After 22 Years, Debbie Campbell to Retire From United Way of Lewis County

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It was another Monday morning at the United Way of Lewis County’s downtown Chehalis headquarters, but it was anything but the normal start of the work week.

It was early December 2007, and communities along the Chehalis River in Lewis County had been soaked, tattered and left caked in thick mud following catastrophic flooding that exceeded anything in the historical record. 

Like most folks at the time, United Way of Lewis County Executive Director Debbie Campbell was contemplating the damage, not just because it was the focus of local and major media outlets, but because it had hit home. 

United Way staffer Linda Breen’s car had flooded. Another employee, Linda Lee, was stranded in Centralia and couldn’t reach the office. 

That’s around the time when former sheriff Steve Mansfield, spurred on by advice from deputy and United Way board member Gene Seiber, requested a meeting with Campell. 

“He said, ‘We have a big ask for you,” Campbell recalled. 

Big, indeed. 

Almost immediately, the United Way of Lewis County’s mission of raising money and distributing it to organizations to benefit the community “took a back seat” to the flood response.

Instead, the United Way shifted in a new direction, managing what would become more than $1 million in donations along with a surging number of volunteers to essentially become a frontline agency in the gargantuan effort to help rebuild Lewis County communities decimated by the natural disaster.

The United Way did it all without keeping a single dollar. 

“I was born and raised here,” Campbell said during a recent interview with The Chronicle. “There is nothing I wouldn’t do for this community. That’s why I think I’ve been successful in this community.” 

That success has spanned 22 years as the leader of the United Way of Lewis County. 

Later this year, Campbell plans to retire, which has sparked the beginning of an effort to fill her role. 

Before that happens, though, Campbell and her United Way of Lewis County have once again risen to a historic occasion.

Just two days prior to a recent drive-through COVID-19 vaccination event at the Southwest Washington Fairgrounds, Campbell was asked by the county to help produce volunteers to work the event. 

Like clockwork, the United Way came through, delivering 35 volunteers along with another 15 from the Twin Cities Rotary Club. 

“Her willingness to lead, to help, is so different from what people think of as the United Way’s mission,” said Richard DeBolt, the former state lawmaker and United Way of Lewis County board member who now leads the Lewis Economic Development Council. “That’s what's going to be missed … The other thing for me is she doesn’t care who gets the credit.”

 

Lifelong Lewis County Resident 

Campbell prides herself on being a Lewis County native who went on to spend her career working to improve the community where she grew up. 

One of her first jobs was in the box office of the Chehalis Theater, a position she held prior to her graduation from Centralia High School in 1973. After that, she quickly joined the workforce, first at Ross Equipment, where she worked as an office manager for eight years. From there, she began a career in the banking industry. 

Campbell spent 15 years working in the areas of human resources and marketing at Security State Bank.

“I loved it,” she recalled. 

The lure of a job at another financial institution, First Community Bank, at one point pulled her in a new direction. While she thought she would be based in Centralia, she ended up being placed at a location in Olympia. 

She maintained her residence in Lewis County, and the four years she spent working in Thurston County would be the only time in her career she worked outside of her home county.

“I really missed it,” Campbell said. “Even though I lived here, I missed being involved in the community.”

Well before accepting the position of executive director of the United Way of Lewis County, Campbell had already become deeply involved in the community. 

She was a board member of the Centralia-Chehalis Chamber of Commerce from 1992 to 1994, president of the board for the Lewis County Historical Museum in 1996 and president of the local branch of Altrusa International in 1992. 

At the United Way, she was board president in 1991 and campaign chair in 1993. In 1994, she was given the organization’s volunteer of the year award. 

She became executive director in 1999.

“I truly believe in what the United Way does, and I still do,” Campbell said. 

 

United Way 

In 1999, the United Way of Lewis County was a lot different than it is today. 

That’s one takeaway from Campbell’s 22 years at the helm of the organization. 

The office was formerly located in Centralia. The staff initially consisted of Campbell, a part-time bookkeeper and two executives on loan from TransAlta. 



To the community, the United Way was more or less seen as an extension of the fundraising thermometers placed in prominent locations around the area as the organization tackled its annual fundraising goal each year. 

That was in many ways the organization’s single goal — raise money throughout the year and donate it to partner agencies in the community. 

“People didn’t see us as a leader, or as someone who brought people together,” Campbell recalled. 

At the time, Campbell said, the United Way of Lewis County was “the only game in town.” Other nonprofits and organizations benefited from United Way’s fundraising, which was largely done through automatic payroll deductions that followed annual presentations at area businesses showcasing the work of the community’s nonprofits. 

“The agencies liked it because they were all pretty small and didn’t have the staff to go out into the community and tell people what they’re doing,” Campbell said. 

“This is not the same United Way as when I started in 1999,” she added. 

The United Way of Lewis County has fine-tuned its mission in recent years, narrowing in on early literacy, youth success and financial stability in an attempt to achieve its goal of lifting 30 percent of Lewis County residents out of poverty by 2030. 

In recent years, the Dolly Parton Imagination Library — which delivers books to children monthly — and the soon-to-be built United Early Learning Center in Centralia have been among the most visible fruits of that focus. Both are reflections of the United Way of Lewis County’s penchant for bringing other community groups and agencies together to accomplish big goals. 

With the expansion of the availability of smartphones and the internet, the desires and habits of donors have changed over the years. 

“The new generation wants to see something immediate and they want to see that the dollars they’re giving today will make a difference,” Campbell said. 

While there have been many changes during Campbell’s 22 years as executive director, there has also been remarkable sustainability. 

United Way of Lewis County Executive Assistant Linda Breen has been with the organization for 21 years. Finance Director Linda Lee has been on the staff for 18 years. Angela French, resource development director, has worked for the United Way of Lewis County for 14 years. 

“It wasn’t because of pay,” Campbell said. “I think we gelled, and they all had the heart for it. That’s what you have to have. We have a mutual respect, a love for the community and a joy for making things happen … There’s joy in the mission. I say we’re like a family, and we are.”

 

Her Proudest Moment 

Looking back, Campbell sees her organization’s work in the aftermath of the December 2007 floods as her proudest moment. 

When asked to comment on her pending retirement, DeBolt was quick to bring up the same point in time. 

“Debbie Campbell has proven to be a strong leader,” he said. “The thing that makes her special is she is willing to get in and do the work. Not just ask people to work — she gets in there and does it herself. She’s a servant-leader.”

Campbell holds the memories of those days dear, even as she remembers seeing the devastation of entire communities.

She recalls delivering checks to battered neighborhoods, hosting a volunteer and donation call center at the United Way’s office and delivering hope and resources at a time when many Lewis County residents lacked both.

“The stories, they make you smile,” she said. “You remember the devastation, but on the flip side you remember how people came together and came through it.”

 

Retirement

Campbell said her last day as executive director of the United Way of Lewis County will be Aug. 13, partially because she didn’t want to “jump ship before Power of the Purse,” one of the organization’s most popular events and fundraisers. 

Though she will remain active as a member of the Centralia College Board of Trustees, among other pursuits, she said she’s looking forward to working in her garden, catching up with old friends and spending time with her grandchildren. 

“I have a lot of things that I want to do that because of the crazy schedule I’ve missed,” she said.

Seeing her retirement on the horizon has also given her reason to reflect, especially on those who have strengthened or mentored her over the years. 

Among them were Donna Karvia, Vivian Roewe, Helen Peterson, her mother and father, and, of course, her husband Dave Campbell. 

“It's nice to be married to someone who has the same core values as you do and believe in this community,” she said. “He’s truly a partner in every sense.” 

Now, after more than two decades, Campbell said she intends to remain in Lewis County. It’s home, after all, and it’s where she has conducted her life’s work. 

“It’s time for United Way to have a new era and some new energy,” Campbell said. “I want to make that happen. I look forward to the transition. And for me, I just look forward to what's going to happen next. But I have had a great and fulfilling career in my hometown.”

State Rep. Peter Abbarno, a longtime supporter of the United Way of Lewis County, said it will be a challenge for Lewis County to replace Campbell. 

He said Campbell has been the community’s go-to individual when it came to bringing together multiple groups and organizations to solve a problem or accomplish a goal. 

“It’s going to be a big change for Lewis County because she has been an anchor for responses to emergencies, from flooding to COVID-19,” he said. “Or even the emergency of having a childcare desert. When you want to bring in organizations to have a discussion about important issues, United Way is at the forefront. Debbie has been the leader of that.”