Foundation hasassociate director

Chris Goodwin of Long Beach has taken over as the new associate director of the Wahkiakum Community Foundation.

Goodwin has worked with many non-profit organizations for the last eight years, the biggest being the Humane Society of Southwest Washington. For the past two and a half years, she said she worked with 24 out of 30 non-profit organizations in the Long Beach area.

Certified in non-profit management through Grays Harbor Community College, she hopes to bring fun to the foundation.

“My job is to build events for all five of the locations they (the foundation) oversee”, she said. “Our first focus is the Julia Butler Hansen House.”

She said she wants to bring fun and educational things to the foundation.

“More than anything, I want to build the awareness of what those are, how fabulous they are,” she said, referring to everything the foundation does for the community.

Goodwin wants to promote what the foundation has to offer.

“From out of the area, there are a lot of people that don’t know these things are here. For me being from Long Beach, I didn’t have any idea what (the Hansen House) really was, and I’m pretty close. That is part of my job to get awareness from both ends.”

Goodwin said she joined the foundation because she likes what the organization does. She has known Karen Bertroch, director of the Wahkiakum Community Foundation, for a long time through other non profit organizations and wanted the opportunity to assist her.

While Bertroch will concentrate on fundraising and grants, Goodwin will help her to oversee the foundation and help it do well for the community.

Goodwin said she would like to bring in more tourism dollars and get more local residents out to see what their neighboring communities have to offer.

“When communities share, there is a huge benefit in that. If you have the inn and they have the canoes, if you work together, you can get twice as many people here,” she said. “A town’s best referral is word of mouth.”

Goodwin will be in her office at the Scarborough Building on Monday and Wednesday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. and Friday, depending on her schedule, or by appointment.

The associate director’s position is funded by a three year grant from the Murdock Trust in Vancouver.