West Seattle, Washington
12 Thursday
That’s Jessica at Hotwire Coffee (WSB sponsor) with the last stack of donations to the Pet Giving Tree that’s been up for a few weeks to help West Seattle Food Bank clients take care of their furry companions – you can barely see the tree itself! Teri Ensley from Furry Faces Foundation says they’re making one last run to the food bank “and wanted to let everyone know how generous they have been.” She adds:
Including today’s delivery, the Grand total for people’s cats and dogs is:
220 lbs dry food
69 cans of food
17 toys
74 lbs of litter
12 bags/boxes of treats
1 big beautiful dog bed
1 adorable pink dog bed set with matching accessories.A big thanks to Lora, her staff and all of the West Seattle folks that supported Food Bank clients’ pets.
Not too late to get in on more giving around West Seattle. Teri and Furry Faces are joining Animals First Foundation to offer fundraising gift-wrapping service at Beveridge Place Pub, 3-7 pm today (possibly a bit later if they’re busy at 7). And CAPERS in The Junction has its giving tree for the Hickman House domestic-violence shelter up through today (they’re open till 4) – lot of stars still on the tree last time we looked.
Hadn’t seen a video from the all-West Seattle benefit compilation “We Are The Junction” till this link landed in our Facebook box courtesy of the artist, Kirk Dubb, whose trademark phrase is “Chug-A-Lug.” Produced & directed by Dynomite D, this isn’t kid stuff, but hey, it’s late night. And a good cause. Many West Seattle nightlife shoutouts. (Look for the “Happy Festivus” lights’ cameo.” Multiple artists (listed here) on “We Are The Junction” in addition to Kirk Dubb; proceeds benefit the West Seattle Food Bank. You can buy it for just $10 at Feedback Lounge (WSB sponsor), Easy Street Records, West 5 and Shadow Land.
Two notes following up on the article published here last night saying WestSide Baby – which helps thousands of families, not just in West Seattle and White Center, but beyond – needs car seats and diapers: First, Nancy Woodland from WestSide Baby says the donations (including car seats like the ones shown above) have been flowing in all day. Second, please note a change to the dropoff site list in the story – Square 1 Books (WSB sponsor) is *not* a dropoff location – they are collecting board books that you can buy and donate on the spot, but otherwise, much as they’d like to take other donations, there’s no room. The updated list is in the story.
We’ve been checking in with major nonprofits – the people whose business is helping people — over the past week, to see what they need by Christmas. Our previous stories: West Seattle Food Bank here, White Center Food Bank here, West Seattle Helpline here. Tonight; WestSide Baby, which helps families in need not just throughout West Seattle/White Center, but beyond – and they have a very specific wish list.
By Lauri Hennessey
Reporting for West Seattle Blog
Have time with the kids in the next two days? Take the chance to show them the true meaning of Christmas, and in the process, help WestSide Baby meets its holiday collection goal. The nonprofit is still short of its goal, and only has until Wednesday to make the target.
Nancy Woodland, executive director of WestSide Baby, says she set her goal for the December collection drive at 25,000 diapers, 100 coats, and 50 car seats. As of this afternoon, the community had collected enough coats to meet the goal, but WestSide Baby was still 3,000 diapers short of the goal. And, WestSide Baby is far behind on collecting the car seats.
“We’ve noticed a 13% increase in the number of children served this year compared to last,” she says. Woodland says WestSide Baby has served the needs of 400 children in the last ten days, an unheard of number for the organization. Woodland says that is roughly double the usual number for this time of year. In fact, she says, since October 1, WestSide Baby has seen unprecedented need. She says they have served more than $33,000 worth of supplies through White Center’s Neighborhood House alone. Diapers are not covered by food stamps or other government programs and cost approximately 23 cents each.
(More specifics on how to help – and where to take those donations the next 2 days – ahead!)Read More
Just out of the WSB inbox:
The Puget Sound Blood Center is giving West Seattle two opportunities to save lives before the New Year. With a decrease in donations and an increase in accidents, we could use help maintaining a stable blood supply over the holidays.
As we exchange gifts during the holidays, please remember that you have the most precious gift inside you to give.
Please give others a chance at a better life:
– Saturday December 26th
* Holy Family Parish- Tice Hall 9516 20th Ave SW
* 10:00AM- 4:00PM (closed 12-1pm)– Monday December 28th
* Safeway- 2622 California Ave SW
* 9:00AM- 3:00PM (closed 11:30-12:30)The Puget Sound Blood Center is a non-profit, community and volunteer based
organization. For more than 60 years, the PSBC has been improving the quality of
life for sick patients in the Puget Sound area. This is all thanks to the generous
donors who are saving lives in Western Washington every day. Your volunteered blood
is distributed to 70 local hospitals and clinics in the Puget Sound area. For more
information, please contact 1-800-DONATE-1.
Three weeks ago, we mentioned that the woman who survived a puzzling bicycle accident on Delridge was publicly chronicling her recovery and getting ready for a fundraising concert to help with her ongoing medical expenses. You may recall from our 
original August coverage that she was found in the street, and nobody could figure out whether she’d been hit by someone or just taken a bad spill. Against the odds, she has recovered, and is now home after being in the hospital and rehab for almost three months. The fundraising concert starring singer violinist Angela Fuller is 7 pm tomorrow (Tuesday) at Mars Hill Church in West Seattle. The bicyclist, 27-year-old Angela Sweet, agreed to answer a few questions from us via e-mail – our questions and her answers, verbatim, ahead:Read More
A new postscript in the saga of the High Point holiday donations: Rebecca Hall from High Point Community Center says that while, as she updated us all last night, they have exceeded the goal of 400 toys overall for Monday’s distribution (backstory here), they still need items for teenagers – and are working with other West Seattle groups that have the same need. They ask you to please drop off the presents for teens during two specific windows TOMORROW and MONDAY. Here are the specifics:
Gifts for teens are still in high demand and can be dropped off at High Point CC on Sunday, 12-2 pm, or Monday at noon. These items will be distributed to various groups in West Seattle that work with teens.
Don’t know what a teen would like? Here are some suggestions:
-sport equipment such as basketballs, soccer and volleyballs
-pajama sets
-hat / scarf / glove sets
-t-shirts
-athletic pants/shorts
-vanity mirrors
-hair accessories/brushes
-nail polish
-the type of metal waterbottles that are so popular this year
-music cd’s
-journals
Rebecca also says they could use “games for older children.” Again, they’ll be able to accept these donations in two limited windows over the next two days – noon-2 pm tomorrow (Sunday) and at noon on Monday – the main distribution is later Monday afternoon. High Point Community Center is at 6920 34th SW (here’s a map). And as for the items donated so far for the rest of the drive, Rebecca says via Facebook, “The turnout has been amazing and residents of West Seattle and the surrounding communities should know that they REALLY are making a difference this holiday season!”
(Editor’s note: We’ve been checking in with major local nonprofits as Christmas approaches, to see what they need and how they’re doing. Earlier stories: West Seattle Food Bank, here; White Center Food Bank, here.)
(Photo courtesy WS Helpline: Volunteer Donavyn with mom LaTista)
By Lauri Hennessey
Reporting for West Seattle Blog
The West Seattle Helpline tells us their goal is pretty simple this holiday season: keep as many people sheltered as possible. And, every time someone donates $200 between now and Christmas (do it online!), that means one more family gets to stay in their home through Christmas.
The Helpline helps local families with rent and utilities, clothing (through the West Seattle Clothesline), Metro Transit tickets and school supplies.
Executive director Anna Fern says every $200 means a family doesn’t lose a home this season because landlords will accept partial rent payments more than in the past.
(Read on for more of how to help – how WS Helpline is helping – and for details on a savory fundraiser in The Junction tomorrow.)Read More
Call it a timely two-fer for a good cause: West Seattle’s C & P Coffee has a silent auction under way right now – taking bids online – for a copy of an award-winning Seattle photographer’s book documenting global climate change. The photographer is Daniel Beltra, who you’ll see when you click the clip above, taken from Prince Charles‘s presentation naming Beltra as winner of the Prince’s Rainforests Project Professional Award at the Sony World Photography Awards. The C & P auction is happening as world leaders attending the Copenhagen climate-change conference are being given copies of Beltra’s book. He donated a copy to C & P for the silent auction, which is raising money to help a coffeehouse team members with medical expenses. You can bid by e-mail — candpco@comcast.net – and through the C & P Facebook page (where you can also see what the bidding’s up to – to get a firsthand look at the book, go to C & P at 5612 California SW. (Photos are also viewable at danielbeltra.com.)
Really, there’s nothing like a ton of good news going into a weekend, especially before a holiday. Here’s more. Earlier we reported the success of Lafayette Elementary‘s food drive for the White Center Food Bank. Now we have a report from Sanislo Elementary, which also wrapped up a food drive today – Lisa K shared the photos and the report below this next pic:
WOW! The Sanislo community once again demonstrated their tremendous generosity during our annual winter food drive. Our 300 students blew away our goal of 1000 lbs of nonperishable food, toiletries and cleaning supplies with donations totaling 2912 pounds! In full disclosure, one of our truly big-hearted dads once again donated hundreds of pounds of food to help his son’s class win the class competition. However, even without his amazing generosity, our kids still topped a ton (!!) of donations. There were more than enough donations this year to provide for our own school families needing extra help AND to share with the greater community through the food bank. Given the current economy and the fact that approximately half our students qualify for free or reduced meals, this is certainly an example of the kids’ and teachers’ care for one another.
Representatives from Mr. Apostol’s 5th grade class accepted the trophy as this year’s winners, and their class leads off the initial engraved plate on our new plaque that will commemorate each year’s “Annual Sanislo Food Drive Superstars.” Mrs. Goethe’s kindergarten class and Mr. Simmons’ 4th graders (woo hoo FIRE MONKEYS!) also deserve mention for their efforts. Since the entire school did such a great job showing us just what outstanding citizens they are, EVERY class won ice cream. Congratulations to you all!
All the best,
Lisa K. for the Sanislo PTA
First, WSB’er Celeste called us a little while ago with word that the Marines had landed at High Point Community Center with toys for the toy drive mentioned here earlier this week. Then High Point CC’s Rebecca Hall sent us the photo you see above, with word that they now officially have exceeded the goal of 400 toys for the families who were disappointed on what was supposed to be the distribution day last Monday. So they’ve got everything they need, and then some – if you’ve bought toys to donate, please check out some of the many Giving Trees and other donation drives (we have some listed on our Holidays page and will check around to see if there are any other urgent needs). By the way, High Point CC will be happy to see you and the kids in your life tomorrow morning – they’re making gingerbread houses, 10:30-11:30 am, $5 admission.
We’re just back from Lafayette Elementary School in Admiral, where White Center Food Bank executive director Rick Jump and volunteer Beth Grieser came to pick up a huge donation of food gathered by Lafayette students. We’ll add photos of the handoff later; first, here are a few of the student heroes with the massive pile of food (in a photo taken by Lafayette leadership this morning), and the story told by school administrators:
For the second year in a row, the Lafayette Elementary community used some friendly competition to amass donations for the school’s annual food drive. The charitable event was fueled by a contest to see which class could collect the most items and donations by teacher were tracked on a bulletin board in the front lobby. Over the next couple of weeks, the collected food almost overtook the school’s front lobby.
All of the classes participated, but two classes led the competition: Ms. Rollins’ class collected the most items (525) and Mr. Beal’s class (497) came in second place. Mrs. Bell’s kindergarten class sorted their 297 items alphabetically so that the collection effort also became a learning opportunity. Over 3,300 items total were collected school-wide, which is up dramatically from 2,100 last year. Today the White Center Food Bank team (came) to start transporting all of the collected food down to their facility in White Center.
Lafayette’s student council sponsors two community service projects a year–one in winter and one in spring. We would like to thank the Lafayette’s student council leaders for putting together the food drive, faculty/staff for keeping students motivated and to all the generous Lafayette families who donated food.
Congratulations to all the generous youngsters and their families, and to everyone in West Seattle who’s reached out so generously to make sure fewer people will be in need. We published a story earlier today about the WC Food Bank as the holiday approaches and how you can help – read it here; and our earlier story about the West Seattle Food Bank can be seen here.
(Editor’s note: We’re spotlighting some of West Seattle’s nonprofits in the Christmas countdown, to help with the final push to make sure the people they assist get what they need for the holidays. Wednesday we focused on the West Seattle Food Bank; this morning, it’s the White Center Food Bank, which helps people in part of West Seattle too.)
By Lauri Hennessey
Reporting for West Seattle Blog
The White Center Food Bank has taken a hit over the last year. Its executive director says the need for its services has increased up to 80 percent over the last 18 months. Still, Rick Jump says the food bank is surviving the economic downtown in some pretty creative ways — in no small part due to the local community stepping up.
Examples? This fall West Seattle’s Avalon Glassworks produced beautiful red glass apples as part of a WC Food Bank fundraiser. The apples are gorgeous — just $80 each (and there are still some left). Half of the proceeds from each apple goes to the food bank.
Plus, the food bank has received a donation of Christmas trees from IKEA and Evergreen High School. And, food bank board member Gary Fasso joined with the local Carpenters Union to create a new “carport style” produce shed. Now volunteers and customers can be protected from the rain as they look through produce.
Jump says the changes are all part of the food bank’s efforts to make it a bit more pleasant experience for those who come in for help. Just coming in for food is hard enough, he says, without having to stand out in the cold.
(Read on for what you can do NOW to help WC Food Bank before Christmas – and more)Read More
More updates on how West Seattleites are reaching out to help their neighbors: The nearly 300 employees of Nucor have just sent two tons of food to the West Seattle Food Bank. Thanks to Tricia at Nucor for sharing the news:
Each year Nucor Steel Seattle holds a food drive to support the West Seattle Food Bank. We ask our employees to donate food or cash to help others in our community. This year we were facing a down economy and employees whose hours and pay were cut by 33% or more – but they still came through.
Donations from employees totaled $3,083 in cash plus 4,400lbs of food! Nucor matched $2 per $1 donated and $2 per pound of food donated, totaling $14,966. The total donation to the West Seattle Food Bank was $18,049 in cash plus 4,400lbs of food!
On top of the donations to the Food Bank, some staff also collected jackets, coats, and sweaters to donate to West Seattle Helpline‘s Clothesline. These coats will be given away to West Seattle residents to help keep warm over the holiday season and into 2010. We think this is a testament to everyone’s generous spirit even in a down economy.
Happy Holidays from everyone at Nucor Steel Seattle.
We have updates coming up about both Helpline and our area’s other food bank, White Center FB. P.S. WS Food Bank president Pete Spalding told WSB a little while earlier – we’re both at the Alaskan Way Viaduct South Portal Working Group meeting downtown – that the agency is SO grateful for EVERYONE who’s reached out to help.
We told you yesterday about the urgent need for toy donations at High Point Community Center, to fulfill the holiday wishes of families who were left empty-handed when a toy-drive delivery for distribution this past Monday didn’t come through. Among those who have stepped up to the plate, students from Westside School – Rebecca Hall from HPCC sent that photo with this update:
Westside School hosted a toy drive and brought all of the toys and dropped them off at High Point CC this morning.
We’re awaiting a progress report on how far donations have gotten toward the request for 400 toys, for kids 3-18; HPCC says you can drop off donations through Saturday afternoon – their hours and location are here. Meantime, word of other local kids doing good deeds:
From Jeanne Merritt at Madison Middle School, that photo and report on results of a recent food drive:
Madison Middle School’s students showed a great spirit of generosity with their recent food drive. Science teachers arranged a competition between all the science classes. Alisha Taylor’s class, the winners, brought in over 700 pounds of food. All in all students gathered 1800 pounds of food! (School nurse Sami Hoag weighed it all.) The food was distributed to Madison families in 41 Thanksgiving food baskets.
Last night, we published an update on what West Seattle Food Bank needs for the holiday; coming up in the next few hours, our update on how you can help White Center Food Bank. (Lots of additional ideas for how to help, including Giving Trees and donation drives, can be found on the West Seattle Holidays page.)
(Photo provided by West Seattle Food Bank, as Admiral Co-Op Preschool students celebrate recent donation drive)
By Lauri Hennessey
Reporting for West Seattle Blog
With just over a week to go till Christmas, the West Seattle Food Bank is finding plenty of need in the community, and supplies are dwindling. In fact, the food bank has seen a 27 percent increase in the number of households served over a year ago.
The food bank has also seen an increase in the number of times individual families need the food bank, with a 17 percent increase in the number of times households are coming to the food bank.
Still, Executive Director Fran Yeatts is hopefuly the food bank will continue to weather the storm, to a large degree because of the ongoing generosity of the West Seattle community.
We asked what they need for Christmas – read on for the answer, as the story continues:Read More
Thanks to Kendra for letting us know about this – we’ve just confirmed it with Brian Judd at High Point Community Center: They were supposed to have a Toys for Tots distribution event at the center this past Monday, but Toys for Tots has been having a regional shortage, and didn’t bring toys to distribute to the families. So now they are trying to directly collect enough toys to make holiday wishes come true for the families NEXT Monday at 2 pm. Between now and Saturday afternoon, bring unwrapped toys for any age, 3 through 18, to High Point CC (6920 34th SW; here’s a map; they’re open till 9 tonight, 10 am-9 pm tomorrow, 1-9 pm Friday, 10 am-5 pm Saturday) – they hope to have 400 by the time the families all show up again on Monday. ADDED 5:04 PM: If you have extra donation ability, here’s another request we received, from Maria at DNDA:
We provide affordable housing to low income families and are in dire need of gifts for their families. We have about 17 families that need gifts this year.We have a lot of children that will be needing toys this year and are going with out. If you can provide a toy or donate money please contact Phillippia Goldsmith at
Phillippiag@dnda.org or call at (206) 935-2999
RAFFLE TO HELP VAL KLEITZ: Aaron’s Bicycle Repair proprietor Aaron Goss shares that photo with word that its subject, longtime shop worker and friend Val Kleitz, is fighting cancer, and, “While his prognosis is good, his medical bills are adding up” – so a fundraising raffle’s been arranged. A new turquoise 2010 Redline 925 donated by Seattle Bike Supply and assembled by Aaron’s will be raffled off at 1 pm Dec. 20. Till then, anyone 18+ can buy $5 tickets to get in on it – all proceeds to help with Val’s medical bills. They’re on sale at the shop (6527 California SW), or you can simply make a medical-bills-fund donation from the raffle-info page on Aaron’s site.
SUCCESSFUL CELL-PHONE DRIVE CONCLUDES: Megan Wilson Tutty sends word via Facebook that the cell-phone collection drive at Easy Street Records (to help domestic-violence victims, as first reported here in October) is over, so please don’t take any more phones there. She says the drive to help the Victim Support Team, with which she volunteers, collected 138 phones!
MERRILL GARDENS’ FUNDRAISING TOTAL FOR OFFICERS’ FAMILIES: After last Wednesday night’s fundraising pasta dinners at both West Seattle locations of Merrill Gardens (WSB sponsor), we reported their $1,500 total – but those were only two of 21 MG locations participating. Now we know that the fundraiser’s grand total is $25,000, including an MG corporate donation of $5,000. They expect to make a presentation to the officers’ guild soon. If you missed this fundraiser and the $126,000 Papa John’s two-day event, you can still donate directly to the Lakewood fund by going here.
With 12 days to go till Christmas, it’s prime time to expand your giving to the nonprofit donation drives and Giving Trees around West Seattle/White Center. Many are listed on our West Seattle Holidays page. And here’s an update just in from Nancy Woodland at WestSide Baby, along with the accompanying photos:
To try to fill our shelves before Christmas, WestSide Baby will hold special Holiday Donation hours of Mon-Friday 9-4pm and Thursday evening 7pm-9pm now through December 22. WestSide Baby will also host an After Hours volunteer sorting event on Thursday December 17, 7-9pm at our facility in White Center. Volunteers ages 14+ will gather to sort through donations of gently used clothes and enjoy a festive “holiday” evening. If you can attend, please email our Volunteer Coordinator at sarah@westsidebaby.org.
Many families and businesses in the area are benefitting WestSide Baby as they gather together to celebrate the holidays. THANK YOU!! Friday evening, kids and parents carrying diapers and bags of warm clothes filed into the new West Seattle Little Gym [WSB sponsor] for a party hosted by two local families. 2500 diapers were collected and 6 bags of winter clothes for children 0 to size 12 appeared to fill the very scarce shelves at WestSide Baby! The Little Gym generously donated space while their staff and owner, Birgit, donated time (and smiles) as they successfully corralled, somersaulted and flipped more than 50 children while parents mingled in the lobby. Local efforts at businesses, schools and private gatherings have resulted in 50 winter coats and thousands of diapers for little ones in King County just this month. See WestSide Baby Donation Drives for details of places where you can drop off your items out in the community if our location or open hours are not convenient.
Also note that WestSide Baby has set the date for its annual tea – February 6 – tickets are on sale now here, and tomorrow’s the deadline to sign up if you’d like to be a Table Captain.
The Super 24 mini-market on Delridge has gotten extra attention lately for that three-month-old mural and for a citywide media spotlight – this story by our partners at the Seattle Times; both are for the same reason: The store is a trailblazer in the push to make more healthy food available in Delridge, despite the absence of a grocery store. Delridge Neighborhoods Development Association sent word of a work party/event today and is extending the participation invitation community-wide. Here’s some of what’ll be involved, 11 am-3 pm today:
* Healthy food sampling and “voting” for healthy snack offerings in the Super 24 corner store.
* Removal of excessive tobacco and alcohol ads at front entrance of store.
* Interior store transformation
* “Limited” TEAM Delridge T-shirts to volunteers who participate more than 5 hours.Anyone and everyone who cares about the Delridge community is invited to join us.
Super 24 is at Delridge and Findlay; here’s a map.
That’s Hotwire Online Coffeehouse (WSB sponsor) proprietor Lora Lewis with some of the items that have come in for the Pet Giving Tree at Hotwire. Teri Ensley from Furry Faces Foundation says two-thirds of the tree’s 24 tags have been taken, and the presents are now starting to come in – including more than 100 pounds of donated pet food. Teri says, “We took (the) first load of ‘pet gifts’ to White Center Food Bank. Both Rick Jump and Audrey Zemke were there so they helped unload with big smiles on their faces. Since some of the items came in Christmas gift bags, they are going to give them to their clients in the bags–so it truly is a pet gift. The next load of pet gifts will be taken to West Seattle Food Bank. Thanks again to Lora Lewis of Hotwire for coming up with this brilliant giving tree and thanks to everyone that is taking their time and money to help animal companions be able to stay with their people.” This is just one of MANY Giving Trees around West Seattle – and this weekend is PRIME TIME to go see which one still have unclaimed tags, so that you can help make this a merrier Christmas for somebody – go to the West Seattle Holidays page and look for the Giving Trees/Fundraisers list. (Also, re: Furry Faces, note their Wrap It Up wrapping fundraiser at Shadow Land 1-6 pm today!)
Just out of the WSB inbox — WSB’ers stepped up to help with this type of judging before, and those who participated reported having a great time (here’s the report we published in May):
* Michelle Sloan, the DECA Club Adviser at West Seattle High School, is searching for judges for Automotive Marketing competition at the DECA Regional Competitions on Tuesday, January 12th, at the Meydenbauer Center in Bellevue, 9 am – 4 pm.
* Anyone with ANY Marketing experience will be great!
* We will need the names of any “possibles” (ASAP), as we’d like to have our final list organized before the holidays (no one wants to commit to anything the first week in January!)
DECA Marketing Regional Competition
* Tuesday, January 12, 2010
* 9 am – 1 pm
* Meydenbauer Center, Bellevue, WABenefits of participating?
* Supporting the DECA Marketing students at WSHS and the region!
* Free lunch!
* Free coffee!
* Networking with hundreds of other DECA judges from the state of Washington!Thank you so much for your help!
Interested judges may contact Michelle Sloan, masloan@seattleschools.org, or mmtonkin@seattleschools.org, for more information!
The Tuesday and Wednesday donation of profits from all regional Papa John’s Pizza tallies hit six figures, according to our partners at the Seattle Times – they say the company announced the total donation would surpass $126,000, after huge demand at the 40-plus participating stores (including West Seattle, photographed above on Tuesday night). As reported here Wednesday night, that night’s Merrill Gardens (WSB sponsor) fundraising pasta dinner raised $1,500 between the 2 West Seattle locations (haven’t heard yet about the rest of the chain). And you have another chance to show your support for the Lakewood officers’ families without leaving West Seattle – this Saturday, 9 am-5 pm, West Seattle Tiger Scouts plan to set up a table outside the Holy Rosary Tree Lot at California/Lander (map) to collect donations and also get signatures on a big card for the families.
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