The Olympia Washington Kiwanis members and their friends have cost the Washington State taxpayers over $50 million dollars (so far), because of their willful ignorance of long term, merciless and well known, child abuse that occurred at the Olympia Kiwanis Boys Ranch.

October 2006 note: This Olympia Kiwanis stuff is old news. I've left this information on the web, because I like the thought that someone will say to one of these Kiwanis friends or members: "Grandma, (Grandpa), are you still friends with those Olympia Kiwanians?"

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1994 Olympia Kiwanis Members List
2007 Thurston County employees list (pop 207,355)(1,332 employees)(includes gross & overtime wages, hire date)
2005 Thurston County employees list (pop 207,355)(1,257 employees)(includes hire date)
2002 Thurston County employees list (pop 207,355)(1,569 employees)
2002 Port Of Olympia employees list (pop 42,514)(40 employees)
2009 Oly Evergreen St Col employees list (938 employees)
Olympian Newspaper 2010 Thurston employees list
2006 Olympia School District employees list (Includes Benefits)
2002 City of Olympia employees list (pop 42,514)(685 employees)
Olympian Newspaper 2010 city of Lacy employees list
2002 City of Lacey employees list (pop 31,226)(226 employees)
2009 South Puget Sound Com Col employees list (1,001 employees)
Name search of Wash. State voters includes our addresses (and birthdays)
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Back to the beginning OKBR Home Page(http://lbloom.net/indexok.html)
Other peoples OKBR statements to the Wash. ST. Patrol.
Back to the beginning Gary Bloomfield Page

STATEMENT GARY BLOOMFIELD December 11, 1995 95-687
    I am Sergeant Glenn Cramer of the Washington State Patrol, Internal Affairs Section. The date is December 13, 1995. The time is 6:25 p.m. This is a statement of dictation notes from an interview Lieutenant Dan Eikum and I conducted on December 11, 1995 at 3:00 p.m. We met with Gary Bloomfield who is a previous Olympia Kiwanis board member.
    We started off the conversation with Bloomfield by asking him how he was involved with the Olympia Kiwanis Club. Bloomfield told us he'd been a member of the Kiwanis Club for approximately four years. In 1986 he was a member of the Board of Directors of the Kiwanis Club for the OKBR. During this time he attended a meeting when Chief Wurner came to talk to the Kiwanis Club regarding his concerns about the amount of calls for service and the type of activity going on at the OKBR. Bloomfield said it concerned him that the ranch was having a number of runaways and kids who were fighting with each other. We asked Bloomfield if this meeting with Chief Wumer could have occurred on March 3, 1986. He indicated that it was approximately that time of year when this occurred.
    He went on to tell us that the Board of Directors and the president of the Kiwanis were very defensive and felt that Chief Wumer was overreacting. He felt the board members were very unprofessional. He particularly sensed that Cliff Stilz had something in for the chief. He thinks Stilz was the president of the Kiwanis, at that time. Bloomfield told us  that the chief was very professional in expressing his concern about the criminal activity going at the OKBR.
  Bloomfield did not think the Kiwanis Club and the board were getting straight answers from Van Woerden. After the Chief came to talk to the Kiwanis Club, he felt there was something deeper going on at the boys ranch. Bloomfield said from his professional background and education, with the number of runaways and fights happening at the OKBR, there was a deep rooted problem. He thought about it, and after assessing the situation from what Chief Wurner told him, along with the actions of Van Woerden, he felt it necessary to call DSHS. He wanted to find out if they were aware of what was going on at the boys ranch. We asked him what particularly concerned him about Van Woerden that caused him to feel there was something deeper going on. He said Van Woerden did all the hiring, was very controlling, and none of the other board members ever met any of the staff. Also, there didn't seem to be any accountability by the directors of the OKBR (concerning Van Woerden). They would meet once a month, vote on a budget, and they would receive the report from Van Woerden. Bloomfield felt the Board of Directors needed to be more involved with what was going on at the OKBR. They were being too trusting of Van Woerden while he seemed to be hiding something at the OKBR. That's why he felt compelled to call DSHS. Bloomfield went on to tell us that shortly after he'd called DSHS, he received a call from Van Woerden. He took that as an indication that DSHS had contacted Van Woerden about his phone call. When he called DSHS he didn't particularly like the way they handled the situation. He thought the person he talked to was polite. He described the person as being a male, but he couldn't remember his name. Bloomfield said he was expecting more of DSHS because he felt there were some deep seeded problems at the OKBR, and he was concerned about the boys fighting and running away. He felt the person didn't seem to take the situation as serious as he did. He said the person explained they had a regular monitoring process at the boys ranch. Again, he said he didn't feel the person took the situation as seriously as he did. He wasn't sure if anything ever happened at the ranch about these concerns he called in during 1986 because he was never interviewed by anyone from DSHS. He said now he knows DSHS never did anything because he's read the newspapers.
    We presented him with a memorandum from Steve Ennett to Mark Redal dated March 10, 1986. The letter identified Dr. Gary Bloomfield and a phone number. We asked him to review this memo to see if it was accurate. He said it was a depiction of the conversation he had with the man when he called DSHS about his concerns.
    We showed Bloomfield the third page of another letter dated May 16,1986 which was addressed to Sharron Weston and signed by Van Woerden. We asked him if the third page of the letter was referring to him. Afthough it doesn't refer to anyone by name, it does talk about a board member who was showing lack of support for the OKBR.  Bloomfield read the third page and said there was no doubt Van Woerden was referring to him. He told us that just by the tone of the letter Van Woerden was very protective and appeared to be hiding something.
    He went on to tell us that while he was a member of the Board of Directors the lack of in-action about the boys ranch and their attitude caused him a great deal of stress. Bloomfield said because of the attitude of the board he left the Kiwanis Club in 1987. It was also during this time when hed been elected as a president for another service organization he belonged to. He said within the last year he's seen ex-Kiwanians. They told him about the law suit concerning the boys as the OKBR, and they made the comment "hell these kids would lie for a million dollars." We asked Bloomfield  what.ex-Kiwanians made these comments. He said he didn't remember who it was because he felt they were so out of line he tried to forget about it.
      Bloomfield went on tell us that the Kiwanis Club had a fear of DSHS wanting to shut down the OKBR. He said they had an attitude of great pride in the boys ranch because the founding fathers had created the home. He said when the home was first founded they probably had great intentions of doing the community a good deed. However, he said as things progressed, and the activity at the boys ranch became known, it was embarrassing to the members of the OKBR board members. The Kiwanis did not want bad news about the ranch printed in the papers. They were embarrassed about the police coming to the boys ranch, so they were defensive when the Chief of Police came to their meeting to tell them about the criminal activity going on at the ranch.
    He went on to tell us that the Kiwanis Club had property in several areas, and that he was aware of some undeveloped property in Mason county. He also told us that the Kiwanis Club had a barge. We asked himwhat he meant by a barge. He said a barge... like a boat. In his opinion, the Kiwanians were real 'wheeler dealers." He said they would get involved in business deals, get stung, then somehow wrangle out of it.
    Bloomfield said he felt Van Woerden had a political influence with the Kiwanis because they trusted him. The Kiwanis, as he described it, had a good network. He said it wasn't all bad because there were some good people who had business networks. They belonged to the group of the Kiwanis for the comradery and the networking. However, he said Van Woerden had a network with the Kiwanians, and that certainly anybody who was somebody in the Olympia area, belonged to the Kiwanis. Bloomfield said judges, several lawyers, politicians, influential businessmen, and a prosecutor were all members of the Kiwanis Club. He felt it was Van Woerden's networking through these people that gave him the political influence. He also indicated that Van Woerden and the Kiwanis were very protective of the boys ranch. He didn't feel Van Woerden was always square with the board. He thought the Kiwanis Club members were always very loyal to Van Woerden because the founding fathers of the boys ranch trusted him. Van Woerden was the first director of the boys ranch, and was hired by the founding fathers. In Bloomfield's opinion, some of the OKBR board members did not have the administrative skills to be directors of a boys ranch. However, he said there were some members who had very good administrative skills. Bloomfield told us. It was his opinion that the people who sat on the Board of Directors were specifically recruited by the Kiwanis Club; it always seemed to include an attorney, a judge and sometimes a local politician, policeman, and an influential businessman. They said they did this for a particular reason. They wanted people who had creditability, were influential in the Olympia area, and were politically connected to the state government network in order to benefit the Kiwanis Club.

Below is an e-mail I received from a former Olympia, Washington resident.

From: ~~~~~~~~@aol.com
To: Louis Bloom manaco@whidbey.net
Sent: Wednesday, July 28, 1999 11:34 AM
Subject: OKBR
Just came across your pages and felt the urge to respond... In the early 80's (81-83) I was at the OKBR frequently as a young kid walking to/from school, I became friends with some of the boys. At one point a small boy confided to me that he was being raped by another boy in the home. The abusing boy talked about it openly!
Days later I walked the victim to OPD where we both gave statements. Later that evening I began to receive these incredibly threatening phone calls from a woman employee of the ranch who's name I believe was Paulette at my home. She kept calling over and over screaming at me calling me names. It was horrible. I thought I was helping someone. Nothing came of it. Then all these years later, it all comes out ... one of the boys that I had known there left as a young adult and still couldn't get it together, he eventually killed himself. As an adult now I don't often think back to those times but it still saddens me. All those boys that needed a safe nurturing place to be, and how many of them were better off for having been taken there? It's not about money. It cost these boys their lives, their souls, their trust. Those people who knew, who didn't care, they should feel such shame. Just my opinion.

From: louis a bloom manaco@whidbey.net
To: ~~~~~~~@aol.com
Sent: Wednesday, July 28, 1999 7:30 PM
Subject: Re: OKBR
thanks for your e-mail. from what i've read, dshs, the olympia police department, and other "authorities" didn't consider child on child rape to be against the law. it was considered "normal experimentation". The "paulette" you mention, may have been Collette Queener who was an assistant director at the OKBR. Collette, OKBR Director Tom Van Woerdan, and OKBR counselor Laura Rambo Russell were ineptly charged by Wa. St. with "criminal mistreatment for failing to stop abuse". The charges were dismissed by Thurston County Judge Daniel Berschauer on technicalities. The lawyer who represented Collette Queener said, (Nov. 14, 1996 Olympian), that it was a "witch hunt", and that " a more innocent person (than Queener) you could not have for a client. She's an ex-nun ..... I don't see how you could view her in an evil or negative light."
I congratulate you for doing the right thing, when all those adults looked the other way. I repeat on most pages that the " OKBR has cost the Washington State taxpayers over $35 million dollars (so far)", because I think most people don't care about the kids involved, but they may care that it has cost them (taxpayers) money.
louis bloom

There were many obvious and long-term warnings about the 1970-94 OKBR.

  • DSHS knew since at least 1977.
  • The OKBR staff certainly knew.
  • The abused kids told staff, schools, counselors, police, caseworkers, therapists, ect.., about their abuse at the OKBR, but nobody investigated.
  • Olympia Police Chief Wurner came to an Olympia Kiwanis meeting in 1986 and told the Kiwanis about the troubles at the OKBR. Chief Wurner was ignored. Maybe he should have done more, but he probably wanted to keep his job.
  • It was well know by the Thurston County courts. These kids were constantly in and out of the Thurston County legal system.
  • The OKBR was written about in the Kiwanis Komments newsletters, and the Kiwanis Board Ranch minutes.
  • All the OKBR Board Members had a legal oversight of the OKBR.
  • Were all Olympia Kiwanis Attorneys & Judges and/or Politicians uninformed?
  • It's amazing how blissfully ignorant some people were about the OKBR. You can read about their guiltlessness in some of their Washington State Patrol and Office of Special Investigation statements.
  • Here's Wa St Patrol Olympia Kiwanis member lists of 1987, 1990, 1994
  • Here is a 49 page index of 5,223 pages of documents that the WSP collected about the OKBR. Anybody can order any of those public documents by following the instructions on that page.
  • The OKBR sent kids for weekend visits to child abusers who donated land to the Kiwanis. The Kiwanians sold the land in 1993 for $125,000.
  • Can the Olympian Newspaper claim ignorance?
    manaco@whidbey.net