The West Seattle Giving Spirit sustains thousands of people in our neighborhoods, as local nonprofits help with an array of community needs Three times a week through year’s end, WSB is bringing you this special holiday-season opportunity to learn more about, and support, some of those amazing nonprofits, in partnership with the Learning Communities Foundation. Today – see how the West Seattle Tool Library can help you in the midst of its second decade:

At the not-for-profit West Seattle Tool Library, our mission is to provide pay-what-you can community access to a wide range of tools, training, and relevant advice. Over the last fourteen years, the West Seattle community has donated thousands of tools, from hammers, shovels, and bolt cutters, to power saws, lawn mowers, ladders, and more. We house and maintain the tools and loan them out to community members. We were one of the first tool libraries in the world; today there are more than 700 nationwide.

This year, over 1,500 members borrowed more than 6,200 tools, and our community workshop hosted hundreds of members for classes and projects.

We’re now offering in-person classes for folks to gain skills with workshop tools, woodworking skills, and home and yard maintenance. Thanks to a grant from Seattle Public Utilities to reduce items going to landfills, we also offer a free “Fix-it Night” every Wednesday to bring broken appliances, tools, and other items back to life. We’re almost entirely funded by donations from the community, such as our suggested donations for memberships and checkouts, employee matching funds, and sustaining annual donations.

Our members regularly share heartwarming stories about the empowerment, resilience, pride, and sense of community WSTL instills in them:

Member: “In our family, WSTL has been an invaluable resource. When we bought our house, it needed many repairs, but hiring professional contractors would have stretched our budget too thin. Instead, we turned to WSTL, where we were able to borrow all the tools we needed, from power drills to ladders. Furthermore, WSTL’s workshops and educational resources empowered us to tackle these repairs ourselves, helping us to save a significant amount of money while also gaining new skills.”

Member: “We borrowed a variety of tools needed to remodel our kitchen. A tile saw for the backsplash, to name one. When we finished, we had our house appraised and saved hundreds on homeowners-insurance premiums required due to a small down payment. Our equity increased a bunch, as we then used a home-equity line of credit from BECU to change out the windows and add air conditioning! It started with a tile saw and other tools from WSTL.”

Member: “When we bought our house, the expenses of buying and moving plus the necessary upgrades for safety ended up being more than we expected. We anticipated trying for a kiddo and knew that we needed to knock out any projects sooner rather than later, but we had no liquid assets to make the tool purchases in addition to the materials. WSTL equipped us to supply a crew of family and friends to paint the whole interior, knock down a wall, repair the floor and wall, and make exterior improvements as well. By the time the kiddo showed up, we’d completed every major project we could do on our own. This allowed us to host family holidays and bring the baby home to a safe environment. We could not be more grateful.”

Please stop by if you need tools for a project, or you’d just like some advice. Be a part of our DIY / Maker Community! We’re located at 4408 Delridge Way SW in the northeast corner of Youngstown Cultural Arts Center, across the street from Delridge Community Center. Our hours are Tue/Wed/Thur 5 pm to 8 pm and Sat/Sun 11 am to 4 pm.

It’s easy to get involved:

·Join us for an in-person DIY class

·Membership, or gift an annual membership for someone on your holiday list

·Donate to help subsidize classes, restock consumables, and maintain and repair our inventory

·Volunteer and support others while deepening your own DIY knowledge and skills

Scroll through our archive of West Seattle Giving Spirit spotlights here (newest to oldest), and watch for the next one on Wednesday!