Caroline Grew’s life feels deeply lived. She has spent a lifetime rooted in connecting people to nature, culture, and each other. Because long before she became the executive director of the United Way of the Columbia Gorge, before the wildfire fundraisers, the disaster relief efforts, and the hundreds of thousands of dollars raised for families displaced by the Rowena and Burdoin fires, she was a bilingual girl growing up on a coffee farm in Costa Rica. Even at a young age, surrounded by rainforests and volcanoes, she loved feeling connected to her community.
Today, from her home in White Salmon, where she lives with her husband, Tucker, who is also a nonprofit executive, Caroline embraces a life shaped by service and environmental stewardship. And she believes that meaningful change happens when people come together.
Her passion for nonprofit work began during her high school years. She started volunteer work with a humanitarian foundation in Tortuguero. Tortuguero is a remote village on the Caribbean coast accessible only by boat. There she spent her summers helping with environmental education programs, building butterfly gardens, and working alongside children in communities with limited resources.
“That was my first experience,” she said, “working with local communities that were very remote and impacted by different things.”
Later, she attended Cornell University, where she studied communications with a minor in Latin American studies. During college, she interned with PBS in Boston, where she helped develop documentary programming focused on environmental and social awareness. At the time, social media did not yet exist in the way it does now, and Caroline became fascinated by the power storytelling held to create change.
“These documentaries brought awareness to things people otherwise may never see,” she said. “I realized how powerful film could be in making an impact.”
Her career eventually led her into the corporate world as a West Coast Events Manager for the Sydney Frank Importing Company, a premium spirits company. She worked on events and promotions for big brands, often in partnership with major cultural and nonprofit events, including film festivals, the Grammys, and the Oscars. When she began collaborating closely with nonprofit leaders and executive directors, she gained a deeper understanding of how mission-driven organizations operate. She found herself less drawn to branding and promotions and more inspired by the purpose of the organizations she worked alongside.
While working on film festival sponsorships in Jackson Hole, she met her husband, Tucker. Their mutual passion ultimately led them to build something of their own. Together, the couple founded CIRENAS, a nonprofit environmental education center on the coastline of the Nicoya Peninsula in Costa Rica.
The program welcomed students from around the world for an immersive educational experience. They centered it on conservation, culture, and community. Middle school students, high school groups, and adults participated in programs focused on sea turtle conservation, watershed education, permaculture, environmental stewardship, and cultural exchange.
Caroline would run week-long programs and up to three-month semester programs for high school students. The students would live with local families, take cooking and dance classes, volunteer in schools, and work alongside community members in the remote villages.
“We had kids from inner-city New York who had never seen a sky full of stars before,” Caroline recalled. “You could see this transformation happening before your eyes.”
She later co-created Daily Bliss Yoga, where she led women’s retreats, also rooted in cultural immersion and the land of Costa Rica. The retreat experiences brought participants into direct relationship with Indigenous artisans, permaculture practices, and local traditions. Her focus was to create environments where people step out of their daily routines and into a deeper awareness of place, purpose, and humanity.
Again and again throughout her life, Caroline has been pulled and returned to one central idea: connection. Connection to land, culture, and to people who may otherwise feel unseen.
After years of operating CIRENAS in Costa Rica, Caroline and Tucker developed a close relationship with the Telluride Mountain School, whose students regularly participated in their programs.
“We were just blown away by the faculty and the students,” Caroline said. “They created a position for my husband to be the Director of Experiential Education at the Telluride Mountain School.” The couple moved from the coast of Costa Rica to live off the grid at 9,000 feet on Hastings Mesa with their children. They grew a garden inside a geodesic grow dome and even had a small pool as part of the dome’s ecosystem for their children.
“It felt like Costa Rica inside,” Caroline said with a laugh.
It was here that Caroline started working in nonprofit development and fundraising for adaptive sports programs serving individuals with cognitive and physical disabilities.
In 2020, during the pandemic, the family relocated to White Salmon. Two years later, Caroline joined United Way of the Columbia Gorge, eventually becoming executive director.
Under her leadership, the organization now supports 34 local nonprofits across the region, helping fund food banks, shelters, youth empowerment programs, and services for our vulnerable community members.
The response to the Rowena and Bridgton fires became a defining chapter of her work. While her own family was being evacuated from their home, she was also helping guide fundraising and long-term recovery efforts for the impacted communities. As she put it, “Recovery from disasters like the Rowena and Burdoin Fires isn’t measured in weeks or months… it’s a long journey. It was a powerful reminder that you can lose everything so quickly,” she said.
Caroline supported United Way in raising more than $400,000 for long-term recovery efforts. She secured partnerships with many of our local organizations, businesses, and community foundations to assist residents with uninsured losses and unmet needs, including septic systems and outbuildings destroyed in the fires. The work has been emotional, complex, and deeply meaningful to her and the Gorge community.
“It’s been incredible to see the community come together,” Caroline said. “To see people show up for one another.”
Her children have grown up watching both parents dedicating their lives to nonprofit work, fundraising, and community care. Recently, her daughter became excited about a new United Way art initiative after hearing her mother brainstorm ideas for the event.
“My daughter says to me, ‘Mom, I’d like to work for United Way when I’m older.”
Those who know Caroline know service is about impact, serving vulnerable community members, funding food banks, shelters, youth programs, and addressing basic needs in a region with income disparity.
“We all need more of that these days,” she said. “To disconnect from our devices and get out there and make a difference.”
And for Caroline Grew, making a difference has become a way of life.
To learn more about United Way of the Columbia Gorge, volunteer opportunities, or ways to support local families and nonprofits, visit www.UnitedWayColumbiaGorge.com
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