Family and friends of Suzanne Pierce have set up an account to help the long-time Phinney Ridge resident with medical expenses after she was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia last Friday. She starts chemotherapy tomorrow.

Pierce’s sister-in-law, Susan Pierce, also a Phinney resident, tells us that Suzanne is the sole breadwinner for her family.

Suzanne works for the UW. While they do have health insurance which will cover 80% of the medical bills, they do not have short term disability coverage, which would have covered living expenses such as house payments, garbage, sewer, etc. We have set up a “Chip In” account for Suzanne and Jim and I would like to share this information with the broadest community possible.

The Chip In website for Suzanne Pierce is: http://suzannepiercefund.chipin.com/

The Phinney Neighborhood Association (PNA) needs about $6,000 more to install a new elevator as part of its Capital Campaign.

The Capital Campaign has raised about $5.3 million so far to purchase the site and buildings from the Seattle School District, create a more accessible campus both inside and outside, construct a more welcoming entry way and community plaza, perform seismic upgrades, repair the Brick Building’s slate roof and the main sewer line between the two buildings, update the boiler, insulate both buildings, and install an elevator in the Blue Building to make it more accessible to everyone.

The elevator will be installed in the current front entryway, about where the soda machine is now. The PNA received a grant from Wyncote Foundation NW several months ago, and is using part of that grant for the elevator. Community leaders, including Red Mill Burgers and several individual donors, also contributed, for a total of $60,000, and are challenging the community to come up with an additional $30,000 to help pay for it.

PNA Development Director Ann Bowden said 157 community members have contributed $23,840 towards that goal, leaving $6,160 to go by the end of the year.

The total cost for the elevator, entryway, community plaza and seismic work is expected to cost about $1.6 million, and the PNA still needs about $175,000 to meet that. Bowden said they are working on a few more grants and will probably have another fundraiser in the spring.

“We’ve raised almost $5.3 million, we’ve done some pretty significant repairs, and we’ve done all this in the middle of the recession,” PNA Executive Director Lee Harper said proudly. “We’re incrementalists here at the PNA. This is the next increment. We’re getting the elevator so we don’t have to carry 95-year-old women up the stairs to the Beer Taste.”

That actually happened last summer. Harper said Jeannette Miss came to the Summer Beer Taste with her granddaughter to celebrate her 95th birthday , and both were dismayed to find steep stairs to the second floor. So a group of men got together and carried Miss in her wheelchair up the stairs.

Four men carry 95-year-old Jeannette Miss in her wheelchair up the stairs to last summer’s Beer Taste. Photo courtesy of the PNA.

“You always talk about accessibility, and that right there is the problem. We cannot serve our whole community,” Harper said.

The PNA hopes to begin construction of the elevator in spring of 2012.

(Disclosure: We’ve donated to the Capital Campaign.)

By Next Door Media Intern Mwiza Kalisa

Inside the drawers of Seattle, some socks are destined for the garbage, but one person is using old socks for a good cause.

Lauri Serafin, who makes potholders out of recycled socks, is raising money for the Phinney Neighborhood Association. Serafin would like people to donate old socks that she can use to make potholders to sell at this year’s Winter Festival.

“I know there are people out there that don’t have the means to donate money, but maybe they can give us their old socks,” Serafin said. “We can turn them into something.”

Serafin is among 115 vendors who are taking part in the Winter Festival, held on Dec. 3-4. The festival is one of the largest community events where vendors sell homemade crafts. Serafin and her daughter, Amelia, have been vendors at the PNA Winter Festival twice.

“Typically we’ll sell 400 potholders at Winterfest; we’re hoping to do that again,” she said.

The proceeds from the potholder sales will go toward the PNA Capital Campaign elevator project. The campaign has already raised $5.2 million for the Phinney Neighborhood Center. They’re now looking to add an elevator in the Blue Building,” one of two Phinney Neighborhood Center buildings.

“Our goal is to raise $30, 000,” said Ann Bowden, the PNA’s development director. The elevator project has already received a $60,000 challenge grant.

Serafin says that one of the biggest challenges is finding enough socks to make the potholders. Each potholder needs a minimum of four socks. In some cases as many as seven socks are used to make one potholder, if the socks are small. The only requirement for the donations is that they aren’t nylon or soccer socks.

“It’s a great way to get rid of socks that are worn out or that have holes in them,” she said.

Stacks of recycled sock potholders ready for sale at the PNA Winter Festival, and the small loom they’re made on.

Serafin has been making potholders out of recycled socks for the past 30 years. The idea started in college, where she had socks that were too small but had refused to throw them away.

“I found my little plastic loom I had when I was small and I cut [the socks] up,” she said. “I had those potholders for years and they lasted forever.”

In the past Serafin has made monetary donations, but she now wants to donate her time and effort.

“This is important because we can make something productive and useful out of something that was going to be thrown away,” she said.

The majority of socks for the potholders come from Goodwill. Serafin has mastered the craft of creating potholders; it usually takes her 20 to 30 minutes. As the Winter Festival approaches, Serafin is hoping to have 500 potholders. She already has 350 potholders, but to achieve her goal she needs about 600 more socks.

“It’s really satisfying to take somebody’s old sock and make something pretty out of it,” she said. “As a fiber artist, I knit and spin, too, but I also want to do something for the PNA.”

If you are interested in donating socks to help Lauri and the PNA Capital Campaign, you can drop off your old socks at the Phinney Neighborhood Center, at 6532 Phinney Ave. N.

Woodland Park Zoo is offering some unique holiday experiences at its annual Zookeepers’ Holiday Silent Auction on Friday Nov. 18: behind-the-scenes animal tours (like watching an elephant take a bath), animal feedings, photos with a raptor, or meeting an orangutan up close.

Photo by Ryan Hawk, Woodland Park Zoo.

The auction is hosted by the Puget Sound Chapter of the American Association of Zoo Keepers.

Guaranteed bidding, preview, lunch and a bake sale is from 12-2 p.m. Silent auction, dinner, bake sale, and wine and beer cash bar are from 4-8 p.m. in the zoo’s Education Center near the South Entrance at North 50th Street and Fremont Avenue North. (Entrance to the auction is free, but access to the zoo is not included and requires zoo admission.)

By Next Door Media Intern Mwiza Kalisa

For the past 20 years, Couth Buzzard Books has been a center for the community. The bookstore at 8310 Greenwood Ave. N., which sells new and used books, is a place where people not only go to browse books, but to socialize and listen to live music and poetry.

But now, Couth Buzzard needs the community’s help. This Saturday, Couth Buzzard Books & Espresso Buono Café is hosting a benefit cabaret for Ruby Smith, daughter of Couth Buzzard co-owner Theo Dzielak and Kate Smith. Ruby was recently diagnosed with Burkitt’s Lymphoma.

“Since [August] our lives have been very different; it’s very moment to moment,” Dzielak said.

Friends and family want to raise money for the 17-year-old’s treatment expenses. Dzielak says that the benefit cabaret grew out of “civil strength.” As a community organizer and performer, Dzilak has contacts in the arts community, most of whom offered to perform on Saturday. Dzielak used to organize house cabarets in the 1990s.

“When I opened this place I knew that had to be an important part of the vision, not just to sell books but to have community events,” he said.

Couth Buzzard gives the neighborhood an opportunity to showcase their talents. The bookstore has writing workshops, open mic nights and music events.

“It’s become a community gathering place for the neighborhood,” he added.

Kenny Mandell, a music teacher and performer, has known Dzielak since the store re-opened in 2009 after closing its original location at North 73rd Street and Greenwood Avenue a year-and-a-half earlier.

“I think why we became friends is because of a similar philosophy; engaging the local community through art,” Mandell said.

Mandell, who performs every first Friday of the month, has developed a jazz following at the bookstore. When he learned of Ruby’s illness he said that it had a profound effect on his life.

“I think it’s critical that people need to help each other, we’re all in this together,” he said. “If we don’t help each other out it’s a sad statement.”

There has been a tremendous amount of support from the community. Mandell sent out 100 e-mails to his own mailing list and is among the group of performers who have stepped forward.

“I think Theo’s vision goes way beyond selling books; it’s much more inclusive of the local community,” Mandell said. “I just hope to see people opening up their hearts and helping out in whatever way they can.”

Kate Smith says that the communities they’ve been working with for many years are indeed coming forth.

“It’s the community that’s going to save us. It sounds so simplistic but it’s true,” she said. “There’s no better proof of that than what has happened with our daughter, Ruby.”

Smith has heard from people in California, where Ruby was born, and from friends who are located as far as Scotland.

Ruby, a Senior at Nathan Hale High School, plays bass and loves to write. The 17-year-old has posted honest journal entries through CaringBridge, an organization that offers websites to people facing serious medical conditions.

Victoria Millard, the host on Saturday, has known Ruby since she was 2.

“Wherever Kate and Theo have lived they have created community around them,” she said.

Millard is the board president of Ear to the Ground, a clown and physical theater company.

“I think that’s what we’ve learned in our work, that laughter is medicine,” Millard said.

Millard and Smith worked together at Children’s Hospital as clowns for 11 years.

“If you can laugh even at the darkest things it’s a way to keep the spirits up and it does make a difference in health and outcome,” she said. “That’s what we’ve learned through our work in the hospital and that’s what I’m hoping to do to help now, not only for Ruby but for Kate.”

Millard says that Ruby’s family has created community in ways that are important to sustaining human life.

“Movies are great, listening to music is great, but there’s something about a small intimate experience of musicians who are playing just for you,” she said. “They’ve given artists a place to express themselves, to be able to do their work in a non-commercial way. They’ve reached the neighborhood through art and have brought people into their home, because they know that art makes people happy and it’s vitally important.”

The benefit cabaret is this Saturday, Oct. 22nd, starting at 7:30 p.m., at 8310 Greenwood Ave N.

826 Seattle, the nonprofit writing and tutoring center hidden inside the Greenwood Space Travel Supply Co., is kicking off a fundraiser today to raise money to provide healthy snacks to students.

Once school starts, 826 Seattle provides one-on-one after-school tutoring to about 100 students per week, and they provide healthy snacks to those students to keep their minds and bodies fueled.

You can donate to 826 Seattle’s special snack drive here. You can give in any amount, of course, but the website shows certain levels, such as: $10 provides daily snacks for one student for two weeks; $18 provides snacks for all tutoring students for one day; $75 will pay for snacks for all students for one week; and $195 will provide snacks for one student for a full year.

The Chocolate Shoe Box, at 7410 Greenwood Ave. N., is hosting a vegan bake sale to benefit animals, on Sept. 3-4. One-hundred percent of the proceeds from the two-day sale, plus 10 percent of the store’s sales those days, will go to Precious Life Animal Sanctuary in Sequim, and Chimpanzee Sanctuary NW in Cle Elum.

The sale happens during regular business hours, which are 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Bakers are still needed.

We ask that all baked goods be vegan, meaning no dairy, eggs, honey or any other animal derived ingredient. Allergy/ingredients lists must accompany your baked good and we request that all items be individually wrapped to limit hand to food contact. Register to be a baker or for more info contact: chocolateshoebox@gmail.com.

For more information, see the event’s Facebook page.

Woodland Park Zoo’s 35th annual Jungle Party fundraiser last Friday raised $1.5 million – nearly $70,000 more than its goal.

Performers with Versatile Arts in Phinney Ridge entertained the Jungle Party crowd. Photo by Ryan Hawk, Woodland Park Zoo.

From the press release:

Seattle Sounders FC co-owners, film producer and director Joe Roth and Adrian Hanauer, served as co-chairs of this year’s Jungle Party, themed “Animal All-Stars,” to commemorate the 1,000 animal conservation ambassadors living at the zoo. With celebrity Drew Carey headlining the evening’s jungle humor, more than 800 civic-minded business and community leaders converged on the North Meadow to raise funds for exemplary animal care, engaging education programs and wildlife conservation projects around the world and locally.

In the live auction, three Joe Roth movie experiences sparked ferocious bidding, raising $90,000 alone. Other top-selling items included a Georgia Gerber bronze sculpture that sold for $17,000 and an Alaska tugboat experience for two that went for $10,000.

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.

Hazel Salon at 5817 Phinney Ave. N. raised $350 from a raffle during its recent anniversary celebration, then matched that to donate a total of $700 for the Women for Women program in Afghanistan.

Women for Women International helps female survivors of war move from crisis to stability.

Greenwood’s free kids tutoring and writing center, 826 Seattle, is hosting its second annual fundraiser this Sunday at Nectar Lounge in Fremont. Dance Your Cash Off is from 6-11 p.m. and is hosted by comedienne Lauren Weedman.

There’s still time to form your own dance team, or you can pay $10 to watch the dancing.

The judges are art and media journalist Nancy Guppy; her husband and improv guy Joe Guppy; movie critic Robert Horton; and members of The Derby Liberation Front (Rat City Roller Girls).

Your Good Cause: The amazing (and free!) programs of 826 Seattle, which anyone would happily dance five solid hours to support. 826 Seattle is a nonprofit writing center located in Greenwood that helps students, ages six to 18, develop their creative and expository writing skills. We are dedicated to helping students learn the essential skill of writing–all free of charge. Our doors are open to all young people, but our focus is on those that need our help the most.

The Phinney Community Chorus raised $9,675 from about 175 people who attended last Sunday’s concert at Phinney Ridge Lutheran Church. Chorus member Mike Veitenhans tells us that the concert included songs from around the world — France, Italy, Georgia, Croatia, South Africa, Haiti and the United States.

All the money raised will go to pay teacher salaries at Lekol Pa Nou (“Our School”) in Pichon, Haiti, which the chorus has been supporting for several years. If anyone still wants to contribute, they can make a tax deductible donation through Education for Prosperity.