Despite pandemic constraints, many West Seattleites have continued to give time and money to build a stronger community. That includes local service clubs like the Rotary Club of West Seattle, which shared this update on recent projects:

It’s been a busy fall for the Rotary Club of West Seattle. Even though we’re continuing to meet virtually due to COVID-19, we’re building in-person relationships together through our Community Service Projects.

Pencil Me In For Kids (PMIFK), in its 26th year, was a huge success again. It is a unique program where West Seattle public grade schools send in requests in June of what they will need for fall. Over $11,000 worth of school supplies purchased by the Rotary Club of West Seattle and items donated by Staples and Fauntleroy Church UCC were distributed in August.

Rotarians picked up several truckloads of supplies from Staples, an amazing partner in this program, and then gathered to sort the supplies by school. The next morning, they used their personal cars and trucks to deliver the supplies to each of the schools. The schools that benefitted this year are Louisa Boren STEM K-8, West Seattle Elementary, Sanislo Elementary, Alki Elementary, and Gatewood Elementary.

Another project for this fall was to gather new and gently used items for Transitional Resources. They are completing construction of 44 new studio apartments for residents here in West Seattle. The Rise at Yancy Street apartments will be home to adults living with serious mental illness as they exit homelessness, hospitalization, or residential-care facilities. The walls are up, and the furniture is in, but it takes much more to make a home feel warm and inviting. The folks moving in have little or nothing in the way of home goods and this may be their first experience living in an apartment of their own. Transitional Resources wants to make sure they have everything the need to succeed and feel secure when they move in.

The members of the Rotary Club of West Seattle chose this as a service project opportunity and purchased or donated items like new bath towels and mats, bed linens and comforters, shower curtains, kitchen items, artwork, and tchotchkes plus puzzles and games for the community room. It was a fun group of volunteers who collected all the items on a Saturday in September at the American Legion for pickup by Darcell Slovek-Walker, CEO of Transitional Resources (and a former West Seattle Rotarian) and her team.

Upcoming service projects include an Adopt-a-Street Cleanup through the City of Seattle program plus yard cleanup projects for local seniors. If you’re interested in helping or learning more about the Rotary Club of West Seattle, go to our website and plan to join us at one of our virtual lunch meetings.

Donations are always welcome in that we use the funding for our service projects locally and around the world. You can donate to the Rotary Club of West Seattle here.

We love sharing news of community giving – westseattleblog@gmail.com – thanks!