Friends of the Carpenter was incorporated in Vancouver, WA on October 26, 1998 and received 501-c-3, IRS non-profit status in March of 1999. Rev. Duane L. Sich is the organization’s Executive Director and serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors. Friends of the Carpenter began as a vision of a practical outreach of simple welcome and personal interaction between volunteers from the church and the poor. First Presbyterian Church, where Rev. Sich served as Associate Pastor for 28 years, granted him a six-month sabbatical to do research and if the way be clear, establish this new ministry. The initial workspace began in the Sich’s home, using a spare bedroom as the FOC office and the 3 rd bay of the garage and Duane’s tools as the original woodwork shop. Since the beginning, regular contact has been made with the homeless and poor persons of our community through the woodworking events scheduled at Share House Men’s Emergency Shelter, events held at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, and at the Friendship Center. Later, First United Methodist Church allowed FOC to use two unused basement classrooms for office space. Within the first few years, Salvation Army allowed FOC approximately 200 sq. ft. of warehouse storage space for wood material storage. Later, Joel Scott donated an approximate 1,000 sq. ft. warehouse storage space. Bluebird/Allied Storage then welcomed FOC into their storage space – an upgrade to nearly 2,000 sq. ft. Then Wilf Zilke, a Board Member,

 donated a 3,000 sq. ft. private warehouse storage space which gave FOC the ability to establish a workshop in the same space as the wood storage. What a God-Send! In 2004, Jack & Jane Artz made a major donation which allowed FOC to purchase the current Friendship Center consisting of 18,000 sq. ft., including a 5 room office complex, which was dedicated on May 2nd, 2004 and continues to be our home! Until this time, like those we serve, FOC was essentially homeless as well, which gave ample empathy and example of how having support from friends and a home can make ALL THE DIFFERENCE. Thanks Be To God!

Continuing in the year of 2007, Friends of the Carpenter has solidified Interagency Relationships with many organizations in Clark County ; a few of them being:

FISH – Friends In Service to Humanity- Since the Friendship Center Open House and Dedication on May 2, 2004 , Friends of the Carpenter has offered storage and staging space to FISH. They dispense food from St. Paul ’s Lutheran Church , but have storage capacity at the Friendship Center for nearly 100,000 pounds of food. Additionally, a walk-in-freezer has been installed in the building allowing for the storage of meats. FISH holds title to the cargo van that is shared and operated jointly by FISH and FOC.

SHARE HOUSE is a partner service provider to our program, allowing FOC to intentionally invite their clients into the FOC program. FOC prepares and serves all weekday breakfasts at Share, a monthly dinner (3 rd Monday evening) followed by a simple worship service; and a monthly (4 th Saturday) brunch followed by a woodwork activity and worship service.

GVIA – Greater Vancouver Interfaith Association; Many of the FOC supporting churches are members of GVIA, and Rev. Sich serves as a member of the Executive Board.

Greater Clark County Rotary – Rev. Sich is a member of this club, serving on the Community Service Committee. Under Duane’s leadership, the Rotary serves an annual summer Community Barbeque for the homeless, hosted at Vancouver Landing on the Columbia River . The Rotary Club has also used the Friendship Center for their outreach projects: 1) built a Play House as a raffle prize/fund raiser project for Habitat for Humanity and 2) twelve Planter Box/Benches for Hazel Dell Elementary School .

Clark County Sheriff’s Department – for the second year, the Sheriff’s Department annual Christmas “Santa’s Posse” project was staged at the Friendship Center . This year, over the course of a week, 200 volunteers gathered at the Friendship Center to sort, wrap and assemble 350 gift baskets for distribution to needy families in our community. Basket deliveries were done by around 50 sheriff’s squad cars, emergency vehicles, fire trucks and several volunteer vehicles all coming on property to pick up baskets.

Clark County Health Department – Under the direction of Tricia Pace of the Health Department, Friends of the Carpenter built and installed 15 raised bed, vegetable garden, planter boxes at the homes of low-income families in cooperation with Health Department case management.

WHO – Winter Hospitality Overflow : Having been highly involved in the creation of WHO through GVIA - providing the FOC trailer and housing the bedding and supplies the first year when the WHO program moved from church to church (which didn’t work very well), FOC continues to provide staging/storage space, with many FOC volunteers being vital volunteers from their own churches to carry out their week’s service to WHO. With our community, we are proud to be a community partner in providing this extra effort emergency shelter for those who are homeless, especially during the winter months.