As I looked around the room at a meeting of the Chehalis Community Renaissance Team Friday, I was pleased to see a handful of young adults sitting at the table.
When Dick Larman, executive director of the Lewis Economic Development Council, said he worked in the state Main Street Program when it started in the mid-1980s, I remembered writing about it. The state program helps communities revitalize downtown commercial districts. Centralia became a Main Street city.
“Some of you probably weren’t even born in 1985,” he said, looking around the room.
Trevor Elliott, an account executive at Virgil R. Lee & Sons, shook his head. So did Andy Skinner, the Lewis County Historical Museum’s director, and a couple of other people.
“Most of us have gray hair older than they are,” quipped Terry Harris, a Chehalis City Councilman.
We laughed, but it was exciting to see young adults willing to volunteer their time and talents to the community.
Many of those young people belong to a group formed in 2010 called Young Professionals of Lewis County, a nonprofit, volunteer organization “dedicated to attracting and retaining professionals in the Lewis County area.”
“We are made up of motivated, energetic, young professionals certain to become the community’s future leaders,” the Facebook page states.
The group, which meets from 5 to 8 p.m. the second Wednesday of each month at the Riverside Golf Club’s roof-top bar, is designed to link members’ personal passions with professional ambitions, according to the Facebook page.
Both Elliott and Skinner attend; in fact, Elliott is slated to serve as the group’s president. He can be reached by email at telliott@lovstedworthington.com or by calling at 360-520-2197.
When I was a toddler in Iowa, my father used to belong to the Jaycees, the common name for the United States Junior Chamber, an organization for 18- to 40-year-olds that was also active in the Twin Cities decades ago.
It’s heartening to see young professionals in Lewis County working together to make our community a better place to live. It bodes well for the future.
Vietnam Traveling Wall
Mark your calendars now to invite family and friends next summer to view the Vietnam Veterans Traveling Wall when it is displayed in Chehalis Aug. 1-3.
About 12,000 people viewed the 370-foot-long wall, an 80-percent-scale replica of the memorial in the nation’s capital, when it was displayed at the Veterans Memorial Museum in the summer of 2007.
A committee headed by Col. Ron Averill, former Lewis County commissioner, will be scheduling speakers and planning the 2014 event.
Seven years ago, I remember visiting the wall and looking for the name of my husband’s classmate from Meridian High School near Bellingham, who died Dec. 14, 1967. My husband served as a pallbearer at Donald Nelson’s funeral before shipping out to Vietnam in March 1968.
The wall is a poignant reminder of the cost of freedom and the ultimate sacrifice made by men and women in the military.
Congratulations
Congratulations to Randy Roberts, of Centralia, who was honored Saturday night by the Washington State Special Olympics for devoting 17 years to coaching local residents with intellectual disabilities as they prepare for athletic and sports competitions. Roberts, 83, who retired as a coach this year, was honored at the 10th Annual Coaches Conference at the Tulalip Resort and Casino.
If Paul Harvey were still alive, he’d offer congratulations to Bob and Lee Beckman, who celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary with a party Saturday at the Veterans Memorial Museum. The Beckmans previously owned The Commentary bookstore in Chehalis and the Artique frame shop in Centralia. Congratulations! What an inspiration!
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Julie McDonald, a personal historian and former journalist who lives in Toledo, owns Chapters of Life, a company dedicated to preserving family stories. She may be reached at memorybooks@chaptersoflife.com.
