OLYMPIA — Before a packed audience at a joint session of the Washington state Legislature, Gov. Jay Inslee on Wednesday awarded the state Medal of Valor to Oso and surrounding communities for their work responding to last year’s mudslide that killed 43 people.
Representatives of Oso, Darrington, Arlington and the Sauk-Suiattle tribe came to the Capitol to accept framed medals and state proclamations of the honor, which is awarded for lifesaving effort at risk of personal safety. A law change this year enabled the award to be given to entire communities for their collective work after the March 22 landslide, the deadliest in U.S. history.
“Having been in these communities for weeks and months after this, I can tell you that the intense lights of their individual acts of bravery were met by the intense warmth of their thousands of acts of compassion to help their communities heal,” Inslee said.
The recipients of the award thanked Inslee and the assembled House and Senate for the honor, which Washington last awarded in 2007.
“I hope you have about 2,000 more of them,” said Quinn Nations, a logger who accepted the award for Darrington, “because there’s a lot more people here that deserve them.”
Brantly Stupey, a ninth-grader who accepted the medal as Arlington’s representative, said the tragedy had brought out the best in his community, where he and classmates at Post Middle School worked with Red Cross efforts to distribute food and water.
“The battle for healing is ongoing,” said Stupey, who is 14, “but through continued unity, in time it will heal.”
After the ceremony – and after Lt. Gov. Brad Owen suggested to the collected leaders of Washington government that Stupey has a potential future in politics – Stupey said the honor and the effort of writing his speech brought back memories of the tumultuous days after the mudslide.
“It’s very humbling that I get to represent my community and my world for all that they do,” Stupey said.
At the same event, the state Medal of Merit was awarded to Harmony Hill Retreat Center founder Gretchen Schodde and the late tribal leader and environmentalist Billy Frank Jr., whose sons accepted the honor on his behalf after a speech by Rep. David Sawyer.
“In my opinion, he was the greatest civil rights hero in our state’s history,” Sawyer, D-Lakewood, said of Frank.
From a gallery seat high above the marble House chamber, Terry Haldeman recalled the chaos of the days after the mudslide, which happened two miles from his house. He took days away from his regular duties as a Snohomish County deputy sheriff to run earth-clearing machinery amid hard rains and stiff wind, with search planes flying low overhead.
“It’s almost surreal, the amount of change a year has meant,” said Haldeman, 45.
He and his wife, DeLayne, said the sight of the landslide area and memory of the tragedy became part of their daily lives.
“It’s been an incredibly tough year for the community,” said DeLayne Haldeman, 47, as she watched the House gallery fill with her neighbors, “and to be recognized for the effort and time and love the community put forth to help survive the ordeal means a lot.”
