The Walk & Knocker

A quarterly newsletter for the Walk & Knock Family
 

Annual meeting & social hour

Final Numbers

Official totals for our “back to porch pickups” 2022 drive are:
150,743 pounds of food and toiletries and $31,000 in donations. Just as importantly, more than 2,200 folks – many of them youngsters – picked up all that food.

At the Food Bank’s annual lunch on Jan. 31, I was pleased to present Food Bank exec Brent Derocher with a check for $31,000 representing dozens of donations from folks all over Clark County. Well done!

SCUBA DO

Always looking to improve, your Board took a deep dive this winter, re-examining nearly everything we do. After much discussion, we’ve decided to stick with traditional porch pickups instead of the drive & drop model.  While drive & drop was easier requiring fewer volunteers, we took in less food and engaged fewer folks. A big part of what we do is bringing people together for a day of service.
 
We also decided to stick with mailing out 200,000 postcards instead of going back to the traditional paper bags. While they were a great and unique calling card, The Columbian can no longer deliver them to everyone and mailing them is cost-prohibitive. There were strong opinions on both sides of that one.
 
With COVID abated, we will return to door knocking. It’s part of our name, after all, and the Board felt it’s worth the extra time both for added donations and to get our name out.
 
We’d like to resume placing door hangers on every porch – thanking folks for their donations and/or letting them know how to donate food in barrels or give money. That cost has gone up from $6,000 to $8,000 for 125,000 hangers.
 
We’d also like to start a pilot program of paying high school students to place door hangers announcing the drive on the weekend before Drive Day. They’d earn money for their team or club and we’d get great publicity. That would put us significantly over budget, so we’ll see how revenues work out.

Money, moany

Walk & Knock has two sources of income that pay all our expenses from postcards to porta-potties. Local business sponsors account for about $40,000 and club dues add another $3,000. Every cent collected during the drive goes to the Food Bank. Like you, our expenses have gone up – postage, web maintenance, you name it. So, it’s always a balancing act come check-signing time in October. If you know of a business that would like to sponsor us, by all means...

Volunteers of America

In baseball, there are three things – throw the ball, catch the ball, hit the ball. In Walk & Knock, it’s even simpler: Put out a bag; pick up a bag. Marketing with postcards, yard signs, newspaper ads and social media helps with the first. Getting folks to pick up the bags on the first Saturday of December is a challenge for the second. We’re increasingly looking to organizations where we can get 10,20,50 folks out in a group. Businesses, schools, churches, clubs are all great sources of volunteers. Betcha belong to a couple. See if you can organize where they’re organized!

We say goodbye

We had unprecedented turn-over the past few months. First was longtime W&K hard-worker Adam Hegewald. Adam not only served as vice president of operations making sure we had all the things needed for Drive Day, but he coordinated Sector D at Wy’East Middle School and picked up food barrels from Les Schwab tire centers.

“I started with W&K in 1985 as a Boy Scout for Troop 320 going door to door, and later as an adult, I joined the Board in 2010-11 representing my Fort Vancouver Lions,” Adam said. “I have moved up to Cowlitz County and will still be collecting food for the local food drive in Kalama.”
 
A Tri-Fecta man, Adam will be sorely missed. We wish him all the best. 

Also departing is our crackerjack Social Media coordinator Isabella “Izzy” Guetter. Izzy not only ran our FaceBook, Twitter and Instagram sites, but helped design our postcard and flyers. Taking over the family business at the Puffin Camas restaurant demanded all her spare time. Izzy is a great spirit and lots of fun. We will miss her.

Up in Ridgefield, Sector Coordinator Dean Stenehjem is stepping back. Dean grabbed the reins in that growing community and did a great job. We hope to keep him involved, especially as a liaison to the Cowlitz Tribe and ilani.
 
Finally, our relatively new secretary, Pam Pfeifer, had to quit for personal reasons. Good secretaries are hard to come by. We wish her all the best.

and we say hello

Fortunately, we’ve had four exciting new folks raise their hands. Brian Switzer has volunteered to be on our Board and take over Sector D from Adam. He also plans to help out recruiting volunteers. A serial volunteer himself, he’s one of those busy people that finds time to do more.
 
Out in Washougal, Nell Perry has volunteered to follow Izzy as Social Media coordinator. Nell is a Girl Scout leader overflowing with great ideas. FaceBook and the rest have become our best way to get the word out, so Nell will be a key player.
 
Also from Washougal, Nell’s friend Tammy Mackey stepped write up (ouch) to be our new secretary. She, too, is a Girl Scout leader with boundless energy and great secretarial skills.
 
Finally (I hope), Ridgefield Area Captain Justin Lindsay has agreed to take the reins from Dean and be Sector Coordinator in Ridgefield. With all its growth and spread-out subdivisions, Ridgefield is a challenge. We’re lucky to have Justin taking it on.
 
That these folks stepped up when they did is fantastic, giving us new blood and fresh ideas. It reminds me that W&K is a long-time, beloved community institution with many hands making it happen.

don't forget

Those of you Fred Meyer shoppers know their rewards program is money back in your pocket. It can be money in W&K’s pocket, too. Their Community Rewards Program allows you to designate your favorite non-profit (W&K we hope) to receive similar rebates without affecting your own rewards. Its Fred’s way of giving to the community. Please sign up and designate Walk & Knock as your recipient. It’s free money just waiting for you to activate. Visit https://www.fredmeyer.com/i/community/community-rewards

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