09/17/2013 Julie McDonald Commentary: Young Professionals Group Shapes Leaders

September 17, 2013
By Julie McDonald, Columnist, The Chronicle

As I looked around the room at a meeting of the Chehalis Community Renaissance Team Friday, I was pleased to see a handful of young adults sitting at the table.

When Dick Larman, executive director of the Lewis Economic Development Council, said he worked in the state Main Street Program when it started in the mid-1980s, I remembered writing about it. The state program helps communities revitalize downtown commercial districts. Centralia became a Main Street city.

“Some of you probably weren’t even born in 1985,” he said, looking around the room.

Trevor Elliott, an account executive at Virgil R. Lee & Sons, shook his head. So did Andy Skinner, the Lewis County Historical Museum’s director, and a couple of other people.

“Most of us have gray hair older than they are,” quipped Terry Harris, a Chehalis City Councilman.

We laughed, but it was exciting to see young adults willing to volunteer their time and talents to the community.

Many of those young people belong to a group formed in 2010 called Young Professionals of Lewis County, a nonprofit, volunteer organization “dedicated to attracting and retaining professionals in the Lewis County area.”

“We are made up of motivated, energetic, young professionals certain to become the community’s future leaders,” the Facebook page states.

The group, which meets from 5 to 8 p.m. the second Wednesday of each month at the Riverside Golf Club’s roof-top bar, is designed to link members’ personal passions with professional ambitions, according to the Facebook page.

Both Elliott and Skinner attend; in fact, Elliott is slated to serve as the group’s president. He can be reached by email at telliott@lovstedworthington.com or by calling at 360-520-2197.

When I was a toddler in Iowa, my father used to belong to the Jaycees, the common name for the United States Junior Chamber, an organization for 18- to 40-year-olds that was also active in the Twin Cities decades ago. 

It’s heartening to see young professionals in Lewis County working together to make our community a better place to live. It bodes well for the future.