Sofia Rader of Rader Farms, a fourth-generation farmer, volleyball player, Trinity Western college student, and mission worker, shared a bit of history about Rader Farms and her life journey thus far continuing the legacy of the farm and how her ventures in mission work can find an intersect.
Her great-grandfather, John Rader, started the farm in the rich soils of Lynden in 1935. Though his life was cut short, his son, Lynn Rader, at the ripe age of 12, took up the farm and wholly embraced farming life involved with FFA and achieving the distinction of Star Farmer of America at the age of 22. He and his wife Sue helped grow the current berry farming community now responsible for 90% of all Whatcom County’s raspberry crops. After his passing at the age of 74, his son, Glenn Rader, still owns and manages the land still growing blueberries and raspberries as well as pumpkins, gourds, soybeans, corn and apple trees as well as many of youth field trip. Sofia, started her story working the land at age 11, getting up at 5am to pick, and often eat, berries she would later can into jam with her mother and grandmother. Over the years she has worked several positions on the farm from running the machine sorter to harvest driving to quality control. She says working the land has instilled, “a love of farming, a grown appreciation for hard work, and a love of seeing the fruit they grow at the local grocery stores from their farm.” She also noted her pride in her family’s heritage and faith being something she, “looks up to” as well as a holding a high respect for the Hispanic community which also works hard on the land with no complaint and great appreciation. While working quality control at the Hispanic fields, she finds herself often taking a break to play soccer and practice her Spanish with the children whose parents worked up to 12 hours a day there while they play. To better educate the public on what they do, her and her sister Ari started an Instagram account raderberrysisters which has been gaining a following informing the community and beyond what berry farming in Whatcom County is all about.
Sofia Rader, born and raised in Lynden and educated at Lynden Christian School, loves all manner of sports but particularly enjoys volleyball making a commitment to the sport by 10th grade. Former coach and Lynden Noon Kiwanian, Dennis Janzen, recommended Trinity Western College to Sofia so that she could have the opportunity to continue playing at a higher level. Now three years into a Media/Communications major and Spanish language minor and with two more years to finish, she continues looking for new challenges. She found what she was looking for by re-evaluating and becoming more intentional with her faith and committing to a mission trip to Mexico in 2025. It was her first experience away from her family and the farm for such a period of time but found friendly people and a sense of peace. At an organization which taught up to 35 special needs kids per day and offered housing to many without families of their own, she performed some landscaping and painted houses but mostly she made connections with the kids. Strong relationships were built that made an impact on them and on Sofia. She commented it was, “hard to leave them”, so goes back again this July and her love of mission work continues to grow. Now she considers how her love of her farm, family and newfound love of mission work could intersect. With all the needs to local families, Hispanic and Native American particularly, and all that the farm and her faith-based ideals have to offer maybe somehow it could make for an opportunity for her here. This her current consideration working in the background of her college education, volleyball and continued work on the farm. Lynden Noon Kiwanins will all be watching as her dreams and ambitions continue to grow as well as the farm.
Program Hope/Lynden Food Bank
Dan Turner of the Lynden Food Bank along with Sherrie Turner, Executive Director of Christian Hope Association which oversees Project Hope, came to speak about the Lynden Food Banks efforts. Available to community members once per week at 205 South BC Avenue in Lynden open Mondays and Fridays from 9:30-Noon and Tuesdays 3:00-6:00pm, this community resource serves anywhere from 30 to 110 families per shift which adds up to 800 families or, more specifically, 2800 individuals per month with 21000 pounds of food. Facilitated by 50 volunteers, they are one of the few food bank locations offering a drive-up service as a silver lining of the Covid shutdown. Dan Turner started his volunteerism with the Lynden Food Bank back in 2000 and shared his experience relationship building with the community’s recipients learning their stories and struggles which enables him to offer more meaningful help. Primarily, the Lynden Food Bank provides food assistance but also, through partnerships with the Salvation Army and other nonprofits, can help people source assistance with utilities, fuel, rent, pet needs, laundry services and other needs. Their volunteer base has also diversified with second language skills helping to provide better service to other cultural demographics within the community. Dan noted that several volunteers were once recipients themselves who became interested in giving back to ensure the resources is carried on to future generations. Sherrie Turner herself remembered a time where she benefitted from the resources of Project Hope in the way of some utility assistance while she was a single parent working three jobs. ‘You have a community here to help you, just pay it forward‘ was what she was told at that time.
Dan was asked if the community could expect any improvements to the food bank facility. He responded that he was looking into making efficiency improvements such as better shelving and the like but was interested in retaining its voluntaristic model. He is also considering other food bank models that operate more like a farmer’s market but noted that space was a challenge at the current location for that kind of layout. He was asked about where food donations were sourced and how much was received from federal donations. He noted that donations and/or discounts are generously collected from several local vendors including Safeway, Food Pavilion, Grocery Outlet, Edaleen Dairy and even Lynden’s Christ the King’s community garden among others in addition to the bounty received from private community member donations.
You can help with this too! This Saturday, May 9th is Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive. Donations and volunteers are needed to help collect, unpack and sort food donations gathered by our letter carriers at the Lynden Food Bank from 9:30-3:00.
Please consider sharing some of your time and food donation to support this valuable service!!
Lynden Noon Kiwanis is proud to support both Lynden Food Bank/Project Hope with $1500 and New Way Ministries Capital Campaign with $5000. We hope these endeavors successfully continue to support our Lynden and neighboring communities.
National Christian Forensics & Communications Association
Molly and her mom Greta Morton came to share a presentation on their involvement with the National Christian Forensics & Communications Association. This organization’s mission is to ‘to challenge and equip ambassadors for Christ to communicate truth with integrity and grace’ using their core values of:
Godly Wisdom
Redeeming Truth
Gracious Communication
Enduring Excellence
Constructive Community
Using taught speech and debate skills using developed curriculum, youth participants grow their confidence and knowledge in their interactions within the world from employment settings, civic duties to personal exchanges. These skills are honed in local tournaments which further develop their ability to communicate one-on-one, to small and within groups, to within large auditoriums. the topics that they practice their speeches and debates come from timely, real-world issues such as the ethics and reasons for space exploration to the pros and cons of reforming US Congress.
Kiwanis Pacific Northwest District, Mount Baker Views Division, Lt. Governor, David Towne paid Lynden Noon Kiwanis a visit and shared a bit of a state-of-the-district report. The Pacific Northwest District is geographically the largest district within the organization encompassing Oregon, Washington, Alaska, the Idaho Panhandle, the Siskiyou County of California, the Province of British Columbia, and Yukon Territory of Canada. Our growing division currently has 12 active clubs ranging all over the Pacific Northwest and may soon have two editions representing Blaine and a second club option for Bellingham. Mount Baker View division’s membership has enlarged by 250 new members this last year and will soon be reaffirming its commitments with its upcoming board member elections in mid-May. Our upcoming new Lt. Governor will be Diane Fox, currently Secretary of the Kiwanis Club of Mount Vernon. She has held several positions within the organization including club Treasurer, scholarship committee member, chairperson and co-advisor to the Mount Vernon High School Key Club and club President. Lt. Governor David Towne encouraged current volunteers and interested community members to take advantage of the upcoming Club Leadership Education Trainings available virtually on July 18th 9am-4pm and in-person at District Convention on September 10th 9am-4pm. Speaking of District Convention, this year’s event is very local, being held at the Silver Reef Casino! Consider being a member of Kiwanis if you have interest in helping grow healthy and confident youth and families!
508 Coffee and Youth Lounge Presentation
Andrew and Becky Jewel, 25-year residents of the Lynden community and inspired by their children and their faith, recognized a need for a safe place for teens and preteens to hangout. In response, they developed a faith based 501C3 organization in April 2020 which had been a vision they held since their college years. Five years later in May of 2025, the 508 Coffee and Youth Loungewas opened with a ping-pong, foosball, and pool tables and a wall of board games. Pair with Hammerhead coffee, Lotus drinks and teen-friendly snacks, a fun place has emerged for young people to socialize which will soon be celebrating its one-year anniversary. It has become a place to throw a birthday party, to hold youth group, to start a bible study, to hear local live music, or to gather for graduation after-parties. Open Mondays through Thursdays from 2:30-11pm, Fridays 2:30-midnight and Saturdays 11:00-midnight, their mission is ‘to empower the next generation spiritually, emotionally, and academically while encouraging fun, connection and personal growth rooted in faith. We are deeply grateful for the ongoing generosity of our donors and unwavering support of our community.‘ Primarily run by nine current volunteers and private donations, the lounge has drawn from 30 to 150 youth per day. Andrew and Becky made the decision early in the process not to offer a video gaming element to this space but to instead encourage more tactile and interactive experiences for youth to try. As extra encouragement to visit the lounge, students receive a 20% discount on all cafe menu items. Despite the focus on youth, the lounge and cafe are open to all ages, and all proceeds help to support the overhead and upkeep of the lounge. Currently, they are fundraising the remaining $5000 needed to replace their $15000 Turbofan oven which helps expedite the heating process when cooking for hungry teenagers. Andrew and Becky would love for the community to spread the word about the 508 Coffee and Youth Lounge and to consider making a monetary donation toward their efforts in maintaining this space for community youth.
Lynden Police Chief, Jeremy Bos
At the beginning of this year, Jeremy Bos was promoted as the Chief of Police for the City of Lynden. Born and raised in Lynden and playing basketball for Lynden Christian High School, Jeremy Bos knew he wanted to be a police officer since he was a high school sophomore. He was familiar with the lifestyle as his father was a reserve police officer. Chief Bos’s career began after a 2-year criminal justice college program led him to a position for the Everson Police Department. A patrol officer position came available in Lynden in 1990 in which he applied and was accepted thus started his career here in Lynden. He worked his way up as a sergeant, then as a lieutenant and even took a few interim positions as the Lynden Chief of Police before it became official at the beginning of this year.
It is a challenging time to be the Chief of Police in Lynden. Financial challenges with the City of Lynden puts pressure on the Chief to meet the appropriate staff levels and infrastructure needs to keep Lynden safe. Chief Bos indicated they are currently down five police officers and are putting off needed vehicle replacements running their resources down and stretching 24/7 public safety to the responsibility of two officers per shift who often work in overtime. There is a bit of a silver lining in the way of some State appropriated funds earmarked specifically for the hiring of new employees. Though, these funds require the acquisition of entry level staff only and does not address the need and benefit of retaining more seasoned staff and risking the loss of valuable institutional knowledge. There is some encouragement on that front, however, as many Lynden Police Department staff indicate a love of working for the City of Lynden specifically as they feel welcomed and supported here.
When asked what the Lynden Noon Kiwanis could do to help support the Lynden Police Department, he encouraged them to be good advocates of the police department and recommended organizations like C.O.P.S. Chief Bos also noted that one of their staff’s biggest challenges was keeping up with public records requests, he clarified that he strongly believes in departmental transparency with the public, but unfounded and often malicious records requests can bog down the department. When asked what could be done about that, he encouraged people to contact their congress people to make needed changes to how records requests are made.
Chief Bos was receptive to partner with outreach opportunities such as having an officer available to join an organized bike rodeo and/or participate in a future Noon Kiwanis STEAM Expo with a police car tour for examples. All-in-all the Chief Bos’s presentation, be it sobering, was extremely informative, encouraging and hopeful for the future.
Lynden Christian High School FFA Student: Maddie Delange
FFA LC Student Maddie Delange practiced her competition speech on the topic of foreign ownership of US farmlands at the Lynden Noon Kiwanis meeting. Her speech was an impassioned take on the national security and US food and land use protection risks taken when properties are sold to foreign entity, highest bidders that might not have the property’s nor the local population’s concerns at heart. Her argument proposed federal and state level policy changes that prioritize what is in the best interest of the land and the local area affected by it highlighting current federal policies such as the Agriculture Foreign Investment Disclosure Act. Maddie encourages landowners and communities to take an active role, communicate with their congress persons and support the necessary oversight needed to protect US lands from foreign investors whose use of our lands could be destructive to it and/or neighboring communities.
To help hone her skills, Maddie took questions from the Lynden Noon Kiwanis group to help sharpen her knowledge and delivery on the topic. She remained calm and responsive with her learned understanding of the issue. We wish her well with her FFA debate competition and remain proud of our future generations.
Lynden Christian High School FFA Debate Team
The Lynden Christian Debate Team practiced their skills on the Noon Kiwanis Members at our March 11th meeting providing us a mock townhall style presentation on the question of Are Our Small Family Farms Still Relevant? The team provided a solid understanding of both sides of the argument and the multifaceted challenges within the industry including perspectives from a local government perspective, the USDA, as well as new and multigenerational family farmers. The Noon Kiwanis group was impressed by their understand of the issues complexity and added other questions and considerations for them to consider as they prepare to compete at state tournaments and maybe off to national? We wish them the best and are encouraged with the bright future they represent.
Lynden High School FFA/Ag. Department
John Grubbs Lynden High School CTE coordinator gave a report on Lynden High School’s Agriculture/Innovation Department. He talked about the types of CTE training and career advising their clubs and classes offer Lynden students. The teachers and advisors work to ‘think outside the box for pairing kids interested in the Ag. and tech. industries.‘ He gave detailed information about class/club’s oversight and how assignments are developed giving students opportunities to directly apply what they learn in an industry relevant way. He gave an example of how one student took his education to Spokane, WA, trained and received his private pilot license and currently flies drones for the agriculture industry. Likeminded participating youth can participate in state and national competitions and provide useful student training work in areas of GIS, drone and robotics application, and Arduino programming using Microsoft provided kits to streamline agricultural needs such as soil crop data collection. From there, the students learn how to analyze their collected data, compare results and provide competently researched recommendations in professionally written proposals in preparation for their employment. A well delivered presentation of a well-rounded FFA/ Ag. Department opportunity for our youth!
Whatcom Community Foundation Presentation
At our February 11th Lynden Noon Kiwanis meeting, we heard from Shannon Elmendorf, Director of Community Resilience & Opportunity at Whatcom Community Foundation. She presented an overview of the wonderful work the Foundation does, ‘amplifying Whatcom philanthropy‘ by way of:
Nonprofit Support
Assisting Interested Donors Identify Local Needs
Initiatives Building for the Needs in Whatcom County
Shannon also gave a historical overview and a current status report on the funding sources available particularly to Whatcom flood communities. She shared their strong partnership with Whatcom Long Term Recovery, including the work they have been doing together, along with others, to recover families to wholeness at home again as well as funding towards rebuilding resiliency into our communities for the longer term.
Skookum Kids Presentation
During our January 14th, 2026 Lynden Noon Kiwanis meeting, we heard from Ray Deck III about Skookum Kids, a nonprofit organization committed to smoothing out the transition process of kids moving through the foster care program while their biological families work to become the better parents they strive to be. Serving now eight counties in the Pacific northwest region of Washington, Skookum has been easing this transition into foster care for the last 10 years and boast an 87% reunification rate of those children back with their birth families. Providing a ‘landing’ temporary shelter while their case workers find them the best foster home they can within 72 hours, Skookum also provides support and counseling to the children themselves, their foster families and their biological families to build stronger and more success family units. Successfully reunited families are rewarded with a family camp experience called Family Night Out held the last weekend of summer break. Lynden Noon Kiwanis supports the endeavors of Skookum Kids and we hope you might consider do so also!
Tour of Technic Training Center
During our November 19th, 2025, Noon Kiwanis Meeting, we had opportunity to tour the
Technic Training Center. What they have to offer in the way of woodworking CTE training and experience for our local youth is impressive. Program Director, John Slagle, shared with our Noon Kiwanis members a bit about:
How the training center was started;
How it is supported by local businesses like Lynden Door and our community in general;
What they can offer middle, high school and even homeschool students in the way of training at no cost to them;
How they have given back in the way of service projects to local nonprofits such as Whatcom Pregnancy Center in the way of tall storage shelving.
It is truly a full circle of learning service the center provides for the benefit of our youth and community. We encourage everyone to learn more about what they do and consider donating volunteer time and talent and/or consider a donation to their endeavors. Currently, youth participants our creating wonderful tree and star holiday decorations which can be acquired with a donation to the Technic Center to support their work.
Student, Colton Peterson, sharing his experience working with Technic Training Center
Noon Kiwanis Blog
Sofia Rader of Rader Farms
Sofia Rader of Rader Farms, a fourth-generation farmer, volleyball player, Trinity Western college student, and mission worker, shared a bit of history about Rader Farms and her life journey thus far continuing the legacy of the farm and how her ventures in mission work can find an intersect.
Her great-grandfather, John Rader, started the farm in the rich soils of Lynden in 1935. Though his life was cut short, his son, Lynn Rader, at the ripe age of 12, took up the farm and wholly embraced farming life involved with FFA and achieving the distinction of Star Farmer of America at the age of 22. He and his wife Sue helped grow the current berry farming community now responsible for 90% of all Whatcom County’s raspberry crops. After his passing at the age of 74, his son, Glenn Rader, still owns and manages the land still growing blueberries and raspberries as well as pumpkins, gourds, soybeans, corn and apple trees as well as many of youth field trip. Sofia, started her story working the land at age 11, getting up at 5am to pick, and often eat, berries she would later can into jam with her mother and grandmother. Over the years she has worked several positions on the farm from running the machine sorter to harvest driving to quality control. She says working the land has instilled, “a love of farming, a grown appreciation for hard work, and a love of seeing the fruit they grow at the local grocery stores from their farm.” She also noted her pride in her family’s heritage and faith being something she, “looks up to” as well as a holding a high respect for the Hispanic community which also works hard on the land with no complaint and great appreciation. While working quality control at the Hispanic fields, she finds herself often taking a break to play soccer and practice her Spanish with the children whose parents worked up to 12 hours a day there while they play. To better educate the public on what they do, her and her sister Ari started an Instagram account raderberrysisters which has been gaining a following informing the community and beyond what berry farming in Whatcom County is all about.
Sofia Rader, born and raised in Lynden and educated at Lynden Christian School, loves all manner of sports but particularly enjoys volleyball making a commitment to the sport by 10th grade. Former coach and Lynden Noon Kiwanian, Dennis Janzen, recommended Trinity Western College to Sofia so that she could have the opportunity to continue playing at a higher level. Now three years into a Media/Communications major and Spanish language minor and with two more years to finish, she continues looking for new challenges. She found what she was looking for by re-evaluating and becoming more intentional with her faith and committing to a mission trip to Mexico in 2025. It was her first experience away from her family and the farm for such a period of time but found friendly people and a sense of peace. At an organization which taught up to 35 special needs kids per day and offered housing to many without families of their own, she performed some landscaping and painted houses but mostly she made connections with the kids. Strong relationships were built that made an impact on them and on Sofia. She commented it was, “hard to leave them”, so goes back again this July and her love of mission work continues to grow. Now she considers how her love of her farm, family and newfound love of mission work could intersect. With all the needs to local families, Hispanic and Native American particularly, and all that the farm and her faith-based ideals have to offer maybe somehow it could make for an opportunity for her here. This her current consideration working in the background of her college education, volleyball and continued work on the farm. Lynden Noon Kiwanins will all be watching as her dreams and ambitions continue to grow as well as the farm.
Program Hope/Lynden Food Bank
Dan Turner of the Lynden Food Bank along with Sherrie Turner, Executive Director of Christian Hope Association which oversees Project Hope, came to speak about the Lynden Food Banks efforts. Available to community members once per week at 205 South BC Avenue in Lynden open Mondays and Fridays from 9:30-Noon and Tuesdays 3:00-6:00pm, this community resource serves anywhere from 30 to 110 families per shift which adds up to 800 families or, more specifically, 2800 individuals per month with 21000 pounds of food. Facilitated by 50 volunteers, they are one of the few food bank locations offering a drive-up service as a silver lining of the Covid shutdown. Dan Turner started his volunteerism with the Lynden Food Bank back in 2000 and shared his experience relationship building with the community’s recipients learning their stories and struggles which enables him to offer more meaningful help. Primarily, the Lynden Food Bank provides food assistance but also, through partnerships with the Salvation Army and other nonprofits, can help people source assistance with utilities, fuel, rent, pet needs, laundry services and other needs. Their volunteer base has also diversified with second language skills helping to provide better service to other cultural demographics within the community. Dan noted that several volunteers were once recipients themselves who became interested in giving back to ensure the resources is carried on to future generations. Sherrie Turner herself remembered a time where she benefitted from the resources of Project Hope in the way of some utility assistance while she was a single parent working three jobs. ‘You have a community here to help you, just pay it forward‘ was what she was told at that time.
Dan was asked if the community could expect any improvements to the food bank facility. He responded that he was looking into making efficiency improvements such as better shelving and the like but was interested in retaining its voluntaristic model. He is also considering other food bank models that operate more like a farmer’s market but noted that space was a challenge at the current location for that kind of layout. He was asked about where food donations were sourced and how much was received from federal donations. He noted that donations and/or discounts are generously collected from several local vendors including Safeway, Food Pavilion, Grocery Outlet, Edaleen Dairy and even Lynden’s Christ the King’s community garden among others in addition to the bounty received from private community member donations.
You can help with this too! This Saturday, May 9th is Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive. Donations and volunteers are needed to help collect, unpack and sort food donations gathered by our letter carriers at the Lynden Food Bank from 9:30-3:00.
Please consider sharing some of your time and food donation to support this valuable service!!
Lynden Noon Kiwanis is proud to support both Lynden Food Bank/Project Hope with $1500 and New Way Ministries Capital Campaign with $5000. We hope these endeavors successfully continue to support our Lynden and neighboring communities.
National Christian Forensics & Communications Association
Molly and her mom Greta Morton came to share a presentation on their involvement with the National Christian Forensics & Communications Association. This organization’s mission is to ‘to challenge and equip ambassadors for Christ to communicate truth with integrity and grace’ using their core values of:
Using taught speech and debate skills using developed curriculum, youth participants grow their confidence and knowledge in their interactions within the world from employment settings, civic duties to personal exchanges. These skills are honed in local tournaments which further develop their ability to communicate one-on-one, to small and within groups, to within large auditoriums. the topics that they practice their speeches and debates come from timely, real-world issues such as the ethics and reasons for space exploration to the pros and cons of reforming US Congress.
Molly herself is practicing for a tournament coming up May 7th through May 9th at Grace Baptist Church. We wish her well in her endeavors and for the continue work of the NCFCA.
Lt. Governor David Towne Visit
Kiwanis Pacific Northwest District, Mount Baker Views Division, Lt. Governor, David Towne paid Lynden Noon Kiwanis a visit and shared a bit of a state-of-the-district report. The Pacific Northwest District is geographically the largest district within the organization encompassing Oregon, Washington, Alaska, the Idaho Panhandle, the Siskiyou County of California, the Province of British Columbia, and Yukon Territory of Canada. Our growing division currently has 12 active clubs ranging all over the Pacific Northwest and may soon have two editions representing Blaine and a second club option for Bellingham. Mount Baker View division’s membership has enlarged by 250 new members this last year and will soon be reaffirming its commitments with its upcoming board member elections in mid-May. Our upcoming new Lt. Governor will be Diane Fox, currently Secretary of the Kiwanis Club of Mount Vernon. She has held several positions within the organization including club Treasurer, scholarship committee member, chairperson and co-advisor to the Mount Vernon High School Key Club and club President. Lt. Governor David Towne encouraged current volunteers and interested community members to take advantage of the upcoming Club Leadership Education Trainings available virtually on July 18th 9am-4pm and in-person at District Convention on September 10th 9am-4pm. Speaking of District Convention, this year’s event is very local, being held at the Silver Reef Casino! Consider being a member of Kiwanis if you have interest in helping grow healthy and confident youth and families!
508 Coffee and Youth Lounge Presentation
Andrew and Becky Jewel, 25-year residents of the Lynden community and inspired by their children and their faith, recognized a need for a safe place for teens and preteens to hangout. In response, they developed a faith based 501C3 organization in April 2020 which had been a vision they held since their college years. Five years later in May of 2025, the 508 Coffee and Youth Lounge was opened with a ping-pong, foosball, and pool tables and a wall of board games. Pair with Hammerhead coffee, Lotus drinks and teen-friendly snacks, a fun place has emerged for young people to socialize which will soon be celebrating its one-year anniversary. It has become a place to throw a birthday party, to hold youth group, to start a bible study, to hear local live music, or to gather for graduation after-parties. Open Mondays through Thursdays from 2:30-11pm, Fridays 2:30-midnight and Saturdays 11:00-midnight, their mission is ‘to empower the next generation spiritually, emotionally, and academically while encouraging fun, connection and personal growth rooted in faith. We are deeply grateful for the ongoing generosity of our donors and unwavering support of our community.‘ Primarily run by nine current volunteers and private donations, the lounge has drawn from 30 to 150 youth per day. Andrew and Becky made the decision early in the process not to offer a video gaming element to this space but to instead encourage more tactile and interactive experiences for youth to try. As extra encouragement to visit the lounge, students receive a 20% discount on all cafe menu items. Despite the focus on youth, the lounge and cafe are open to all ages, and all proceeds help to support the overhead and upkeep of the lounge. Currently, they are fundraising the remaining $5000 needed to replace their $15000 Turbofan oven which helps expedite the heating process when cooking for hungry teenagers. Andrew and Becky would love for the community to spread the word about the 508 Coffee and Youth Lounge and to consider making a monetary donation toward their efforts in maintaining this space for community youth.
Lynden Police Chief, Jeremy Bos
At the beginning of this year, Jeremy Bos was promoted as the Chief of Police for the City of Lynden. Born and raised in Lynden and playing basketball for Lynden Christian High School, Jeremy Bos knew he wanted to be a police officer since he was a high school sophomore. He was familiar with the lifestyle as his father was a reserve police officer. Chief Bos’s career began after a 2-year criminal justice college program led him to a position for the Everson Police Department. A patrol officer position came available in Lynden in 1990 in which he applied and was accepted thus started his career here in Lynden. He worked his way up as a sergeant, then as a lieutenant and even took a few interim positions as the Lynden Chief of Police before it became official at the beginning of this year.
It is a challenging time to be the Chief of Police in Lynden. Financial challenges with the City of Lynden puts pressure on the Chief to meet the appropriate staff levels and infrastructure needs to keep Lynden safe. Chief Bos indicated they are currently down five police officers and are putting off needed vehicle replacements running their resources down and stretching 24/7 public safety to the responsibility of two officers per shift who often work in overtime. There is a bit of a silver lining in the way of some State appropriated funds earmarked specifically for the hiring of new employees. Though, these funds require the acquisition of entry level staff only and does not address the need and benefit of retaining more seasoned staff and risking the loss of valuable institutional knowledge. There is some encouragement on that front, however, as many Lynden Police Department staff indicate a love of working for the City of Lynden specifically as they feel welcomed and supported here.
When asked what the Lynden Noon Kiwanis could do to help support the Lynden Police Department, he encouraged them to be good advocates of the police department and recommended organizations like C.O.P.S. Chief Bos also noted that one of their staff’s biggest challenges was keeping up with public records requests, he clarified that he strongly believes in departmental transparency with the public, but unfounded and often malicious records requests can bog down the department. When asked what could be done about that, he encouraged people to contact their congress people to make needed changes to how records requests are made.
Chief Bos was receptive to partner with outreach opportunities such as having an officer available to join an organized bike rodeo and/or participate in a future Noon Kiwanis STEAM Expo with a police car tour for examples. All-in-all the Chief Bos’s presentation, be it sobering, was extremely informative, encouraging and hopeful for the future.
Lynden Christian High School FFA Student: Maddie Delange
FFA LC Student Maddie Delange practiced her competition speech on the topic of foreign ownership of US farmlands at the Lynden Noon Kiwanis meeting. Her speech was an impassioned take on the national security and US food and land use protection risks taken when properties are sold to foreign entity, highest bidders that might not have the property’s nor the local population’s concerns at heart. Her argument proposed federal and state level policy changes that prioritize what is in the best interest of the land and the local area affected by it highlighting current federal policies such as the Agriculture Foreign Investment Disclosure Act. Maddie encourages landowners and communities to take an active role, communicate with their congress persons and support the necessary oversight needed to protect US lands from foreign investors whose use of our lands could be destructive to it and/or neighboring communities.
To help hone her skills, Maddie took questions from the Lynden Noon Kiwanis group to help sharpen her knowledge and delivery on the topic. She remained calm and responsive with her learned understanding of the issue. We wish her well with her FFA debate competition and remain proud of our future generations.
Lynden Christian High School FFA Debate Team
The Lynden Christian Debate Team practiced their skills on the Noon Kiwanis Members at our March 11th meeting providing us a mock townhall style presentation on the question of Are Our Small Family Farms Still Relevant? The team provided a solid understanding of both sides of the argument and the multifaceted challenges within the industry including perspectives from a local government perspective, the USDA, as well as new and multigenerational family farmers. The Noon Kiwanis group was impressed by their understand of the issues complexity and added other questions and considerations for them to consider as they prepare to compete at state tournaments and maybe off to national? We wish them the best and are encouraged with the bright future they represent.
Lynden High School FFA/Ag. Department
John Grubbs Lynden High School CTE coordinator gave a report on Lynden High School’s Agriculture/Innovation Department. He talked about the types of CTE training and career advising their clubs and classes offer Lynden students. The teachers and advisors work to ‘think outside the box for pairing kids interested in the Ag. and tech. industries.‘ He gave detailed information about class/club’s oversight and how assignments are developed giving students opportunities to directly apply what they learn in an industry relevant way. He gave an example of how one student took his education to Spokane, WA, trained and received his private pilot license and currently flies drones for the agriculture industry. Likeminded participating youth can participate in state and national competitions and provide useful student training work in areas of GIS, drone and robotics application, and Arduino programming using Microsoft provided kits to streamline agricultural needs such as soil crop data collection. From there, the students learn how to analyze their collected data, compare results and provide competently researched recommendations in professionally written proposals in preparation for their employment. A well delivered presentation of a well-rounded FFA/ Ag. Department opportunity for our youth!
Whatcom Community Foundation Presentation
At our February 11th Lynden Noon Kiwanis meeting, we heard from Shannon Elmendorf, Director of Community Resilience & Opportunity at Whatcom Community Foundation. She presented an overview of the wonderful work the Foundation does, ‘amplifying Whatcom philanthropy‘ by way of:
Shannon also gave a historical overview and a current status report on the funding sources available particularly to Whatcom flood communities. She shared their strong partnership with Whatcom Long Term Recovery, including the work they have been doing together, along with others, to recover families to wholeness at home again as well as funding towards rebuilding resiliency into our communities for the longer term.
Skookum Kids Presentation
During our January 14th, 2026 Lynden Noon Kiwanis meeting, we heard from Ray Deck III about Skookum Kids, a nonprofit organization committed to smoothing out the transition process of kids moving through the foster care program while their biological families work to become the better parents they strive to be. Serving now eight counties in the Pacific northwest region of Washington, Skookum has been easing this transition into foster care for the last 10 years and boast an 87% reunification rate of those children back with their birth families. Providing a ‘landing’ temporary shelter while their case workers find them the best foster home they can within 72 hours, Skookum also provides support and counseling to the children themselves, their foster families and their biological families to build stronger and more success family units. Successfully reunited families are rewarded with a family camp experience called Family Night Out held the last weekend of summer break. Lynden Noon Kiwanis supports the endeavors of Skookum Kids and we hope you might consider do so also!
Tour of Technic Training Center
During our November 19th, 2025, Noon Kiwanis Meeting, we had opportunity to tour the
Technic Training Center. What they have to offer in the way of woodworking CTE training and experience for our local youth is impressive. Program Director, John Slagle, shared with our Noon Kiwanis members a bit about:
It is truly a full circle of learning service the center provides for the benefit of our youth and community. We encourage everyone to learn more about what they do and consider donating volunteer time and talent and/or consider a donation to their endeavors. Currently, youth participants our creating wonderful tree and star holiday decorations which can be acquired with a donation to the Technic Center to support their work.
Student, Colton Peterson, sharing his experience working with Technic Training Center