By LEAH WEATHERSBY

At an age when some people are just happy to be up and around, Nellie Claringbould is not only taking long walks, she's earning big money to do it.

Claringbould, 88, is the star fundraiser for the Alzheimer's Association's yearly Seattle Memory Walk which will take place this year on Sunday, Sept. 8, at Sand Point Magnuson Park. Registration for the three-mile walk is at 9 a.m. with the walk beginning at 10 a.m.

During the 10 years that the Seattle Memory Walk has been in existence, Claringbould has consistently been the top fundraiser, bringing in more than $20,000 over the years.

She doesn't just raise funds from a few wealthy friends and family members, either. Claringbould runs a yearly bake sale featuring treats from her native Holland. She holds a raffle with gift certificates donated by the merchants she patronizes throughout the year and most of all she writes letters to the many friends she's made over a long, exciting life.

Even in her early teenage years, Claringbould was supporting causes she believed in. As a young girl she joined a youth group in Holland that she said, advocated peace, equality, women's voting rights and abstinence from smoking and drinking. It was at these meetings that she met her first husband, Jan Rombout.

The couple married in 1940, but they were in for anything but a peacefully honeymoon period. That was the year that Germany invaded and occupied Holland and the Rombouts both worked for the Dutch Resistance. Nellie secretly distributed intelligence papers from England and even ammunition, sometimes smuggling it in her daughter's baby carriage. Jan had the even more dangerous assignment of taking Jewish people as well as important personnel from England, Canada and America to safety via canoe along a river that was heavily guarded by the Germans. During this time, Nellie said, her home was subject to searches by the enemy.

"If (the Germans) had found the papers I received from England I would have been taken as a prisoner and never come back," she said.

Fortunately, the Rombouts came through that perilous time unscathed. Jan was honored by Holland, England and America for his work (he received the Medal of Freedom from President Eisenhower), although women such as Nellie, who had also played important roles, got little or no recognition.

Though the Rombouts had been lucky during the War, the post-War years held dangers of a different kind. Jan joined a group that traveled to Germany in hopes of reclaiming factory equipment looted by the Nazis. However, seeing the concentration camps and graves left a mental wound that he couldn't recover from, even after he returned home.

"(My husband) could not lose that sight, even when he was back in the Netherlands," Claringbould said. "We thought if we started a new life somewhere else that might help him."

The Rombouts and their two daughters moved to Australia in 1951. Though it was a culture shock for them, they settled in and stayed for nine years. Nellie taught high school while Jan worked as a mechanic for a cannery. (He later became a teacher as well.)

Then in the late '50s, the Rombouts befriended another family who had come to Australia from Seattle on a teacher exchange program. At their urging, the Rombouts decided to move to Seattle in 1960.

Nellie went into teaching again landing a job at the Ryther Child Center after only four days in America. Within a few years she was promoted from house mother, to teacher to head mistress. Her husband also worked at Ryther as a jack-of-all-trades.

Jan contracted cancer of the pancreas and, in 1970, he passed away. Nellie left Ryther and took another job teaching children at home and in hospitals until she retired in 1979. After Jan's death, Nellie was single for more than a decade. But one day, she met a fellow countryman, John Claringbould, at a gathering of Dutch Americans. Claringbould had recently bought a sailboat and invited Nellie, who had been an avid sailor with her first husband, to come for a ride on the craft.

The first trip was a test for the budding relationship. The Rombouts has always kept their boat in excellent condition and upon seeing Claringbould's craft, Nellie realized it wasn't up to her standards. She refused to go out until Claringbould got the vessel ship-shape.

Wisely, he capitulated and the two became an item. They settled at the Ida Culver House in Broadview, eventually marrying in 1994.

But the Claringboulds had only a few years together as husband and wife. John died of complications related to Alzheimer's disease in 2000.

Her second husband's illness inspired Nellie to get involved in the Alzheimer's Association, a group with a local office in Lake City. Though she was never honored for her bravery during World War II, Nellie has received a number of prizes for her efforts in fundraising, many of which she has sold so she could return the funds to the Association which supports local services for families living with the disease. Having already explained her methods to many other participants in this year's Memory Walk, Nellie doubts she'll be the top fundraiser this time around. Then again, she's talked of retiring from the walk all together and can't seem to stop doing her part.

"I really love to be busy," Nellie said. "That's what goes through my mind - 'well, if this is my last year, what will I do next year to fill the time?'"

Organizers of this year's Seattle Memory Walk expect the event to raise more than $100,000 and about 1,500 people are expected to participate.

For details, call the Alzheimer's Association at 363-5500.