Sunnyside School District

Sunnyside High School Alumni Wall of Fame

From astronauts to senators to doctors, Sunnyside High School and the Sunnyside School District proudly recognize alumni who have demonstrated high levels of achievement in their profession, served the community or country in a significant way or exhibited leadership, character, and service in their profession or community.

Nominations are accepted through July 13, with award ceremonies taking place during Sunnyside High School's Homecoming Week in the fall. The inductees and their families are invited to a dinner in their honor and invited to ride in the homecoming parade. They are also honored prior to the start of the homecoming football game on Friday night.

Nomination packets can be mailed to the Communications Department of the Sunnyside School District, located at 1110 S. 6th Street, Sunnyside, WA 98944 or emailed to jessica.morgan@sunnysideschools.org. If you need assistance accessing this document, please contact the Communications Department at 509-836-8703.

Wall of Fame Tributes 2018

Our first honoree is Ann Furukawa Dondero, a graduate with the Sunnyside High School Class of 1962. Ann spent the first four years of her life in Pullman, Washington, as her parents' families were displaced from their homes in Sunnyside and Seattle due to the Japanese evacuation of the West Coast, pursuant of Executive Order 9066. Her family made the permanent move to Sunnyside in 1953 when her father, Dr. Hiroshi Furukawa opened his medical practice after graduating from the University of Washington. Dr. Hiroshi Furukawa, with the Sunnyside High School Class of 1936, is also a member of the Wall of Fame.

Ann graduated from Whitman College with a degree in psychology and a teaching certificate. She taught elementary education until 1974 when Ann and her husband Russ settled in Oregon where Russ took a teaching position at Pacific University. During this time Ann took night classes and volunteered at Rogers Library in Forest Grove. It was in that library during pre-school story time that Ann found the calling that would carry her through the next 36 years of her life.

Ann grew her volunteer position at the library to Youth Services Librarian. When a new library was built in 1978, Ann continued to expand youth services at Forest Grove City Library from a one-day a week story time session to include multiple sessions for babies, toddlers, and pre-schoolers. She developed the library's teen collection and created a space for teens to come enjoy the library. She was also responsible for the summer reading programs, from creating activities to bringing in artists and performers to provide cultural and professional entertainment at no charge. A particular highlight for her was bringing the Oregon Symphony to pre-school story time in 2014, when the symphony members played music while Ann read, then allowed the children to play the instruments themselves. Her efforts and enthusiasm advanced the library's offerings to include bilingual story time, an afterschool youth program, a Saturday program, and a movie program. Ann was recently recognized by Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley for a program that she and a colleague, Barbara Dunnette organized, Be Enthusiastic About Reading, or BEAR month. The library recently celebrated the 38^th annual BEAR month this past January. She also felt strongly about sharing her passion with others, leading workshops on developing successful youth library programs for teachers, librarians, and pre-schools.

In 1981, Ann earned a Masters of Arts in Teaching and following that, continued taking classes in library topics, children's and early literacy, and Spanish with the specific goal of furthering her library program efforts. An avid traveler, she and her husband have visited numerous states, and countries, and over the years Ann has remained active in the local school district, serving on multiple committees and boards.

It was with keen foresight that the Sunnyside High School Class of 1962 named Ann Most Likely to Succeed as she has demonstrated a high degree of achievement in both education and childhood literacy. It is for her dedication to providing the best opportunities and experiences for the young readers within her reach that she is being recognized as a 2018 Sunnyside High School Alumni Wall of Fame Inductee.

Our next honoree is Daniel Clement, also a 1962 graduate of Sunnyside High School. Dan was born in Sunnyside in 1944 and had an upbringing that included farming, helping his mother with her 100 head of cattle, and driving a vintage International Harvester truck around town. Following graduation, he attended Washington State University where he earned his bachelor's and master's degrees in English, graduating Phi Beta Kappa. This is where he also met his wife, Joan, a fellow Yakima Valley resident. From there, he went on to earn a master's degree in social work from the University of Washington. But it was after spending a summer working with an American Friends service project in Baltimore that he recognized his calling to serve those with psychiatric issues. His path led him to the psychiatric and social services departments of Harborview Medical Center and Overlake Hospital, and despite being continually offered higher-level management positions, he recognized that his true passion came from working directly with the community's most vulnerable. Dan was also instrumental in establishing the Eastside Sexual Assault Center for Children, both serving as president and as a board member, and securing space for the program at Overlake Medical Center.

He spent the last 17 years of his career working with the Downtown Emergency Services Center, a nationally recognized leader in providing survival services and an emergency shelter for people living in a state of chronic homelessness. The organization primarily serves those who, due to severe and persistent mental illness and substance use disorders, could not be served by existing missions. According to his wife Joan, Dan appreciated the organization's mission to secure safe housing and stabilization services, while furthering a mission of acceptance and engagement with their clients. He supervised the mental health outreach team, and created the first mental health outpatient program for the organization. Next, he served his community as the administrator at Kerner Scott House, a housing program that provides studio apartments as safe havens and clean and sober living for the city's most severely mentally ill and challenging to engage. His work there led him to be asked to open Rainer House, a fifty-unit supportive living facility for single adults with mental illness, substance-use disorders, and other disabilities who have spent long periods of time living on the streets or in shelters.

By all accounts there was nothing this Wall of Fame inductee would not do to help someone in need. He used his strengths in patience, diplomacy, and sensitivity to break through barriers that included fear, dirtiness, and mental and emotional damage, to instill dignity and kindness to those who may have lost all sense of self-value.

We have to whole-heartedly agree with the Sunnyside High School Class of 1962 when they also voted Dan Most Likely to Succeed for it is the work he did for those in jeopardy and the way he lived his life in grace that make him a 2018 Sunnyside High School Alumni Wall of Fame Inductee.