March 01, 2014 11:30 pm • By Tony Lystra Anna Leslie doubts the men would still be alive if she hadn’t gotten them off the street. There are six of them, ranging between 40 and 60 years old. All were born in Cowlitz County. One was a former laborer who became addicted to pain pills after a work
February 28, 2014 6:30 pm • By The Daily News Lower Columbia Community Action Program (CAP) will offer lunch to any senior citizen starting March 3 from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Mondays and Tuesdays at the Grounds for Opportunity (GFO) Café, located next to the Kelso train station at 413 S. Pacific Ave. “By offering this
February 15, 2014 9:00 pm • By Justin Pittman R. A. Long High School leadership students collected more food than their peers at Mark Morris during a recent competitive “Civil War” food drive, but they’re downplaying the triumph. “They said, ‘We do not want a trophy,’” R.A. Long leadership adviser Josh Donaldson said. “They were adamant we
By The Daily News Income tax season starts Jan. 31 for individual taxpayers, and while many taxpayers might not be in a hurry to file their returns, it’s a sure… Read more Lower Columbia Community Action Program (CAP) and trained American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) tax aide volunteers will provide free tax assistance to filers of
Lower Columbia Community Action Program (CAP) on Tuesday will host a special showing of the film “American Winter,” which documents the struggles of eight middle-class families from Portland. Among the profiles are those of a family whose breadwinner loses his $50,000 a year job and is considered too old for the job market; a child
Walk & Knock organizers got an early Christmas present when they tallied the results of their annual food drive Saturday. Volunteers collected 56,000 pounds of food this year, a 17 percent jump from last year’s disappointing haul. In addition, cash donations totaled $2,738, a significant increase compared to the last two years. “It’s a very
Nov. 28 Daily News editorial On a day reserved for the giving of thanks and expressions of appreciation, we’d like to express our thanks to a group of our youngest readers — Ms. Kari Klayum’s third-grade class at Butler Acres Elementary School in Kelso. Earlier this month, Ms. Klayum gave her students an assignment we thoroughly
By The Daily News Organizers of the annual Walk & Knock, the community’s largest food drive, are working to ratchet up donations Saturday and bounce back from a bad 2012. Volunteers will be canvassing neighborhoods from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and picking up bags of food for Lower Columbia CAP’s Help Warehouse, which
November 15, 2013 6:10 pm • By The Daily News Lower Columbia Community Action Program (CAP) will provide free counseling on Medicare from noon to 5 p.m. Monday at its office, 1526 Commerce Ave. in Longview next to the Columbia Theatre. “Open enrollment for Medicare ends Dec. 7, so we want to encourage people to find out
As the weather turned wet and cold, many responded to recent call for blankets to give out to homeless and low income families. Among the donations were a number of beautiful quilts created by a group of ladies from Stella Lutheran Church. For over 50 years, this group has been providing quilts to the
For the first time, people can sign up online for energy assistance appointments, beginning Monday, November 18 at 5:00 pm. No more lines! The appointments are first-come, first-served, and can be made from any computer, Smartphone, iPad or other tablet devices with Internet connection by going to the CAP website at www.lowercolumbiacap.org. The online appointment
November 09, 2013 8:15 pm • By The Daily News Lower Columbia Community Action Program hopes long lines will be a problem of a past when it introduces online appointment scheduling for energy assistance, beginning at 5 p.m. Nov. 18. For years, 800 to 900 people have lined up outside the CAP building on energy sign-up day
Eight families recently moved in to the homes they built through CAP’s Self Help Housing Program. Last Friday, 8 more families became homeowners the old fashioned way—they built their homes— through CAP’s Self-Help Housing Program. Over the past year, each family put in 30 hours a week working on their own home as well
Sixty-some 3rd graders from Butler Acres Elementary School toured Help Warehouse this morning. The students learned about the Meals on Wheels program and then decorated lunch sacks for the seniors who receive meals. They saw how food was weighed, counted and stacked on pallets to be sent out to the various food banks in Cowlitz
This Wednesday, October 23, Arika Atkins and Tim Temples from the Weyerhaeuser Giving Fund presented a check for $5400 to support CAP’s Meals on Wheels program. Last year, 28,241 meals were delivered to homebound seniors in Cowlitz and Wahkiakum counties. The backbone of this program are the volunteers who deliver the meals. “Frankly, there would
October 21, 2013 6:15 pm • By The Daily News Cowlitz PUD is competing with seven local groups this month to bring in donations for Lower Columbia CAP’s annual food drive. Lower Columbia College is urging the community to join a campaign against local hunger. “More than 5,000 LCC students are working hard each day to
The Daily News / The Daily News Help Warehouse needs coats, blankets and sleeping bags to distribute to families who are homeless. “The return of the cold weather is driving people to us,” said Lisa Chavez, CAP’s nutrition coordinator, in a press release. “We had one woman come in recently who is living in
October 15, 2013 4:55 pm • By The Daily News Lower Columbia Community Action Program (CAP) announced Tuesday that it will discontinue its home care service program by Dec. 31. “At one time, CAP was the largest provider of home care to Medicaid-eligible people in Cowlitz County, but over time the number of providers has increased,” CAP
During October, employees from Cowlitz PUD, Kapstone, NORPAC, Weyerhaeuser, Fibre Federal Credit Union, Steelscape, Lower Columbia College, and the International Longshore Warehouse Union (ILWU) are engaged in a food fight to see which team can collect the most food and donate the most money to Help Warehouse. Help Warehouse is the food collection & distribution
Marissa Keeney and Treana Storie with 6,288 lbs of potatoes that Cowlitz PUD delivered Monday to Help Warehouse. For the month of October, Cowlitz PUD staff have challenged the employees from several other large businesses to a food fight—seeing which team can collect the most food and donate the most money to Help Warehouse. On Monday, October
Posted on September 25, 2013 September 21, 2013 9:00 pm • By Erik Olson / The Daily News Poverty rates in Cowlitz County fell in 2012 while the median household income rose, according to a new U.S. Census Bureau survey released last week, but economists and social service agencies cautioned that economic recovery in the county remains
September 20, 2013 10:20 pm • By Tony Lystra / The Daily News The nearly 26,000 Cowlitz County residents who receive federal food stamp assistance will see their benefits cut Nov. 1 when a provision of the Obama administration’s economic stimulus package expires, state health officials said. In 2009, families on the food stamp program got
September 09, 2013 8:05 pm • By Amy M.E. Fischer / The Daily News The public is invited to a ribbon cutting ceremony Wednesday to celebrate the cleanup of the contaminated North Kelso site that formerly was Terry’s Salvage Yard. The 11 a.m. ceremony, to be held at the 1124 N. Pacific Ave., will include comments from
September 15, 2013 7:45 pm • By Lyxan Toledanes / The Daily News Lower Columbia Community Action Program and the Washington Office of the Insurance Commissioner will host a free Medicare informational forum at 2 p.m. Thursday at the CAP building, 1526 Commerce Ave. Every day, around 10,000 people nationwide turn 65, qualifying for Medicare
September 07, 2013 7:01 pm • By The Daily News Lower Columbia CAP Executive Director Ilona Kerby recently was installed as president of Altrusa International Inc. at the group’s 53rd International Convention in Rotorua, New Zealand. Kerby took vacation time to visit New Zealand to attend the festivities. As president, Kerby will oversee the 10,000-member community
August 26, 2013 11:30 pm • By Lyxan Toledanes / The Daily News After 28 years of helping the community’s most hungry, Lois Shelton is ready to say goodbye — almost. Shelton, the program manager at Lower Columbia CAP’s Help Warehouse, will start her semi-retirement on Saturday, but she said she won’t be gone completely.
August 24, 2013 9:30 pm • By Erik Olson / The Daily News Four years ago, Rick Wenner took his last hit of meth, and it nearly cost him his daughter, Madison. At the time, Wenner, now 57, was preparing to get full custody of Madison from his soon-to-be ex-wife, who also struggled with
Anna Leslie likes to work with the hard cases that everyone else has given up on. She is heading up an innovative, new CAP program that aims to help the chronically homeless while reducing costs to the community. “I’m a realist, and I know that not all the chronically homeless are going to conform
July 05, 2013 8:30 am • By The Daily News An effort to help feed the needy this summer is themed “Hunger doesn’t take a vacation.” Employees of Waste Control Inc., the local waste hauler, are asking Longview and Kelso customers to put out bags of nonperishable foods and toiletries next to garbage and recycle
By Lyxan Toledanes / The Daily News CASTLE ROCK — Like many new homeowners, Tonie Roberts walked around her new home Thursday, excited about the possibilities of the empty space. In the middle of Roberts’ living room, kitchen cabinets were still in boxes as she prepared to paint her walls. Her floors were bare concrete,
Officials at CAP’s Help Warehouse are appealing to the community for emergency toiletries. Warehouse program manager Lois Shelton said in a press release that the warehouse’s supplies are depleted. She and the staff are feeling the press of families needing toiletries such as toothpaste, toothbrushes, shampoo, toilet paper and feminine hygiene products. Families are limited
By Lyxan Toledanes / The Daily News Budget battles on the federal and state levels are causing difficulties for local social service organizations, which might have to reduce programs that serve the community’s most needy. The Lower Columbia Community Action Program is among the handful of area agencies searching for ways to reduce expenses
By The Daily News Senior Farmers’ Market Vouchers will be available to eligible seniors on June 18 beginning at 9 a.m. at the Cowlitz Farmers Market located across from the fairgrounds on Seventh Avenue and New York Street. The Senior Farmers Market Voucher Program is funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and administered locally
• By The Daily News The Lower Columbia Community Action Program (CAP) has received a $530,000 state grant to continue its Interstate-5 bus service for the next two years, but diminishing support and ridership will prompt some cuts in the service. The award from the Washington State Department of Transportation is a drop from
By The Daily News Lower Columbia Community Action Program announced Thursday that it still has energy assistance funds available for an estimated 500 eligible households in Cowlitz and Wahkiakum counties. Since December, 967 households have been served, with an average assistance of $370 per household. There are 700 people on a waiting list, but CAP
By Barbara LaBoe / The Daily News The Lower Columbia CAP Foundation Board, which was on track to create a $1 million endowment for the social service agency, voted to disband Thursday, with officials saying it’s better to have everything under just one board of directors. They also stressed that CAP’s mission and good works
In a number of ways, Ashley Loughmiller embodies what CAP is about: People turning their lives around for good. When her mother died while she was still in junior high school, Ashley went through a difficult time. By high school, she was having problems. “I was always a smart kid, but I started making
May 18, 2013 8:30 pm • By The Daily News Diners are encouraged to patronize 15 local restaurants Tuesday to support the Meals on Wheels program. This is the fourth year local eateries are supporting the Lower Columbia CAP program, which has delivered dinners to homebound seniors since 1979. In 2012, CAP volunteers delivered 28,240
Longview and Kelso postal carriers collected 37,424 pounds of food Saturday on their mail routes during the National Association of Letter Carriers food drive. The food donated Saturday was 4,100 pounds shy of the 41,570 pounds collected during last year’s event (about a 10 percent drop), but it will replenish the Help Warehouse food bank’s
Lower Columbia CAP’s transportation program is relocating from downtown Longview to the Kelso Train Depot and expanding its services to include selling Greyhound Bus tickets. Starting next Wednesday, Greyhound passengers can buy tickets from CAP Transit from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday at the depot, 501 S. First Ave., Kelso. In the
Lower Columbia Community Action Program (CAP) and trained American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) tax aide volunteers will provide free tax assistance to filers of all ages and incomes through April 15 at three sites in Longview: Lower Columbia CAP, 1526 Commerce Ave., 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays and 4-7 p.m. Thursdays. Longview Public
Angela Fowler knows what it’s like to stand in the CAP alley at 5:00 in the morning, waiting in line to sign up for energy assistance. She is also a member of the CAP Board of Directors, so when Executive Director Ilona Kerby decided to find a better way to handle the annual energy sign
Between February 1 and March 20, CAP & AARP Tax Aide volunteers helped 682 people complete their returns, bringing $1.1 million into our community! This is more than all the money that came from the 993 returns they helped complete last year, and there is still three weeks to go to file, says Byron Held,
A Weyerhaeuser Co. charity drive has just helped low-income families with one of life’s essentials: diapers. Between Feb. 19 and March 8, a companywide drive collected about 630,000 diapers in the U.S. and Canada, and nearly 51,000 were collected by the company’s Longview-based employees, vendors and contractors, according to Lower Columbia CAP and the company.
We don’t always know when we have made a big difference in someone’s life. Sometimes we find out. “You have improved my life beyond measure,” wrote a disabled veteran to Melissa Cozadd of CAP’s Financial Independence Center. He was homeless, staying in transitional housing at the Longview Housing Authority, living on social security disability and
Whenever you hear a cowbell clanging inside the CAP building, it means that another person has just been hired through the Career & Family Development Department. Last week (Feb 25-Mar 1), that bell rang eleven times! One of those successes was Jessica Grothen, who was hired by Express Personnel. “I’m ready to get back into
You shouldn’t have to freeze to sign up for heating assistance. Concerned that many people expose themselves to cold and wet weather, Lower Columbia CAP is rethinking how it signs up people up for an annual energy assistance program for the needy. Each year, on one day in November, 800 to 900 people line up
At its annual meeting this month, the Lower Columbia Contractors Association awarded two Construction Excellence Awards to JH Kelly for their work on Grounds for Opportunity (GFO), CAP’s café & job skills training kitchen in Kelso. JH Kelly received the award for Commercial Remodel over $500,000, and also the special Judges Award. The Construction Excellence
On Tuesday, February 12, 2013, the Kelso Longview Chamber of Commerce held its monthly “Business After Hours” event at CAP’s new Grounds for Opportunity (GFO) café and training kitchen. CAP and the Family Health Center co-hosted the event for the business community. CAP Executive Director Ilona Kerby welcomed the guests, explaining that GFO is a
CAP has always been in the business of making dreams come true—whether a family’s dream for a better life, or our shared dream for a stronger and healthier community. 2012 saw the fulfillment of a very special dream. In summer, we opened Grounds for Opportunity (GFO), our full service café in Kelso that is also
Lower Columbia Community Action Program and two partnering groups will provide free federal tax return assistance this year. A “Tax Season Kick Off” will be held from 12:30 to 4:30 p.m. Saturday at the Longview Public Library, featuring refreshments, information and resources on asset-building. Tax assistance will be available that day, although the IRS won’t
For the past five years, Cowlitz PUD employees have divided into two teams — main office and operations — and have engaged in a competition to see which team can collect the most food for the Help Warehouse and its system of Cowlitz County food banks. More than 160 PUD staff participated in this year’s
Lower Columbia CAP has expanded its new coffee shop to serve Cowlitz County employees. On Nov. 13, the area’s largest non-government social service agency took over the Court House Cafe on the ground floor of the Cowlitz County administration building at 207 Fourth Ave. North in Kelso. The cafe is an offshoot of Grounds for
A new garden is allowing Cowlitz County Jail inmates to feed the hungry and nourish their own lives. “It’s nice to give back to the community,” said William Sherrett, 26, of Kalama, an inmate in the state work release program, as he planted winter potatoes Monday in a garden plot next to the Cowlitz County
Every weekday, Frances and Larry Wolf get hot lunches delivered to their Kelso doorstep by volunteers from Lower Columbia CAP’s Meals on Wheels program. Every Friday, a Meals on Wheels driver also drops off frozen meals for the weekend. “We love Meals on Wheels,” Frances Wolf, 86, said this week after driver Bob Chambers delivered
By 7:30 p.m. Monday, about a dozen people already were staked out with blankets and umbrellas behind Lower Columbia CAP’s building, hunkering down for a night in the cold drizzle. When CAP’s doors opened at 8:30 Tuesday morning, the line of low-income people applying for financial help with their heating bills this winter had grown
The Lower Columbia Community Action Program will start making appointments Tuesday for its popular low-income energy assistance program, which will have less money available this year to help people with winter heating bills. Appointments are scheduled on a first-come, first-served basis. Appointments cannot be made by phone, except for Wahkiakum County residents. Appointments can be
When Kurt Miller bought out his father’s adventure film company in 1989, he felt a once-great brand was floundering but could be turned around, he said Tuesday in Longview. Miller of Boulder, Colo., and business partner Peter Speek knew they needed to modify Warren Miller Entertainment’s ski films to reflect the changing times. They quickened
For the third consecutive year, Lower Columbia CAP has secured a commitment from Tim Welch and Lee Hutton-Welch for a dollar-for-dollar match on the next $35,000 donated to the organization’s current fundraising campaign. The ultimate goal of CAP’s “One in Three” campaign is to raise $1 million for the CAP Foundation’s endowment. The start date
A boarded-up Kelso tavern has been transformed into a charming cafe and coffee shop that provides food service training for people needing a fresh start. At 10 a.m. Tuesday, Lower Columbia CAP is holding a grand opening ceremony for Grounds for Opportunity, at 413 S. Pacific Ave. in downtown Kelso. Managed by Chef Keven Robinson,
Tami Turner works from 6 in the morning until 8 or even 10 at night in her gardens and greenhouses way at the top of Rose Valley Road. “Yes, I’m working very, very hard, only me,” said Tami, a 65-year-old Japanese woman who married Bob Turner in 2004 and moved to the local area with
The community is invited to “Dine Out for Meals on Wheels” Tuesday, May 22 at 24 restaurants in the local area. This is the third year local restaurants are supporting the Meals on Wheels program by donating a percentage of revenue from that day’s sales. “Fundraising is becoming more important than ever,” Lisa Chavez, CAP’s
Lower Columbia Community Action Program (CAP) has received extra federal funds to help an additional 700 low-income households pay heating bills in Cowlitz and Wahkiakum counties. CAP already has helped 937 households this season and has $264,300 remaining to help additional families, the agency said in a press release. Households must qualify as low income
CAP is throwing a party “like this town has never seen,” says Angie Leppert of Fibre Federal Credit Union. Leppert is co-chair for “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.” The “girls night out” packed with 1980s dance music and Material Girl spirit is set for 7 to 11 p.m. Friday, May 18 at the Monticello Hotel.
Longview and Kelso postal carriers collected 41,570 pounds of dry goods residents stacked beside mailboxes during Saturday’s National Association of Letter Carriers food drive. The food goes to the Help Warehouse food bank run by Lower Columbia Community Action Program. Although the tally was down 13 percent from the 47,580 pounds collected in 2011, Help