Voice of Voie: Schools Still a Vital Part of Community Despite Closures

While online this week browsing social media, I saw some comments that troubled me, such as, “Well, if schools are closed, am I getting my property taxes back for those months?”

I understand the logic of the question, but while public school education is happening digitally and virtually for Chehalis students (even my kindergartener), the schools are only really “closed” in a physical sense.

As a Chehalis parent who takes my own children to Chehalis Middle School for “to go” lunches each day, I had noticed up to a dozen or so cars in the Orin Smith and Lintott Elementary parking lots. It wasn’t until I saw some additional posts this week on social media from the Lewis County Seniors (nonprofit) group that I realized what was going on: Lewis County Seniors were using the elementary school kitchens and freezer space to prepare meals for delivery to area seniors.

I wanted to learn more about this partnership and how it came about. So, I had conversations with some key people involved: Debbie Campbell, executive director of United Way of Lewis County; Andrea Culletto, community relations director for Twin Transit; And, Joe Clark, director of Twin Transit and previous Chehalis School Board member (1999-2019).

These three groups — Lewis County Seniors, Twin Transit, and United Way of Lewis County — have been working together under the larger umbrella of the “Lewis County Community Services Coalition.” According to Andrea Culletto, the goal of the group is to “collaborate and help those in need throughout the COVID-19 outbreak.”

Culletto also stressed that this group included a much wider net of organizations, including the Salvation Army, Visiting Nurses Foundation, Catholic Community Services, Cascade Mental Health, Gather Church, Bethel Church, and Lewis County Public Health and Social Services.”

It might surprise you to hear Twin Transit included in such a coalition as this, but as Twin Transit Director Joe Clark points out, it’s entirely logical.

“Transit is part of the county’s emergency management plan,” Clark stated. “... to ensure the safety and protection and health of our community.”

When the Lewis County Seniors group first voiced their needs for transportation to continue very necessary nutritional meal delivery to area seniors, United Way Executive Director Debbie Campbell was in the room and said Joe Clark of Twin Transit did not hesitate to step up to meet the logistical need.

When Twin Transit originally stepped in to help the Lewis County Seniors group deliver food to area seniors, they were originally preparing food within the Twin Cities Senior Center kitchen space. But as the days and weeks went on following initial COVID closures, the needs and requests of area seniors quickly outgrew the Lewis County Seniors’ available cooking space.

They went from a few hundred meals per week quickly into the thousands.

That’s when Chehalis School District opened their doors to the Lewis County Community Services Coalition partners. Joe Clark, former Chehalis School Board member, had those connections, too.

“We really just couldn’t have done it without the school district,” Clark said of the partnership.

Not only did utilizing Orin Smith and Lintott Elementary give the groups more kitchen and cooking space — it gave them more cold storage space, too. Chehalis School District’s meal program for students operates solely out of Chehalis Middle School without any crossover.

And, Chehalis School District is allowing the coalition to use the spaces free of charge.

This collaborative and progressive partnership is (as of this week) allowing nearly 3,000 meals to be distributed to area seniors within Lewis County each week.

So hats off to these three groups. Each of them are finding new and innovative ways to continue to fulfill their stated missions and public commitments to citizens of our county. Seeing nonprofit and public organizations come together to solve problems and serve the community is something we should all be very proud of.

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As I was talking with United Way of Lewis County Executive Director Debbie Campbell this week, I was struck by an interesting thought as I considered the wider view of the community. We were talking about United Way’s role as a financial partner in all of this, through their partnership with the Community Foundation of South Puget Sound (please donate at LewisCountyUW.com). As she mentioned fundraising for Lewis County Seniors, I posed a question: “How would this partnership with the Lewis County Seniors nonprofit group be different today if, say, they were still under the umbrella of the county?”

We both considered the question.

When the Lewis County Seniors Centers transitioned from public (county) to nonprofit status, there was some definite pain in the process. There were strong opinions, my own included.

But if there was a silver lining in it all, I think it can be observed right here, right now. If the Lewis County Seniors were not a nonprofit group at this point, I’m not sure the group would have been as able to be as nimble as they’ve had to be through these challenges. Nor be able to accept funding as they are. I just thought that was a point worth mentioning.

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Brittany Voie is a columnist for The Chronicle. She lives south of Chehalis with her husband and two young sons. She welcomes correspondence from the community at voiedevelopment@comcast.net.