► On the Record

“Just remember, whatever my successes, without her it would have been much less.”

– Vern Peterson, founder of Peterson & Associates CPAs, referring to his wife in the last stanza of a poem he wrote as an acceptance in receiving the annual "Friend of the Foundation" award at the Community Foundation for Southwest Washington Annual Luncheon on Wednesday. Also presented at the event, the foundation’s “Philanthropist of the Year” award went to Joe and Teresa Pauletto of Vancouver.