West Seattle, Washington
23 Thursday
(BHHSNWRE photo: Tay Krull and Rebecca King)
PPE goes from head to toe. Closer to the latter end are shoe-covering “booties,” recently collected and donated by Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Northwest Real Estate (WSB sponsor), which has also launched another community-service drive, as they explain:
The brokers from both West Seattle and Burien Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Northwest Real Estate offices pulled together their on-hand inventory of foot coverings commonly used at open houses and in homes for sale.
The booties were dropped off to an offsite location and one broker then delivered them to their destination. The shoe coverings were distributed at various locations within the Multicare Health System; the Ambulatory Pharmacy teams were the primary recipients of the booties. This was something that came together fast to help fill an urgent need. We learned of the need on a Wednesday and by Friday we had all the booties collected.
We are still able to collect and deliver donations, so if people would like to donate their unused foot coverings they can contact Tay Krull at TayKrull@BHHSNWRE.com.
They’re supporting WestSide Baby, too, with an awareness campaign:
We started our awareness campaign with the intent to support WestSide Baby and the incredible service they provide for children in need. It’s so important in times like these that our amazing charities that provide necessary services are still supported and not forgotten. Through awareness we are hoping to help fill the diaper needs for WestSide Baby.
WestSide Baby has a button on the front page of their website right now – “Give a Gift Today” – and we are encouraging our Realtors and our community to donate directly through their website to make the best and fastest impact. You can donate at WestSideBaby.org. We plan to continue to draw attention and make donations through the “Stay Home, Stay Healthy” order.
When Gov. Inslee activated the National Guard in our state to help with the COVID-19 response, the plan was for members to help out at food banks. We checked with the West Seattle Food Bank at the time and they were not yet sure if anyone would be assigned – but on Monday, they arrived! The photos and update are from WSFB development director Judi Yazzolino:
Our 2 National Guardsmen started yesterday. We so needed them and so grateful. 2Lt. Akana and SSG Roberts.
You can help WSFB too – donate money and/or register for the May 9th virtual version of the “Instruments of Change” benefit!
As you’ve heard us point out multiple times … the coronavirus crisis’s many ripple effects include a double punch for social-service nonprofits: Demand is higher than ever, while at the same time, the event ban has canceled fundraisers that provide a big part of their budget. Some are morphing those fundraisers into virtual events, like the West Seattle Food Bank‘s “Instruments of Change” – and you’re invited!
With the health and safety of our neighbors in mind, we have changed our Instruments of Change Dinner/Auction benefit to an online event.
We are excited to be celebrating our wonderful community and raising funds to help our neighbors through an online Instruments of Change on May 9th at 5:30 pm. This virtual event will include a silent and live auction, fun activities, and a compelling program.
Join the fun for free! Register today to spend a short time celebrating our community, the merge between the West Seattle Food Bank and West Seattle Helpline, and to raise funds to help our neighbors stay safe, fed, housed, and healthy. Plus, everyone who registers and attends is automatically entered into a drawing to win 2 round-trip tickets on Alaska Airlines!
Thank you all! We are so grateful to be part of such a caring community, especially during these challenging times. We can’t wait to see you all (virtually) on May 9th for Instruments of Change.
As we’ve been in years past with the in-person event, WSB is a co-sponsor.
(Photo courtesy WSJA)
When the coronavirus crisis eases and businesses are allowed to reopen, how many will be able to? That question is doubly important since the closure of the West Seattle Bridge means our community will have to be more self-reliant than ever. To help small local independent businesses hang on, the West Seattle Junction Association soft-launched the Small Business Relief Fund this past week. As explained on the WSJA website:
Love your favorite merchants? You can support yours through the Junction Small Business Relief Fund. Here you can support your favorite by donating to one or many businesses. Enter the name of the small business, then pick the dollar amount. 100% of the funds will be distributed directly to the business; the Junction will pay the credit-card processing fees.
If you want your donation to benefit a non-Junction business, that’s OK too, says WSJA executive director Lora Radford. The fund is off to a promising start and every additional donation helps give another small business a fighting chance. There are four ways to donate – all explained here.
(WSB photo, last month)
Since we first reported a week and a half ago on West Seattle’s strong>Nucor Steel making face shields with 3-D printers, the effort has scaled up in a big way. Here’s an update Nucor sent us to share with you:
After the initial deliveries, the massive scope of the shortage of appropriate personal-safety equipment became more apparent.
To scale up production beyond its initial capability of 100 face shields per week, Nucor Seattle turned to the community, collaborating with the West Seattle Blog to help elevate the effort in the West Seattle neighborhood, where Nucor Seattle’s mill has operated for more than 100 years. The resulting response included several area high schools, technical schools, and residents, who have loaned idle equipment or are using personal equipment to print components and donate supplies for assembly at the steel mill.
Nucor now estimates its capacity at around 100 face shields per day and growing.
School partners include: Franklin Pierce School District, West Sound Tech, Seattle Christian, the
Chehalis School District, and the Tacoma School District.
The first production of about 20 face shields was donated April 2nd to Providence Mount St. Vincent, a long-term-care facility located around a mile from Nucor Seattle’s mill and with which Nucor Seattle has partnered for the last decade.
Since last week, around 500 shields have been delivered to area hospitals, clinics, and care facilities. The team at Nucor Seattle has so far focused on immediate support for the public health response:
• Donation of excess Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to local area medical centers, including hundreds of N95 dust masks and nitrile gloves.
• Organizing on-site additive manufacturing (3D printing) capabilities and expanding efforts to include teammates, local schools, and community resident-owned equipment to help address critical shortages in PPE.
Nucor Seattle engineers specializing in additive manufacturing have worked around-the-clock to research needs and test designs. Currently, the effort is focused on producing National Institutes of Health (NIH) approved face shields for medical workers and frontline caregivers. Nucor is now printing holders for these face shields and has purchased and received donated plastic and straps under the guidelines issued by the NIH. Nucor is also researching and designing various forms of respirator components that can be fitted with household media such as coffee and vacuum filters.
“Our teammates are working hard to design, optimize and produce materials approved by the National Institutes of Health, as well as reaching out to local medical centers and caregivers to learn how we can best support them on the frontlines of this public health crisis,” said Patrick Jablonski, Environmental Manager. “When our community learned of this effort, they stepped up to help and we have gone from 100 face shields in a week to about 100 face shields per day. We are proud to be able to use our resources to contribute to solutions but we are even more humbled by the response and immediacy with which our neighbors acted to help. We are all in this together.”
More than 300 people work at Nucor in West Seattle, which describes itself as “the biggest recycler in Washington State, using recycled scrap to produce materials used in building projects.”
Two more independent small West Seattle businesses are helping the community in unique ways:
CAFE MIA: This breakfast/lunch bistro in The Junction has stayed open for takeout but it also providing free food to those in need – this Monday, free sack lunches will be available, no questions asked. See this Instagram post for the number to text if you want one (or more) – or if you are interested in donating to help Café Mia cover the costs.
EVERGREEN TANG SOO DO ACADEMY: This martial-arts studio is about to launch an 8-week fitness challenge, with 3 online workouts a week, that’s also a fundraiser for other local independent businesses. It starts on Monday but there’s still time to sign up. Here’s the flyer (PDF) for “Kicking Coronavirus Out of Seattle”; here’s the signup page.
As reported here on Wednesday, Gov. Inslee is asking Washington manufacturers to turn their expertise and capabilities to items desperately needed to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic. We learned that one local company already has jumped in – Nucor Steel in West Seattle is making face shields with 3D printers – 20 so far, and gearing up to be able to make 100 a week. We spoke Wednesday afternoon with Nucor’s Patrick Jablonski, who has just sent photos and more information.
They are doing it with “both on-site and employee-owned additive manufacturing (3D printing) capability. Nucor Seattle engineers who specialize in additive manufacturing researched “needs, tested designs, and optimize Nucor-owned hardware in addition to their personal 3D printers at home. Currently, the effort is focused on producing National Institutes of Health-approved face shields for medical workers and frontline caregivers. Nucor is now printing holders for these face shields and has purchased plastic and straps under the guidelines issued by the NIH. Nucor is also researching and designing various forms of respirator components that can be fitted with household media such as coffee and vacuum filters.”
Once they came up with the idea, Jablonski told us, it only took about a week to formulate a plan. Now, they are working on optimizing production to 100 shields a week, and then might be able to increase the production rate.
The first 20 masks were donated to Providence Mount St. Vincent in West Seattle (which recently announced its first COVID-19 case). Jablonski says, “The Nucor Seattle team is continuing to reach out to local health care providers to learn about additional needs and design concepts.” Nucor also has donated extra PPE to local medical centers, including hundreds of N95 dust masks, and nitrile gloves.
West Seattle’s only movie theater – the historic Admiral Theater – remains closed, but you can support its parent company Far Away Entertainment – a local group of small moviehouses – by watching a movie at home. The announcement:
Magnolia Pictures is offering THE WHISTLERS, ONCE WERE BROTHERS: ROBBIE ROBERTSON AND THE BAND, and SLAY THE DRAGON as part of a virtual cinema program designed specifically to support our movie theaters.
Through Thursday, April 2, 100% of net proceeds from tickets sold will go back to our theaters, and beginning Friday, April 3. Far Away Entertainment will receive a typical studio 50/50 proceed split.
Tickets will range from $6.99 to $12.00.
If you’re new – the Admiral is an almost-80-year-old moviehouse that’s still standing only thanks to some dedicated community members, including its ownership and management. Three years ago, it had a “grand reopening” celebration after renovations that turned it into a first-run fourplex.
As we’ve mentioned more than a few times, COVID-19 has led to the cancellation/postponement of many nonprofits’ fundraisers, so they’ve been working to find creative alternatives. The Lafayette Elementary PTA has taken its auction online so what was going to be “Auction Night” has turned into an auction you can access anytime.
We are having a mini online auction for some summer camps that are time-sensitive. Click here. The auction starts NOW through April 14.
Laptop/Desktop Instructions
Click on Online/Mobile Items (left side of the screen).
There are currently 16 items up for bid.
See something you like, click on it. At the top there will be Sign Up link.
Enter your email and you will receive a personal link.
You are all set. Let the bidding begin!Mobile Device Instructions
Click on Bidding.
Click on Search.
Click on Online.
See something you like, click on it. At the top there will be Sign Up link.
Enter your email and you will receive a personal link.
You are all set. Let the bidding begin!
Lafayette’s PTA, like others, also has been busy coordinating assistance for students and their families.
What’s YOUR PTA/PTSA up to? Tell us your story! westseattleblog@gmail.com – thank you.
(Photo from HPIC newsletter)
If the high-bridge closure is suddenly sending you along SW Holden to get to the 1st Avenue South Bridge, you may be noticing the century-old Highland Park Improvement Club at 12th/Holden. It’s been a community hub for a century. Even though people can’t gather there right now, HPIC’s latest newsletter brings word of several creative ways it’s connecting neighbors, including this:
THROUGH THE WINDOWPANE: Connecting People in the Community
Are you inside looking through your windowpane for a safe face, a conversation, some entertainment? Are you able to be outside looking to fill an hour a week safely in front of a windowpane? Whichever side of the window you are on Highland Park Improvement Club has a vision for you.
We are looking to identify volunteers who:
Cannot leave their homes, feel isolated and are seeking safe human interactions to talk, smile, sing and laugh with you while remaining safely inside. If you’re interested, email us at HPIC – Inside the Window (hpic1919 at gmail dot com, with that subject line).
Individuals or families who are looking for opportunities to talk, smile, sing, and laugh from a front yard or walkway. If you’re interested, email us at HPIC – Outside the Window (hpic1919 at gmail dot com, with that subject line).
Through the Windowpane will train volunteers with safe distancing procedures, ways to communicate through a window, and other fun activities to lessen isolation while providing some structure and routine to your week.
This is geared toward Highland Park – but it’s certainly something any neighborhood could replicate. Meantime, HPIC’s making plans for an online edition of what would otherwise be its monthly Corner Bar this Friday – an hour of streamed music at 8 pm – details to come.
(WSB file photo)
C & P Coffee Company (longtime WSB sponsor) has decided to close for now, almost two weeks after the governor’s order to close restaurants/beverage businesses aside from takeout/delivery. Co-proprietors Cameroon and Pete Moores sent us their announcement, which spotlights a way for the community to help their staff:
Dear Friends and Neighbors
It is with a heavy heart that we have decided to temporarily close the coffee house. We feel that it is the best way to support our community and keep our customers and employees safe.
We have established a Go-FundMe “Tip Jar” for our hard working baristas who are most affected by this.
Here is the link if you would like to contribute.
www.gofundme.com/f/c-amp-p-tip-jarPlease don’t hesitate to reach out through Facebook or e-mail: candpco@candpcoffee.com.
We will update the website with any additional news:
candpcoffee.comWe will miss you during our closure but know that we plan on opening up our doors as soon as possible. We will continue to be a community hub of arts, music and conversation. A place where neighbors can share a cup of coffee, support a cause, and a whole lot of joy and laughter.
Our doors may be closed for now but our hearts are open.
With so much love and gratitude,
Cam and Pete
If you are new – C & P Coffee has a unique backstory; two years ago, the property’s owners put it on the market as a potential redevelopment site; with community support, the Moores bought it, two years ago this month.
We are continuing to update the West Seattle restaurant/beverages list as changes come in.
An update from the West Seattle YMCA (WSB sponsor):
Due to the statewide mandate to prevent the spread of COVID-19, all Y branches, offices, and clinics are temporarily closed for normal operation. Housing, shelter, and counseling services continue with social distancing practices. We are quickly responding to this change and will provide details on our website, and via email to members, as the situation changes.
Beginning on Wednesday, March 18, the West Seattle YMCA pivoted its work and will provide full-day child care at the West Seattle Branch, FREE of charge to first responders and healthcare workers. Members who maintain their membership dues, volunteering, and donating help the Y tremendously, as we take on additional work to meet the growing needs of our fellow community members who are economically or medically vulnerable. We are directing our community funding to critical and essential services such as child care, securing food for vulnerable children, and serving those experiencing homelessness and economic disruption.
To learn more about our efforts in responding to this crisis and how you can help, please visit our website at seattleymca.org/coronavirus/community-action. THANK YOU to our members who have chosen to not cancel their memberships in order to sustain this work! For those who want to support our efforts, there is an option to donate as well.
(WSB file photo)
From the Southwest Seattle Historical Society, which is headquartered at Alki’s landmark Log House Museum:
The Southwest Seattle Historical Society is requesting your help to document history as it unfolds.
The Southwest Seattle Historical Society realizes that we are living through an historic event. In an effort to document the effects of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on our community, we are collecting diary entries from residents of the Duwamish Peninsula. How has COVID-19 influenced your life and that of the community in which we live? Consider submitting an entry to help future historians understand how the COVID-19 pandemic influenced life in Southwest Seattle.
Visit to share your experience (here).
Or go directly to the form (here).
Though the museum is currently closed, you can explore some of its offerings online.
Anyone have masks you haven’t donated yet? New request just in:
Hello, West Seattle Neighbors,
My name is Charlie Austin and I work with the activities department here at the Kenney Home on Fauntleroy Way SW, just north of Lincoln Park.
We are in dire need of N95 masks (or any cloth Masks) for our nursing staff here at the Kenney as well as gloves and PPE and are looking to the community to see if anyone has this equipment that they would be willing to donate to us. We have been working very hard to maintain the health of our residents and so far have been completely successful in keeping COVID-19 outside our doors. But in order to continue this level of safety for those living here we need to have access to masks, in particular, which are running in short supply.
The Kenney has been a West Seattle mainstay since 1907 when the Seattle city fathers established us. Many of you know us firsthand. Your grandparents and great-grandparents may have retired here.
Please help us continue to keep them safe and healthy. If you have anything that you would be willing to donate to us, we would be ever so appreciative. Simply bring them to The Kenney, 7125 Fauntleroy Way SW. We have a circle drive at that address which drives right up to our front door. I, or one of our employees will greet you there and bring the donations inside to make sure we stay C-19 free.
Thank you very much for your help in this stressful time and for helping us keep your parents and grandparents safe.
With much gratitude,
Charlie Austin
The Kenney Home
West Seattle
In hopes of helping connect West Seattleite who need help with those who want to help, community advocates Phil Tavel and Brendan Kolding, with help from Sarah Rodermund, have launched a new collaborative effort online. The website – westseattlecovid.recovers.org – is intended “to better connect individual volunteers and community organizations with local needs” in the coronavirus crisis. They’re using the Recovers.org platform, founded in 2012, which can connect volunteers with individuals who have specific needs, in a more-structured way, supplementing what’s already happening around the area. “It’s not an either/or,” Tavel said in the launch announcement. “It’s a both/and. We need everyone in our community to come together on this, and we are eager to provide additional tools.” Organizations can use the site too; the announcement explains, “Both needs and resources are tagged with specific labels like ‘transportation” or ‘medical supplies’ that are searchable to streamline the matching process. In addition, site administrators can help facilitate communication and recruit resources as needs emerge.” Got questions or want to help coordinate? Contact Phil Tavel at 206.949.8680 or ptavel@gmail.com.
Warm-hearted people keep offering help. Here’s one place that can use it – the Senior Center of West Seattle. An update from interim executive director Amy Lee Derenthal:
Help us help our seniors! Make a donation to provide food to a senior in our community.
At the Senior Center of West Seattle, we’re uniquely qualified to reach out to seniors in our community. Our building in the Junction has been closed since March 6th but we’re still providing essential services of delivering daily lunches, groceries from the West Seattle Food Bank and Meals on Wheels.
We want to continue doing this and need your help. As we make calls and check-in with our members and participants we’re learning what they need from us and we want to be able to fulfill their needs and expand the outreach in to the community.
Here are three ways we’re asking the community to help out:
1. DONATE. So you can help us continue and expand our essential needs programs to seniors in our community. CLICK HERE TO MAKE A SECURE DONATION
2. VOLUNTEER. So you can help us deliver the items seniors are requesting and any other help we may find we need. Please email SCWSVolunteer@soundgenerations.org if you are able to help out (please note: we are asking people 60+ to stay home per the King County Health Department so we’re not accepting applications from anyone over 60 at this time.)
3. CONNECTING US TO SENIORS. Email us at info.scws@soundgenerations.org or call 206.932.4044 x 1 if you know of a senior who doesn’t have family or friends to help them out. We’ll do our best to connect with them and offer services.
We’re also exploring purchasing meals from our local restaurants for delivery but do not have the funds to do this at this time. If we get enough support through this fund drive, we’ll work to support our local community in this way while feeding seniors.
The photo is of a poster at Highland Park improvement Club – we’ve reported on the community effort there to get food to kids, and now they’ve sent word:
We need volunteers!
We need to get all this generously donated food to our students by having a daily distribution. If you are healthy and not at risk, please help us reach families by signing up at the link below. Social-distancing protocols are in place. Thank you!
HPIC is at 1116 SW Holden.
Though Providence‘s campaign has been called off, here’s a new local call for help:
Hello West Seattle Friends,
As you know, the request for homemade masks from Providence has been fulfilled. If you are looking for other mask-making opportunities, we have a beloved local grocery store who can use 150 masks, especially as they have set aside special hours for at-risk folks. Employees are not required to wear them but many have expressed an interest. While these are not medical-grade masks, they are the two-ply, 100% cotton model being used by Deaconess Hospital in Indiana that created this instructional video. According to the NIH “homemade mask should only be considered as a last resort to prevent droplet transmission from infected individuals, but it would be better than no protection.” We are also waiting to hear from Harborview to see if they too would like some of the homemade masks. If so, we will put out another call for volunteers. Please email bettertogether206@gmail.com
Thank you. Stay safe. Stay Hopeful.
Other ways you can help are in our longrunning “How to Help” WSB coverage archive.
If you have extra personal protection equipment to donate so those on the COVID-19 pandemic front lines can be adequately protected – coordinated collection events are under way. Thanks to the readers who were first to spot both of these sites where you can sign up !
CITY OF SEATTLE SURVEY: Sign up here if you have something to donate. The form asks about:
Basic Isolation Masks
N95 Masks
P100 Masks
Surgical Masks
Eye wear
Disposable Gowns
Gloves
As explained here, donors who sign up there will be contacted for coordination of pickup or dropoff. Questions? PPEdonations@seattle.gov
UNION-LED EFFORT: Unopened boxes of masks (preferably N95), gowns, eye protection, and gloves are sought by this drive (or other medical equipment that might be offered) – read more and sign up here.
11:44 AM: Multiple readers flagged us to this – the health-care organization Providence is asking for volunteers to agree to sew at least 100 masks each. They’re providing the materials, but you need your own machine. So far their only announced pickup location is in Renton, but you can sign up for notification when there’s something closer (considering that Providence does have facilities in West Seattle including The Mount). Interested? Sign up here.
2 PM: The list has since been filled up, readers report in comments below.
Here’s something kids can do – adults too – to help seniors, who are isolated more than ever in an attempt to keep them safe. Natalie from The Kenney sent this announcement:
Are you wanting to make a difference and brighten a senior’s day during this difficult time, without much effort or money? We are looking for volunteers to join The Kenney Pen Pal Program. You can connect with our community’s wonderful seniors, whether you’re young or old. You can bring joy and happiness to a resident, while keeping them safe in their apartment at The Kenney!
How to participate:
1. Start by writing a handwritten letter introducing yourself and asking the resident questions about themselves.
2. Mail letter to “My Future Pen Pal” at the address below:
7125 Fauntleroy Way SW
Seattle, WA 98136-20083. Please include an address for the resident to mail back their return letter.
4. The Kenney staff will assign each resident wanting to participate a pen pal and will help residents send their letters back out to their pen pals.
We’re building a West Seattle “how to help” list – if you have something for it, westseattleblog@gmail.com – thank you!
The good news: Lots of interest in helping ensure blood is available. The not-as-good news: If you signed up for the March 27th drive at West Seattle Runner (WSB sponsor), you need to re-register – there’s a new location. WSR co-proprietor Tim McConnell explains:
The West Seattle Runner Blood Drive had to be moved, as Bloodworks Northwest could no longer have blood drives on their buses due to social distancing issues.
The event has been moved to the Combat Arts Academy of Seattle, 5050 Delridge Way SW. It is now listed as West Seattle Community Blood Drive, and is combining 3 different drives into this one day. Anyone who signed up for the drive in front of West Seattle Runner needs to reschedule for this new event, as all appointments have been cancelled.
The new link is schedule.bloodworksnw.org/DonorPortal/GroupLanding.aspx?s=437B
We appreciate everyone who signed up; we had more than 45 people schedule in less than 4 hours, such a great response! Please be sure to reschedule, as blood donations are at a critically low level.
Thanks, Lori and Tim – West Seattle Runner
The question “how can I help?” continues to resound. Here’s updated information from the West Seattle Food Bank, along with gratitude:
We at the West Seattle Food Bank would like to give a big THANK YOU to all of the incredibly generous neighbors that have reached out to help us by donating funds, food, and your time. We are very humbled by your support and appreciate your dedication to keeping our neighbors fed and safe in their homes. It is our priority to keep our community healthy while continuing to ensure all our neighbors have access to food, emergency financial assistance, diapers, and other basic needs.
At this time, the Food Bank will remain open; however, how we provide our services has been in transition as we adapt to changing circumstances. We continue to provide Home Delivery services; we are communicating with community partners to determine how to best ensure our students stay fed during school closures; and we continue to process requests for financial assistance. The Clothesline is closed until further notice.
We realize that there are many in our community who need help in many ways. We have put together an extensive list of financial assistance resources for the greater Seattle area that we’re hoping will help.
Your support through monetary gifts continues to allow us the flexibility of using funds for specific needs that arise from this evolving situation. You can donate here to help your neighbors during this difficult time.
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