In her words: Kent Downtown Partnership Director Jacquie Alexander says goodbye

(Information about a retirement party for Alexander follows this column.)

Working for the Kent Downtown Partnership has been my greatest joy! I have so loved being a part of the Kent community, of this downtown organization and, most importantly, meeting and working with each of you.

During the seven years as this organization’s director, we have accomplished much. When I arrived in 2002 it was decided by the board that we would direct our focus toward the revitalization of Kent Downtown and steer away from the Kent Farmers Market. We began this quest by recruiting members and becoming a membership-driven organization, which now has many energetic committees. It is in this committee structure that we began to implement activities, which in turn acted as a framework for involving volunteers and, ultimately, developing future organization leaders. I have to admit I have never seen a more vibrant and heavily involved board in all of my years in non-profit organizations. I always looked forward to the every “Fourth Wednesday” Board of Directors meeting with great anticipation.

I have thoroughly enjoyed working with and getting to know each year’s elected President. We are in contact either by phone, e-mail or in person everyday. It can be a very time consuming task for every President who agrees to serve.

My first President was Tom Woods, who was actually completing his second year as President. It had been a difficult year for the President and board as the director, Linda Johnson, had passed away very unexpectedly. Linda had served as the director for nearly 10 years and brought the Main Street program to this organization. Tom Woods and Dee Moschel carried this organization on a day by day basis and began the work of recruiting for a new director. Consequently, Tom and Dee were the first people I met in my interview and they were both so very helpful to me as I became immersed in this organization. I kept a close contact with them. The next President was architect, Ted Nixon, who had contributed a great deal in the area of Design for downtown Kent. He also created the monthly Networking event to enable members to gather together socially.

Then came Suzanne Cameron, who gave the KDP a great gift of her time, talent and energy as she served as our President for three very critical years and shared with us her outstanding organizational talents. Under her watch the KDP grew immensely in funding, committee structure, membership and even downtown landscaping. She even persuaded the largest number of board members from any city to ever attend a Main Street conference. We all became better informed regarding the tools and techniques for revitalizing our downtown. She even planned our very first Annual Dinner. Through all of the years she has been involved with the KDP she also became a very dear friend to me.

Mike Miller followed Suzanne and he kept me as busy as Suzanne had as we worked on many economic development activities, and many projects and programs with the city. He also spearheaded the video we had created depicting our downtown 100 years ago and today. Additionally, he helped educate us to take advantage of a new funding source, the B&O Tax Rebate program, which turned our world around. I thoroughly enjoyed his term as President as I’m sure most people know he makes “things” happen.

Judy Woods followed Mike and brought with her 20 some years of experience on the Kent City Council and her leadership skills to this organization. We can thank Judy for bringing us the unique and artistic bike racks into our downtown. She has been working with the city and world renowned artist (also a Kent resident), Danny Pierce, to bring another of his murals to our downtown. I hope she will continue to care about Kent’s revitalization process.

Doug Scharnhorst, has been serving as President during this extremely tough year financially. All of our businesses are struggling and at every turn – with every decision -he looks at what can we do to alleviate the difficulties they are experiencing. On the lighter side, Doug is an outstanding cook and has prepared and served many lunches for the Auction committee members. Another way he can lighten the load on expenses.

And, at our Annual Dinner on June 20 our newest President, Mark Albertson, took office. He has been involved in the KDP in many capacities and will make a great President.

Together, the Presidents and board members have accomplished so much in the last seven years. It has been my honor to have been associated with this organization – with each of you. I thank you.

As you can imagine my leaving the KDP is quite bitter/sweet. However, I really am looking forward to spending time with my husband, going on trips, gardening and decorating. It will definitely be a new and different lifestyle for me. Please do keep in touch. And, you are going to love working with Barbara Smith – she is an extremely hard working person, very talented and a lot of fun. She is has been working for Grays Harbor Tourism as the Deputy Director and previously was the Executive Director of the Ocean Shores Chamber of Commerce.

Jacquie Alexander is the outgoing executive director of the Kent Downtown Partnership

Retirement party

The Kent Downtown Partnership is hosting a retirement party for Jacquie Alexander at 4:30 p.m. June 26 at Bittersweet Restaurant, 211 First Ave. S. Please RSVP to 253-813-6976 or kdp@kentdowntown.org