Sandel DeMastus was one of those rare individuals with a knack for getting things done.

That boundless energy was still put to use after she was diagnosed with colon cancer and even after the arduous treatment began.

Sandel, 68, died on Feb. 27, 2014, after moving in a few weeks earlier with her niece Jessica Wirkkala in LaCenter. Her family was with her then and on April 6 the Renton community will have its chance to remember Sandel and her contributions to her city.

A Celebration of Life is planned for Sandel from 3-5 p.m. Sunday, April 6, at the Renton Highlands Community Center, 800 Edmonds Ave. N.E.

The celebration is a potluck, so bring your favorite “comfort food.”

Sandel’s fingerprints are all over Renton. And her hands helped tie the city together.

Sandel spent a quarter century volunteering in Renton.

“Anyone who knew Sandel knows that she loved her community,” said Norma McQuiller, supervisor of the City Renton’s Neighborhood Program, who has known Sandel for 13 years and worked on projects with her in the Highlands.

“She was an advocate for our low-income citizens, for the disadvantaged and for seniors, to name just a few of the many causes that she embraced,” she said.

Sandel was probably the Renton Highlands’ biggest fan, watching over her neighborhood, missing little that happened – good and bad – and getting on the phone to keep everyone informed.

She was president and vice president of the Highlands Community Association, which 10 years ago fought even the suggestion that government use its powers of condemnation to redevelop her neighborhood.

That redevelopment is now happening, as a partnership of the City of Renton, the King County Housing Authority, the King County Library System and the neighborhood.

Before she left for LaCenter, Sandel said she “especially liked to help older people.”

And she did, serving in leadership positions, including president, in the Renton AARP 414, bringing key community leaders to speak before her group. In 2011 she told her story to the AARP Bulletin, helping to shed light on how the federal deficit threatened home-care hours for those on Medicaid.

She also served on numerous community committees, including the Human Rights Commission and the Renton Highlands Task Force. For many years she served on the board of Children of Chernobyl Northwest Fund.

Her volunteering goes back a long time. In 1994, she was named the “volunteer of the year” by the Tacoma Visitor and Convention Bureau for giving 400 hours of community service in a year’s time.

And Sandel told the Highlands’ story on public-access Channel 77 with the “Sandel Show.” In her filmed tribute to the Renton Fire Department in 2005, she followed one day in the life of a firefighter.

Her friends were numerous and they stretched up and down the West Coast. She met the Monkees, a pop-singing group famous in the late 60s, and their songwriter, Bobby Hart, while working for Seattle radio stations KOL and KJR.

She helped the Monkees with promotion and marketing whenever they played in Seattle.

Sandra Jean DeMastus of Renton was born in Kirkland, where she spent most of her childhood. She graduated from Sammamish High School and studied journalism at Bellevue Community College.

She is survived by her niece Jessica Wirkkala, whom Sandel thought of as a daughter; her son Phillip Becker; her sisters Patricia Miran of Waverly, N.Y., and Beverly Annette Hancock of Vancouver, and four grandchildren.

Sandel loved to garden at her Highlands home, sharing her bounty with friends, neighbors and the food bank.

“Sandel always gave more than she received and that is exactly who she was,” McQuiller said.