Roll brings non-profit background to new job

Published 12:39 pm Thursday, December 11, 2008

By Kevin Hanson

The Courier-Herald

Mari Roll has dedicated her professional life to working with non-profit agencies, a background perfectly suited to her new duties as executive director of Plateau Outreach Ministries.

Roll moved into POM's cozy quarters Jan. 10, ready to lead an organization already running "like a well-oiled machine," in her own words.

The Enumclaw-based charitable organization had operated under interim leadership since the departure of Michael Cummings, who had to leave the post for health reasons.

"All I've ever done is non-profits," said Roll, a California native who moved to the Plateau a few years ago. She earned a bachelor of science degree in sociology from the University of California-Berkeley and worked professionally in her home state. After moving to Enumclaw and before joining POM, she was the shelter director for the local Domestic Abuse Women's Network.

Roll said she approaches her job with the belief that everyone, no matter what their circumstance, deserves respect. Her goal is to provide help and get someone moving in the right direction, with few questions asked and no judgments made.

"We hear their story and we do what we can to help them," Roll said of the relationship between POM and its clients.

At Plateau Outreach Ministries, Roll is charged with overseeing a three-phase operation. There's the Samaritan Project, which helps people financially; the food bank, which opens its doors once a week for anyone in need; and More Pennies From Heaven, the adjacent thrift store that generates revenue to fund the other operations.

Everything works out of a building at the corner of Cole Street and Stevenson Avenue in downtown Enumclaw. Aside from Roll, there's another full-time employee and two permanent, part-time staffers, along with "a wonderful pool of volunteers," she said.

She admits to being "in total awe" of the work done by the crew.

Plateau Outreach Ministries is backed by 14 churches from the Enumclaw/Buckley area. The organization's board of directors, she believes, "is ready for some changes," and that's where Roll fits in. Her background in non-profit work, plus her experience in grant writing, she said, will come in handy as the operation looks to expand its services to those in need.

Kevin Hanson can be reached at khanson@cmg-northwest2.go-vip.net/courierherald.