KENNEWICK, Wash. — Leadership Tri-Cities is an educational program that examines issues around the region. The organization teams up with other local groups for its annual class project. This year, the class is partnering with the Domestic Violence Services of Benton and Franklin Counties to open up a new thrift store to help support their mission.
For the members of the group, it’s also about healing.
“I'm a domestic violence survivor, and so part of my wanting to join leadership Tri-Cities is that I would love to create a platform for myself to be a voice for domestic violence victims in the Tri-Cities,” said Jenna Kochenauer.
She said that initially, she didn’t want her passion to impose on other Leadership Tri-Cities students, but now, she said she’s only seen support from classmates for this project.
“Seeing the class members embrace this project and put so much effort and love and attention to something that I'm so passionate about, has truly, truly warmed my heart in a way that I never thought was possible,” expressed Kochenauer.
Right now, it’s all set-up work, getting ready for the soon-to-come opening of the Domestic Violence Services Thrift Store.
It’s a process that’s taken a few years to get underway, but it’s full speed ahead.
“And [the Board of Directors] decided last year in January, we'll give it a shot, and we were able to get this location right next door to our services in October, and so, once we did that, then we started trying to get ready for everything that we needed,” said Angie Pacheco, Executive Director with the DVSBF.
Kochenauer said the DVSBF already had the space, but needed a little spark to get it going. That’s where Leadership Tri-Cities came in. The group organized a construction committee to work on some improvements, building projects and painting, as well as an outreach team working with students at WSU Tri-Cities to help rebrand the store.
It’s going to continue to be a service for domestic violence survivors in need. The organization uses donations for their clients in shelters, or those staying in the DVSBF’s apartments.
“We rotate people into apartments, and they don't have anything so this really helps,” said Pacheco.
It’s also going to act as a thrift store for anyone to shop in, with funding that goes straight to Domestic Violence Services.
“What is something that 10 years from now we can go, ‘Hey, we did that.’?” Asked Kochenauer.
It’s going to be located right next door to their services in Kennewick, and the goal is to be open by the end of March. It will be located at 3311 W. Clearwater Avenue in Kennewick.
On April 1, Leadership Tri-Cities and the Domestic Violence Services of Benton and Franklin Counties are also teaming up for a fundraising fashion show at the Uptown Theatre in Richland, where the proceeds all go back to support this thrift store project, and survivors of domestic violence.
Right now, the DVSBF is not looking for physical donations, because the thrift shop has plenty of products they are working to sort through. They are accepting monetary donations. You can support them here.
Rylee Fitzgerald joins the KAPP/KVEW team as a multimedia journalist as her first job in journalism after graduating college. She graduated from the Edward R. Murrow College of Communication at Washington State University with a degree in Journalism and Media Production in May 2022.
She started her journalism career at Hanford High School in Richland where she spent four years on the Falcon Report broadcasting team. She is an ardent writer and is typically found hunched over her computer writing either her novel, or a news story. With her love for writing, and her high school experience in broadcasting, nothing made more sense than to continue studying journalism in college.
Rylee finished her degree in just three years as an ambassador for the communication college, a producer for a Cable 8 Productions series, a camera operator for CougVision, and an MMJ for Murrow News 8. She spent a summer as a news intern at our sister station, KXLY, in Spokane before her senior year at WSU.
Rylee was born and raised in Tri-Cities, and eagerly comes back home after finishing college. She has a lot of pride for eastern Washington, as it’s the only place she’s ever called home.
