Lewis County Historical Museum director Jason Mattson presents an award to Dave and Darlene Birdsall in honor of their volunteering.
A few years ago, when Dave Birdsall of Centralia retired after 35 years as a radioman for Burlington Northern, he and his wife, Darlene, offered to serve as Lewis County Sheriff’s Office volunteers, but their help wasn’t needed there.
So instead they volunteered with the Lewis County Historical Museum and today have scanned and digitally entered captions for nearly 18,000 of the museum’s 24,000 photographs, including 2,700 historic postcards. The digitization means researchers and others will find quick access to historical local photographs, which can be purchased and framed.
At the historical society’s annual meeting Sunday evening at the Washington Hotel in Chehalis, Jason Mattson, the museum’s new director, bestowed the Volunteer of the Year award upon the Birdsalls. I’m grateful for the countless hours that the Birdsalls have devoted to the digitization project during the past 2½ years.
Larry Black of Rochester began volunteering at the museum in 2013 after retiring from the state after 42 years as “an IT guy.” He has digitized more than 300 of the 500-plus cassette tapes of oral history interviews conducted in the 1970s and 1980s.
That tremendous collection includes oral history interviews with the late Cowlitz Tribe matriarch Mary Kiona and Charles Everest, the youngest brother of Wesley Everest, the Industrial Workers of the World member hung from the old Mellen Street bridge Nov. 11, 1919, after gunfire erupted during the first Armistice Day parade in Centralia, leaving four American Legionnaires dead.
I’m grateful to Black for his work and to all the other museum volunteers — past and present. It’s not quite the same without Margaret Shields in the research room, but others have stepped forward to help preserve the county’s past. Among the volunteers are Janet Crane, Judy Kalich, Carol Wood, Dennis and Kathy Dawes, and board members Grace Grant, Nancy Wyllys, Doug Peterson, Ted Livermore, Bill Teitzel, Peter Lahmann, and many others. Thanks to all who give so generously to keep the museum running smoothly.
Endowment
After the debacle five years ago when more than $450,000 in the museum’s savings account dwindled to nothing, thanks to spending by former director Debbie Knapp, the new board created a “restricted investment account,” which I thought was an endowment fund.
Apparently, it wasn’t.
So Sunday evening, at the urging of Treasurer Wyllys, the general membership voted to create an endowment fund “for donations when the donor directs that only the generated interest be spent by the Society.” So far, about $54,000 has been designated specifically for the endowment, while the restricted investment account contains more than $150,000.
“Generally, an endowment fund has a higher level of protection for the assets than what we had,” Historical Society President Lahmann said. “The reason we did that is to protect our assets going into the future so we don’t have someone find a back way to go into the account.”
Accessing the money “takes nearly an act of God,” he said.
The board will determine annually whether interest earned is spent for operating expenses or added to the endowment account.
Because of what’s happened recently with the savings account, the membership voted to codify restrictions for accessing both the restricted investment account and the new endowment fund.
To dip into the restricted investment fund, three-fourths of the entire board must vote in favor of the move.
To spend money from the endowment, the board must call a general membership meeting, with a quorum of 10 percent of society members as established in the bylaws, and three-fourths of those in attendance must favor accessing the money.
“We’re looking at the way we can be the best stewards of what people donate,” Lahmann said.
The board may move the annual membership meeting to February or March so a complete end-of-the-year financial report can be presented. That means the society may not meet in 2018, instead gathering in early 2019.
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Julie McDonald, a personal historian from Toledo, may be reached at memoirs@chaptersoflife.com.
