Seattle, WA. Mary’s Place has exceeded a two million dollar campaign goal, despite the present economic impacts, with more than 6,000 individuals and over 200 local businesses generous contributions. As a result, Mary’s Place – the region’s largest family emergency shelter provider was able to create a Rapid Response Fund ahead of the eviction moratorium end date, to bring families inside into safe shelters and provide permanent housing beyond the Covid-19 pandemic.
To celebrate the end of the campaign, captured in the feature image, Mary’s Place released the following video:
Marty Hartman, Mary’s Place Executive Director expressed her heartfelt thanks, “We are so grateful to our community for this incredible outpouring of support. When the eviction moratorium comes to an end, we know that many families who are struggling will face homelessness. The new Rapid Response Fund will help us meet the increasing need and keep families housed by providing flexible funding solutions.”
With help from the community, Mary’s Place provides shelter and housing to families through the successful campaign.
In previous years, several festive events and activities had been celebrated during the campaign. This year, observing Covid-19 related safety measures, events were held virtually and included the following: a weekend at-home scavenger hunt, a game night, an online concert by the Amazon Symphony Orchestra, and Dick’s Drive-In Burger Box “virtual” Bingo. Continuing its ongoing commitment to the issue of family homelessness, the campaign kicked-off with a 250,000 dollar contribution from The Starbucks Foundation.
Mary’s Place exceeded the campaign goal to protect families.
To hear more and view updates from Mary’s Place visit the Facebook page at:
Mary’s Place believes that no one’s child should sleep outside. They provide safe and inclusive shelter and resources for women, children and families on their journey out of homelessness. Mary’s Place currently operates five crisis response family shelters providing refuge and community for 500 family members experiencing homelessness. To learn more about this organization and get involved, visit Mary’s Place Seattle
Seattle, WA. Inspire Washington maintains the role of resource development and advocacy for science, heritage, and the arts after the merging of Cultural Access Washington and the Washington State Arts Alliance. It supports enrichment programs like the one seen above during a pre-covid event at the Pacific Science Center. Manuel R. Cawaling, Executive Director, continues to assist organizations across Washington state, navigating Covid-19 restrictions, clarifying informational updates, and making sample survey templates and advocacy resources accessible. A list of these resources can be found here: Covid-19 Advocacy and Resources
Inspire Washington encourages the spread of culture
Arts, Heritage, and Science Day is an opportunity for cultural advocates to gather together and meet legislators that support these communities. Inspire Washington provides tools for advocates to fully participate, with training and logistical support. In the past, this annual event has been held in Olympia, and included legislative briefings and a full day of workshops. This year, a tribute to arts, heritage and science has been scheduled for the first week of February, through a series of discussions preparing community leaders for funding meetings with lawmakers. The sessions will be held virtually: AH&S Informational Sessions
Among a cohort of funding organizations, Inspire Washington collaborated to survey the financial needs and analyze recovery measures in the cultural sector. These data summaries from a statewide cultural recovery survey and economic impact dashboard report the findings.
The Inspire Washington team has created a path for community leaders to get involved and represent Washington’s 49 districts together, including the following: writing a lawmaker a message,joining a district for legislative advocacy, and by signing up to advocate for culture in Washington state. Cawaling hosts meetings for cultural businesses to learn about pandemic relief and the ways to support science, heritage, and the arts.
To help understand the ever changing developments related to Covid-19 relief, Inspire Washington hosts an office hour.
From Inspire Washington:
Mission: Inspire Washington nurtures the human spirit and strengthens communities by increasing access to science, heritage, and arts programming through advocacy, resource development, education, and coalition building.
Seattle, WA. The Center for Wooden Boats began in 1976 as a “living museum” preserving maritime heritage. During the Covid-19 pandemic, the nonprofit has continued to provide hands-on experiences by rapidly implementing safety measures. Sandy Lam, Community Engagement Director, describes the ability to contribute to the community with safe, socially distanced activities, including the following: youth programs with each participant sailing their own boat, offering free one-hour rowboat sessions, and by shifting the 3rd Friday Speaker Series to a virtual platform.
The video below is a sailing snapshot, titled Celebrate on the Lake.
Down at the Boathouse is a podcast created to broaden the reach to maritime enthusiasts worldwide and is a community-led sharing of stories inspired by those told on the docks.
The Center for Wooden Boats is a welcoming gathering place with two locations in Lake Union Park in Seattle captured in the feature image and Cama Beach State Park on Camano Island, a beautiful setting to escape the city, with the option for members to extend their stay with a cabin rental. The 45th anniversary will be celebrated with small events throughout the year, titled Connecting Generations and Maritime Heritage.
An art poster competition opened for submissions this month to celebrate the anniversary and showcases previous posters recorded in the archives.
From The Center for Wooden Boats:
This is a community that focuses on creating equitable access to maritime experiences. Mission: The Center for Wooden Boats promotes northwest maritime heritage through education, interpretation, and hands-on experience in building, maintaining, and using historic small craft. Interested in getting involved and becoming a member? Join the Center for Wooden Boats
Seattle, WA. Pike Place Market is open to visitors, and many vendors are offering unique items for sale in-person. This year, due to Covid-19 restrictions, vendors are also offering items for sale online. It’s an online charitable marketplace where you can buy items and have them shipped to your home. Patricia Gray, Community Relations Manager of the Pike Place Market Foundation, explains, “It’s not your typical tourist place; but it’s a real place with authentic people, and that is because it’s actually a living, breathing, village. It’s a village that all works together to support a whole community where everyone is welcome.” Here’s a video about the Market this holiday season:
The Pike Place Market is more than meets the eye: not only is it a serene place to wander while sipping a cup of cold brew and browsing local art, it has a historical charter that focuses on providing low-income housing and services, especially for seniors. The Pike Place Market Foundation initiated a recovery fund in June 2020. The $3.5 million campaign will go toward increasing the size of the community safety net to support vendors in the Market and launch emergency programs to support the senior residents of the Market.
Even Rachel the Pig, the iconic market piggy bank, is sprayed with Lysol. Photo courtesy of the Pike Place Market.
If you visit the Market you’ll find safety measures to keep customers healthy: increased sanitization, social distancing, and mask implementation. The money donated to the Rachel the Pig piggy bank goes straight to the Market Foundation to fund many services, which have expanded during the pandemic. Emergency programs such as food distribution, Covid-19 testing, and shelter-in-place orders for over 500 senior residents of the Market are a few of the programs implemented by the foundation. Since the Covid-19 shutdown, the Market’s social services remain open and deployed emergency programs such as food distribution and Covid-19 testing for neighbors throughout downtown in addition to shelter-in-place orders for more than 500 senior residents of the market. The Pike Market Senior Center, Food Bank, Health Clinic, and Heritage House remain open.
The Pike Market food bank provides much-needed assistance during tough times. Photo courtesy of the Pike Place Market Foundation.
Now for big ray-of-sunshine news: the foundation is very close to its $3.5 million dollar goal. “The dollars are flying in, and it’s the holiday season so things are really busy. We will announce our grand total in January,” says Patricia Gray. However there is still a long road ahead, and the Market will have to double down on its recovery fund efforts if it wants to continue supporting local businesses and residents. The Pike Place Market Foundation has given out about a hundred grants to the Market small businesses so far, totaling up to half a million dollars of the recovery fund, and on top of that, a worker safety net is available to help vendors cover rent and healthcare costs. When the current eviction moratorium has expired, these artists will likely need more assistance with rent.
If you shop online at the Charitable Marketplace, a portion of the proceeds goes towards the Market Foundation. In this way, shoppers can support local artists while also supporting local residents through the low-income housing provided by the Market Foundation.
Blown glass ornaments made by Motoko and Joshua. Photo Courtesy of the KOBO Art Garden.
One of the vendors, the KOBO Art Garden, (http://www.koboartgarden.com) is not able to sell in person at the Market right now. The business is run by Motoko Hayashi and Joshua Swanson, a couple that has creatively transformed their garage into an art studio to create their authentic blown-glass artwork. The couple has been selling their art at the Market for fifteen years, and now they must rely solely on online sales through their website.
Typically the KOBO Art Garden hosts a glass-blowing workshop, where people come and learn to blow their own glass creations, which they get to take home. It’s the perfect way to get hands-on experience and become immersed in the art of glass-sculpting. These sessions are temporarily on hold due to the virus, so income has been sparse. Luckily the couple was able to qualify for a loan, but what they really need is the support of locals.
Wavy bowls crafted by Motoko and Joshua. Photo courtesy of KOBO Art Garden.
As you are finishing up some last-minute holiday shopping, consider shopping at the Pike Place Charitable Marketplace, where you can support local businesses while also funding the Market foundation. Of course, you can still go in-person to Pike Place Market with your cold brew and bundles of scarves, where you can say hi to Rachel the Pig and throw some coins in there too (for good luck, of course).
Seattle, WA. Fifth Avenue Theatre is ready to host two live-stream holiday concerts are made to recreate the joys of live theatre. There will be holiday music, tap dancing, and all sorts of colorful festivities to brighten this chilly Seattle winter.
“This year we are doing a different kind of holiday special where we are celebrating all parts of the season,” says Bernie Griffin, Managing Director of the Fifth Avenue Theater. “We have a couple of hosts, Cayman Ilika and Shaunyce Omar, and some special guests– kind of a throwback to when I was growing up, the old holiday specials where there would be special guests that would pop in.” The Fifth Avenue Theater isn’t holding back this holiday season, but brightening the mood with a festive holiday special that can be viewed online.
This online performance is different from what the theater is used to: “For the holidays we would normally bring in about fifty thousand people into the downtown theater for our holiday show, and have been a part of families memories for decades” says Bernie. This year the Fifth Ave has gotten creative with their shows, especially among Governor Inslee’s new Coronavirus regulations. “We were actually going to film our holiday special at the theater a few weeks ago, and then the governor’s mandate came down as far as additional restrictions for the good of the health guidelines, so we had to send all of the equipment out to people’s homes. They filmed in their own apartments and houses, we sent music to them and now it’s splicing it all together,” she explained.
This beautiful theatre will remain empty this holiday season, but the Fifth Ave is bringing the music straight to your home.
The Fifth Avenue Theatre is offering a variety of package optionsfor theatre-fanatics with subscriber access to new content including a mix of exclusive original video, podcasting content, and live stream concerts by theatre partners around the world. Subscribers can enjoy micro-doses of musical theater with access to original video series’, in which actors and composers cooperate to create an original video-story and song. Or, for a full dose of musical theater, subscribers can listen to full-length musical podcasts featuring the 5th’s First Draft commission Half the Sky and Afterwords (Village Theater Beta Series); and one more still to be announced. Cuddle up with a steaming hot-cocoa and enjoy live concerts from the lobby Cabaret; performances by Seattle stars filmed from the lobby of The 5th.
Determined to continue supporting local artists during the pandemic, The 5th Ave recently hosted its Holiday Bazaar. This nine-day virtual event was an auctioning off of wines and various Fifth Avenue gems, as well as a marketplace for artisans who are not currently working. “All of that money goes directly to the artisans for their beautiful hand-crafted gifts. We hope it provides a little bit of assistance,” says Bernie Griffin. “I just recognize the individuals who work for The Fifth Ave and their dedication to this organization, our community, our patrons and our artists, to figure out how to do this”.
The “Pearl or Perfection” chandelier, historical centerpiece to an intricate ceiling.
The Fifth Avenue Theatre has a deep-rooted history here in Seattle. Constructed in 1926, the theatre is today considered one of the most beautiful theatres in our country, thanks to its elaborate interior design. The ceiling is an exact replica of the ceiling of the Throne Room of Beijing’s Imperial Palace, only it’s twice the size. The ornate, five-toed dragon in the center was created as a symbol of the Chinese emperor, with the “Pearl of Perfection” chandelier dangling from his mouth. In the 1990’s, the theatre became the only professional theater organization in the Pacific Northwest to stage both Broadway touring musicals and its own original productions at the time. From its very inception, The 5th Avenue Theatre was created to serve Seattle. The theatre has supported other Seattle theatre organizations, and has made grants to support education programs at cultural institutions throughout Seattle. Not to mention providing much-needed musical entertainment and creative release to Satellites.
5th avenue street lights up in celebration of the holiday season.
This year has been challenging as far as musical theatre goes, as Coronavirus regulations prohibit people from gathering. However, The 5th Ave continues to “create art and to continue to lift the spirits of folks as only musical theater can do,” says a hopeful Bernie Griffin. “However it is that we are able to do that during this time is what our role is as a community asset”. The theatre is happy to continue to feed the creative appetite of the Seattle community, and is grateful for its supportive followers. There is much to look forward to in terms of new shows, podcasts and concerts– all of which can be found on The Fifth Avenue website. “During this time we really need the support of all our community, when the time is right, to get back on our feet”.
We’re proud to introduce The Essential 5th Digital Collection, a digital season featuring content created by The 5th that immerses you in the very essence of musical theater.
With The Essential 5th Digital Collection, we invite you to join us in our virtual theater for a mix of exclusive original video and podcasting content created by The 5th and livestream concerts by theater partners around the world—including some of Broadway’s brightest stars.
The Essential 5th is broken out into three different package options with subscriber access to exciting new content expanding at every level:
The 5th Avenue Theatre has an essential role to play in your life—just as you have an essential role to play in ours. The close connection between our audience and our art has always lead to musical experiences at their richest. It is your support—whether through your subscription, your donation, or even your kind words and messages—that we maintain the critical resources that support our staff, create opportunities for our local artists, and plan for recovery.
NONPROFIT BENEFIT TICKET GIVEAWAYS!
Sign up for our free weekly highlights for the chance to win two tickets terrific nonprofit events! If you “like” us on facebook, or sign up for our weekly news highlights, you’ll be entered to win! Sign up today!
Look for another ticket giveaway soon! Are you a nonprofit looking to bolster your publicity with facebook and tweets? Email us and we’ll run a contest with tickets to your event! [email protected]
