“Sip and Support” Wa-Ri-Ki Wine Tasting Fundraiser a success… watch for Fall event at same venue.
Cheers! Good wine, music, and social mingling were enjoyed by thirty-five attendees including the Camp Wa-Ri-Ki board members and Kiwanis members at Cellar 55 Tasting Room on Tuesday, June 23rd at another of our bi-annual “Sip and Support” fundraising events. Approximately $500 was raised and we thank all our supporters and guests for that.
As you can see from our photo gallery here (below), an enjoyable night out was had enjoying the range of “boutique wines from Walla Walla and Eastern Washington” the Cellar features, plus live music by Marianne Flemming, known for her jazzy, bluesy sound.
Learn MoreAs the Camp Wa-Ri-Ki Board looks to update and improve services at Wa-Ri-Ki this year, we know this requires the right funding to enable a new vision. So, we have three related fundraising events planned and underway. You can learn more about each of them at the links below, and also please help us circulate the official event artwork in social media (click a social link below this article)
Click to enlarge, then circulate this graphic on FaceBook and other venues.
• GoFundMe CrowdFunding Campaign: Our “Moving Heaven and Earth Campaign” is live now online with a great set of rewards for different giving levels, ranging from t-shirts to sweatshirts to mugs and field bags. We have some needs that will help us do remodeling and lay the groundwork for future Camp development efforts.
» Go Fund Camp Wa-Ri-Ki (more…)
As we head toward Spring, the Board of Directors for the Camp continues to forge ahead with a number of growth ideas to kindle the fire for future development.
Approximately two years into a 50-year lease with Skamania County, and after a series of successful fundraising efforts in 2014 including securing matching grants from the Firstenburg Foundation, the Board is now continuing the momentum:
We’re searching for Camp Alums that want to help Wa-Ri-Ki grow… you might receive a card like those shown above.
To help make our supporting Kiwanis Clubs easy to find — we’ve launched a new directory.
Plus, we’re pleased to thank our primary boosters — the 5 Vancouver area Division 44 Kiwanis Clubs by publishing a directory with maps to their meeting locations, here at CampWaRiKi.com. These are great people whose combined efforts help thousands of children in the Portland-Vancouver metropolitan area each year. Check out some of the events each group sponsors annually. These Clubs too will welcome support and new members.
It’s going to be a great year, and we look forward to working with old friends as we meet new ones with the “Kiwanis heart” for development at Camp Wa-Ri-Ki.
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Michael McNulty sees a lot of hard work coming together to position Camp Wa-Ri-Ki for growth.
Michael McNulty, a long-time serving Board Member for both the local Vancouver Kiwanis, and on the Camp Wa-Ri-Ki Board, was elected President of the Kiwanis Camp Wa-Ri-Ki Board in November of 2014 and he sees great things ahead for 2015.
Noting that Kiwanis have managed the Camp since the late 70’s (it’s owned by Skamania County), McNulty, a career banker, explains that only recently did the Camp secure a fifty-year lease, where prior leases were never more than for two-five years. Now just two years into this extended lease, the Camp is “eligible for a lot of grants and community donations that we would not have been qualified for because it shows a form of long term ownership.” In a fifty year lease, “We hope to show the county the things we’ve been able to do in that time that demonstrates the community impact in the county, and beyond.”
“With the help of all the individual volunteers, the amazing work of Phyllis Goldhammer, the Mankind project (a repeat Camp renter) stepping up for the last couple hundred we were short on a matching grant, and all the amazing work on the wine tasting fundraiser, we’re now in a great position to rise to a new vision.”
McNulty would also like to expand on the mission of serving “at-risk” youth and special needs children. A couple of ways to do this will be to (more…)
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Now you can help support Camp Wa-Ri-Ki… just by shopping as you normally would! Fred Meyer is donating $2.6 million this year to non-profits in Alaska, Idaho, Oregon and Washington, based on where their customers tell them to give.
If you have already linked your card, thank you! If not, here’s how the program works — it’s simple:
Above (click to enlarge) is how you link your rewards card to Camp Wa-Ri-Ki after registering at Fred Meyer’s site (link below).
Twenty-five camper groups using Kiwanis Camp Wa-Ri-Ki in 2014, plus the Nature Explore Club Event in August 2014 provided 6,429 people the experience of connecting with nature and enjoy the benefits of spending time unplugedg from technology.
If each of those individuals spent just eight hours unplugged from devices, that would be 51,432 hours interacting with other people face to face, discovering and listening to the birds and other animals in the forest, hearing the wind whistle through the trees; the river rushing; the laughter or giggles of children running in open spaces. As some children said, “You gotta see this – Wow!”
Six new groups stayed at camp this year. (more…)
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