Longtime youth leader needs Tri-City community’s help after rare diagnosis

A Richland man known for his work helping youth in the Tri-Cities now needs the community’s help after being diagnosed with a rare and complicated cancerous condition.

Friends and family have started a Gofundme to help Todd Kleppin, 55, pay for substantial medical expenses for treatment at the Mayo Clinic in the Midwest, which has the only specialist in his condition that he has been able to find.

Kleppin has spent decades in the Tri-Cities helping young people.

He is a former youth pastor at Central Church in Richland and played a key role in the collaboration between the church and the Richland Parks & Recreation Department to build the Jeannette Taylor Skate Park on Carondelet Drive in Richland.

But he grew concerned that as kids flocked to the skate park, he never saw any adults there interacting with them, he said in an article published by Corban University in Salem, Ore., where he earned a bachelor’s in youth ministries.

He helped found Ignite Youth Mentoring and more recently FORGE Youth Mentoring, both in the Tri-Cities.

When FORGE closed in August 2024 amid Kleppin’s health struggles, it had offered the support of multigenerational mentorship to more than 200 young people in the Tri-Cities and had expanded its chapters to communities in other states.

“We have seen remarkable transformations — young people finding hope, direction and even faith through their involvement in FORGE,” Kleppin said when FORGE Youth Mentoring closed. “Relationships have been created that will surely last a lifetime.”

Kleppin has continued as an individual youth mentor after the nonprofit closed.

Confusing medical complications

Kleppin had about a year and a half of confusing medical complications before he was diagnosed with a blood cancer that the American Cancer Society says is rare, Waldenstrom’s macroglobulinemia.

Its a type of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma that is usually slow growing and generally well managed.

But Kleppin also has a secondary disease associated with only 5% of his already rare type of lymphoma. He has been diagnosed with AL amyloidosis, which can cause significant damage to the heart, kidneys and nerves.

He has recently had a pacemaker implanted to help his heart as he prepares to travel to the Mayo Clinic this week for a consultation and a battery of tests.

Because his insurance will not cover treatment at the Mayo Clinic, he’s been required to make a deposit of $5,000 for the initial visit and also must pay for transportation and lodging.

“Between the many local hospital visits over the last two years just to reach this diagnosis, the chemo treatments and this initial visit, the cost is steep and ever-climbing,” according to the GoFundMe launched to help Kleppin.

‘Friend, mentor, father’

Todd and Wendy Kleppin have always been hard working and diligent with their money, according to a message from their three adult children on the fundraising site.

Todd Kleppin has dedicated his life to “helping others as a friend, mentor, father and, first and foremost, to serving the Lord,” his children said. “Mom and Dad would be the last people to ever ask for financial help, not wanting to burden others if they can find a way to manage on their own.”

Even if people are not able to provide a donation, the family asks for prayers.

Kleppin enjoys spending time with his family, including four grandchildren, said his daughter Paula Torrey.

He’s a woodworker, and he had his wife have built a treehouse with decorative wood railings and a zipline across their yard to entertain the grandkids, Torrey said.

Kleppin played soccer at college and then spent more than a decade volunteering as a basketball coach and providing goalkeeper training and sports leadership training in the Tri-Cities.

His interest in soccer continues as a dedicated fan of the Seattle Sounders, Torrey said.

Donate to his Gofundme at bit.ly/48xyAeb.

This story was originally published April 20, 2026 at 4:00 PM.