A letter from John Perry, Candidate for Steilacoom Town Council.
The results for the Primary election were published earlier this month and Steilacoom stood out from the rest of Pierce County with regards to voter participation. I want to take a minute to wish a heartfelt thank you from the Perry Family for your support. It is imperative that the trend continues into the general election.
I mention family because over the last few months, my in-laws, my wife and daughter, and many friends in the town have helped me at the Farmer’s Market, knocked on doors throughout the neighborhoods, and held personal conversations on my behalf. Throughout marriage, our profession has carried us across different parts of the globe, whether it be for military service, humanitarian crisis or more recently wildfire response. Our dedication and the willingness to pick up each other’s slack is remarkable, as witnessed at the Farmer’s Market where Ellie and Amelia continued engaging residents while I was involved in response to the Summit Trail Fire Complex outside of Colville, Washington (currently burning over 46,000 acres). I say all of this to make a connection regarding the values of taking care of each other, whether it be your traditional family or your extended community family. This is an example of what it means to be vested.
Steilacoom is just small enough that it is quite possible to know everybody, or almost everybody. On any given day, residents are out enjoying the trail systems, playing in the parks, shopping in the businesses, volunteering in the greenbelts and the list goes on. These are all opportunities to interact with each other and despite its best efforts, the pandemic has not been able to stop that.
The Primary Election has passed but the General Election will be upon us soon (November 2nd). I encourage you to share this email and or respond if you have friends or neighbors that value keeping Steilacoom the charming town that they have come to love. My goal is the same as many of yours, preserve our town for future generation. I have a background in engineering, public service and environmental preservation so I know where to begin because as the old adage goes, “you eat an elephant one bite at a time”. It helps if you have done it before and it helps even more if you involve the public, encourage participation, and provide feedback.
Thank you again Steilacoom for helping me through the Primary election. Regardless of who you voted for; I have always been on your team because I represent all the citizens of the town.We have one more election and I value your support. Take the opportunity to learn more about me on my website steilacoomjohn.com or the Facebook Page, John Perry for Steilacoom Town Council Seat 2. I can be contacted personally at john@steilacoomjohn.com or phoned at 253-987-6277. I am happy to get together over coffee and chat.
What a wonderful upbeat family you have John Perry, and thank you for helping fight the fires at the Summit Trail Fire Complex near Colville while your family held down the fort for your Town Council election on the home front. This demonstrates 100% a family that works & stays together and shows responsibility to our Town Residents as well as by being socially & verbally engaged with them to keep them updated on matters that concern everyone in our Town. I came from a small town in Idaho about 100 miles from Boise and most of the men in the family either worked the Brundage Fire Lookout in the Idaho Forest or were smoke jumpers to parachute into the steep hills to create fire break lines to help put the fires out, usually started by lightning. So I know how dangerous that work is and appreciate all that your team did while on your shift over there. This tells me that with all you have done in our Town of Steilacoom and beyond, you are the one our family should vote for, because you care!
Thank you for the kind words of encouragement Kellie! There are several others in Steilacoom who have also taken part in wildfire response in the past. A lot of people don’t know that these fires continually burn in eastern Washington and the Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Indian Affairs and Department of Natural Resources all come together with Firefighters as a cohesive team to protect the communities and natural resources. During this event, my responsibility was to establish and maintain landing points, and incident command bases as well as support the logistics of the forward bases (Spikes) on the fire line. Being a qualified volunteer wildland firefighter is something I see as an easy choice to create an individual impact with tangible results for our State. Everybody works an average of 16 hours per day for 14 days straight and lives in standard pop-up individual tent. It is a pleasure to meet all of the firefighters, support staff and community members who readily display their affection for all of the sacrifice and dedication.