The Courier-Herald’s article about the Rainier Foothills Wellness Foundation’s annual giving campaign has generated questions and concern from community members, especially within our senior population. We appreciate the editor letting us address these concerns.
Healthy communities are our goal and we are doing a fantastic job helping fill in the gaps that multiple budget cuts have created. Some of our initiatives such as mental health and drug and alcohol are grant-funded. Grants are not issued forever; they have a start and end date which we plan for. An example is the mental health grant awarded to us by CHI Franciscan. This has been a great blessing to our community. This grant has become a model for CHI Franciscan. This program is now being taken to other communities in need because of our hard work.
Other initiatives such as the new Care Van, Neighbors Feeding Neighbors and the School Backpacks Program are not going away. These are worthy opportunities for our community members to support, by a contribution of time or money. It is what our annual giving campaign is all about. Giving up a latté a week and donating that money would feed a child, give a senior a ride to a doctor’s appointment or provide a hot meal to the elderly.
Our goal this year was to give more community members the opportunity to support this foundation in an easy way to give monthly instead of once a year.
As our communities grow and our wellness needs increase or change, the Rainier Foothills Wellness Foundation is here to tackle the challenges head on. To find out more about the foundation and what it does in the Rainier Foothills Wellness Foundation communities, go to our website, www.rfwellnessfoundation.org, and check us out. We challenge you to click on the give and support button; you’ll be glad you did.
Board of directors: Suzanne Lewis, president; Kaylee Garrett, vice president/treasurer; Kim Sweeney, secretary; and trustees Kirk Parce, Larry Kauffman, Alan Gamblin, Alicia Kelsey, Ed Lindner and Michelle Apodaca.
Staff: René Popke, executive director; Shelly Pricco, mental health coordinator; Monica Robbins, drug and alcohol coalition project coordinator; Sue Stanwood, office manager.
