I have known Jennifer Williamson-Forster for several years. I know her first as the proud soccer mom of her daughter Lauren, who is a scoring machine of a forward on my daughter’s soccer team. After a few weeks of standing on the sidelines, often in the rain, I learned that Jennifer is involved in the community in more ways than I ever knew.
As the executive director of the South Sound Reading Foundation, Williamson-Forster has spent the last 10 years increasing their reach and bringing the gift of literacy to thousands of students and families in Mason and Thurston Counties. She now leads a board of 18 members and, in typical Jen fashion, insists that all the credit goes to her board.
“We continued to thrive and grow through the recession when many non-profits struggled and floundered,” shares Williamson-Forster. “I attribute that to the dedication of the people on our board and those in the community who share our passion for literacy.”
Jennifer did not set out to share the wonder of books with her community. In fact, she herself struggled with reading and was reading at a first-grade level in the third grade. Fortunately, her second-grade teacher snuck her into her classroom every day risking her own job and tutored her. “I went from not being able to read in the third grade to not being able to get my nose out of a book in fifth grade,” shares Williamson-Forster. She went on to study art history at the University of Washington and was in graduate school teaching when she decided that she wasn’t making the impact she had hoped.
“I want my life to have meaning every single day and I just didn’t feel like I was in the right place,” shares Jennifer.
After a move to Olympia with her husband David, she discovered her passion for helping others working for Volunteer Chore Services through Catholic Community Services. The organization provided necessary aid to low-income residents and the elderly. It was during her early years in Olympia that Williams-Forster joined the Olympia Junior League. Through the OJL, Williamson-Forster was given leadership training and attended national conferences that built on her natural skills. Williamson-Forster served as president from 2004-2005.
In 2007, she was approached by fellow Junior League member, Christy Peters who encouraged her to apply for the open executive director position at the South Sound Reading Foundation. Her true passion for literacy and the sharing the gift that she had been given as a young child has fueled her for over a decade.
Today the South Sound Reading Foundation has a large warehouse with offices for Jennifer and four staff members. The program coordinator and development director along with two Americorps volunteers and one volunteer from the new Vista program make up the staff that partners with businesses all over Thurston and Mason counties. Together they serve more than 800 children, youth and families each week with free family education classes, story times and book talks. The bookmobile is a welcome site to the recipients of free books at each of the van’s weekly stops which include the Boys & Girls Club, Squaxin Island Child Development Center, Cedar Creek Correctional Center and Head Start Lacey.
Being the executive director of a major non-profit and an active member of the Olympia Junior League while raising two kids may seem like a full load to many, and is most certainly to me. However, if you are lucky enough to have known or worked with Jennifer, you know that she does so much more.
“If someone asks me to do something, I know that they need help,” explains Williamson-Forster. “They wouldn’t ask if they didn’t need me and so I say yes.” She says yes to planning the end-of-the-year high school soccer banquet. She says yes to multiple team-bonding events in her beautiful yard in East Olympia. And she said yes when the Nova School asked her to be the Nova School Board President. Although both her children have moved on from middle school, Lauren is a sophomore at Olympia High School and son Grant is a student at Seattle University, she has stayed on at Nova and chaired the Nova School Auction.
Williams-Forster has also served on the board of the Family Education Service & Support Board and is a past-president. She has a crazy green thumb and her garden is a work of art. Jennifer uses her gardening skills to create one-of-a-kind four-season baskets for various charity auctions.
“I have found that, for me, it is true that the more you give, the more you get,” shares Williamson-Forster. Jennifer Williamson-Forster is a gift to our community and if she gets even half of what she has given, it is a rich life indeed.
