Dear Friends and Neighbors,
 
Summer is here and that means it's time for the Craig Wilson Memorial Crown of Queen Anne Fun Run/Walk, renamed this year in memory of an amazing Helpline and community volunteer and activist, Craig Wilson, who passed away last January. Get out your running shoes, start stretching, and join 600 of your friends and neighbors for this exciting and beloved community event. All ages and ability levels are welcome! It's the most fun you'll have at a fundraising event; all proceeds benefit the Queen Anne Helpline and neighbors in need.

The 5.5k (3.4 miles) Fun Run starts at 8 a.m. on July 9th and kicks off Queen Anne Days, a weekend long celebration of our amazing community. We've made some slight changes to the route this year to make it easier for everyone. The race will start at 8th Ave West and McGraw in front of Queen Anne Lutheran Church, the same location where day-of registration and T-shirt pickup takes place.

Register in advance online: FUN RUN REGISTRATION 
 
Or visit us at the following locations (where you can also pick up your T-shirt if you already registered):
  • Queen Anne Farmers Market (Thursdays, 3:30 - 7) -- 6/23, 6/30 and 7/7
  • Magnolia Farmers Market (Saturdays, 10 - 2) -- 6/25 and 7/2
  • Trader Joe's Plaza (Sunday, 6/26 from 10 - 2)
Of course , it takes a village of volunteers to make this event happen. If you would like to help with registration, sign up here,or to volunteer the day of the event sign up here.
This event would not be possible without the generous support of our sponsors. A huge thank you to Metropolitan Market, Title Sponsor, and HomeStreet Bank, Presenting Sponsor, as well as many other local businesses who provided financial support and who donated raffle items and prizes.

Your participation helps keep families in their homes, food on the table, and everyone's basic needs met. We can't do it without you - thank you!!
 
Warmly,  
Lisa
Lisa Moore, Executive Director
   
GiveBIG Breaks Record!

Final figures for the 2016 GiveBIG campaign show that the Helpline had 81 donors and raised $31,419, a new record for us! We are thrilled with this increase in both the number of donors as well as funds raised. By comparison, last year's campaign brought in a total of $15,065 from 64 donors. We send our profound thanks to all who donated during this campaign, especially since there were a few initial technical hurdles to overcome.With ever-increasing demands upon Helpline services for our neighborhood, these additional funds will make a big difference. Thank You!


Farewell to Sabrina

This month we say farewell to our longtime SPU student employee, Sabrina Alvarez. We hired Sabrina as a new freshman four years ago and she's been here ever since. She has added so much to the Helpline in that time. Her infectious smile always brightened up the room, her work ethic was inspirational, and her dignified and compassionate approach to helping every client, no matter their circumstance, ensured that everyone who left here felt respected and a little better about themselves. Sabrina has been a wonderful mentor and role model for many volunteers and students during her tenure. While we will miss her tremendously, she is off to new and exciting adventures starting with travels in Europe. We wish her the best of everything going forward and know she'll be a star wherever she lands. Thanks for everything Sabrina, you are beyond amazing!
 
Welcome to our Board! 
 
We'd like to welcome Yvonne Belanger as the newest member of our Board of Directors. Yvonne is Senior Program Officer, Measurement, Learning & Evaluation at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, where she is involved in overseeing complex, performance-based contracts, and works with partners to maximize the impact of individual projects. She became interested in the Helpline after she and her family first moved to the area a few years ago.  "I am very interested in the opportunity to be engaged with an organization that is locally focused and has strong relationships with the local

community," she said. "I am excited by the Queen Anne Helpline's philosophy of the power of compassion and caring for our own neighbors." Yvonne is also on the advisory board for the Center for Postsecondary Success at Florida State University, and periodically volunteers for various local nonprofits. She and her family currently reside in Magnolia. With Yvonne's expertise in program evaluation and her commitment to nonprofit work, we are confident that she will help further our mission and strengthen our impact.

THANK YOU!

Heartfelt thanks to the following groups or individuals for their fantastic support!
 
Windermere Queen Anne who collected hundreds of bags of food and hygiene items on our behalf for their community service day. Thank you for making sure our neighbors all have food on their tables and their basic needs met -- you guys rock!

Bayview Retirement Community Resident Chapel Committee for selecting us once again as the recipient of one of their annual Chapel Offering Grants of $1,000. We are so grateful for this honor and deeply appreciate our partnership with the Bayview community.

Ms. Perez's 3rd grade class at Coe Elementary for collecting and delivering much- needed new socks for our clothing bank -- all part of their Random Acts of Kindness project. These kids are learning so much about the importance of giving and the impact a little kindness can have. Thank you for choosing us - you are awesome!  


 Lisa Moore receiving the Bayview Chapel Offering Grant 

HELPLINE WISH LIST
  • Men's shaving products -- always in high demand!
  • Backpacks, small suitcases, duffel bags
  • Linens of all kinds -- blankets, sheets, pillows, towels, etc.
  • Socks, men's and women's
  • Men's casual pants -- Dockers, jeans, khakis
WRAPPING UP THIS YEAR'S WEEKEND FOOD FOR KIDS PROGRAM  

Defining success in a program like Weekend Food for Kids can be tricky. For example, over the course of this school year we provided nearly 1,000 more food bags to students than we did last year. It's a good thing that we are making sure more students are not going hungry over the weekends, but it also means the need for such assistance is greater -- and that's not a good thing. Bottom line is, there are kids who face food insecurity on weekends (when free lunches and breakfasts at school are not available), which is why we partner with Ballard Food Bank and the Queen Anne Presbyterian Church to run this program. Here are some numbers from the 2015-16 school year: 
  • Number of students receiving food bags each Friday ranged from 37 (in 3 schools) in early October to a high of 81 students (in 5 schools) in December; we are ending the school year serving 76 students in 5 schools.
  • We delivered 2,462 bags over the course of the school year.
  • 17 people helped pack food bags during the year -- and over half of these people brought children under the age of 14 with them (this includes two local Daisy Scout Troops); these folks worked a combined 130+ hours packing food bags. AWESOME!
  • Two wonderful moms alternated Thursday pick-ups of boxes of food from Ballard Food Bank: Lori Ramage and Charity Gallipo-Crane (this is the second year they have done this - THANK YOU!).
  • Four dedicated people delivered packed food bags each Friday to schools in Queen Anne and Magnolia: Lee Scovern, Janis Hart, Chris Wyrick, and Barbara Pearson -- YOU ROCK!
Making sure kids are fed during the summer is a whole other challenge. Whereas it is easy for a student to just take a bag of food home from school each Friday, it can be difficult for families to get to a central location to pick up bags once a week. We have worked hard to find four different, easy-to-access locations that can be used for food bag distribution over the summer in Queen Anne and Magnolia; thus far 16 families have signed up to receive these bags, which is four times more families than signed up last summer when there was only one pick-up location to choose from. Thank you so much to everyone who has played a part in reducing food insecurity for our local kids!
Volunteer Spotlight: Pat Drummond    


Pat volunteering as a crossing guard  
for a recent Fun Run
 
Pat has lived in Seattle for 40 years and on Queen Anne the last 25. When she retired a few years ago, she knew that she wanted to spend some of her "new time" volunteering in the community. Pat says, "The Queen Anne Helpline appealed to me because it provides direct services to local citizens. I was surprised at the need in the community, which continues to grow. My first activity was washing dishes at the annual Taste of Queen Anne gala which gave me a good look at the wonderful staff, volunteers and supporters of the Helpline. For the past couple years I have been regularly helping to pack food bags for the Weekend Food for Kids program, as well as helping with the Fun Run and, my favorite activity, the Christmas Tree lot. I enjoy talking to new and longtime Queen Anne residents about their support of the Helpline and watching their children's excitement as they pick out their annual tree. My other volunteer activities include the Washington Park Arboretum, Seattle Opera and as captain of my local Block Watch. Otherwise you may see me puttering in my garden or walking my dog."
 
Case Management 
 
One major goal for the case management program is financial education and assistance with budgeting. A client who has received services from us in the past, Susan, was referred to the case management program after we helped with her utility bill several months ago. During a session with Liz she mentioned that she had not yet paid the remainder of her utility bill or her phone bill although she did have the funds available. This brought up a discussion about how difficult thinking about finances can be and how sometimes it is easier to set the bills aside and try to forget about them. Liz asked Susan to imagine what it would feel like to place those bills in the mail and how she would feel after she mailed them. She imagined it would be stressful to go to the mailbox, but how relieved she would probably feel once she mailed the bills and they were paid. Liz received word from Susan several days later that she had decided to pay both of her bills and was glad to have done so. This was a great step towards our goal to increase her self-sufficiency and decrease her need for our financial assistance -- in addition to reducing Susan's stress by avoiding a crisis situation.
New Helpline Family Photography Service  
 
The Helpline has launched a new service thanks to the generosity of volunteer Susie Brown. We are now offering free family photos for our clients. While this is something we all treasure and mostly take for granted, it is a luxury and out of reach for many of the households we work with. We hope many clients will take advantage of this opportunity! 


 

Our mission: To improve the lives of our neighbors by providing emergency assistance for housing, food
and basic needs.

 Queen Anne Helpline is so grateful for all of our volunteers, donors and supporters - you make our work possible and help improve the lives of our most vulnerable neighbors. 
 
Please consider making a donation to help support  local families, seniors, and individuals. You can donate here
or visit our website:

Queen Anne Helpline
311 West McGraw
Seattle, WA  98119
206-282-1540