2023 GRANT AWARDS
Helping Local Charities Thrive!Camas-Washougal Community Chest, C-W Rotary Foundation, and Camas Lions Foundation
Announce 2023 Grant Awards
The Camas-Washougal Community Chest and its partners, the Camas-Washougal Rotary Foundation and the Camas Lions Foundation, are pleased to announce the award of 31 grants totaling $140,000 to non-profit organizations delivering services, exclusively, to children and families in Camas and Washougal. The grants will fund such diverse services as emergency food assistance, aid to families in crisis or needing emergency services, safe temporary shelter for at-risk youth, a Safe Stay overnight car park program at St. Anne’s Episcopal Church, a homeless family day center located at Saint Thomas Aquinas in Camas, and water quality monitoring in the Lacamas Creek watershed. For a complete list of grant recipients and more grant details, scroll down!
Thanks to CWRF, CLF, and major donations from the GP Foundation, GP employees, Camas School District employees, City of Camas and Washougal employees, Port of Camas-Washougal employees, Windermere Foundation, and Watercare Industrial Services, CWCC is well on the way to funding these grants. To reach its 2023 fundraising goal, however, the CWCC needs additional donations from individuals and businesses in Camas and Washougal. If you have questions or would like to learn how you can be involved, contact us at info@camaswashougalcommunitychest.org. The C-W Community Chest is a 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization for federal charitable tax deduction purposes.
2022-2023 CWCC Board
Deanna Rusch, President
Joelle Scheldorf, Past President
Mindy Schmidt, President-Elect
Marianne Reiter, Co-Treasurer
Susan Bennett, Co-Treasurer
Cari Corbett, Secretary
Dave Pinkernell, GovCom Chair
Richard Reiter, Campaign Chair
Mary Templeton
Stuart Bennett
David Scott
Justice Rosales
Ann Stevens
John Spencer
Doug Hood
2022-2023 CWRF Board
Richard Renton, President
Max Hall, Treasurer
Ron Carlson, Secretary
Blaine Peterson
JC Kootnekoff
Larry Blaufus
George Capacci
Larry Keister
Milt Dennison
Scott Barry (Investment Committee)
Conner King (Investment Committee)
Community Programs/Projects Funded in 2023
Boy Scouts of America – Cascade Pacific Council
Grant helps fund Campership Awards so that Camas and Washougal families in need can send their scouts to summer camp.
Camas Farmers Market
Grant helps fund “Produce Pals,” a weekly activities program to educate children about where and how their food is produced. Kids completing the weekly program receive a $2 token to spend at the Camas Farmers Market for locally grown fruits and vegetables.
Camas Robotics Booster Club
Grant helps cover registration and transportation costs for students in financial need so they can participate in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) classes and activities. Funds will also help fund STEM education and outreach activities in the Camas and Washougal area.
Camas Washougal Parent Co-Op Preschool
Grant helps fund the preschool’s operating budget, including buying classroom supplies and help with maintaining and upkeeping the preschool indoor and outdoor areas in order to provide a safe place for the preschoolers to learn and play.
Cascadia Technical Academy Foundation
Grant helps students to purchase required uniforms and supplies such as chef jackets for Culinary program, scrubs for Applied Medical Science program, tools and tool bag for Construction program, and textbooks. Also helps students’ families meet emergency needs, such as gas cards so parents can get to work, paying for a few nights’ lodging while temporary housing is found, and buying food from CTA’s food pantry.
Children’s Home Society of Washington
Grant helps fund operations at the East County Family Resource Center in downtown Washougal. Helps fund parent education groups, youth support groups, emergency basic assistance, behavioral health services, and health care services provided by ECFRC or by a partner agency.
East County Citizens’ Alliance
Grant helps fund a native pollinator habitat by planting native wildflowers in a state highway plot 200 feet long and 20 feet wide east of the SR-14 / Washougal River Road roundabout. This is a first-of-its-kind project in Washington and WSDOT is providing a landscape designer as a coordinator/advisor.
Family Promise of Clark County
Grant helps fund an expansion of their FPCares program that proactively assists families with services that will prevent them from losing their homes and entering the shelter system. Services may include rental assistance, payments for rent in arrears, security deposits, landlord mediation, locating housing, and filling out applications.
Fort Vancouver Regional Library Foundation – Washougal Branch
Grant supports the Washougal Community Library’s summer reading program for kids and adults.
Friends and Foundation of the Camas Library
Grant helps fund several 100-year centennial projects, including four special exhibit displays in the Second Story Gallery, six speaking engagements in a “History Speaks!” speaker series, and the library will be collecting oral histories throughout the year and posting those stories to a hosted website.
Friends of the Columbia Gorge
Grant helps fund the “Explore the Gorge” classroom lessons and outdoor environmental education program for sixth graders in Jemtegaard and Canyon Creek Middle schools in the Washougal School District.
General Federation of Women’s Clubs – Camas Washougal
Grant helps the General Federation of Woman’s Clubs purchase books and other educational materials for all children in Pre-K programs in the Camas and Washougal School Districts. The program is aimed at all Pre-schoolers to grow their reading skills.
Impact CW – St. Matthew Lutheran Church
Grant helps purchase food and grocery gift cards for families in need in the Camas and Washougal School Districts.
Inter-Faith Treasure House
Grant helps pay for utilities (electricity, water, sewer, garbage and natural gas) so the IFTH can continue to operate the east county food bank.
Janus Youth Programs
Grant provides funding for outreach efforts and overnight facility stays for Camas and Washougal runaway youth at risk for abuse and neglect. Re-introduces kids to safe housing. Provides case managers to help youth access community services to help them achieve stability.
Journey Theater Arts Group
Grant helps fund a portion of the Washburn Performing Arts Center rental fee for the March production of Junie B. Jones, the Musical.
Kiwanis Camp Wa-Ri-Ki
Grant helps fund their Outdoor Environmental Education Program which offers campers meaningful outdoor activities that support fun, healthy living, nurturing personal growth, plus leadership and nature-based skills. Program goals include better physical and mental health, increased self-esteem, respect and kindness for others, ability to lead, community participation, and stewardship of natural resources.
Komak
Grant helps fund emergency financial assistance to normally self-supporting people who are unable to work and pay all their bills during cancer treatments.
Lacamas Watershed Council
Grant helps pay for volunteer training and water quality monitoring equipment and supplies. Water quality samples will be collected in the Lacamas watershed, including Lacamas, Round, and Fallen Leaf Lakes and Lacamas Creek.
Lifeline Connections
Grant helps fund youth activities, field trips, and transportation costs to Camp Mariposa (they use Kiwanis Camp Wa-Ri-Ki’s facility) for children of families in need or suffering from substance abuse.
Lower Columbia Estuary Partnership
Grant provides classroom lessons and outdoor applied learning programs for youth, including habitat enhancement projects adjacent to Gibbons Creek in the Steigerwald Lake National Wildlife Refuge and Campen Creek in Mable Kerr Park.
Meals on Wheels People
Grant helps fund an expansion of the Medically Tailored Meals Program, an evidenced-based nutritional intervention tailored to clients’ needs. These meals include higher quality food and provide more diversity and variety of foods
Pink Lemonade Project
Grant helps fund Pink Practicalities, a financial aid and assistance program. Covers costs that health insurance doesn’t, such as groceries, transportation services, lymphedema sleeves, lost wages, rent/mortgage payments, etc. for breast cancer patients during treatment.
REACH Community Development
Grant helps buy groceries, baby essentials, cleaning supplies, hygiene products, and similar basic household needs. Buys school supplies and holiday food baskets. Serves Gateway Gardens and Towne Square communities in Washougal.
ReFuel Washougal
Grant helps buy supplies such as sturdy clamshells, lidded bowls, and heavy-duty plastic forks and spoons to provide to-go meals during Friday meal nights. Also helps buy heavy-duty raincoats for homeless or low-income people in need.
St. Anne’s Safe Stay Program
Grant helps fund a portion of St. Anne’s Safe Stay program, including cleaning of the port-a-potty, use of outdoor electrical outlets, use of the Internet WiFi, and use of showers, laundry, and church kitchen.
TreeSong Nature Awareness and Retreat Center
Grant helps fund a ductless wall heater and the electrical wiring to complete installation in the recently completed 30-foot yurt.
Unite! Washougal Community Coalition
Grant helps fund “Sources of Strength” Suicide Prevention Program at Washougal High School; Positive Community Norms Campaign “Love Your Life” in the Washougal Community; the Support Our Guiding Good Choices Parenting classes; and the Support our Ambassador Youth Program.
Washougal School District – Principal’s Checkbook
Grant helps WSD principals provide for basic student needs to give low-income or homeless students equal opportunities at school. Funds a portion of the Adult Transition Program, which trains students with disabilities for transition into appropriate work placement. Funds supplies such as shoes, clothes, hygiene products, and food for Panther Den. Funds a mobile laptop cart for families without access to technology and internet services. Funds Martin Luther King Jr. commemorative activities on all WSD campuses.
West Columbia Gorge Humane Society
Grant helps fund the following programs and services designed to keep pets and people together during hardship, crisis, or an emergency: pet food pantry, temporary pet boarding, impound/owner surrender fee relief, and veterinary assistance. Also funds a portion of the cost to supply ReFuel Washougal with pet food to distribute to the pets of homeless and low-income people using ReFuel’s other services.
YWCA Clark County
Grant helps fund a portion of the YWCA’s Independent Living Skills Program. The ILS program helps youth transition out of foster care to independent living by providing physical things such as clothes for job interviews, rental assistance, and furniture for new living spaces. The ILS program also provides education and training opportunities to help participants with their transition to independence