GIVE BIG

Island nonprofits need your support

I still need a hat and mittens for morning 37-degree dog walks. Yet the daffodils are poking up their sunny yellow heads, buds are blossoming, and our community is coming out of hibernation. Not that this community is ever really in hibernation … especially our hard-working nonprofits.

They are busy as bees all through the year — delivering meals, broadcasting emergency alerts, caring for the environment, entertaining, keeping people safe, educating, fostering pets and a hefty ton more. But let’s be real — sometimes we may not fully comprehend or see the value these nonprofits provide every day.

Nonprofits are notoriously humble about all the good they do! So, Voice of Vashon would like to help them “humble brag” to you and illuminate all the tireless work, time, care and commitment of their leaders, board members, staff, and volunteers.

Each May, a state-wide event called GiveBIG happens. Many nonprofits across the state write a description of what they do, set a goal and send out a call to ready, set, and donate! You can read their missions and values. You can see what they do. What you can’t hear, or feel is the passion in their voices as they tell stories of love that have elevated, saved, enriched, improved, supported, educated, and touched someone right here in our community.

Voice of Vashon is thrilled to be the GiveBIG Hub o’ Luv again this year, hosting our amazing nonprofits live on air in the Jean Bosch Broadcast Studio, on May 2 and 3, to hear and delight in their amazing stories.

So, join us live on 101.9 FM KVSH-LP, or stream at voiceofvashon.org or download our free app to hear our nonprofit leaders speak about their work, and their commitment to you. Then visit wagives.org to search nonprofits and visit Voiceofvashon.org to donate. You’ll be a very good do-gooder.

GiveBIG early giving has started. Thank you for thinking of VoV.

– Kate Dowling, executive director of Voice of Vashon

HEALTHCARE

Universal health care would cost less

Hospital executives make big, big salaries. Who pays them? We do. Insurance executives make big, big salaries. Who pays them? We do.

Drug company executives make big, big salaries. Who pays them? We do. Drug companies and insurance companies and private equity owners of healthcare facilities make big profits. Where does that money come from? Us.

The healthcare industry pays huge amounts of money to lobbyists. Where does that money come from? Us.

The healthcare industry contributes huge amounts of money to political candidates. Where does that money come from? Us.

Who benefits from all that money that comes from us? Them.

Whether it’s premiums, taxes, or the prices we pay directly, every dime these people spend on themselves and their interests comes from us. When they say universal health care “costs too much,” what they mean is that it costs them too much. And the reason it costs them more is that it costs us less.

Please remember that when the opponents of universal health care claim “we” can’t afford it.

– Roxanne Thayer

SENIOR CENTER

Audit questions

At the Senior Center’s Annual Meeting in November, the members voted overwhelmingly to have the Board conduct an outside financial audit for the years 2021 and 2022. In January, the Senior Center board voted to rescind this vote. They say they received three bids ranging from $10,000-$18,000 and were told that non-profits their size did not need to do this.

The board feels that their yearly internal audit is all that is necessary. Last week, I participated in their 2022 internal audit. This audit took less than three hours. A few checks were matched with their invoices. Most of the audit was asking questions to the part-time accountant who is under contract, who replied yes or no, with no documentation as a backup. The internal audit checklist also is supposed to address insurance and equipment inventory. This did not happen.

This was not an audit. Real audits take time and go into depth of tracking income and expenses – not just looking to see if an invoice is matched to a check. Real audits check if expenditures are warranted. Real audits look at grants and how expenditures are applied to these grants by staying within their guidelines and compare expenditures when two grant overlap in purpose.

I asked for a copy of the January board minutes, the profit and loss statement for 2022 and the proposed budget for 2023. It took over a month for me to receive the minutes. I was asked to sign a confidentiality statement and a promise to not harm the Senior Center before obtaining the minutes whose meetings are open to all members. I signed nothing. I was refused the financial statements requested.

Why is the Senior Center Board voting against the will of the membership? Why is the Senior Center staying so secretive? How can the truth harm the Center?

Please come to the annual meeting from 1 to 3 p.m. Friday, April 28, at the Senior Center. They request that people RSVP by calling 206-463-5173. To vote, your membership dues must be up to date.

– Hilary Emmer