Vik retires from challenging role helping people

Mary Vik has retired after working for Wahkiakum County residents off and on since the early 1990s.

She’s worked fulltime as information and referral coordinator at Wahkiakum County Health and Human Services since 2000, connecting people with food, clothing banks and resources for emergency help with shelter, utilities, rent, and prescriptions.

She’s helped children get school haircuts, winter coats and school supplies and has been a point of entry for state Department of Social and Health Services services such as food stamps, Temporary Aid to Needy Families, and medical assistance, among others.

Vik has run local emergency shelter and housing programs.

“I liked having the opportunity to make a positive difference, connecting people in need to resources available to get them through the tough stuff and to have helped to bring resources to our county," she said. "Our transitional housing programs have been beneficial. The grant pays a portion of the rent and the family pays a portion, based on family size, income and a rent standard.”

Prior to her time at Human Services, Vik worked as homemaker and a part-time secretary.

In the late 1960s, she was a long distance operator for Pacific NW Bell, then worked in the early 1970s as a medical transcriptionist.

She started working one to two days a week for Human Services in the early 1990’s, then left in 1994 to care for her mother. She returned in 1998 and found herself “in a challenging but fulfilling niche.”

Vik said she’ll miss the camaraderie and expertise of her coworkers.

She liked “the way we’d gather around a person to try to help cover the needs-- mental health counseling, substance abuse treatment, housing, employment, transportation, whatever the need was. Some people had more challenging circumstances and needed more help than others. Some had always been able to maintain independence but were thrown a curve by life’s circumstances--we needed to help bridge the gap, to get them over the spot where things fell apart. It was always very gratifying to see the changes in people -- once homeless, penniless, in addiction of one type or another, now healthy, stably housed, clean and sober, working or going to school.”

One family whose success was particularly rewarding stayed in the homeless shelter some years ago, Vik said.

“The parents had two little boys and a third on the way," she recalled. "The father began looking for work right away, coming over to my office daily with resumes to be faxed everywhere. He had no driver’s license, so when he landed a good job near Vancouver his wife drove him to work every day, spent the entire day there with the boys and then they all came back at night and did the same thing the next day.

"When it came time for the baby to be born, we moved them to a motel closer to the hospital for a few days. After the baby was born they moved closer to his work, having saved some money by then. They called a few years later just to say thank you and to give an update. He was working and they were renting unassisted.”

Vik saw deficits in the low-income rentals available in the community and was frustrated when she wasn’t able to help someone. She remembered a woman in the homeless shelter with health problems.

“She wanted to stay here, but a rental in her price range without stairs just wasn’t available at the time," Vik said. "When it was time for her to leave, she went to a shelter in another area. An affordable housing project here would definitely be of benefit to people like her.”

In retirement Vik is looking forward to spending more time at home with her husband, Paul, having more company and visiting children and grandchildren who live nearby and in Alberta, Canada and Espoo, near Helsinki, in Finland.

She’s also looking forward to volunteering and has signed on with the library in Cathlamet.