WestSide Baby makes history with Valentine Tea sellout

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The final tally’s in for the WestSide Baby fundraising tea last weekend – a sellout crowd for the first time ever – and executive director Nancy Woodland sends along the official announcement:

WestSide Baby’s Annual Tea fundraiser generated a sell-out crowd of more than 460 attendees and raised nearly $70,000 to help South King County families in need.

The Annual Tea was held on Sunday, February 8, at the Brockey Center on South Seattle’s Community College campus. Each year, table captains provide their own tea service so their guests can enjoy afternoon refreshments and socializing. The event focused on the impact WestSide Baby has in supporting more than 12,000 local children in 2008 and guests made financial contributions to support programs. “The guests who gathered for the Tea recognized the obviously increasing importance of supporting children in need our community. This response is critical to our mission because 96% of our financial support comes from individuals and small businesses,” said Nancy Woodland, Executive Director.

This year, twenty-one local business Sponsors covered the costs of the event while an additional nine offered gifts for give-aways. “The generous spirit of local small businesses is astounding during economic times like these. Business support like this is critical to pulling off an event of this magnitude without directing other funds away from immediate community needs for items such as diapers and clothing.” Woodland said. Since opening in 2001, WestSide Baby has distributed over $6 million worth of clothing, toys, baby gear, and other items.

The sponsors are listed on this page of the WestSide Baby website; meantime, you can help WestSide Baby too – its website will show you how.

ellenater February 12, 2009 (2:09 pm)

Ahhh. That is great news. :) Westside Baby is also my son’s classroom’s charity this year. It’s pretty heartening to see the donations streaming in on a regular basis…

KT February 12, 2009 (2:20 pm)

I attended the tea and one thing that everyone should know is that they are always needing DIAPERS in larger sizes, PULL-UPS, TRAVEL CRIBS, CAR SEATS & BOOSTER SEATS.

The cribs can be used and the car seats just need to be less than 5 years old & accident-free.

I think they get donations on a regular basis, but those are things EVERY baby needs and they are short on them a lot of the time.

add February 12, 2009 (2:46 pm)

It was a terrific event! One thing a lot of people don’t know is that diapers cannot be purchased with food stamps or through WIC benefits and there aren’t that many “diaper bank” outlets so WS Baby’s diaper distribution is a godsend for so many people. Thank you Nancy and WSBaby for your valuable work in supporting our community.