The Snoqualmie Valley is geographically large and filled with many small towns. At the end of the day, though, they are all still connected. City support of local non-profits is just one example of how all our valley towns stay entwined. Most small towns don’t have big (if any at all) social service departments. That’s where local non-profit health and human-service providers step in to bridge the gap, fill the holes. In the Snoqualmie Valley, towns and non-profits form a network, providing a perfect balance that builds strong communities.
Snoqualmie Mayor Matt Larson’s recent award was kept pretty low-key, but in the reality of health and human service organizations, it’s a pretty big deal. Last Wednesday, June 13th, Mayor Matt was named Elected Official of the Year by the Alliance of Eastside Agencies (AEA), an association of 50 health and human services organizations who serve East King County.
It was an award made possible by a nomination from North Bend Encompass Executive Director, Gregory Malcolm, who decided to recognize Mayor Matt for all his work over the years to help human-service providers throughout the Snoqualmie Valley. Mr. Malcolm recognized Mayor Matt as an “outstanding champion of the work done by the nonprofit sector.”
According to Malcolm, the Snoqualmie Mayor has helped Encompass and other organizations because he truly believes these non-profit efforts are worth supporting, as they help build a great community for everyone.
In addition to helping secure traditional funding for Snoqualmie Valley non-profits, Mayor Matt has also helped with the non-traditional resources like physical space for those important organizations. When the Encompass Respectful Giving program needed storage space for donations, the City of Snoqualmie found it. When the local clothing bank lost its space, Matt Larson and the City of Snoqualmie stepped up again and donated the recently vacated old city hall office for the cause.
Mr. Malcolm recognized that “with Mayor Larson and the entire leadership team at the City of Snoqualmie, it’s not only about dollars, it’s also about deeds.”
The Encompass organization was proud that Mayor Matt and the City of Snoqualmie were acknowledged with the award. Encompass was happy to let the community know that the mayor and city are assisting Encompass in building the dream of nurturing children, enriching families and inspiring the Snoqualmie Valley community.
After receiving his award at the AEA luncheon, Larson told more than 90 attendees he was grateful that Snoqualmie has been able to increase its funding for human services in recent years to create “healthy minds, hearts and souls” in the community. He also told the room of human-service providers, “What you do is huge to me. You do us all a huge favor.”
