The Greenwood Senior Center’s inaugural Local Giving Fair on Nov. 13 raised $4,084 for 27 local nonprofit agencies and community projects.

Representatives from the two-dozen organizations at the Local Giving Fair hold up signs with their non-profit’s name. Photo by Linda Stein.

We are very excited about the success of the fair and look forward to making it an annual event. A big thanks to Aaron’s on Aurora Avenue for volunteering to help with set up and to the Greenwood Market and Upper Crust Catering for their generous and abundant donations of food and refreshments.

The annual Gumshoe 5K Walk got underway last Friday, leading neighbors to follow a series of clues around the quirkier sites of the neighborhood for a chance to win restaurant and Fred Meyer gift certificates, while raising money for the Greenwood Senior Center.

This family appears to have wandered into a garden in search of a clue.

Hmmm. Where does this dragon reside?

Gumshoe entry forms are $20 at the Phinney Market (5918 Phinney Ave. N.), Phinney Neighborhood Center (6532 Phinney Ave. N.) and Ken’s Market, (7231 Greenwood Ave. N.) The Gumshoe runs through Sunday, Aug. 22.

(The Gumshoe is a PhinneyWood sponsor.)

The Puget Sound Alliance for Retired Americans (PSARA) will have a monthly discussion group at the Greenwood Senior Center, 525 N. 85th St., starting this Thursday.

PSARA is a chapter of the national Alliance for Retired Americans, working toward progressive change in the areas of health care, social security, housing, transportation, immigration, and many more. To learn more about PSARA’s work, check out their website: www.psara.org.

The first meeting is this Thursday, June 10, from 1-2 p.m. at the Greenwood Senior Center. All meetings are facilitated by Bette Reed, Community Vice President of PSARA.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact Emily at the Greenwood Senior Center (206-297-0875/emily@greenwoodseniorcenter.org).

The Greenwood Senior Center is hosting a forum on Hispanic/Latino immigration issues at 12 p.m. on Monday, April 19.

The misconceptions surrounding this issue are numerous and this forum will shed some light on what is myth and what is fact. The forum will consist of a panel of representatives from some of Seattle and Washington’s Hispanic/Latino-focused organizations: One America, Washington Community Action Network, Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, and Casa Latina.

Topics include:

A) History and Push-and-Pull factors of immigration

B) The effect immigration has on home countries

C) Issues surrounding immigration/immigrants in the US

D) Presence of Hispanics/Latinos in the workplace

The forum will cover social, political, and economic topics and inspire conversation within the community.

The panel will also field audience questions as time permits. The Greenwood Senior Center is at 525 N. 85th St. For more information, email or call Marianne at 206-297-0875, ext 31.

The Phinney Neighborhood Association’s Greenwood Senior Center is tackling the issue of “aging in place” through the “Village” concept.

“Villages” are membership-driven organizations that coordinate access to affordable services including transportation, health and wellness programs, home repairs, social and educational activities, and other day-to-day needs enabling individuals to remain active, independent and civically connected to their communities throughout the aging process. They are community based organizations that address the rapidly growing demand among elderly to remain socially connected and fulfill their needs related to aging in a setting of their choice.

If you’re interested in how this could work for Greenwood/Phinney, you may want to attend a PNA Village Leadership Visioning Meeting from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. this Saturday.

We need your participation and input, coming from your personal experiences, your creativity and your diverse interest to help outline the process to develop the structure and the concept of our unique Village. This will be an interactive opportunity to participate in the beginning conversation of how you want the Village to look and to be. By coming to this meeting you will directly have a hand in a program that will help to ensure your health and well-being long into your life.

If you are interested in participating in this visioning process, please RSVP to Marianne Rupp at Marianne@greenwoodseniorcenter.org, 206-297-0875, by March 15th.The Greenwood Senior Center is located at 525 N. 85th Street in Greenwood.

The first Village was created several years ago in a Boston neighborhood.

The Greenwood Senior Center is looking for gardeners to joins its SAGE (Seniors Active Giving and Engaged) Garden Steering Committee.

Do you have a passion for urban gardening? Are you an advocate for organic and local foods? Would you like to help make gardens more accessible to all people, no matter their age or abilities? If you answered yes to at least one of these questions, consider being a part of the Greenwood Senior Center’s SAGE garden committee.

The realtor of a new building next door graciously collaborated with the senior center to let us use the raised garden beds that he and his son have begun to construct. As a result, our dream of having a Greenwood Senior Center community garden is coming true!

We hope to begin planting as soon as possible and need a core committee of individuals who are able to commit some time every week to work on getting the garden going. We would like to meet sometime during the first week of March. If you are interested of coming to our initial meeting or want to get more information, call or email Emily at the Greenwood Senior Center: (206) 297-0875; emily@greenwoodseniorcenter.org.

Greenwood Senior Center’s civic engagement program, Seniors Active Giving and Engaged (SAGE), will begin a book group this month on Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn’s “Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide.”

This revolutionary book provides a sobering account of women’s experiences with forced prostitution, gender-based violence, and maternal mortality while demonstrating the potential of individuals to emancipate women and fight poverty worldwide. Come reflect, discuss, and find ways in which the Greenwood Senior Center and community can make a difference for women locally and internationally.

Dates and time will be determined after taking into account availability of participants. Assistance with purchasing books can be arranged as well. All ages welcome.

For more information or to sign-up, email Emily at the Greenwood Senior Center, or call 206-297-0875.

Get out your blue suede shoes and hair pomade, ‘cuz Elvis lives at the Greenwood Senior Center’s Casino Night this Saturday.

They’ll turn the center into the Vegas-themed “GSC Grand” where you can try your luck at Roulette, Black Jack, Craps, Caribbean Stud, and other Vegas-style games.

All games are run by professional dealers. Tickets are $35 and will buy you $30,000 in casino chips which you can later exchange for raffle tickets. High roller tickets are also available for $100. Of course, it wouldn’t be Vegas without Elvis! The King himself will provide all-night entertainment.

Doors open at 6 p.m. for the silent auction. Food, wine and beer will be served (the better to loosen up your wallets for the center’s biggest fundraiser of the year.)

Time for the monthly Bingo Karaoke at the Greenwood Senior Center at 7 p.m. on Friday night. This extremely popular event brings out folks of all ages. Here’s the younger crowd with their bingo cards.

And here’s a more seasoned neighbor singing on the stage.

As always, $10 gets you entrance to one of the neighborhood’s most entertaining events. That $10 buys you 8 bingo cards and the chance to win cash prizes throughout the night. We play a game or two of Bingo, then sit back to enjoy the musical stylings of some of our community’s best (and worst) karaoke singers. Beer and wine are available for $3 each, and some tasty bingo-hall food (think hot dogs, jalapeno poppers, cookies, popcorn, etc.) is also available for purchase. Come one, come all!

If you’re looking for something to do in the neighborhood tonight, stop by the Phinney Farmers Market (a PhinneyWood sponsor) in the lower parking lot of the Phinney Neighborhood Association from 3-7 p.m. Pick up your fresh fruits and veggies, homemade pasta, bread and cheese, have a dinner of Pan-African food or Veraci Pizza, and top it all off with a little ice cream and some fresh-cut flowers to brighten someone’s day. As always, the kids’ slides are the social center of the Market.

Then leave the kids with a babysitter and head over to the Greenwood Senior Center for Bingo Karaoke Night from 7-10 p.m. For just 10 bucks you get all the bingo and bad singing you can handle and the opportunity to win cash prizes. Snacks and adult beverages are for sale. All proceeds benefit the Senior Center’s programs.

And at Wayward Coffeehouse at 8570 Greenwood Ave. N., legendary local folk artist Jim Page performs from 8-10 p.m. with Joe Martin. No cover charge.

If you know of anything else fun happening in the neighborhood, please let us know in comments below.

The 4th annual Gumshoe 5K Walk (a PhinneyWood advertiser) is over and the winners have been announced for the neighborhood scavenger hunt. “Gumshoe Guy” Mike Veitenhans reports:

The Gumshoe grew from 250 participants last year to 400 this year and netted the Greenwood Senior Center over $4,000. Twenty-two people won $25 prizes in the MiniGumshoe contest drawings held at local businesses during the 10 days of the event and three won Fred Meyer gift cards in the Gumshoe grand prize drawing: Sam Wilk ($250), Alyssa Troiani ($150) and Marianne Rupp ($100). Tom Whyte III won the Gumshoe’s bonus Eatsy Street Game, taking home $225 in gift certificates to nine local eateries, and Paula Wittmann won the $149.95 Cecil B. deRedMill Cash Award for her video answer to the contest question, “What’s So Mysterious About Phinney/Greenwood?” For more information and to see Paula’s video, go to www.DoTheGumshoe.org.

Next year’s Gumshoe will be held August 6-15. The goal in 2010: 500 participants and $5,000!

Today through Aug. 16 you can do the Gumshoe and raise money for the Greenwood Senior Center just by poking around the neighborhood during the fourth annual Gumshoe 5K Walk. (The Gumshoe is a PhinneyWood sponsor.)

Here’s how it works: buy a Gumshoe form for $20 (or two for $15) at the Phinney Center, Metropolis or Ken’s Market, beginning Aug. 7. Follow the clues as they take you on a walking adventure through Phinney/Greenwood. You may be looking for a whimsical piece of garden art in someone’s yard, the company name on a fire hydrant, or a particularly interesting traffic circle tree. Fun to do alone, but tons more fun with a group.

You can do the walk all at once, in parts, on your own or in a group, any time between August 7 – 16. Walk time is 2-3 hours and suitable for easy to moderate walkers. Be sure to check out the new, very fun Group Walks and all Gumshoe activities at www.DoTheGumshoe.org. Fill in your solutions to Gumshoe clues and return your form for a chance to WIN a $250, $150 or $100 Fred Meyer gift certificate.