[Washington] Dayton gets reward for poverty work

From The Walla Walla Union Bulletin

The award honors work of the Community Task Force and Chamber of Commerce.

By Carrie Chicken of the Union-Bulletin

DAYTON - A $100,000 Great Strides Award was granted to the Dayton Chamber of Commerce and Community Task Force for work in reducing poverty.

Chamber Director Jennie Dickinson said she applied to the Northwest Area Foundation, based in St. Paul, Minn., for the grant in October at the suggestion of Rich Stewart, Dayton schools superintendent. Dayton was one of nearly 60 communities to apply for the award.

The $100,000 awards - a reward for work already done - go to community organizations to be used for community benefit, according to a press release from the foundation.

Dayton's present poverty rate is 12 percent, considerably less than 20 years ago, when a task force formed to address unemployment, a decaying downtown and dwindling agriculture economy.

``This community saw poverty fall by 34 percent between 1990 and 2000,' according to the foundation.

The award is huge, Dickinson said. The Task Force, an arm of the Chamber board, will decide how the grant is used, but Dickinson said she hopes it is used to address work force training.

``Too many jobs in Dayton go to people from outside Dayton because we don't have people trained to do them,' she said.

Benefits for Dayton's progress include a population increase, an increase in real estate values, and a 50 percent increase in median income between 1989 and 1999.

Other outcomes include increased leadership, continued community involvement, a growing arts community, a winery and a bio-diesel project, according to the foundation's press release.

The foundation sent a team of interviewers to Dayton in late December to talk with local leaders. Among those interviewed were Marcene Hendrickson, a member of the task force from its inception, Mayor Bill Graham and Steve Moss from the Blue Mountain Action Council.

``I could tell they'd made up their minds early in the day. I just didn't know which way they'd made them up,' Dickinson said.

The foundation was created by Louis W. Hill, the son of Great Northern Railway founder James J. Hill.

The foundation works on strategic efforts to reduce poverty in Minnesota, Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Idaho, Oregon and Washington.

Its first four awards were granted in 2005.

ON THE NET

Northwest Area Foundation: www.nwaf.org.