Ruth Bayan
Northwest Asia Weekly
Bill Lee (left) and Marcus Clark at the 2019 Roast Pig. (Photo by George Liu)
Bill Lee, a beloved volunteer of Danny Woo Community Garden, will be commemorated at noon on July 16th (Saturday)—appropriately in the same garden where he spent so much time.
Lizzy Baskerville is Danny Woo’s garden manager.
“[Bill] He was the first to show me the ins and outs of that garden, and he loved it wholeheartedly. Even after he stopped working in the garden, he continued to come back to help me fix leaking pipes or bring chicken feed to the mountain. “
Most of the people we interviewed about Li’s death noticed his love for the roast pig in InterIm’s annual garden.
“[The late] Bob Santos put me in charge of roasting pigs,” Lee told Assunta Ng, publisher of Northwest Asia Weekly. Lee has been volunteering for it for nearly two decades.
Baskerville said: “He will be responsible for setting up the barbecue pit, and will arrange for himself to rotate the barbecue for a few hours… It’s like from 1 am to 8 am.” “He was very focused on that spitting. He was just wholesome. Drink energy drinks and coffee to cook that pig at night. One of my fondest memories of him is that we were completely delirious in the early hours of the roast pig, because we didn’t sleep at all.”
Lee is also a member of the International Regional Emergency Center (IDEC) and volunteers to participate in community events that do not conflict with his work schedule.
Richard “Dicky” Mar, former chairman of the IDEC board of directors, said that after the murder of Donnie Chin, Lee reduced the Hing Hay Park flag to half, and he continued to do so every year on the anniversary of Chin’s death. Chin founded IDEC.
Mar said Lee was recently employed by the Seattle Parks Department as a park concierge. Mar called Lee “a huge asset operated by IDEC” because he was employed by the Park Department to handle the incident in Xinghai Park. According to Mar, he lost two positions during the Covid shutdown.
Jamie Lee, SCIDpda’s director of community planning, said: “My office is near Xinghai Park. Before the pandemic, we would see Bill almost every day.” “He is one of the people you can always rely on. ——We will miss him very much.”
Tom Im, Deputy Director of InterIm, said: “Bill Lee is committed to making our city a better place.”
This is the thought in response to State Representative Sharon Fumiko Santos.
“Bill is a kind and generous person. He is committed to the well-being of the Chinatown International District and the people who live, work and maintain our community. He always lends a helping hand nearby and pays close attention to every community activity. I am very much Thank you for knowing him and calling him a friend.”
Baskerville shared more of her favorite memories.
“We moved the compost tea bucket around in the garden and it smelled like rotten garbage all day long.
The other is when we buried his favorite chicken Diva under an Asian pear tree and shared the moment together. He is an animal lover and a very sensitive person. “
Ruth can be at editor@nwasianweekly.com.
