New Washougal nonprofit focuses on helping students in need

For the past several years, Nancy Nass-Boon and Penny Porche have worked as coordinators for the Washougal School District’s family resource center, which provides students and families with referrals to community resources, parenting information, food, clothing, healthcare, computer and internet access, school supplies and more.

Nass-Boon and Porche strive to help students in need whenever they can, but sometimes they’re not allowed to provide certain kinds of assistance even if they have the financial resources to do so, a restriction that frustrates them to no end.

“Community members aroach me and say, ‘Hey, I’ve got my checkbook out.’ And I’m like, ‘But I can’t (take your money),'” Nass-Boon said. “I have such limited things that I can do. And what a shame. What a shame. If you want to pay money for a kid to go to a camp, that’s fantastic, (but) I can’t take the money because then it’s public funds. Penny and I are the ones who have the relationships with the families, so we hear what the need is, and it’s heartbreaking (because) we just can’t do (anything). And there’s a ton of need out there. I hear it everyday.”

Those discussions eventually led to the formation of Washougal Society for Advancement and Family Enrichment (WSAFE), a nonprofit organization that endeavors to provide financial assistance to students in need by “closing the gaps created by social economic challenges.”

“We want students to prosper regardless of background or personal situation,” the organization’s website states. “We want every student to be able to find their passion and expand on it, making learning a factor of drive and curiosity and not circumstance. … There are far too many unforeseeable events and circumstances that these students and families find themselves in, anywhere from needing gas money, funding for programs or assistance not offered by schools all the way up to housing and housing costs.”

WSAFE will launch its first public fundraiser, a gift basket raffle, on Sunday, April 23, on its website. The baskets will include a variety of items, such as face creams, candles, bath soaps, socks, winter hats, snacks, and possibly restaurant gift certificates, according to WSAFE co-founder and treasurer Karress LaFrance.

“We’re trying to hit a bunch of different demographics,” she said. “We just wanted to start small and then see where we can go from here, building more (events). We have a lot of other future fundraisers planned, but we decided something small, that’s easy to put together, that can be digital, so we can reach a lot of people without having to have a gathering location.”

WSAFE is led by chair Pam Clark, a longtime community volunteer; co-chair Pat Suggs, a former educator; LaFrance; and secretary Tony Phares. The organization “was initially established to address a potential gap in meeting needs for students and families of the Washougal School District,” according to LaFrance.

“Right now, there’s a lot of red tape and barriers when it comes to government involvement with what the family resource center, in particular, can do for students,” she said. “(Nass-Boon and Porche) reached out to me and said, ‘How can we get these students what they need without dealing with these barriers?’ And after speaking with different members of the school district, we came to the idea that a nonprofit that they could filter to and partner with would be the best way to get the money, the resources and the outreach to the students that are missing right now.”

WSAFE also hopes to provide grants to students to attend after-school programs such as art and dance classes, athletics, outdoor camps, tutoring, and STEM activities; transportation assistance, in the form of bus passes, gas gift cards, taxi rides, train tickets and car rentals, to students who can’t afford to travel to the activity or event of their choosing; and funding for emergencies, such as fire evacuations, weather emergencies or medical situations.

“Nancy and I say to each other all the time that we love our jobs, but wouldn’t it be great if our jobs weren’t necessary?” Porche said. “But every person that we help, they all touch our souls, and that’s enough — at least until the next one we help. That’s not to say that we’re going to end poverty. We’re not going to end homelessness. But if we can make the town a little brighter for each of the kids that we help, that’s the goal. That’s what we want to do.”

WSAFE is “about serving everyone in Washougal that has a need,” according to volunteer Margaret McCarthy, regardless of financial background.

“Students don’t have to show any proof of their income (to receive assistance),” LaFrance said. “Even if a student comes from a family that’s well off, maybe they don’t want to ask their family for assistance but still want to join these programs, and we’re still going to help them. We want to help any student that wants to do something that is going to be beneficial to them advancing, whether that’s sports or art or education.

“We’re not going to restrict it to (people who are) financially needy, and the big reason for that is that we don’t want there to be a stigma around getting help from WSAFE. We want any student to feel comfortable and not feel prideful about getting help and being able to enjoy activities.”

WSAFE leaders will “pick names out of a hat” if they can’t provide assistance to every interested student after the first fundraiser and will rely on the recommendations of Nass-Boon and Porche in the future “because they know these families really well,” according to LaFrance.

“So if they were to come to us and say, ‘This kid would really benefit from this program, and their family really needs the financial assistance,’ (we’ll listen to them),” LaFrance added. “We’re trusting their background knowledge of the families.”

WSAFE leaders have thought about the changes that could be coming to the Washougal School District, which would be forced to cut athletics, clubs, and other extracurricular-activities for the 2023-24 school year if their levy request fails again on Tuesday, April 25.

“That’s part of why we’re trying to get our feet off the ground as soon as possible,” LaFrance said. “We’re anticipating that the need to support these programs is going to go up and we might have to extend our reach as far as fundraising goes a little further out.”

WSAFE operates out of The Outpost, a Washougal-based facility and partnership between ministries, churches, community members and other organizations that endeavors to meet needs services for people in need.

“We’ll be a clearinghouse or central hub of places that can connect people with resources,” McCarthy said. “People in this community have resources, but they want to plug into a place where they know where it’s going to get used.”

WSAFE is seeking volunteers to help with fundraising events, committee assignments and other activities. For more information, email info@washougalsafe.com or visit washougalsafe.com.