(WSB file photo)

The Senior Center of West Seattle invites you to help its work continue via a pandemic-style event – here’s the announcement:

Joy Is in the Journey is the Senior Center of West Seattle’s biggest annual fundraiser. Instead of attending an in-person event this year, the community is invited to help raise $100,000 by making an online donation. All donations made before Sept. 29 will be matched up to $20,200, thanks to a generous local donor. So far, the event has raised $52,000.

Then join fellow supporters in an interactive, live virtual event on Tuesday, Sept. 29. The event will include entertainment, activity demonstrations and updates live from the Senior Center.

All donations fund the Senior Center, a fun and vibrant social gathering place in the heart of the West Seattle Junction. Gifts also support the essential services the Senior Center has been providing vulnerable seniors during this pandemic, including meals, grocery delivery, social worker outreach and phone counseling.

We are all on this journey together. Join us in supporting our community’s seniors!

Tuesday, Sept. 29
8-8:45 a.m. with virtual doors opening at 7:30 a.m.

To participate in the live event, make a donation at app.mobilecause.com/vf/2020Journey before Sept. 29.

Learn more at: sc-ws.org/events/special-events

Ken King invites you to join him this Saturday in West Seattle:

I am walking from Canada to Florida to fight suicide.

You are welcome to join us on our 5-mile walk around Alki Beach on Saturday, Sept. 26th, 10:00 am.

This is a five-mile walk around Alki Beach, from SW Canada Drive & Beach Dr. SW, to SW Florida St. & Harbor Ave. SW. Each mile represents one year from when our son Simon died from suicide.

I want to commemorate Simon’s life by participating in the Seattle, Washington Out of the Darkness Walk, an event that raises money for suicide prevention research, education, survivor and awareness programs. I will be among hundreds of thousands of people walking in more than 300 cities across the country to send a message of hope to the world.

I am walking in the Out of the Darkness Walk, to raise awareness and let people know it is OK to talk about suicide and mental illness. I want to do my part to prevent this tragedy from happening in other families.

To help make a difference, you can click this link to visit my personal fundraising webpage and donate online. I encourage you to share this letter with other people who may want to lend their support as well.

That link goes to a social-media page but you can also donate via this page on the open web.

If you have a no-longer-needed bicycle, here’s a chance to get it to someone who can use it:

350 Seattle is organizing a bike collection drive in collaboration with Bike Works now through September 26! We’re hoping to collect 200 bikes.

Why does this matter right now? Bikes provide pandemic-safe, low-cost, and climate-friendly transportation for essential workers and other people across Seattle. But right now, they’re in short supply; bike sales have soared, and many shops only have expensive bikes left. This means that many of the people that need them most can’t get their hands on them. Each year, Bike Works fixes up thousands of bikes and distributes them across Southeast Seattle. Through bike giveaways and youth programs, Bike Works aims to make cycling accessible, affordable, and welcoming to people of all backgrounds, abilities, and incomes.

What are the logistics? We’re hosting drop-off sites in West Seattle, South Seattle, Capitol Hill, Magnolia, Phinney Ridge, Ballard, the U-District, Northeast Seattle, and Woodinville on Saturday, September 26 (and most of the sites will also be open the week before). To donate follow this link, and someone will contact you with more information about where to drop off your bikes or bike gear: http://bit.ly/350SBikeDrive. And, please feel free to share this form with friends, family, and neighbors that have bikes or bike gear to donate.

Thanks to Cynthia, who’s hosting the West Seattle dropoff, for letting us know! Once you send in the form, you’ll hear back, and she’s taking dropoffs between 7:30 am and 7:30 pm all week.

Another way to help this weekend, if you can donate: Hope Lutheran Church in The Junction is hosting a drive-thru collection on Saturday (September 19th) from 10:00 am-noon.

All proceeds benefit The Welcome Table, which is run by WIN – Westside Interfaith Network. This is a free community event that happens every Saturday at Body of Christ Church in White Center. They serve neighborhood families who are low-income or homeless. Each week a meal is provided. Other items are also offered such as used clothing, personal toiletries, and food. Many families use this “pop-up food bank” each week to help ends meet.

Please consider donating these items (please, no expired items)

Cereal
Cartons of shelf-stable milk – regular, soy, almond, rice, oat
Canned fruit, vegetables, meats
Canned meals such as Spaghetti-o’s, ravioli
Cup of noodles
Pasta
Peanut butter

(Non-food items:)

Toothpaste
Deodorant
Toilet Paper
Hand sanitizer
Antibiotic ointment
Laundry detergent pods
Underwear- new or clean used, sizes M, L, XL
Men’s shirts/pants used, in good condition, all sizes
Blankets, Backpacks or Duffel bags – new or used, in good condition
Coats, Hoodies – Men’s L, XL, 2X
Cash Donations also accepted

Hope Lutheran Church is at 4456 42nd Ave SW. Enter our parking lot by turning in on 41st Ave SW and exiting to SW Oregon Street. NO-CONTACT DONATION – Volunteers will be on hand to unload your backseat or trunk so you don’t even have to get out of your car.

(Photo courtesy Hmong Association of Washington)

Need some more brightness after all these smoke-hazed days? Beautiful flowers like that can help – but they don’t just magically appear at local markets. They are grown on small farms. And like so many, those farmers have been hard-hit in these times. So they’re having a flower fundraiser, with online orders through tomorrow, and a Saturday pickup spot in White Center. Explains Cynthia Yongvang of the Hmong Association of Washington, who emailed to let us know abut this: “Our fundraiser would benefit both the Hmong flower farmers who are struggling financially during this pandemic and also our 4 very small communities (Mien, Hmong, Khmu, and Lao) in the Puget Sound area by providing rental-assistance relief to families in need so that they won’t be displaced during this time.” The order form is here, and it explains, “This weekend, based on the farmers’ selection of flowers, the mix bouquets will include sunflowers, dahlias, lilies, phlox, statice , snapdragons, gladiolus and greenery for $25, with $10 of every bouquet going to our rental assistance program.” Orders will be accepted until 3 pm tomorrow (Thursday, September 17th), with pickup options (also listed on the order form) including 9 am-noon Saturday in White Center.

How about a late lunch or early dinner for a good cause? We got late word of a chili fundraiser under way until 4 pm, outdoors at American Legion Post 160: “Delicious chili, cornbread, and soft drink for $10. Without being able to rent out for parties, the Post’s Vets emergency fund is out of money, but the need has not ended. ” In The Triangle, at 3618 SW Alaska

In just a few weeks, school starts again for thousands of local kids. Though the pandemic means “school” will look different – at least for the fall – some things haven’t changed: Many kids still need a helping hand to ensure they have supplies.

This is where Pencil Me In For Kids comes in – and has done so for almost a quarter century – with West Seattle community support, for West Seattle students. This year, that too looks different.

Sue Lindblom – who you might know as the proprietor of longtime WSB sponsor Illusions Hair Design – explains PMIFK:

We started as a fundraiser at Illusions in 1996 raising just over $1,800 and in 2002 West Seattle Rotary helped take it on as a project. Our goal has always been to get the specific small items where each school knew they would have a shortage, not just what we ‘thought’ would be helpful. This has always made PMIFK different from other fundraisers. In all this time, we have been able to purchase supplies at discounts from then-Morton’s Drugs to more recently from Staples in Westwood that have totaled tens of thousands of dollars if not much more.

Through the years, we have done raffles with prizes donated by local businesses, had a booth at the Street Festival for many years, had all our printed material donated by Liberty Bell Printing, held dinners at the West Seattle Eagles, held haircutting events at Illusions, received cash donations from Fauntleroy Church and the West Seattle Helpline, many donations from Illusions clients sometimes in the manner of our “Round Up’ pricing in August, donations from West Seattle Thriftway summer BBQs, along with money from the WS Rotary annual fund raising events.

Obviously, things have changed this year. Many events had to be cancelled and there is need everywhere.

Along with limited funding this year, each school is still in the throngs of figuring out exactly how the school will look in a month from now. We have decided to buy a few of the most needed items that are requested each year and hold back most of what we have for right now. We want to find out from each school, after a few weeks, what is needed in this year of the pandemic. The problem is there aren’t many funds this year. We are asking for help. We are asking anyone who can afford a few dollars to help us out this year to please donate.

There are two ways you can help:

#1 – An online donation page has just been set up through GoFundMe.

#2 – Send a check to send a check – for the West Seattle Rotary, noting that it’s for Pencil Me In For Kids – care of Illusions Hair Design, 5619 California Ave. SW, 98136.

Another local summer tradition that’s a little different this year: WestSide Baby‘s “Stuff the Bus” diaper drive. No in-person bus stuffing this time around, but no shortage of need … as WS Baby explains, “So far this year we have already distributed over 1.1 million diapers, about the same amount that we typically distribute in an entire YEAR!” The goal of this summer’s “Stuff the Bus” is to raise enough money for 350,000 more diapers, and WS Baby is still 50,000 short of that. If you can give, there are multiple options here.