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Community Chest logs ‘record year’

Grant-funding organization sees donations pour in from individuals, businesses, foundations

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Washougal sixth graders from Canyon Creek Middle School listen to four U.S. Forest Service rangers talk about the Columbia River Gorge's post-fire recovery, at their Explore the Gorge outdoor school, hosted by Friends of the Columbia Gorge, and funded in part by a $5,000 Camas-Washougal Community Chest grant, in June 2018. Forest Service rangers, pictured from left to right, are Angel Robinson, Sophie Steckler, Elisabeth Dare and Kat Schut. In the background, a view of the Oregon side of the gorge damaged by the September 2017 Eagle Creek Fire.

When the Georgia-Pacific paper and pulp mill drastically reduced its workforce in May 2018, leaders at the 73-year-old Camas-Washougal Community Chest worried they wouldn’t be able to give as many grants in 2019. Richard Reiter, campaign chair for the Community Chest, told The Post-Record in October 2018 the Georgia-Pacific employees had long been among the most generous contributors, giving monthly to the nonprofit, grant-funding organizations through long-established payroll deductions.

“Since 1946, the Community Chest has been all about local people helping local people,” Reiter said. “The money we raise is used to fund grants for local nonprofits that serve Camas and Washougal residents in need, at-risk youth programs and address natural resource conservation and education.”

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