After effort and honors, nonprofit director resigns from Lions 4 Kids

Published 4:11 pm Monday, October 12, 2009

By Daniel Nash

The Courier-Herald

Carol Wells-Reed spent four years with the Lions 4 Kids House, from inception to its development as the sophisticated local charity it is today. As the director of the charity – which provides school supplies, clothes and personal care products to kids in need – she had her hand in everything from fundraising to landscaping. Her work even earned her the distinction of being one of six ladies to receive Traditional Homes magazine’s Classical Woman Award, in the November issue.

But her life has changed, following a revelation Wells-Reed had while recovering from hip surgery.

“During the time that I was recovering, I was at home and I was laying in my bed, and I realized it was so rare for me to be at home alone in the quiet,” she said. “I realized I had been married to my husband for four years, living with him for four years, and I had no time for him.

“And I started thinking maybe it was time to resign.”

Wells-Reed tendered her resignation to the Bonney Lake Lions Club, which oversees Lions 4 Kids House, earlier this month with an offer to stay the remainder of the year to ease the transition. However, it was agreed that she would end her tenure as director immediately. Her title now ends at founder of Lions 4 Kids, and her duties as director have ceased following the organizations most successful fall enrollment yet at 455 children.

She is succeeded by the current board of directors and Manager Iona Catonio.

“It’s been such a joy to watch the House grow,” she said. “When we started, I had no idea how big it would become.”

Wells-Reed’s experience helping homeless and in-need youth began in Tacoma in 1990, while working as a banker. The Gene Tone School, serving area homeless children, contacted her with a request to organize a library book drive.

“After the drive, I went to the director and asked ‘What do you really need?,’” she said. “He told me ‘clothes and personal care items.’”

In the first year of collections, Wells-Reed and her associates gathered 500 donated items. By the time she transferred banks years later, they had gathered 50,000 items. She attributed the success to her estimate that 80 percent of bankers were women, most of whom had children and could empathize with the need to care for them.

“I would go in to read to the younger ones sometimes and, I’m not overestimating, I had three kids sitting on each leg, one between, two by each of my arms and one or more looking over my shoulders,” she said. “And they wanted to touch you. They needed that tactile connection with other people.

“It’s not that their parents were bad parents – far from it – they were just working so hard to make ends meet that they would be too exhausted.”

In 2005, that experience brought Marilee Hill-Anderson, director of the Sumner School District’s STARR Project, to Wells-Reed to ask for her help in a one-time school supply, clothing and personal care item drive.

When it was done, Wells-Reed suspected there was a permanent need for those items in local school districts. She spent a year fact-finding, interviewing local families and gathering the resources to create a year-round service for in-need children.

Lions 4 Kids House opened its doors in September 2006 in Bonney Lake. From the outside, the house at 18429 89th St. looks like an average one-story home with a beautiful garden and a red door, which symbolizes welcoming.

On the inside, it more closely resembles a children’s clothing boutique. Racks of clothes are meticulously organized by gender, age, size and type.

The walls are cotton candy blue. The cloth window toppers are stitched with a vibrant pattern that sparkles in the light.

But instead of a cash register, the front desk has a check out list that ensures each enrolled family gets their allotment of items for the month.

“It’s a joy to see children excited to come here,” Wells-Reed said. “We’re not just putting children into clean clothes, we’re helping them find a sense of dignity and self-esteem. National studies have shown that if children feel that they don’t fit in, they are more likely not do well in school, they will drop out, get in mischief and get in trouble with the law.

“From the skin out – the inside out, actually – we want these kids to feel beautiful.”

Her passion inspired a friend to submit a 500 word essay to Traditional Homes magazine, recommending Wells-Reed for the Classical Woman award. She was one of six winners flown to Idaho for a photo shoot where she was treated like royalty, she said.

“It’s such an honor, and it’s a nice contrast to the sadness of leaving the House,” she said.

Though she lives in Olympia, Wells-Reed insists she won’t disappear from the community. She has been active in Bonney Lake for six years, she said.

“This is still where my heart and my efforts lay,” she said.

But now she will have a chance to nanny, spend time at home, travel and finally make some time for her husband.

“I think he’ll be glad to finally be able to see me sometimes, after four years.”