CW Community Chest, Rotary, Camas Lions Announce 2023 Grant Awards

The Camas-Washougal Community Chest and its partners, the Camas-Washougal Rotary Foundation and the Camas Lions Foundation, are pleased to announce the award of 31 grants totaling $140,000 to non-profit organizations delivering services, exclusively, to children and families in Camas and Washougal. The Rotary commitment to Service above Self also adds volunteers to the mix as they work to make a difference for many families. 

The grants will fund such diverse services as emergency food assistance, aid to families in crisis or needing emergency services, safe temporary shelter for at-risk youth, a Safe Stay overnight car park program at St. Anne’s Episcopal Church, a homeless family day center located at Saint Thomas Aquinas in Camas and water quality monitoring in the Lacamas Creek watershed. 

New organizations receiving grants for the first time are offering services such as financial help to cover registration and transportation costs for members of the Camas robotics team, help purchase supplies and maintain equipment for local children attending preschool, help purchase supplies and uniforms for students attending local technical academy, help fund planting of pollinator habitat and beautification along SR14 near Washougal, help fund basic living expenses for individuals in need who are transitioning out of foster care and help fund emergency financial assistance to normally self-supporting people who are unable to work and pay all their bills during cancer treatments. 

Some of the non-profit organizations being funded in 2023 include Inter-Faith Treasure House, Children Home Society’s East County Family Resource Center, Janus Youth Program, Pink Lemonade, Family Promise of Clark County and Lower Columbia Estuary Partnership. First-time grantees include Camas Robotics Booster Club, Camas – Washougal Parents Co-op Preschool, Cascadia Technical Academy. 

Foundation, East County Citizens’ Alliance, Komak and YWCA Clark County. For a complete listing of the grant awards see the grant summary below. 

Thanks to CWRF, CLF and major donations from the GP Foundation, GP employees, Camas School District employees, City of Camas and Washougal employees, Port of Camas-Washougal employees, Windermere Foundation, and Watercare Industrial Services, CWCC is well on the way to funding these grants. 

To reach its 2023 fundraising goal, however, the CWCC needs additional donations from individuals and businesses in Camas and Washougal. More information and donation forms can be found on the CWCC’s website at www.CamasWashougalCommunityChest.org 

The CWCC, CWRF and CLF are registered 501 (c) (3) non-profit organizations for federal charitable tax deduction purposes. 

2023 Grant Program Summary 

Total number of grants awarded – 31
Total value of grants awarded – $140,000
Estimated number of individual services funded by grants – more than 30,500

Community Programs/Projects Funded in 2023 

Boy Scouts of America – Cascade Pacific Council 

Helps fund Campership Awards so that Camas and Washougal families in need can send their scouts to summer camp. 

Camas Farmers Market 

Helps fund “Produce Pals”, a weekly activities program to educate children about where and how food is produced. Kids completing weekly program receive a $2 token to spend at Camas Farmers Market for locally grown fruits and vegetables. 

Camas Robotics Booster Club 

Helps fund registration and transportation costs for students in financial need to participate in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) classes and activities. Will also help fund STEM education and outreach activities in the Camas and Washougal area. 

Camas Washougal Parent Co-op Preschool 

Helps fund operating budget, including buying classroom supplies and helps with maintaining and upkeeping the preschool in order to provide a safe place for the preschoolers to learn and play. 

Cascadia Technical Academy Foundation (aka Clark County Vocational Skills Foundation) 

Helps students to purchase required uniforms and supplies such as chef jacket for Culinary, scrubs for Applied Medical Science, tools and tool bag for Construction and textbooks. Also helps student’s family to meet emergency needs such as a gas card so parents can get to work, paying for a few nights lodging while temporary housing is found and buying food from CTA’s food pantry.

Children’s Home Society – East County Family Resource Center 

Helps fund operations at Resource Center. Helps fund parent education groups, youth support groups, emergency basic assistance, behavioral health services and health care services provided by ECFRC or by a partner agency.  

East County Citizens’ Alliance 

Helps fund a native pollinator habitat by planting native wildflowers in a state highway plot 200 feet long and twenty feet wide east of the Washougal River Road / SR – 14 roundabout. This is a first of its kind project in Washington and WSDOT is providing a landscape designer as a coordinator/ advisor. 

Family Promise of Clark County 

Helps fund an expansion of FPCares program that proactively assists families with services that will prevent them from losing their homes and entering the shelter system. Services may include rental assistance, payments for rent in arrears, security deposits, landlord mediation, locating housing and filling out applications. 

Fort Vancouver Regional Library Foundation – Washougal Branch 

Supports the Washougal Community Library’s summer reading program for kids and adults. 

Friends and Foundation of the Camas Library 

Helps fund several 100-year centennial projects including four special exhibit displays in the Second Story Gallery, six speaking engagements in a History Speaks! speaker series and the library will be collecting oral histories throughout the year and posting those stories to a hosted website. 

Friends of the Columbia Gorge 

Helps fund the Explore the Gorge classroom lessons and outdoor environmental education program for sixth graders in Jemtegaard and Canyon Creek Middle schools in Washougal School District. 

General Federation of Women’s Clubs 

Helps General Federation of Woman’s Clubs with purchasing books for all children in Pre-K programs in the Camas and Washougal School Districts. The program is aimed at all Pre-schoolers to grow their reading skills.

Impact CW – St. Matthew Lutheran Church 

Helps buy food and grocery gift cards for families in need in the Camas and Washougal School Districts. 

Inter-Faith Treasure House 

Helps pay utilities (electricity, water, sewer, garbage and natural gas) so IFTH can continue to operate the east county food bank. 

Janus Youth Programs 

Provides funding for outreach efforts and overnight facility stays for Camas and Washougal runaway youth at risk for abuse and neglect. Re-introduces kids to safe housing. Provide case managers to help youth access community services to help them achieve stability. 

Journey Theater Arts Group 

Helps fund a portion of the Washburn Performing Arts Center rental fee to present the March production of Junie B. Jones, the Musical. 

Kawanis Camp Wa-Ri-Ki 

Helps fund their Outdoor Environmental Education Program by offering campers meaningful outdoor activities that support fun, healthy living, nurturing personal growth plus leadership and nature-based skills. Goals include better physical and mental health, increased self-esteem, respect and kindness for others, ability to lead, community participation and stewardship of natural resources. 

Komak 

Helps fund emergency financial assistance to normally self-supporting people who are unable to work and pay all their bills during cancer treatments. 

Lacamas Watershed Council 

Helps pay for volunteer training and buying water quality monitoring equipment and supplies. Water quality samples will be collected in the Lacamas watershed, including Lacamas, Round and Fallen Leaf lakes and Lacamas Creek. 

Lifeline Connections 

Helps fund youth activities, field trips and transportation costs to Camp Mariposa (they use Kiwanis Camp Wa-Ri-Ki’s facility) for children of families in need or suffering from substance abuse. 

Lower Columbia Estuary Partnership 

Provides classroom lessons and outdoor applied learning programs for youth, including habitat enhancement projects adjacent to Gibbons Creek in the Steigerwald Lake National Wildlife Refuge and Campen Creek in Mable Kerr Park. 

Meals on Wheels People 

Helps fund an expansion of the Medically Tailored Meals Program, an evidenced-based nutritional intervention tailored to clients needs. These meals include higher quality food and provide more diversity and variety of foods. 

Pink Lemonade Project 

Helps fund Pink Practicalities, a financial aid and assistance program. Covers costs that health insurance doesn’t, such as groceries, transportation services, lymphedema sleeves, lost wages, rent/mortgage payments, etc. 

REACH Community Development 

Helps buy groceries, baby essentials, cleaning supplies, hygiene products and similar basic household needs. Buys school supplies and holiday food baskets. Serves Gateway Gardens and Towne Square communities in Washougal.

ReFuel Washougal 

Helps buy supplies such as sturdy clamshells, lidded bowls and heavy duty plastic forks and spoons to provide to-go meals during Friday meal nights. Also helps buy heavy duty raincoats for homeless or low income people in need. 

St. Anne’s (Episcopal Church) Safe Stay Program

Helps fund a portion of St. Anne’s Safe Stay program including cleaning of the port-a-potty, use of outdoor electrical outlets, use of the Internet WiFi and use of showers, laundry and church kitchen. 

TreeSong Nature Awareness and Retreat Center 

Helps fund a ductless wall heater and the electrical wiring to complete its installation in the recently completed 30-foot yurt. 

Unite! Washougal Community Coalition 

Helps fund Sources of Strength Suicide Prevention Program at Washougal High School; Positive Community Norms Campaign “Love Your Life” in the Washougal Community; the Support Our Guiding Good Choices Parenting classes and the Support our Ambassador Youth Program. 

Washougal School District – Principal’s Checkbook 

Helps Washougal school principals provide for basic student needs to give low income or homeless students equal opportunities at school. Funds a portion of Adult Transition Program which trains students with disabilities for transition into appropriate work placement. Funds supplies such as shoes, clothes, hygiene products and food for Panther Den. Funds mobile laptop cart for families without access to technology and internet services. Funds Martin Luther King Jr. commemorative activities on all Washougal District school campuses. 

West Columbia Gorge Humane Society 

Helps fund the following programs and services designed to keep pets and people together during hardship, crisis or emergency: pet food pantry, temporary pet boarding, impound/owner surrender fee relief and veterinary assistance. Also funds a portion of the cost to supply ReFuel Washougal with pet food to distribute to the pets of homeless and low-income people using ReFuel’s other services. 

YWCA Clark County 

Helps fund a portion of the YWCA’s Independent Living Skills Program. The ILS program helps youth transition out of foster care to independent living by providing physical things such as clothes for job interviews, rental assistance, and furniture for new living spaces. The ILS program also provides education and training opportunities to help participants with their transition to independence.