Meet Elaine Kingston, who serves on the Charity Reimagined board of directors.

Elaine moved to the area with husband Paul in 2016 to be close to her daughter Amy, and grandson Nate, who live in Moscow. They vacationed in North Idaho for years while they were a military family and could think of no better place to spend their retirement. Having no time to “give back” while she was working, Elaine couldn’t wait to find a volunteer opportunity in this area that would make a long-term difference in people’s lives.

1) When did you start with Charity Reimagined, and what drew you to the organization?

You often hear people say they want to volunteer so they can make a difference in someone’s life. That was me. I started volunteering at a local food bank in 2019 and at first, I felt great knowing that I was helping people get through the week with food for their family. After a few months, I realized that those same people would be back next week because nothing else was changing in their lives. I got to know a lot of the patrons, and they were stuck in the life they were living. Most were working, some working more than one job to make ends meet, but they worried about reliable transportation, reliable child care, unplanned illnesses, stable housing — any one of which would push them off the thin balance beam of life they were walking. I started looking for a volunteer opportunity that would help them get off that balance beam for good and help them use their God-given gifts and talents to help themselves.

At this same time, Charity Reimagined was gearing up to redesign the Press Christmas for All program to be exactly what I was looking for. There was an article in The Press about an information meeting for Charity Reimagined and although I would not normally just show up at an event where I did not know a single person, I felt a strong push from above to attend and the rest is history! Maggie Lyons called me the day after the meeting, and I jumped in with both feet.

The Charity Reimagined tagline says it all – “Seeing Potential, Not Poverty.”

2. What is some of your background/experience working with underserved and underprivileged individuals/families/populations?

I grew up in a middle-class family in the suburbs of Rochester, N.Y. My father owned a small business as a paper box manufacturer, and I lived a charmed life, sheltered from adversity. Paul and I were high school sweethearts — we’ve been together 56 years — and his life was very different from mine. His mom died when he was 8 years old, he had two older brothers and three younger sisters, and it was too much for his dad to handle and keep his house painting business going. His dad ended up an alcoholic and the kids ended up in foster care. On the outside, Paul was smart, nice, good-looking and a fabulous athlete. How could that be with the childhood he had and how many other families were going through similar things? Paul’s experiences were my first exposure to living in poverty and I knew I would someday work to help people keep their families together and thrive.

3. What have you learned about this work since joining Charity Reimagined?

I’ve had a front row seat to the transformations that are possible when the community wraps support around people who are fighting every day to help themselves. People living in poverty always need more than one thing to help them move forward once and for all. They may need food and clothing, but those alone will only help them stay where they are. I’ve learned that we don’t spend enough time talking to people to find out what they really need and what they would like to do with their lives. People working in fast food restaurants making low wages didn’t have that as their dream job. But they don’t have the resources to move up to something better. They need education, they might need new eyeglasses or to have their teeth fixed. I’ve learned that there are many helping agencies that do understand this, and I love that one of Charity Reimagined’s main missions is to help connect these helping agencies so they can work together to meet all of the needs of their patrons living in poverty.

It's hard to put the impact of Charity Reimagined into a few words but one thing is for sure: My life has been impacted beyond words seeing people gain hope and resilience, knowing they have people in their community who will be there for them as long as they need, to reach their independence goals. I will be forever grateful for this opportunity.

4. What is something people would be surprised to know about you?

I worked for the Department of Defense for 30 years as a chief financial officer. I landed at Washington National Airport five minutes after the plane went into the Pentagon on 9/11. I was heading to the Pentagon for a full day of meetings. The plane went into the Army Budget Office, and I lost a number of friends that day. I had an unbelievable career with many opportunities to join the troops during training and missions. They learned early on that if you take care of the “money lady,” she will fight hard to get you what you need.

5. How do you think Charity Reimagined is making a difference in our community, and what are you hoping can be accomplished in the near and/or distant future?

I see Charity Reimagined as a huge umbrella over our community and each of the umbrella’s spokes is an area needed for agencies to help their clients who are working to help themselves. Most of these agencies are understaffed and overworked. Our goal at Charity Reimagined is to be “another set of hands” for them, providing the resources they need to better help their clients and themselves. Overseeing the Christmas for All program for The Press has given us a tremendous window into the current needs in our community.

One umbrella spoke is education. Charity Reimagined provides education opportunities for both the agencies and their clients. Another spoke is community resource connection; Charity Reimagined provides the Charity Tracker software to helping agencies so they can easily refer their clients to other agencies that can supply more of their needs. Another spoke is Rides for a Reason, working to provide low-cost reliable transportation for the working poor. We are working on a spoke for child care, helping to train more child care providers to ensure they can sustain their businesses while providing reliable child care. We are working on a spoke that will provide financial literacy and budgeting education to people who can barely make ends meet. That is five spokes we either currently have in place or are working on. My golf umbrella has eight spokes, so we’ve got lots of room to add other areas where we can help. And we can always find a bigger umbrella!

The Charity Reimagined website (charityreimagined.org) gives a lot more detail on the work we are doing and we would love to have you check it out!