Shawn Frederick and Amelia "Puniwai" Mimura gave their Classification Talks to the Club on Friday, August 16th.
Shawn was raised in New Orleans, Louisiana. Joined the Navy but only spent one month on a Navy ship. After his Navy stint, Shawn worked in the health care industry joining the Snohomish Health District in 2016. The job included supervision of all internal departments as the Environmental Health Manager, moving on to a Health Officer and now the administrator in the Health District. Appointed interim CEO of the Snohomish Health District which serves 800,000 county residents. There are 133 employees in the Health District substantially down from 2008 as the funding sources dried up and the economic downturn started. Shawn joined Rotary after attending a meeting approximately 4-5 months ago. Currently serves as a Commissioner on the Lake Stevens Veterans Commission and their new Foundation. He is a Candidate for an open seat on the Lake Stevens City Council. Shawn has three children, ages 27, 20 and 18.
Amelia has been retired for sometime but currently serves as a volunteer and the President of the Lake Stevens Senior Center. She has four children ranging in age from 54-69 and 24 grandchildren. Amelia enjoys surfing and snowboarding which are her passions along with teaching arts & crafts, playing and teaching the ukulele, hulu dancing along with playing in her own Hawaiian musical trio. On Wednesday and Friday's you can find her at the Senior Center cooking lunch. She is also the founder of a ukulele school in Los Angeles which now has 85 musicians who perform in Las Vegas and California.
Amelia is one of 21 siblings and is a pure-blooded Hawaiian. Their 15 bedroom home was on a forty acre ranch where everyone helped with the work, learning to create their own recreation. Running water and electricity were not available. Laundry was washed on the rocks of a nearby stream. Amelia worked for the American Honda Motor Co as a fork lift operator. Her husband worked for the Federal Aviation Administration which brought them to the mainland but health issues caused his early retirement and eventual passing nine years ago. Both enjoyed motorcycles and after her husband bought his motorcycle, Amelia secretly learned to ride a motorcycle and bought her own and both travel by motorcycle to many parts of the United States.
Welcome to the Club!