PORT TOWNSEND — The Jefferson Community Conservation Corps’ economic recovery campaign has succeeded in funding its first position, a grounds and maintenance worker at Fort Worden.
The conservation corps was founded in June. It was modeled after the Civilian Conservation Corps that was part of president Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal during the Great Depression that provided labor jobs related to conservation and development of natural resources on public land.
The JCCC’s new hire is Todd Blankenship, who officially works under the Fort Worden Public Development Authority (PDA) but is funded by the JCCC, said Joan Rutkowski, executive communications manger for the PDA, in a press release.
Blankenship was among the 85 PDA employees who were laid off in early spring after the PDA and the state park closed down due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Rutkowski said.
Blankenship is glad to return to the park and is proud of his role being directly funded by the community.
“I love everything about Fort Worden, and I’m excited to help with the campus grounds and maintenance,” he said.
Starting in early October, Blankenship joined the small crew of PDA employees who are part of a limited restart of Fort Worden campus operations that resumed in early August in accordance with the state’s Safe Start plan. He will help with a variety of campus grounds and maintenance needs at the historic park, Rutkowski said.
Currently, Blankenship’s position is funded for three months, as the JCCC continues to raise funds to cover the rest of the year. As of Wednesday, the JCCC had received $9,625 of its $35,000 goal for Blankenship’s position.
The JCCC is accepting donations that are passed on to the PDA at mightycause.com/story/Cr4hqf.
While the JCCC raises the money, the hiring decisions are left to the nonprofit partner, said Matilda Henry, lead advisor and founder of the JCCC, on Wednesday.
The current Fort Worden campaign is being conducted in partnership with the Fort Worden Foundation, a nonprofit that is a subsidiary of the PDA, Henry said.
Henry has studied FDR’s conservation corps for years and decided to try and assist Jefferson County nonprofits and unemployed community members by creating a program similar to it in response to the pandemic, she said.
“I just thought that, instead of looking for national governmental funding, taxpayer funding, we should look for individual donations and grants,” Henry said.
The JCCC is operated by Henry and Port Townsend resident Mark Blatter.
Henry is looking for more advisers and volunteers to join, as she expects the program to grow now that it’s had its first success with the community-funded model.
Henry hopes to expand the program during the coming months.
“Once the momentum builds, I can see us having hiring opportunities in a lot of different fields,” Henry said. “Now that the model has worked, now is the time that we would like to add more volunteers with nonprofit expertise and creative ideas and time to work on this.
“We didn’t want to have a lot of publicity about it until we had a track record of having someone hired. Now that we do, I expect things will start to really take off.”
Dave Robison, the Fort Worden Foundation’s executive director, agreed.
He believes the JCCC will grow from the project and continue to help fund “jobs that lead to improved physical conditions, heightened morale, and hands-on experience that increases future employability as well as an appreciation of the outdoors and our treasured public spaces.”
People who are interested as serving as advisors, volunteers or are part of a nonprofit interested in partnering with JCCC are encouraged to email Henry at ptcivilianconservation@gmail.com.
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Jefferson County reporter Zach Jablonski can be reached at 360-385-2335, ext. 5 or at zjablonski@peninsuladailynews.com.
