When your family has been selling and servicing cars along the North Coast for more than 50 years, you stop thinking of the community as a customer base and start thinking of it as family too. That’s the spirit behind everything we do at Lum’s Toyota, and it’s why supporting the food banks, schools, and civic groups around us is baked into how we operate, day in and day out.
Rooted in the Community: Lum’s Toyota’s Local Commitment
David Lum founded our dealership in Astoria back in 1969, and we moved into our permanent home in Warrenton, Oregon in 2008. Over five decades later, we’re still a family-owned business, and that history shapes how we show up for our neighbors. You can read more about our family’s story and how it’s guided our growth across Clatsop and Pacific Counties.
Lori Lum, who leads Lum’s Toyota today, puts it simply: “Family is the foundation of all that we do at Lum’s… supporting our extended family of employees and the community is what we strive to achieve every day.” That philosophy extends well past our showroom floor. Lori was recently named a 2025 Ally TIME Dealer of the Year nominee, and she spent four years as an elected member of the Seaside School Board. She also serves as secretary of the Oregon Auto Dealers Association board, where she’s the sole female and minority member, proud to represent a group that’s often underrepresented in the automotive industry.
Ally’s Doug Timmerman summed up why leadership like hers matters: “Auto dealers are the backbones of their communities, providing civic support and significant business leadership.”
Supporting Warrenton Non-Profits and Community Initiatives
Our community giving centers on education, programs for kids, and health and wellness. That focus helps us direct our time and resources toward organizations doing work that actually moves the needle for local families.
On the health and wellness side, that means partnering with the organizations keeping our region cared for, including Providence Seaside Hospital, the Columbia Memorial Hospital Foundation, and the Ocean Beach Health Foundation, whose annual golf tournament we’re proud to sponsor.
Cleanups and Employee-Driven Giving
Every quarter, our team heads out for Highway 101 cleanups, covering the stretch from Ensign Ln. and HWY 101 out toward Camp Rilea. We’ve also joined annual beach cleanups near the Peter Iredale, partnering with SOLVE Oregon to get more hands on the sand.
Inside the dealership, our “Pitchin’ In” charity match program lets employees pick a non-profit close to their hearts each month, wear matching shirts to show support, and see their donation matched by Lum’s. During the holidays, our “12 Days of Christmas” campaign supports food banks and veterans’ groups, and helps families who need an extra hand getting through the season. We also run “Degrees at Work,” a no-cost education program that helps our own team keep growing.
We’ve backed student sports and art programs, car seat safety events, and veterans’ breakfasts, always looking for ways to put our resources where they’ll help the most.
Community Boards and Civic Involvement
Being present in the community means showing up to the meetings where decisions get made, not just writing checks. We’re members of both the Astoria-Warrenton Area Chamber of Commerce, which represents nearly 600 businesses across the region, and the Seaside Chamber of Commerce.
Members of the Lum family sit on multiple boards throughout Clatsop County, and our own team member Stephanie serves on the Knappa School Foundation board. That kind of civic involvement keeps us connected to what our neighbors actually need.
Investing in Education
Education sits at the top of our giving priorities, and for good reason. A community’s schools shape its future workforce and its civic leaders, and honestly, its future car buyers too. We’ve supported the Gearhart Playground Project and stayed connected to programs like MERTS and a nearby school’s automotive program, which helps students build real mechanical skills before they graduate.
We’re also proud supporters of SMART Reading, short for Start Making A Reader Today, a statewide Oregon literacy non-profit that puts books in kids’ hands and volunteer readers in classrooms. And we’ve backed Camp Kiwanilong, a 270-acre youth camp on Long Lake in Warrenton, giving local kids a summer experience that builds confidence and community ties away from screens. Lori Lum has personally funded accessible docks and the construction of Haley’s Cabin, an ADA-featured facility named for a Lum’s team member and the first new cabin built at the camp since the 1960s, so that kids with disabilities can share fully in the camp’s fishing and boating.
We also back youth athletics in nearly every town we serve, sponsoring Knappa Kids Athletics, Astoria Future Fish, Warrenton Kids, Seaside Kids, and the Naselle Sports Club across the river in Washington. For a lot of local kids, these are the programs that give them a team, a season, and somewhere to belong.
Scholarship Programs for Local Students
Every year, Lum’s Scholarships go out to graduating seniors across Clatsop and Pacific Counties. When these awards get decided, we look at academics and leadership alongside extracurriculars, work experience, and community service, because we want to recognize the whole student, not just a GPA.
Applications run through Astoria High School Scholarship Inc., Warrenton High School Scholarships Inc., Seaside Scholarships Inc., and the Knappa Schools Foundation. If you’re a graduating senior in the area, or you know one, reach out to your school counselor about these programs well before application deadlines.
Strengthening Ties Across Warrenton, Astoria, and the Pacific Northwest
Our roots are in Warrenton, Oregon, but our reach stretches across the region we call home. We serve customers in Astoria, Seaside, Gearhart, Long Beach, and Tillamook, and as far as greater Portland, and we try to show up for community needs across that whole footprint, not just close to our own front door.
We’re also part of a small family of dealerships that shares this same North Coast mindset. Lum’s GMC operates out of McMinnville, Oregon, and Walla Walla Toyota, formerly McCurley Integrity Toyota, serves Walla Walla, Washington. Each dealership has its own local partnerships, but we share a common belief: a dealership’s job is to strengthen the towns it serves. If you’re ready to see what’s on our lot, feel free to explore our lineup the next time you’re comparing options.
Why Community Partnerships Matter to Lum’s Toyota
Sure, visibility and brand goodwill come with getting involved locally, and we won’t pretend otherwise. What actually drives this is simpler: our towns are where our employees raise their families, where our kids go to school, and where we’ve built relationships that go back generations in some cases.
Lori Lum’s time on the Seaside School Board and her Ally TIME Dealer of the Year nomination say something about who’s making decisions for our schools, roads, and local causes, and we want that group to actually reflect the community it serves. Our partnerships with local non-profits, school scholarship funds, and regional cleanup efforts let us put that belief into action.
Get Involved: Partner With Lum’s Toyota
For Non-Profits and Community Groups
If you run a local non-profit, school program, or community initiative and think we might be a good fit as a partner, we’d genuinely like to hear from you. Our giving committee reviews requests on the first and third Tuesdays of each month, and the best way to reach us is through our official Donation Request Form.
For Graduating Seniors
Graduating seniors looking into scholarship opportunities should connect with Astoria High School Scholarship Inc., Warrenton High School Scholarships Inc., or Seaside Scholarships Inc. directly through their school offices.
Come Say Hello
If you’d rather just say hello in person, that works too. Stop by our dealership on Ensign Lane, catch us at an Astoria-Warrenton Area Chamber of Commerce mixer, or look for our team at the next Highway 101 or beach cleanup. Fifty years in, we’re still the same family that opened our doors in Astoria back in 1969, just with a lot more neighbors we’re grateful to call friends.
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