By PAUL DELANEY
Staff Reporter
(Editor’s note: This is the second of a two-part examination of Lakeland Village’s College In-Resident Volunteer (CIRV) program which is slated for closure in 2019.)
In the end, it appears that money will win the tug-o-war with emotion when it comes to Lakeland Village’s College In-Resident Volunteer (CIRV) program, which will close in spring 2019.
The nearly 50-year-old program connects college student volunteers with Lakeland clients for a variety of events and activities in exchange for room and board at the facility. But the return on investment — particularly the current need to update aging 1950s-era residences at the estimated price tag of about $1.6 million per unit —has been deemed too steep by the state and the Department of Social and Health Services.
The CIRV program has slowly been closing down building by building over the past three years and there is currently only one apartment open and running, serving about 12 volunteers after earlier enrollment in the 40 range.
“If the CIRV program is closed it will primarily impact the clients as they will lose the additional one-on-one social interaction they get from the CIRV’s who volunteer with them,” the program’s coordinator since 1980, Leroy Lemaster, wrote in an email. “CIRV’s are also a huge support when it comes to assisting with events held both on and off-campus.”
The big sticking point, according to Acting Lakeland Superintendent Sharlene Gentry, is that money needed to repair roofs, update electrical and plumbing, fix the decaying outside — not to mention the prospect of possible asbestos mitigation — is also sorely needed in what is now a facility that is 103 years old. Lakeland was opened in 1915.
But Lemaster argued on behalf of the many benefits that, perhaps, money cannot buy.
The CIRV program has seen hundreds of students through the years, Lemaster explained. It has provided students a chance to go to college and obtain a degree, an opportunity that for many would not have been possible without the program.
“First and foremost, this program has been an extreme asset to the clients at Lakeland Village since it first started in 1970,” he wrote. “The clients at Lakeland love spending time with the college students who volunteer here and the enthusiasm our young students bring to our clients will really be missed.”
“This program has been a win-win for the State of Washington,” Lemaster said. He contends that a less-costly approach of simply putting a roof over the residences — even just one for now — could serve to extend the life of the CIRV program.
Paul Delaney can be reached at [email protected].
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