This Saturday, the Greenwood Senior Center is hosting the second annual Local Giving Fair, where you can talk to representatives from 20 local non-profits, and help support needs in our community. Make a donation and you’ll receive a card and impact statement to give someone as a gift.

The Local Giving Fair is from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday. There’s live entertainment and yummy treats.

The Seattle Foundation is hosting Give Big, a one-day push to bring in donations to nonprofits in King County. The Seattle Foundation and local businesses will match a share of every contribution made online between 7 a.m. and midnight Thursday.

Phinney-Greenwood organizations that you can donate to include the Woodland Park Zoo, Taproot Theatre, the Phinney Neighborhood Association, kids tutoring and writing center 826 Seattle, and performance group Manifold Motion. (If you know of other neighborhood organizations involved in Give Big, please list them below in Comments.)

You’ll also have an opportunity to be chosen at random to win a “Golden Ticket,” which gets your charity of choice an extra $1,000 from the event’s sponsors.

The Greenwood Senior Center is looking for volunteers for the second annual Local Giving Fair on Nov. 19. A project of the senior center’s civic engagement program, the Local Giving Fair features non-profit organizations working on a range of social justice, environmental, and human rights issues, so that community members can learn more and/or make donations, just in time for the holidays.

Currently, we are looking for people interested in offering their skills as committee members. Volunteering as a committee member is a great way to get event planning experience for a special community event and to support organizations addressing social justice and human rights issues in our community, all the while working with a wonderful group of fellow volunteers.

The senior center will be holding a community meeting for people interested in learning more about the Local Giving Fair and what volunteering as a committee member entails on Wednesday, May 4th, from noon-1pm at the Green Bean Coffee House (8533 Greenwood Ave. N, Seattle 98103). The Green Bean provides delicious lunch and other snacks that you can purchase. Otherwise, feel free to bring a bagged lunch if you’d like to eat. (If you are purchasing food, please give yourself adequate time so that the meeting can begin promptly at noon. Thanks!).

If you plan to attend, please let Emily at the Greenwood Senior Center know (emilyb@phinneycenter.org/ (206) 297-0875). If you are unable to make this meeting but are interested in being a part of the committee, or have any questions, please call or email Emily at the senior center.

Our news partners The Seattle Times had a story today about how the economy has been affecting local food banks. Now, a graduate student at the University of Washington contacted us about her own research project on the topic.

Paula Rhyne, a master’s of public administration candidate at the Daniel J. Evans School of Public Affairs and a PhinneyWood area resident, has developed an online survey about individual giving patterns as part of her research.

You can take the survey here. It only takes about two minutes.

Each November, the Greenwood Senior Center hosts a Local Giving Fair, which provides information on giving charitable donations to local non-profits. The Senior Center is holding a planning meeting at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Green Bean Coffeehouse, 8533 Greenwood Ave. N. Anyone who wants to help out is invited.

The purpose of the Local Giving Fair is to:

• Provide a space for local non-profits to inform the community about their work and ways to get involved.
• Give the community a chance to learn about and donate time, money, and/or other resources to local non-profits in place of material gifts for the winter holidays.
• Build and strengthen relationships between community members, the neighborhood, and local organizations who are dedicated to promoting positive change in the Seattle area.
• All to take place within a celebratory and festive neighborhood affair!

This year’s Local Giving Fair is Saturday, Nov. 13. If you have questions, you can contact Emily at the GSC, 206- 297-0875; emily@greenwoodseniorcenter.org.

We heard from Carmelita a short time ago that they raised nearly $3,000 Tuesday night for Haiti relief, adding to a growing total from neighborhood businesses supporting the cause.

Speaking personally, it says something about our neighborhood to see such support from businesses and their customers.

The Barking Dog Alehouse, 705 NW 70th St., is hosting a Haiti fundraiser at 7 p.m. tonight (Jan. 23) for People in Need Partnership.

Besides what the restaurant is kicking in, Georgetown Brewing Company, Deschutes Brewery and Diamond Knot Brewing have all donated beer. Proceeds from all four kegs alone could total $1,000, according to a restaurant manager.

On Tuesday, Jan. 26, Carmelita, 7314 Greenwood Ave. N, is serving a special menu, of which 100 percent of the proceeds will go to the Oxfam America Haiti relief fund. You can see the special menu here.

If you know of any other upcoming Haiti fundraisers not already mentioned, please post something in comments, or send us a note at tips@phinneywood.com.

The Greenwood Senior Center at 525 N. 85th St. is once again hosting its annual Alternative Gift Market from 1-8 p.m. on Monday, Dec. 14. Sponsored by Greenwood S.A.G.E. Project (Seniors Active Giving and Engaged), you can shop for friends and family and help save the world at the same time.

The Senior Center will be transformed into a festive market with colorful booths, warm beverages, holiday treats and music.

At this “market,” gifts can be purchased to support featured local, national and international humanitarian projects in honor of family members and friends. Instead of buying a material item for a relative, a shopper might decide to provide a microloan to a woman in Egypt, purchase a bicycle ambulance for a rural medical clinic in Uganda, or support rescue efforts for girls forced into prostitution in Southeast Asia. Then, the friend or relative will receive a beautiful card explaining the unique present given in his or her honor. These gifts of peace and justice directly benefit some of the most needy people in the world and also raise global awareness for both the gift-giver and the gift-receiver.

The Greenwood Fire Relief Fund is one of the local options for your charitable giving at the Market. Click here for a full list of participating organizations.

A group of local retailers are setting up a gently used shoe collection drive for Soles4Souls, a non-profit that provides footwear to people in need in more than 125 countries.

During the month of December, you can drop off those shoes you’re not wearing at selected businesses, knowing that a victim of a natural disaster, or a person living in extreme poverty, will put them to good use.

As a special incentive on Dec. 12, all participating locations will provide a 20% discount off a new pair of shoes upon donation.

Locally, you can donate shoes at these locations:

Phinney Ridge
The Sneakery, 612 NW 65th St.

Ballard
re-soul, 5319 Ballard Ave.

Fremont
evo, 122 NW 36th St.
Shoes ‘n Feet, 3409 Stone Way North, Suite 102

Other participating Seattle-area stores are GEMS Sneakershop, ian, RPS-Rock Paper Scissors, Sole Food, Upper Playground, and Zebra Club.

For more information and other locations and donation options, see souls4seattle.com and the national organization at giveshoes.org.

Here’s your feel-good post of the week. Upper Crust Catering at the corner of Greenwood Avenue and 85th St., has been providing a hot dinner to the residents of Tent City every single Monday night for the last 2-1/2 years. They started when Tent City was hosted by Phinney Ridge Lutheran Church on Greenwood and 75th.

“We went up there and asked if we could feed them dinner,” General Manager Don Platt says. “I wanted to give it back to less fortunate people. It’s not my business to pass judgment. People just need a little help and a hot meal.”

Don, Upper Crust owner Jim Lustig, and a couple of friends have been doing it ever since.

The menu includes something like barbecue chicken, roast pork loin or ribs. They often are able to use food leftover from the previous weekend’s catering events. (The trays of food are extras that weren’t needed and are still wrapped, so it’s not “leftovers” by any stretch.) Don says catering clients are always excited to know that Upper Crust will be putting those leftovers to good use a day or two later.

Greenbean Coffee Shop at 210 N. 85th St. chooses a different non-profit organization to support each month, giving half the baristas’ tips to the cause. For July, the chosen non-profit is HomeStep, a program that provides stable housing and supportive services for homeless families and individuals.

The opening reception is Thursday from 6-8 p.m., and will feature a display, exhibit of children’s art and free food.

Please stop by and show your support. A number of these folks live in the Greenwood area. Thank you, Karen Schneider, Family Case Manager. For more info, contact me at 478-9306.

The 70-member Phinney Community Chorus performed a concert of world music to an overflow crowd Sunday night at the United Methodist Church, raising more than $8,500 to support a school in Haiti, member Mike Veitenhans tells us:

The concert, an annual June event, celebrated the ten-year anniversary of the chorus and raised money for Lekol Pa Nou (Our School), a primary school in the remote village of Pichon, Haiti. The chorus began supporting the school through the non-profit organization Education for Prosperity Program six years ago. “The Phinney Neighborhood Association helped us get started and continue to be supportive,” explains chorus director Maggie McClellan, “and now we are making an effort to reach out and support others who need a hand. Thanks to the caring and generosity of our community, we raised $7,000 for the school last year and over $8,500 this year!” If you missed Sunday’s concert, you can hear the chorus perform at the Phinney Neighborhood Center’s “purchase party” June 28.

For more information about the chorus, click here.