Story, photos, video by Tracy Record and Patrick Sand
West Seattle Blog co-publishers

“Can you imagine 100 percent of the children in King County safe, warm, and dry?”

That’s one of the questions that created a room full of imagination at WestSide Baby‘s 18th annual CommuniTea – hundreds of attendees urged to imagine, not something fanciful, but something practical that would improve countless young lives.

As the program began Sunday afternoon at the Sheraton downtown, emcee/auctioneer TiWanna “TK” Kenney spoke of celebrating and embracing “what makes WestSide Baby special … (its) vision: Where every child here in King County is equipped with its most basic needs.” Like diapers. “We don’t realize how many people out there don’t have the ability to have their basic needs met.”

The simple goal: That every child will be “warm, safe, and dry. I think we can do that together.” That drew a hearty cheer. WestSide Baby already helps tens of thousands of kids every year – and yet the need is even greater.

The CommuniTea was also an opportunity for humor.

The fibs moms tell were shared in a preview performance by cast members from “The Mamalogues,” which has West Seattle performances coming up in May to benefit WS Baby (“I have an app that tells me if you’ve brushed your teeth!” “They don’t make batteries for this toy any more!” and poignantly, “Animals by the side of the road are just taking a nap.”) Heartbreak punctuated the laughter, as the performers also talked about lies that protect children … a parent insisting, “I’m not hungry” so there’s enough for their kid(s) to eat.

A video introduced Nancy Wainstein and the Starbucks Women’s Impact Network as this year’s winners of the volunteer award named for WS Baby founder Donna Pierce. While an event like the CommuniTea is a source of the dollars that power some of WS Baby’s operations, the video extolled another powerful way to help – volunteering – including sorting donations and inspecting some of them, particularly car seats, to be sure they’re safe for re-use.

WS Baby executive director Nancy Woodland also thanked volunteers for their time and energy; more than 2,700 of them contributed 24,000 hours of service last year alone. Woodland invited attendees to “dream big … imagine that every child … in King County, has everything they need to be safe and warm and dry … 100 percent of the time … It is absolutely non-negotiable.”

She preached a vision that she acknowledged would make her organization unnecessary within a generation o two. And she told a story of a family who works hard to make ends meet but fell behind in the snow last month – her roofer husband couldn’t work, her kids couldn’t get breakfast and lunch to school, she was down to one diaper when she managed to make her way to WS Baby. Here’s the full video of what Woodland told teagoers:

Woodland also gave a shoutout to partner agencies – including local food banks.

Diapers can prevent homelessness, she noted. Imagine if that $100 a month could go toward housing.

Diapers can keep people employed – so they can get their children into child care, which requires diapers.

Diapers can keep kids safe – if they’re hurting or wet and crying, child abuse might happen.

Diapers = trust, trust = connection, connection can equal learning and love, “100 percent of the time.”

WS Baby’s 22-member staff got an expression of love from Woodland at that point.

And then it came back home to the donors and volunteers in the room.

Thanks to Best Starts for Kids, championed by King County Executive Dow Constantine (who was in attendance), WS Baby has more data to use toward its mission.”Dream with me, go big.”

A WS Baby-produced video focused on those they help and those who help them:

A special call for giving brought forth two $10,000 donors – and dozens of others, from $100 to $5,000. The crowd was all ages – fittingly, for an organization focused on helping little ones – and they were part of the videos, too.

Parenting was also central to the often-wrenching words of featured speaker Roberto Ascalon, who explained that his job was to offer “something in return for all of your efforts,” so he reflected on “a source of transformative power that we all possess.” He described himself as a “teaching artist” who has long worked with nonprofits.

Ascalon also noted he’s “a former Delridge resident” and a co-founder of FEEST. Right now he works at the “young people’s literary organization” the Bureau of Fearless Ideas. And, he said, he’s a father.

He talked about learning “to cry well” while reading his son to sleep, with books like “All the World.” The room hushed as he read from it – “All the world is all of us.” He expressed the hopes and fears of every parent … to stop time from spinning so fast. “I cannot know what my son will know, and thouogh we belong to each other, his life is not mine.”

Just watch and listen to him speak:

“It is a difficult thing to accept my son’s ephemerality and mine” at the same time … “to accept that one day we both will die …and that if I have been a very good papa, maybe my son will choose to hold my hand as I go.” Ascalon spoke so eloquently and personally … yet universally … about the joys and terrors of parenthood.

Perhaps, he mused, attendees had gathered because “we think things can be otherwise. … Can you imagine 100 percent of the children in King County safe, warm, and dry? What about Washington State? What about the entire country? What about the world? Can you see it?” He admitted, he can’t … yet. But if “all of us (could) imagine fearlessly,” maybe we could.

Keep in mind that so much of what is reality, commonplace, now, was once “science fiction.” So – why not?

He returned to the theme of fearless imagination. Also: Collaboration. Improvisation. Not either/or but “yes, and.” Also “a love of listening, a love of storytelling … a willingness to fail and fail big …” Humility, curiosity, “hope, and peace, and love, and trust.” … “What is it that embraces all of those, that embraces all of us?”

In the end “all of us” was the answer as well as part of the question. The preliminary fundraising total for the afternoon of imagination was more than $304,000, announced emcee TK before teagoers were bid farewell.

(Update: As of 3 pm Monday, that’s up to $376,000+.) The tally, of course, did not reflect all the giving. The event was made possible in no small part due to a long list of community co-sponsors – like Ventana Construction (also a WSB sponsor), whose co-proprietor Anne Higuera was there with daughter Delilah:

Other WSB sponsors that co-sponsored the CommuniTea were Wyatt’s Jewelers and The YMCA. And yet others supported the event by attending – here’s the Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Northwest Real Estate table:

And Verity Credit Union:

WestSide Baby’s nonprofit partners are key, too. Sponsors of the event included the West Seattle and White Center Food Banks. Those we saw in the crowd included Southwest Youth and Family Services executive director Steve Daschle and former WCFB leader Rick Jump:

HOW YOU CAN HELP WESTSIDE BABY: Gifts of time and/or money and/or diapers (among other items) are always welcome. Here’s how to give.