Like nearly all of the Mirror’s Citizen of the Month picks, Dick Mayer is humble.
“There’s a lot more deserving people out there than I am,” said the chairman for the annual Relay for Life and Helen Keller Basketball Challenge. “I’m very involved in the community; I go and do everything and I see all these people who are involved so much and, to be picked, it feels pretty special.”
At 79, Mayer retired last week from his 18-year career at a Federal Way Wal-Mart, where he spent a good amount of time as the Good Works coordinator, a program designed to give organizations in the community small grants.
“Since I had that position and I was the one who issued the checks… I got to be quite well-known around the city,” Mayer said with a smile.
Although the program has since dissolved, Mayer has been active in the Federal Way Lions Club and Kiwanis Club. Each spring he prepares the community for the annual Helen Keller Basketball Challenge, which puts officers from the Federal Way Police Department against South King Fire and Rescue firefighters in a game of basketball. With sales from hot dogs, popcorn, raffles and a small auction, the Lions Club and two departments split the funds three ways. Last year, the Lions Club raised three times the amount they normally do because the game was moved to a bigger venue.
“I liked the idea of recognizing Helen Keller because I think people don’t know who she is anymore, so I wanted to bring some awareness to that, so I picked up the ball and started carrying that forward,” Mayer said, noting that he didn’t start the game but has shepherded its growth throughout the years.
This year, the challenge will be held April 9.
Later in the spring, Mayer will be busy yet again as he organizes the breakfast and dinner for the annual Relay for Life on May 20-21 at Saghalie Middle School.
Mayer said his whole family has been a large part of Relay for Life at one point or another. Although Mayer is the chairman now, his son and his son’s wife have been chairmen in the past, and his grandson one year raised the “second-largest amount of money” within Federal Way. While Mayer has organized Wal-Mart Relay for Life teams in the past, this year he plans to organize a team with his church, the Federal Way United Methodist church.
“It’s strange because at that point in time I knew no one who had cancer, but the person who was leading it, [who] started it up in the city, was a very passionate person, and he got a bunch of us involved in it and it grew from there,” Mayer said.
Mayer has since fought and beat prostate cancer and is proud to walk the victory lap given to the survivors at the beginning of the race.
“Everyone who has survived cancer gets to do a victory lap,” he said. “As they go around and celebrate, everyone cheers them on. You’ve got to have hankies because it’s bringing tears galore.”
As Mayer stays busy during the first months of his retirement, he anticipates he’ll be even more involved with the Lions Club after the May elections. He was informed that no one else was running for president and that he had a high likelihood of taking the position, which is effective July.
“I just love our community,” he said. “I love what it can do and what it can make for people, and that’s why I got involved in this and that’s why I became the Good Works coordinator.”
Mayer said he’s not sure how the Lord directed him to the work he’s done, but his late wife might have had something to do with it.
After working for the U.S. Post Office for 35 years, Mayer retired. He and his wife decided to travel across the United States.
“We ended up, not by any plan or anything, but we went to five different states where [Wal-Mart] was having a grand opening and she just went bonkers buying all this stuff,” he said. “So, when we got back home, there was a little ad in the Mirror, in the upper left-hand corner, that said, ‘Wal-Mart is hiring.’
“My wife, bless her poor departed soul, was a Wal-Mart freak.”
Mayer said he and his wife took a vote, which she overrode, but he seemed OK with it.
“I said, ‘You know sweetheart, this is a good idea because now that I’m retired from the post office I won’t be able to buy you a Christmas present. I won’t have any more money, so if I get a part-time job, I can buy you one.”
Mayer’s wife died five years ago, right around the same time he received his permanent discount card.
“She would have been so proud of me to have that permanent Wal-Mart discount card,” he said. “We would have been married 50 years if she would have hung on three more months, but she decided to do it her own way.”
Mayer said she had “everything except cancer,” which disabled her from doing basic things like eating.
“The Lord didn’t put us here for suffering,” Mayer said. “He didn’t want that, so it was an answered prayer for both of us.”
Mayer, a West Seattle native, moved to Federal Way with his wife in 1974. He’s received highly coveted awards such as the Governor’s Outstanding Volunteer Service Award, the 2015 Lion of the Year, and he was the president of the Kiwanis Club of Greater Federal Way in 2014.
To nominate a Citizen of the Month, email your name, contact information and why you believe the Mirror should choose your nomination to editor@fedwaymirror.com.
