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
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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
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2009 South Puget Sound Com Col employees list (1,001 employees)
Name search of Wash. State voters includes our addresses (and birthdays)
Name search of Wash State Court filings Traffic, Criminal, Civil, Domestic, Juvenile Offender, and Probate/Guardianship
Back to the beginning OKBR Home Page(http://lbloom.net/indexok.html)
Until Oct 1999, I believed that the Kiwanians and their friends were guilty of careless neglect or callous indifference. After hearing frightening audio depositions from some of the abused kids, I now believe that these Thur Co citizens were involved with an "active collaboration with evil." According to these depositioned kids, (which was not contradicted by Kiwanian attorney Don Miles), the OKBR staff was involved in long-term molestation and sadistic abuse of these helpless children. DSHS, Olympia, & the Kiwanians criminally ignored the warning signs and then justified their inaction by claiming ignorance. Many of these inattentive judges, lawyers, & politicians want your vote for re-election.
google is the best search engine, and you can make a detailed search of just this site.
There were many obvious and long-term warnings about the 1970-94 child abusing Olympia Kiwanis Boys Ranch.
Silence continues to permeate response by ranch's
board members
O.K. Boys Ranch: A longtime
board member says no one told the board about the abuse.
By Brad Shannon The
Olympian Nov. 16, 1995
Why did members of South
Sound's power elite let the abuse go on so long at
the Olympia Kiwanis Boys Ranch? The answer was mostly one of silence Wednesday. Several former ranch board
members declined to comment. Only one would respond,
saying that neither the home's staff nor boys who lived there told the board about the abuse.
The ranch a group home for
troubled teen-age boys, was opened in 1971 by the Olympia Kiwanis . It was closed in 1994.
Among former directors who
refused to comment were Thurston County District Court Judge Susan
Dubuisson, financial planner Rick Millar and Assistant Attorney
General Jeff Lane. Their reasons ranged from pending lawsuits
to ongoing criminal investigations of
ranch staff.
Calls to former board members
Wayne Bishop, Bob Denning , William Stikker and Laurie Padget were
not returned.
Two others, Olympia School
Board member Barbara Roder and travel agency owner Jane Skinner,
were reported out of town.
Another former board volunteer,
Darrell Hedges , said he quit in 1988 or 1989 and knew of no abuse.
Only Virgil ClarksonVirgil Clarkson, a member
of Kiwanis since the 1960s and
an early ranch board member, broke the seeming code of silence.
Clarkson fell short of accusing
former ranch director Tom Van Woerden of manipulating or deceiving the board.
But he said the only problems
brought to the board's attention were cited by outsiders-by the Department of Social and Health Services in a 1988-89 audit;
by police following an orgy in 1992; and by DSHS in late 1992, when it asked that Van Woerden be fired.
Each time, board members tried
to cooperate and institute the state's recommendations, Clarkson said. Because DSHS kept the ranch contract intact, he said the board assumed all was well.
"If these allegations
are correct, then we were remiss in our duties," Clarkson said.
Clarkson also said he would
tell any former ranch youth, if he met him on the street, that he was sorry. 'I'm sorry I did not have the sight to see at thattime. That's the best I could do for him," he said.
Clarkson added that the youths
he'd seen at the ranch during monthly board meetings seemed fine.
'Nobody ever came up to me
and said, 'I'm in trouble.'
They never said, 'I need some help; I'm being mistreated.'"
The attorney general has charged three top administrators of the defunct group home
with criminal mistreatment for allowing the physical
abuse and sexual subjugation of teens, beginning in the mid-1980s. The state and ranch insurers have paid out $9.5 million to settle legal claims stemming from that abuse.
Below is a list of the present (Sept. 1998) Thurston County elected officials. The elected officials with links, are either Kiwanis members or have a close association with them.
Here's a link to former and present Olympia Kiwanis Politicians.
Here's a link to the Official Thurston County Web Page.
Thurston County Board of Commissioners/Board of Health
Judy Wilson , District One
Diane Oberquell, District Two
Richard Q. 'Dick' Nichols, District Three
Kevin J. O'Sullivan, Assessor
Sam Reed , Auditor
Betty J. Gould , Clerk
Judy Arnold, Coroner
Bernardean Broadous, Prosecuting Attorney
Gary Edwards, Sheriff
Robin Hunt, Treasurer
District Court Judge Susan A. Dubuisson
District Court Judge Clifford L. 'Kip' Stilz
Superior Court Judge Daniel J. Berschauer
Superior Court Judge Paula Casey
Superior Court Judge Richard A. Strophy
Superior Court Judge Wm. Thomas McPhee
Superior Court Judge Richard Hicks
Superior Court Judge Christine A. Pomeroy
Superior Court Judge Gary R. Tabor
Below is an e-mail I received from a former Olympia, Washington resident.
From: ~~~~~~~~@aol.com
From: louis a bloom manaco@whidbey.net
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.
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