The day after Faaluaiana “Lua” Pritchard resigned as executive director of the Korean Women’s Association, she sent only two dozen e-mails to her interim successor, Jeannie Darneille.
“Good morning, Jeannie,” she said. “Here are just some very tiny little things that need reminding.”
There’s a key that has to be put back in its proper place. Don’t forget the access code to the building. These are some useful contacts. Here are a few forwarded messages.
Pritchard, 53, had planned to leave the KWA in May. She wants to spend more time with her grandchildren and work with Asian-Pacific Islander groups.
The KWA Board of Directors asked her to stay a bit longer, and she agreed.
By last Tuesday, she thought she was ready, and, really, she was. But it was tough to let go.
“I often wondered what it would feel like when I leave the baby behind,” Pritchard said. “Now my baby is ready to fly. It’s strong. I feel that’s the key.”
Still, there were tears all around at her farewell reception.
Pritchard worked for the association for 19 years and led it for 13 with a style as unique as KWA’s. There’s a strong maternal sense to it, a delight in feeding people and keeping them safe. There is steel tempered with respect. There is the idea that, if something needs to be done, it can be done, and with a happy heart.
“KWA started in 1972 with a call-out from Fort Lewis and McChord,” Pritchard said. “Our servicemen went abroad and married Korean women. But when they brought them here, the wives had culture shock and the language barrier, and they couldn’t find kimchi and rice to eat. There were other Korean military wives, fewer than 10, who got together and formed a little social club that met in their own houses.”
When the women got to talking, they discovered problems. People needed help with language and learning new ways. And some of the women were being abused.
“They started hiding them in their homes and churches,” Pritchard said. “They did this as volunteers. They started selling kimchi and rice to each other to pay for it.”
The women expanded their services, renting a house, then space in a community center, then taking over the programs of the Pierce County Asian Alliance. They began to take public funds and extend meal, language, in-home care and legal aid referral services to Asians and Pacific Islanders, then people of all ethnicities, in the 1980s.
In 1990, Pritchard arrived.
She had grown up smart, energetic and optimistic on American Samoa. The woman is no good at all at false modesty.
She believed in the power of education and embraced the culture of deep family ties and reverence for elders. She made her parents proud, and cared for them until they died.
She trained teachers at Leone High School in Samoa, fell in love with and married Dan Pritchard, served as an administrator in the schools, and got the islanders on a health kick.
“With my courageous craziness of dreams and follow-through, I worked with the state nutrition education training program,” Pritchard said. “I had the whole island walking and eating healthy and being fit.”
She was well into that when it came time to move to Lakewood with their five children to care for Dan’s parents. Over time, the Pritchards also welcomed 16 foster children into their family. All 21 kids, she said, are fine adults, engaged in the community.
In March 1990, Pritchard applied for a job at the KWA and got it on the spot. The agency had a minimal staff and ran on a budget of $300,000 a year.
“I had to learn everything. I had to be everything,” she said. “I just dove in.”
She, her colleagues and the board began building partnerships with the county, the state, cities, colleges, foundations and United Way. They expanded the base of volunteers. They added disaster training, health and nutrition education, senior day care for Alzheimer’s patients, domestic violence services, even recreation programs to meal sites and in-home care.
In 1996, as executive director, Pritchard sped up the growth. Over the next years, the KWA added leadership programs for young people, hospice services, assistance with naturalization and immigration, expanded health care and food banks, and help with health insurance coverage.
And she and the association built: Pacific Villa with 25 subsidized apartments for seniors in Tacoma; a 19-bed emergency shelter for people fleeing domestic violence; Orchard project, with five units of housing and a community garden and orchard in Roy; International Place, with 55 senior units in the Tacoma Housing Authority’s New Salishan; Senior City, 62 apartments to go on line in Federal Way; the Olympus Hotel, 49 rehabbed units in Tacoma.
Today the association’s 1,000 employees run 22 programs in 12 counties on an annual budget of $20 million.
“She can never be replaced,” said Judie Fortier, president of the Washington state chapter of the National Organization of Women. “Lua is a connector of people. You cannot really separate Lua and her board. These women accomplish more with that agency by far than any other social services organization in the community, especially for women. There is a celebration of people’s cultures, but also an understanding that we are all together in assisting the community in social services and the legislative arena.”
It’s a tough act to follow, even for the four months that Darneille expects to spend as interim director.
“I’m totally intimidated by what she has done and accomplished,” Darneille said. “The community has really relied upon KWA to provide this massive array of services that no one else is capable of providing, or has stepped up to do. It’s a heavy responsibility to carry this torch until the next director is hired.”
The good news, said Fortier, is that Pritchard hasn’t kissed service goodbye, and she isn’t going anywhere.
“Lua is our leader,” Fortier said. “She is probably the most powerful woman in this community. And she is still here.”
Kathleen Merryman: 253-597-8677
