Stormans, Inc. History

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?"

Back to the 2011 or 2009 or 2007 or 2005 or 2003 or 2001 or 1999 or 1997 or 1995 or lbloom.net State of Washington Employees Salaries List

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)
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)

Highlighted links may be clicked on to access historical photos.
Some of these photos may have longer than normal load times.

Our History

Stormans Inc. history shows very dramatically the ability of a strong, local independent to serve the changing needs of the consumer, and that in fact is the driving belief behind the Stormans company today. We believe in:

A policy of honest, fair dealings with customers and employees.
Highest quality merchandise available at the lowest possible price.
Insistence on treating customers with the utmost courtesy and respect, realizing they are the reason for our company's existence.
Hire and develop enthusiastic, courteous employees to serve our customers.
Maintain clean, pleasant stores in which to shop.
The attitude that the profits from business be returned to the local community in as many was as possible.

Our long history of progressive supermarketing and innovation has brought to Thurston County some of the finest supermarkets you will ever find. Stormans was the first company in the region to accept debit and credit cards. We were the first in the region to offer scanning in 1977 and only the 200th store nationwide.

At our Food Pavilion store, we installed, as a test, a self scanning system where the customer could scan their own groceries. This was the only store West of Milwaukee Wisconsin and the 11th store in the nation to test this technology.

A Brief Chronology

In 1922 Ralph Stormans began in the grocery industry early in his teen years at Piggly Wiggly Stores. Over the next Twelve years Ralph rose in management and was transferred to several different locations. In 1934 he was transferred to Olympia to manage a new Totem store. In 1944 he purchased the store and converted it to Ralph's Food Center. The store was located on the corner of Columbia & Legion Way in Downtown Olympia.
In 1952 the current Bayview Thriftway site was acquired from Brenner Oyster Company.
In 1956 the current Ralph's Thriftway on Fourth Ave. was built to replace the original Ralph's Thriftway store at Columbia & Legion.
In 1959 Ralph's Thriftway in Lacey was opened.
In 1972 Lacey Mark-It Foods was built to replace the Ralph's Thriftway store in Lacey.
In 1979 Stormans Discount Foods was opened in the Yard Birds shopping center. This store was closed in 1984 with the major remodel and expansion of Bayview Market Place.
Lacey Mark-It Foods was converted to Lacey Market Place around 1984.
Crown Seafood located on 4th Ave in Olympia was purchased in March of 1987.
Hawks Prairie Market Place was built and opened in October of 1987.
In 1988 Food Pavilion was built on the corner of Lilly and Pacific in Olympia to replace the Lacey Market Place store.
In October of 1993 the Crown Seafood store was moved into the Food Pavilion store replacing it's seafood department.
Hawks Prairie Market Place was converted to Hawks Prairie Thriftway and Bayview Market Place was converted to Bayview Thriftway in the latter part of 1992.
In May of 1994 Hawks Prairie Thriftway and Food Pavilion were sold.
Around the beginning of 1995 the company that purchased Hawks Prairie Thriftway and Food Pavilion closed the Hawks Prairie store. As part of a joint agreement between Stormans Inc. and Associated Grocers Inc., Stormans reopened the Hawks Prairie site with a bran new store format they created from ground up called Price Right Foods. Stormans then sold the store to another Associated Grocers member in April of 1996.
The Stormans purchased Tumwater Rentals in January of 1996 and created a new company called Tumwater Rentals LLC.

Local involvement, local ownership

Stormans, Inc. is a locally owned company and its dedication to the community is clear. For over fifty years the Stormans family has been involved in serving the Olympia Community as leaders of numerous city and civic organizations including: The Olympia Planning Commission, Intercity Transit Commission, Civil Service Commission, Washington Center for the Performing Arts, Olympia Downtown Association, Olympia Chamber of Commerce, Olympia YMCA, Olympia Kiwanis, State Capital Historical Association, United Good Neighbors, Olympia Rotary, Thurston County Food Bank Board, Providence St. Peters Hospital Community Board, Leadership Thurston County and South Puget Sound Community College. In addition to service Stormans has financially supported hundreds of local organizations and groups.

Stormans, Inc. has been a environmental leader in the community as well. In 1992 , Stormans, Inc. received a proclamation from the Mayor for its recycling efforts and a recycling award from the Washington State Department of Ecology for the best commercial recycling pilot program.

In 1995 we received a Solid Waste Reduction & Recycling award again from the Washington State Department of Ecology and was honored with another proclamation from the mayor for being a leader in the community and the environment.

Stormans, Inc. is also well known for initiating a plastics recycling program for the community. The program started in 1991 and is still in full swing today. Stormans stores provide plastic collection for the community at staffed locations in their parking lots the last Saturday of every month. To date we have collected almost 300,000 pounds of plastic. Our stores have also been collecting newspaper and Reynolds Recycling has been operating in the Ralph's Thriftway parking lot for several years.

The Stormans have also been very involved in the grocery industry itself by serving as Chairman of Thriftway stores, Chairman of Market Place stores, Chairman of Associated Grocers Inc. and Chairman of the Washington State Food Dealers Association. Members of the Stormans family have received many industry awards including Washington State Grocer of the Year and the Spirit of America Award from the National Grocers Association.

| BAYVIEW || RALPH'S || CATERING || RENTALS || CONTACT US |

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 people were involved with an "active collaboration with evil". The OKBR staff was apparently actively involved in long-term molestation and sadistic abuse of these kids. The Kiwanians and their friends could/should have stopped the abuse.

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.

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?

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

manaco@whidbey.net