Category Archives: Volunteering and Giving

Recreation, Volunteering and Giving

Cheasty Greenspace needs bucket brigade, bike park supporters

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Will we see trails like this in Cheasty Greenspace someday? Photo by Explore The Bruce via Creative Commons/Flickr.

The Friends of Cheasty Greenspace/Mt. View have posted a plea for major volunteer help on Saturday, June 2 from 10 a.m. until noon. A “bucket brigade” is needed to help surface the Ridge Trail with gravel.

If you are able to help, meet the group at 2809 S. Alaska Pl. Tools and gloves will be provided, but volunteers should bring water and perhaps snacks to share.

In other Cheasty Greenspace news, a group of neighbors are working together to create an Opportunity Fund proposal to build a multi-use trail system (including mountain bike trails) in the north part of the Greenspace. Find out more at the Beacon Bike Park website.

Local Events, Volunteering and Giving

Taste of Van Asselt needs vendors, musicians

The folks organizing the Taste of Van Asselt event this summer have issued a call for vendors and musicians. The event is Saturday, July 21 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Van Asselt Community Center, 2820 S. Myrtle St. on South Beacon Hill.

The cost is $35 per food or arts and crafts vendor, and each vendor must have a Seattle business license. The deadline for registering is Wednesday, July 11. Sound like something you’re interested in? Call 206-386-1921 for more information or to register.

Volunteer musicians are also needed for the event. Interested musicians should call 206-512-5281.

Clean and Green, Volunteering and Giving

Neighbors clean up litter for Earth Day

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Neighbor Sergey Smirnov wrote this recently on the Beacon Hill mailing list:

This past Sunday, in honor of Earth Day, we organized a litter clean up in North Beacon Hill. Twelve neighbors gathered together to make the neighborhood a cleaner place for all and collected over 60 pounds of trash. We focused our efforts on the area around the Beacon Hill Playground, gathering trash from South 12th, 13th and 14th Avenues from South Massachusetts to South Hill and the adjacent alleys. Plus — we all had a blast! We hope to make this a quarterly clean up — let me know if you would like to join us next time!

Photos of the Earth Day clean up, courtesy of Sergey Smirnov:


Continue reading Neighbors clean up litter for Earth Day →

Arts, Volunteering and Giving

Beacon Hill contributes to “Spiral of Hope” in Lake Union Park

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Part of Beacon Hill will become a new temporary sculpture in Lake Union Park: “Spiral of Hope.” Thousands of tree branches from Dr. Jose Rizal Park and the greenbelt on the northwest side of Beacon Hill will be gathered and assembled by community volunteers to build the spiral, which will remain at Lake Union Park until June 17. The work is intended to give a diverse group of community members a chance to work together, as well as to stimulate thought and discussions about the issue of family homelessness.

Kiersten Throndsen of BHB news partner KOMO Communities recently posted about the project:

“Hope, opportunity, community – these are the words used to describe a new sculpture coming to Lake Union Park.

“‘We think art is an inspiring process,’ said Bryan Ohno, president of Urban Art Concept.

“Last fall, Ohno was approached by several students from Seattle University who shared a vision.

“‘They came to us and were wondering if we could use art as a tool to bring more awareness to family homelessness throughout the state of Washington,’ he said.

“Their idea sparked the ‘Spiral of Hope’ project.

“‘Usually someone is spiraling down, out of control but we are going to do the opposite, our spiral will soar up,’ said Ohno.”

Ohno worked with Beacon Hill resident Craig Thompson to organize the branch collection. Volunteers gathered branches at Rizal Park last weekend, but the project continues at the park this coming weekend as well (April 21-22). To join the volunteer project, sign up at the Facebook page, send an email to info@urbanartconcept.com with “Spiral Project Volunteer” in the subject line, or call 206-459-6857.

Volunteers are also needed to help build the sculpture on weekends starting on Friday, April 27 at Lake Union Park, 860 Terry Avenue North. The sculpture opens with a reception on Friday, May 18.

Arts, Education, Local Events, Volunteering and Giving

Family films, music, and auction to benefit Rainier Valley Co-op Preschool

Click to see a larger copy of the event flyer.
Rainier Valley Cooperative Preschool, located in the Beacon Hill Lutheran Church building on South Forest Street, is hosting a movie matinee, music party, and auction fundraiser on Saturday, March 24 from 10 a.m. until noon. The event will take place at the Northwest Film Forum on Capitol Hill (1515 12th Avenue). All proceeds go to support this community preschool.

The day will include two showings of Touch My Heart: Gentle Films on the Big Screen, a collection of film shorts from this year’s Children’s Film Festival, live music by Eli Rosenblatt, and a silent auction. Highlights of the auction will include desserts of the month, a handmade quilt, single-malt scotch whiskey tasting, landscape architectural consultation, bike tuneups, a watercolor and ink portrait commission of your child, a birthday party for 15 at Southgate Roller Rink, gift cards to local businesses, and a guided mushroom identification walk.

Tickets are $6 in advance, and $8 at the door. You can buy tickets for a 10:00 a.m. movie showing with the auction afterward, or for the 10:30 auction with a movie showing afterward at 11:30. The auction will run from 10:30-11:15. Please bring cash or checks for your tickets, concessions, and the silent auction.

For information about tickets, contact: rvcpmovies@gmail.com.

Clean and Green, Volunteering and Giving

Friends of Lewis Park need you to pledge your time

Plants grow happily in a cleaned-up Lewis Park. Photo courtesy of Friends of Lewis Park.
The Friends of Lewis Park need your help. They have sent out the following letter to explain:

Hello Neighbors,

Friends of Lewis Park are entering the 6th year of forest restoration of the Lewis Park Natural Area. In the Fall of 2011, the Opportunity Funds award paid for professional work crews to clear the steep slopes of Lewis Park. Once the forest of laurel and holly, ivy and clematis was removed, a beautiful topography was revealed. As a result of the hard work by many volunteers during the last five years of restoration, the illicit and criminal activity that once plagued Lewis Park has disappeared. Now that the area is open and accessible, we need to encourage positive activity in the park. In addition, the Lewis Park Restoration is in transition from a forest steward-led restoration project to long-term community-based stewardship.

An Interpretive Trail will be a great way to both foster that transition and provide a way to create positive activity within this beautiful Natural Area. We want to create a trail that will reflect the many cultures on Beacon Hill in a way that introduces and educates our community of the values and benefits of having an urban forest in our neighborhood. Our goal is to hire a landscape architect with the funds to design the bones of the trail and, then engage our community to provide the content of the natural area interpretive focus.

The Lewis Park Steering committee is applying for a Department of Neighborhoods Small and Simple grant to hire a landscape architect who will design the trail and facilitate community-based interpretive content for the trail. To receive the grant, we need to document match pledges. To that end, if you would like to support the Lewis Park Natural Area Interpretive Trail project, please do the following:

Send an email to: lewisparkseattle@gmail.com with the following info:

YOUR PLEDGE MUST BE RECEIVED BY FRIDAY, MARCH 9 IN ORDER TO INCLUDE IT IN OUR GRANT PROPOSAL.

Name

Address

Phone

Hours pledged (anything from 4-40)

Activity (this can be attending design meetings, outreach, flyers, food donation, grant/project development)

Questions can be directed to:

Dee Dunbar, dd1377@gmail.com, 206-778-1377

Susan Sanders, susan@soldbysusan.com, 206-914-4155

Education, Volunteering and Giving

Cleveland needs community volunteers—today

Pat Murakami of the Cleveland High School PTSA sent this late appeal to the community, seeking volunteers at the school for today:

There are MANY great things about Cleveland High School. Advanced planning isn’t one of them. A teacher approached me today, asking for parent volunteers for tomorrow [February 15]. Most of our parents have limited free time during the work day, so if community members would like to participate in the following, it would be a great opportunity to check out Cleveland from the inside. Folks will find out what a fine school Cleveland is, and what incredible students go there.

Kate Reedy, a Humanities teacher, needs volunteers February 15th as ‘Members of Congress.’ The students will be testifying before us at a Congressional Hearing. It will be fun and a great opportunity to see our students in action. You are welcome to participate in one or all of the following sessions. The Hearings will be held in Room 1207 of the Main Building.

  • 3/4 Period 9:20 – 10:45
  • 5/6 Period 12:00 – 1:25
  • 7/8 Period 1:30 – 2:50

Please park in the lot at the south end of the school (off 15th Avenue South) and enter the original Cleveland building (just north of the parking lot) on the side facing away from 15th. Sign in at the counter on the left hand side of the entrance area. Room 1207 is on the 2nd floor of this building.

Thank you!

Pat Murakami, 2011-12 PTSA President

Clean and Green, Volunteering and Giving

Beacon Food Forest moving forward in 2012

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This is the site that will become the Beacon Food Forest. Construction will start later this year. Photo courtesy of Friends of the Beacon Food Forest.
(This has been edited since original publication to correct the contact address. –Ed.)

Glenn Herlihy from the Beacon Food Forest sent us the group’s latest newsletter. Read on for information about the beginning of Food Forest construction, project grants, how to get involved, next Monday’s Steering Committee meeting, and a movie night on March 2 (Vanishing of the Bees).

We begin building the food forest this year!

2012 will be a big year for the Beacon Food Forest (BFF). In Dec. 2011 we received word from the Seattle Department of Neighborhoods/ P-Patch Program the BFF will be receiving $100,000 to further develop the design and begin building. This is levy money administered by The Seattle P-Patch Program to fund and upstart new public gardens for communities without access to community gardens. Thank you very much P-Patch/Department of Neighborhoods and Voters for this grand opportunity to transform our sustainable community vision into reality!

For more info about P-Patches and the BFF, http://www.seattle.gov/neighborhoods/ppatch/locations/BeaconFoodForest.htm

The Levy money will jump start phase one of our garden. Having completed the schematic design, we will use some of the levy money to complete more detailed construction designs. These will enable us to assess the amount of grading and earth works needed at the site. We will also be hooking into city water and running water lines for irrigation throughout the 1.75 acres. We have a deadline to use these funds by Dec 31, 2012.
There is a bit of work to be done first, but it will be this summer and fall that our community will lay out beds/paths and begin planting a food forest! We know from our mail there are a lot of you out there wanting to dig in and grow, your time has come. Please stay tuned for more updates and events or contact us anytime at http://beaconfoodforest.weebly.com/contact-join.html.

Continue reading Beacon Food Forest moving forward in 2012 →

Volunteering and Giving

Volunteers needed for Lewis Park work party Sunday

Christine Cole sent this announcement today:

“This Sunday, February 5th from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. is Lewis Park’s first work party of 2012. It will be extra special because the forecast includes mild temperatures and sun, sun, sun! If you’re interested in signing up, please visit our website here and click on the “Sign Up” link on the right side of the home page (sign up is not mandatory; walk on over!)”

Lewis Park work parties will be on the first and third Sundays of each month through November.

Volunteering and Giving

Volunteers wanted to help out in local parks

Two Beacon Hill parks are part of the Martin Luther King Jr. Weekend of Service volunteer activities this weekend through EarthCorps, the Seattle Department of Parks and Recreation, and the Green Seattle Partnership. Volunteers will work at Dearborn Park and Jose Rizal Park, doing a variety of service tasks including maintenance, planting of trees and ground cover, invasive plant removal, wood chip application, and more.

The following Saturday, January 21, EarthCorps is organizing another volunteer event on Beacon Hill at the Cheasty Greenspace.

To be part of any of these volunteer events, read more and sign up at the links below: