Volunteering in the Seattle

Rebuilding Together Seattle has become a regular group that I volunteer with, since moving out to Seattle.  Their 15-30 person outdoor, yard cleanup, and repair of homes in need projects remind me a lot of Give Back Cincinnati's Paint the Town annual project (#2).

Here in Seattle, RTS select homes at "no cost to low-income homeowners," and whom are often "elderly, disabled, or are families with children."

Originally named Christmas in April, the Rebuilding Together organization formed affiliates all over the US, and Seattle's chapter this summer celebrated it's one year anniversary of the Young Professionals Society with having close to 40 members volunteer at the RTS - YPS April event.

The YPS was founded in August of 2008 for the purpose of expanding the RTS "mission through community outreach, fundraising, networking, and volunteering on an annual basis to ensure the growth and strength of RTS."

Photos were taken from my second outing with the RTS-YPS group. Funny how I only seem to sign up for the rain day event.s :-)

Did you guys even get wet that day?

Our whole group at the end of the day (minus Margie Thirlby - who's taking the photo).

Seattle Works was the first group I volunteered with after moving to Seattle.  SW's goal is is to inform, connect, and inspire people in their 20s and 30s to take action in their community.

SW has a two pronged approached to engage the young minded by either focusing on one time volunteer projects called Hot Topics, or using a several week commitment of 15-16 people who work on 4 projects together called Teams Works.  Both are designed to help those connect to their community.

My first event with our Team Works team Blue Steal was for the Lettuce Link.  A program geared towards creating "access to fresh, nutritious and organic produce for low-income families in Seattle."  Our team stocked envelopes with seeds, that will allow families to start gardening as they "encourage people to grow food for their families." 

By the end of the event, even Shannon Murphy was in favor of my carrot cheer:


"We got carrots!  We got carrots!  Yes we do! Yes we do! How about you?"

 Thanks for reading,

Dr. Alex