated community forums to help inform residents about topics of interest, land use, politic candidates, emergency preparedness, transportation safety and more.

She has been active on the Key Peninsula Farm Tour committee, chairing the initiative from its inception and playing a supporting role in event planning and communication.

She also is active in the Key Peninsula Writers Guild and has served as a writer and contributor to the Key Peninsula News.

Matthew Mills

For years, Mills has provided hands-on leadership to the Key Peninsula Lions Club-sponsored Boy Scouts of America Troop 220 and Cub Scout Pack 220. He is there when the troop stages its annual Easter egg hunt at the Key Peninsula Civic Center for all ages in separated areas. He is involved when the troop handles set up, busing and cleanup at the KPCC annual crab feed, and he’s there when the troop presents the colors during the annual KP Citizens of the Year awards banquet.

Mills is with the scouts on backpack trips, cross-country expeditions and when they sleep in snow caves the scouts build on the slopes of Mount Rainier.

He is a teacher at Purdy Elementary School, where his skills have given students access to and instruction on how to dissect sheep brains during the process of which the kids learn, not squirm.

Wally Haugaard

Wally Haugaard, director of the Key Peninsula FISH Food Bank, brings people together and helps them work as a team. Along with Karen Jorgenson, supervisor of the Food Backpacks 4 Kids Program, Haugaard has helped those in need acquire food, household goods, magazines, linens, new clothing, books and personal care items that enhance the quality of life.

In 2012, 540,000 pounds of food fed 1,800 families on the Key Peninsula each month. Haugaard collects much of it three days from cooperating businesses.

More than 50 volunteers from the peninsula take turns unloading food from trucks, picking up, sorting and distributing food six days a week, and preparing hot soup each Tuesday at the Key Peninsula Lutheran Church.

Cindy Worden

Cindy Worden, recently re-elected to serve as president of Key Peninsula’s Citizens Against Crime, continues to lead the organization in its role as extra eyes and ears for the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department. She brings experience from a similar volunteer role in University Place. The group’s monthly meetings are well-attended and frequently involve advisers from the Peninsula Detachment.

The public is encouraged to attend and present information for CAC involvement to help inhibit crime activities.

Worden sponsored the group’s annual picnic, during which Sheriff Paul Pastor and his deputies share experiences and advice with CAC volunteers.

Jeffrey S. Schaar

Schaar has been Cubmaster for Pack 222 since 2010 and previously worked as an assistant den leader. He promotes scouting, recruits families and organizes community service projects.

Schaar leads the pack to clean up parks, build trails, serve at various fundraisers, collect food for Backpacks 4 Kids, donate to charities and more. He leads by example, resolves conflicts and teaches boys to respect elders, their surroundings and each other.

To Schaar, any boy who wishes to be in scouts can participate regardless of finances or home life. He makes sure the pack provides experiences to all boys at as low a cost as possible and encourages cubs to participate in fundraisers to learn personal responsibility and ownership.

Schaar is serving his last year as Cubmaster and plans to move on to the Boy Scout troop.

Anne Nesbit

Nesbit, a single mom, is a full-time administrative assistant for Key Peninsula Fire District 16, and she’s also a volunteer firefighter/EMT for the department. In addition, she’s an active member of the KP Firefighters’ Association, volunteers for the KP Children’s Home Society, and she has volunteered for the Peninsula School District’s levy committees and those of the KP Fire Department.

She often is involved with activities and programs at Evergreen Elementary, where her two children are students. She dedicated a number of hours in December to organize and run KPFD’s Santa sleigh.

Maureen Sikora

Sikora quickly restrained a woman who shot customers last August at a Key Peninsula grocery store, saving other potential victims. Sikora and her husband, Greg, host people during the annual Key Peninsula Farm Tour at their Gentle Giant Meadows Ranch.

She and her husband also published a book in December that deals with an unusual symbiotic relationship between a Canada goose and the couple’s enormous Shire draft horse. Greg’s photography accompanies the book, which sold out of its first edition.

Mike Coffin

Coffin and his wife, Judy, have been Key Peninsula residents since 1989. Shortly after Mike’s retirement from the U.S. Army, he became what he coins as a “professional volunteer.” He was both vice president and president of the KP Lions Club, and he simultaneously served as president of the KP Civic Center. He left the KP Lions to serve as president of both the KP Civic Center and the Gig Harbor Fraternal Order of Eagles.

He has served on the KP Fire Department’s planning committee,  as a trainer for the Pierce County Emergency Preparedness program, as well as an active member of both the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the American Legion.

His leadership has been sought because of his business background and ability to gain consensus among group members. With his guidance, all of these organizations excelled in their missions to support the community.

Linda Niles

Niles has volunteered countless hours to Key Peninsula Community Services to ensure the programs run at a high level. She has brought office and people skills to the organization for several years and makes a difference in service delivery to clients.

Belinda Parodi

Parodi has been with Key Peninsula Community Services for two years. She is compassionate and has a non-judgmental attitude toward clients, and if anyone in the community needs food bank services, Parodi is the person they want to serve them.

Hannah Petersen

Petersen keeps cubs and Cubmasters in Boy Scout Cub Pack 222  alerted to what’s happening  and where. She gathers up and deals with the paperwork required of scouting activities, and she has an infectious smile. She effectively deals with details of the pack’s relationship with its sponsor, the Key Peninsula Lions Club.

Carolyn Dimmer

Dimmer has volunteered as a mentor for Communities In Schools of Peninsula at Evergreen Elementary School, where she helps children overcome inabilities with reading. She also volunteers with the Angel Guild, where she helps to ensure items for sale are properly labeled and that customers and contributors are welcomed.

Karen Jorgenson

Jorgenson is the supervisor of the Food Backpacks 4 Kids Program, which is entering its fourth year on the Key Peninsula. The program has 50 volunteers who pack 468 backpacks each week; four years ago, it started with nine participants.

The backpacks are delivered to Key Peninsula schools and distributed to students who need food on weekends. The children also receive new socks, hats and mittens, as well as school supplies, toothbrushes, toothpaste and other personal care items.

The program is supplemented in the summer with one at the KP Lutheran Church, where children and their families gather for lunch three days a week.

Don Stolz

Stolz brought the Food Market grocery stores to Key Center and Lake Kathryn Village. He bought the Key Center location, an existing store that was rundown and no longer served the needs of the population.

After Stolz rebuilt the stock and improved the store’s service, he upgraded the facility and increased the number of employees. He also gives back to the community by donating 1 percent of sales receipts to nonprofit organizations.

Troy Milles

Milles dedicates many hours to youth on the Key Peninsula. He initiated and directed Fridays Teen Coffee House at the KP Lutheran Church in an effort to give teens somewhere safe to be, and he joined others who had resurrected the Friday Night Skate program at the KP Civic Center, and he eventually assumed the leadership role. Last year, Milles created a “cosmic” skate program for students in eighth grade through high school. At their request, it’s now about dancing, socializing and “hanging out.” The event is held on the last Friday night of each month.