'This is where I want to be'

“I’ve always had a strong belief that every child has their superpower. They’re all unique and different, but they all have their superpower. And I view the Boys and Girls Club as a place to explore things and maybe find that superpower and help them grow it and blossom with our help.”

— Jill Smith, Boys & Girls Clubs of the Columbia Basin CEO

MOSES LAKE — The Boys & Girls Clubs of the Columbia Basin’s new leader has found her happy place, said Jill Smith, who took over as CEO Sept. 1

“What really sealed the deal for me was touring the clubhouse for the first time and meeting some of the team members,” said Smith. "They were amazing. People came up and introduced themselves to me. They weren’t expected to; they were just that kind. My first day of work, two people brought me flowers. How cool is that?”

Smith replaces former CEO Kim Pope, who left in May to take the reins at New Hope/Kids Hope. Smith is a native of Othello, and she and her husband have a cattle farm there. She’s also not a stranger to running a nonprofit; she was the executive director of the Western Organic Dairy Producers Alliance for a couple of years and serves as a consultant for other nonprofits. She became especially proficient in writing grants and wrote U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Energy for America Program grants, which funded solar energy in rural communities, for entities across the country. She hadn’t really thought about working with the Boys & Girls Club, she said, until a recruiter for the club contacted her on LinkedIn.

“It had never been on my radar before to do this,” she said. “But at the same time, I feel like, OK, this is where I want to be.”

Having raised two of her own, Smith isn’t a stranger to being surrounded by children.

“What I love is that after school it might get really loud in here, but the loud is kids having fun,” she said. “It’s kids being kids. It’s not crying, not upset. They’re happy when they’re here, which makes me really happy.”

Besides being a place for kids to go after school, the Boys & Girls Club feeds them – a lot of them. Last year, according to a statement from the club, it served more than 64,000 meals and snacks to children in the community, whether they were club members or not, including breakfasts and lunches during the summer when school cafeterias were closed. The 2025 meal count was about 5,000 higher than the previous year, according to the statement.

“I’ve been blown away by the food programs: how much they’re providing and how great the need is,” Smith said. “That’s grown year over year, and I think the need is more critical than ever. And then to take it a step further, there were projects where a child would be sent home with 10 days’ worth of food over the longer school breaks … I had no idea how much the club was providing for our community, and I’m happy to be part of that.”

Much of the CEO’s job is fundraising and interacting with the community, and Smith will get her introduction to that Oct. 3 at the club’s annual benefit auction. But she still looks forward to interacting with the children whenever she can, she said.

“I’ve always had a strong belief that every child has their superpower,” she said. “They’re all unique and different, but they all have their superpower. And I view the Boys and Girls Club as a place to explore things and maybe find that superpower and help them grow it and blossom with our help.”