In its first year as a chartered organization, the Kiwanis Club of Ridgefield/La Center learned much about Southwest Washington’s youth-related needs. The club spent much of its inaugural year inviting local nonprofits, school leaders and community groups into its meetings to understand where children and families in Ridgefield and La Center need help and how the small but dedicated group can get involved.
Founded in 1915, Kiwanis International’s mission is to enrich and improve the lives of children and their communities through volunteering and special programs. Southwest Washington Kiwanis Division Lt. Gov. Carol Taylor, other Kiwanis club veterans and local volunteers helped charter the Kiwanis Club of Ridgefield/La Center in August 2024.
Rather than launching large standalone projects immediately, members describe the first year as intentional groundwork built through relationships, volunteering and showing up.
“As we formed our group, it was more of a fact-finding mission of finding those areas of need in our community. We've spent the better part of our last year … inviting different groups in,” Kiwanis Club of Ridgefield/La Center President Jason Hair said.
Club members say they learned that youth-related needs in the area are often hidden. While Ridgefield and La Center may appear well-resourced on the surface, Hair said that can make it easier for children who need help to be overlooked.
“We live in an area (where) you don't see a lot of the needs on the surface level as you would see in Vancouver. In the schools, a lot of kids kind of go unnoticed,” Hair said. “There are kids that need things, basic needs like food and toiletries, just your basic everyday needs that you don't see on the surface out here.”
Accordingly, one of the local chapter’s first volunteer efforts included supporting a back-to-school supply drive for students in the La Center School District. Kiwanis members helped gather donations, filled in gaps where certain supplies were still needed and volunteered on distribution day to organize and hand items out to families.
The club also partnered closely with La Center Church, where it hosts its meetings. Last summer, the church’s elder board discontinued “the loft,” a teen center in partnership with La Center United, because it became too demanding. When church members started their own monthly teen event program, Kiwanis members volunteered throughout the summer by providing supplies, supervision and hands-on help.
“They're just a wonderful group of people who have a heart to help, and they put a lot of time and effort into things and are really growing this chapter,” Cooper said. “They put a lot of time into it, so it's very admirable.”
At La Center’s annual Christmas Festival and Tree Lighting Ceremony, Kiwanis volunteers hosted a free ornament-decorating booth for children. The activity drew hundreds of families and became one of the club’s most visible community moments of the year.
Looking ahead, the club has identified three existing organizations it hopes to continue supporting locally: Babies in Need, a Vancouver-based nonprofit that provides essential items for newborns and families across Southwest Washington; Restored and Revived, a Hazel Dell-based peer-led organization serving individuals and families impacted by substance use disorder or involvement with the justice system; and Compassion 360, a Ridgefield-based Christian charity that supports families by providing food, clothing and other basic necessities.
Club leaders say the goal is not to duplicate services already in place, but to strengthen them through partnership.
“Our goal being smaller in numbers and just getting established wasn't to reinvent the wheel and wasn't to compete with groups that are already out in the community and serving needs, but to collaborate with them to lend our hands and our experience, to theirs to have a greater impact overall,” Club Secretary Theresa Gagne-Hair said.
The club also plans to continue volunteering regionally, including supporting the Southwest Washington Kiwanis and RE/MAX Golf Tournament that raises funds for the Kiwanis Doernbecher Children’s Hospital cancer program, which raised $14,750 last year. Members volunteered at the tournament last year and plan to do so again.
As the club moves into its second year, it remains small, with 10 active members, but leaders describe the group as committed and deeply connected to the community. Growing the club’s membership is a priority as Kiwanis looks to expand its capacity and eventually take on larger initiatives of its own.
For now, Hair said the foundation they have built in the first year matters most.
“Our focus this year, other than fundraising and our community activity, is finding more people like Mike, like Jorinda, that really care about our communities,” Hair said. “People who really wanna focus on making this place a better community for our kids to grow up in.”
