From playing a major behind-the-scenes role after the Oso disaster to formerly working for the American Cancer Society to starting a nonprofit to raise funds for sports teams in her hometown, Reynolds is all about community.

When people say, “somebody should do something about it,” I’ll be that somebody, she said. “I’ve always been that way. If a person is in need I want to help.”

 

 

Helping athletes

She was that somebody when Darrington was going to shut down sports six years ago due to the lack of money. She started the Darrington Recreation and Education Foundation because she wanted to make sure her son could play high school football, basketball and baseball. She wrote grants for funds for six years.

“I purchased every uniform for every sport, boys and girls,” she said, adding the nonprofit also paid for science retreats and class supplies for teachers. “Every kid benefitted. Nonprofits are huge for me.”

But since her son graduated in June, “No ones picked it up. For two years I tried to find someone.”

Some parents rallied to help during those years. They would prepare meals for far-away games to places such as the San Juan Islands.

“Some kids had no money, and we didn’t want to embarrass them so we made meals for all,” Reynolds said, adding $150,000 was raised in those years, thanks mostly to local tribes.

She had no experience as a grant writer, but as Regional Vice President for Western Washington with the cancer society she knew she had to be transparent, show proof of expenditures and tell a compelling story.

She’s only been working in Marysville for two months but already she’s involved in chamber, Rotary and the Strawberry Festival. Reynolds also is part of Leadership Snohomish County.

She’s lived in Darrington for 30 years, and said the commute to Marysville is so much better than going to Seattle for the ACS.

“I don’t have that drive anymore,” she said, smiling. “I don’t have to sit in traffic.”

 

 

Oso slide

The bank gave Reynolds many weeks off of work so she could help after the slide. Money started pouring in from everywhere so she helped set up a board that would be responsible for it. She also helped prepare food and helped plan mass amounts of funerals.

“The Catholic Church started writing checks” to help pay for funerals, she said. A funeral committee has been a tradition in Darrington for at least 50 years where members cook for about 500 people at every single one. She volunteers for that.

Reynolds said she wasn’t equipped to go out in the mud searching.

“That’s not me. But the community is going to show up to eat,” she said. “When you’re making a giant batch of hash browns you get to know people who really give.”

Reynolds said the morning of the slide she was on her way to Tacoma for a baseball game. The game was played because at the time they did’t know the magnitude of the mudslide. But on the way back she was asked to go by Cascade Valley Hospital for supplies.

“There were huge piles that were not going to fit into my car,” she said. “So everybody who went to the game loaded up their cars with grocery sacks.”

The area just started receiving $30,000 in gas cards in the mail, so Reynolds set up a process to hand those out. She said the Red Cross was just giving them to anyone, so she took over, set up an application system and made sure they went to people in need.

“One by one things sorted themselves out,” she said. “I helped people navigate stuff.” Tons of clothes and food also came in the first couple of days, she said. Semi trucks full of food arrived and high school students on spring break organized it in the gym. When school restarted, the Mormon Church took over. “It was great to watch unfold, the chaos then the problem-solving,” she said. Reynolds recalled one point when she was asking for help that she reached the end of her wits. “Don’t make this difficult,” she said, adding she did not want to play their big nonprofit games.

Reynolds said one sore subject around town still is the lack of support by some federal agencies, such as the Federal Emergency Management System. She said she can’t believe Oso victims only received up to $32,000. “They lost every ounce of their belongings. Their entire life,” she said.

On the other had, she understands taxpayers can’t replace everything for everybody who suffers a loss in a natural disaster.

She said the resource center helped with long-term needs, such as helping pay mortgages for houses that no longer existed. Only one person had a mudslide insurance rider.

When trucks were bringing in gravel from a pit to build temporary roads, she and others took 50 sack lunches a day up to the site.

“Lots of people did more than their fair share,” she said.

Reynolds teared up when she talked about what one Red Cross worker said to her. “I’ve never seen a town act like this in a disaster,” Reynolds repeated the woman as saying.

She added she can’t believe “this isn’t how every community behaves” after a tragedy. “In Oso everybody rallied and did what they had to do,” she said.

Reynolds said she was so proud of that community.

“Just average people doing extraordinary things,” she said. “People saying ‘I can do this’, finding their niche and making a difference.”

 

 

What’s next?

Years ago, Reynolds talked with former University of Washington football coach Jim Lambright. He asked her son, Trent Green, what he wanted to do with his life. Trent said be a firefighter. Lambright encouraged Trent to follow his dreams. Trent is now doing that, attending Skagit Valley College in Mount Vernon.

Reynolds is inspired by that calling, to help kids find out what their dreams are, then work for them. She wants to help Rotary and the Strawberry Festival raise money for college scholarships.

She said she feels a compelling need to help kids get a higher education.

“A college education that fits their dreams, without that crazy debt, will better society,” she said.