(Some of last year’s Straight Blast Gym food-drive donations)
North Delridge’s Straight Blast Gym of Seattle (WSB sponsor) isn’t just aiming to strengthen bodies. It’s aiming to strengthen community. And the latest way it’s working to do that, with your help, is via monthlong food drive. From SBG’s Sonia Sillan:

We are currently running a food drive throughout the month of January for the West Seattle Food Bank. Every ten items (ramen not included) earns one raffle ticket; at the end of the month we’ll hold a drawing for different prizes like an Xbox One, gift cards, etc. When discussing how to help others and the purpose of the food drive, one of my five-year-old students said “Well, when you help others it shows that you love them, even if they’re strangers. They don’t have the things that we have. That’s why we should always help everyone and love everyone” (clearly awesome parents!).

My focus with the drive this year is to really pull the community together. Everyone at SBG is excited to see what we can raise within our gym community, and outside of it as well. I really challenge people who don’t know us to stop by and drop some nonperishables off. Take a step. Make a difference. Help us help others. Last year, we raised 1700 pounds of food. This year, our goal is to raise at least 3000.

This quotation by Ralph Waldo Emerson really resonates with me: “The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.”

You can help Straight Blast Gym meet and pass that ton-and-a-half goal by dropping off food at the gym, 5050 Delridge Way SW.