Nonprofits the heart of community life

MOSES LAKE — It takes a lot of people, many of them working for nothing, to make a great community. This weekend will be a chance to honor those folks. 

Aug. 17 is National Nonprofit Day, a day set aside to recognize those organizations that serve their communities, from the big nationwide charities and advocacy groups to the small local service club. The one thing they all have in common is their impact on the communities they serve. 

“I think every event and every project that we're doing touches at least one person, and I know that we would hope that it would be able to change an entire community at once,” said Quincy Partnership for Youth Coalition Coordinator Crystal Cruz. “But … I see the difference in the community today compared to 25 years ago (and) I hope that we can continue the work and see the impact 25 years from now as well.” 

Coming together

The Rotary Club is a presence in nearly every community in America and in countries around the world. Its membership rolls number more than 1.2 million people around the world, according to Rotary International’s website, only 19 of whom are in Othello. But that small core of people gets a lot done. 

“We look for anything that's generally beneficial to the community, and we've got to be a clearinghouse for the exchange of information, and we attempt to have a gathering of members that reflects the whole community,” said Othello Rotary Club President Don Burks. “It's a way to exchange information and to identify needs, and then to raise the money to meet them.” 

Those needs include backpacks for school children, supporting the local senior center with its needs, working with the Othello Food Bank and Second Harvest to see that people who need food get it, and sponsoring the annual Cinco de Mayo celebration, which made its debut last year. 

One of the Rotary Club’s biggest projects is scholarships, Burks said, which it’s been handing out since 1974. The club offers three scholarships: One specifically for students pursuing vocational education, one for a student who’s shown a lot of progress in high school, and a $2,000-per-year scholarship for four-year students. 

“Mostly, we look for young people that have a real plan about where they are and what they need and how to get there,” Burks said. “Most high school students don't really have a clear idea what they want to do next.” 

For more than 30 years, the club’s biggest source of funding has been its booth at the Othello Fair every September, Burks said, serving barbecued chicken. 

“This year, we will serve about 1,500 meals,” he said. “A great many people come to the fair just for the chicken. It’s a big hit.” 

Local businesses chip in to support the Rotarians in their fundraising, Burks said. The local Harvest Foods gives them a great deal on the chicken for the fair booth. 

“McCain Foods in Othello always donates a pallet full of French fries,” he said. “Every year we cook about 1,200 pounds of French fries.” 

Prevention focused 

Not all nonprofits are so general. The Quincy Partnership for Youth focuses on mental health and substance abuse prevention, but even that specialization has a lot of aspects. The name can be misleading, said Coalition Coordinator Crystal Cruz. 

“(People) assume that our mission is just for youth, and that's incorrect,” Cruz said. “Substance (abuse) prevention does focus on youth, because that's where it starts. But we also have things like the Strengthening Families program, that's for parents and families. We also try to promote safe, drug storage and disposal throughout the year.” 

The Washington State Health Authority supports QPY, Cruz said, but it’s also a coalition of numerous other community stakeholders, including the City of Quincy, the Quincy School District, the Quincy Police Department and others. This coalition organizes clubs in the middle and high schools to promote inclusion and connection between peers. The Strengthening Families program is also offered through the schools. 

“(It’s) a seven-week program to help families strengthen their communication and teach youth how to resist peer pressure,” Cruz said. “That's one of my favorite events that we do because it's proven to work, and I feel like we always have such a great turnout.” 

Body and spirit

A large part of the nonprofit sphere is occupied by churches and religious organizations, because most major religions have a tradition of serving people in need. Some of those organizations are huge, like Catholic Charities of Washington, which serves almost 50,000 people in 17 counties every year, according to its website. And then some are small and home-grown, like The Dinner Bell in Soap Lake. 

The Dinner Bell is a church, said Pastor Annette Baergen, but it doesn’t hold services Sunday morning with pews filled with people dressed in their best clothes. Rather, members serve God through offering free community meals every Monday night for anybody who would like to come. Baergen’s husband, Jim, does the cooking, she said. 

“We started dinners two years ago in January of 2024, and we had three guests on the first night,” Baergen said. “Slowly it's grown by word of mouth, and we're up to about 60 on Monday nights for free dinners. … I tell him prepare for 70 and there's a grocery store just down the road if we need to. But there has always been enough food, and we've always had leftovers to be able to send home to our senior citizens and those who are more desperately in need.” 

After dinner, Baergen tells a story, she said, and that’s the closest the event comes to a traditional church service.  

“I don't talk about denominational differences or theology or any of that,” she said. “It really is just an inspirational story about the life of Christ, and nobody has to stay for that. They're welcome to come, eat and leave.” 

Getting together for a communal meal is a good way to make connections between people, Baergen said. 

“We have from the age of 98 clear down to a 2-month-old baby,” she said. “So, we have this huge multi-generational group of people coming together. It is noisy, it's messy, it's loud. It's like it's one big family. They just love it” 

The Dinner Bell held a Free Laundry Day last month, inviting anyone who wanted to bring their dirty clothes to the laundromat and have them washed for free. The Dinner Bell picked up the charge for the laundry, and also served breakfast and lunch. The church will also hold a giveaway of free haircuts and shoes for Soap Lake children to get ready for the start of school. 

Service clubs don’t have the numbers they once did, Burks said, which means fewer people to take on the nonprofit load. 

“We used to have a Lions Club here in Othello, but two years ago they were down to six members, and three of them were over 90, so they decided to fold and gave us their treasury to hand out in Lions Club scholarships,” he said. “Ages ago, we used to have a Kiwanis Club, and we used to have a very active Distinguished Young Women's Program, but they've about decided to fold too, since there are only three of them left.” 

For all the hard work, small numbers and community need, the people who run nonprofits wouldn’t trade the experience, they said. 

“One of the biggest blessings about my job is that I'm able to serve and give back to the community that I grew up in, which a lot of people don't get to experience,” Cruz said. 

    Quincy Partnership for Youth Coalition Coordinator Crystal Cruz gives out some information about her organization’s efforts to address mental health and substance abuse in the community.
  

    An Othello Rotary Club member serves up chicken and french fries at the Othello Fair. The money from the meals goes to scholarships, food programs and other community needs.