| News Archive | ||
| October
2003: Newsletter June 2, 2003 October 2002: Thank You November 4, 2002: Beverly's Story |
||
| Click on one of the links above to read previous news. | ||
| June 2, 2003 | ||
| Dear Friends, We are in the process of gearing up for a big summer and fall of fundraising. We have some very exciting events planned, and I wanted to take a moment to be sure you were all up to speed. Many of you will have already received invitations and emails full of our information about our upcoming events. For those of you that did not, you can join our mailing list by emailing us at mail@ssole.org. July will be a very busy month for us. Our cookbook will finally be released! Cooking with SSOLE, Vegetarian Comfort Cuisine, should hit the streets July 19th. We are so thrilled by how this has turned out, and by all the wonderful support we received from all of you. Your family recipes are part of what makes this book so special. In the end, we had over 100 recipes to include. These vegan and vegetarian delights include everything from shepard's pie, mushroom buns, borscht and an amazing vegan mac and cheese, all the way to a tunnel of fudge, basundi and a chocolate heaven pudding cake! We are currently accepting preorders for the book, at a reduced price of $20.00. The order form is attached below, you can fax, mail, or email it back to us. We have printed a limited run, and hope to sell out quickly! We are also in the process of collecting recipes for our next book. This new cookbook will include more family favorites, but rather than placing an emphasis on vegan and vegetarian |
cuisine, we are building
it around the celebration of mothers! We will release this for Mothers
Day 2004, and want to include the recipes that your mothers made foryou,
or that you make for your self when you feel homesick, or just nostalgic.
You can send you recipes to ladams@ssole.org,
or drop them in the mail, attention Lia Adams, SSOLE, PO Box 35, Medina,
WA 98039. The event that is growing more exciting by the minute, is our artists event at CoCA in Seattle. The Center on Contemporary Art has graciously leased their space to us for a week at the end of July. From July 23rd through August 3rd, we will be displaying works for sale to benefit SSOLE. Artists include;
|
The bands include;
Our annual fall garage sale is also fast approaching. We are collecting items for sale, and beginning the process of tagging and sorting. We have a tentative date set for the 4th and 5th of October, but check back often in case of changes. If you have items to donate, or would like to volunteer to work the event, please contact us. We can even arrange pick up and storage of your larger items. Last years sale was a huge success and we hope to top it this year, through your generous donations of time, energy and goods! We should hear a final determination on our non profit status any day now, and are planning big events for the winter and spring with this in mind. Please feel free to contact us with any ideas, questions or concerns! We look forward to hearing from you. With thanks, Lia Adams Director of Operations SSOLE |
| Click here to get the Cookbook order form | ||
| Thank You | ||
| October was a wonderful month for SSOLE! Thank you to everyone who participated in all of our events through volunteering time and materials, selling raffle tickets or by making donations of clothes, house wares and money. Through all of your hard work we raised enough funds to open our free clinic in January and to place a student who was in crisis in a new school. The garage sale was a huge success. Everyone who participated had a great time. We really appreciated | all the assistance with set up and tear down! We were able to raise a lot of funds, and had enough goods left over to donate men’s clothes to the Union Gospel Mission, and our other remaining items to various charities in the area including St Vincent De Paul.The Saturday of our sale, was also the weekend of the Healthy Waldorf Schools Conference held at the Seattle Waldorf School. SSOLE had a table at this event, and a special thank you must go out to Chris Feiring Nishihara for gallantly | manning our table, fielding questions and doing an all around bang up job! The Redmond Harvest Faire was the week after the garage sale and was also a great day for all involved, we had a bake sale, and a wonderful raffle. We are busy starting our fundraising for December and beginning our February and March projects. If you are interested in helping out with any of our upcoming events or projects, please e mail Lia at ladam@ssole.org. |
| Beverly's Story | ||
| November
4, 2002 Dear Friends of SSOLE; I wanted to share a story with you about a woman who was referred to us a few weeks ago, by a social worker at the crisis clinic at Harborview. SSOLE is working very hard to find Beverly a new home, some funds to help her out of her current financial situation, and a way to support her in her grieving process after the events of the summer. If after reading this story, you feel you can help, please let us know. Beverly, Michael, (Beverly’s husband) and her 7-year-old son Travis had planned a fourth of July celebration at Ocean Shores. Not planning on swimming, or even getting in the water, Beverly had not packed bathing suits or even towels for their outing. Some time during the afternoon, Travis decided to go wading while Beverly and Michael watched him from the shore. Beverly soon realized that Travis was in the water up to his waist, and needed some help getting out. She quickly sent her husband in after him. What no one knew, was that a rip tide had formed in the shallow water and that neither of them would be able to escape. Beverly watched from the shore as her husband and son drowned. Surf and rescue from the Ocean Shores Police Department responded to the scene, along with other emergency workers including firefighters, sheriff’s deputies, state troopers and the coast guard. Eventually the bodies of the two were located and were taken to the Grays Harbor Community Hospital where they were pronounced dead. Later that month Beverly learned that 6 people drowned at Ocean Shores in rip tides last year. There were no signs warning waders of the dangers, and no life guards on duty. After Michael and Travis’s death, as well as a few other close calls during July and August signs were finally posted. Since the death of her family Beverly’s situation has worsened.The day after their funeral her husbands truck, which was owned by the company he worked for, was seized. This eliminated her only form of |
working transportation. Her car had needed
repairs for some time, but as she was a stay at home Mom, they had
not had an immediate need to repair it. On August first the rent on
their home was due. Beverly has not been employed in over ten years,
and is on disability after an earlier abusive relationship left her
with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Beverly’s $550.00 a month
in disability was not nearly enough to cover the $1200.00 in rent
she owed. She negotiated with her landlord and was able to bring the
rent down to $1000.00 per month, still far too much for her to afford,
but better than the prospect of packing their things and moving away,
a process that still remains too painful. She paid for her car to
be repaired, and waited for the life insurance payment she thought
her husband had. Beverly believed that the money would give her the
opportunity to spend a few quiet months before needing to move or
seek employment. It turned out that Michael had no life insurance. Without Michael’s insurance she was unable to pay any of her bills, and what was even worse was that it meant she could not pay for their funeral or headstone. Ultimately Beverly found a way to have them buried, but has still not been able to find a way to afford a headstone. She visits their grave site each day. Once the reality of her situation set in, and she realized that there were not very many options open to her, she began looking at local social services. Unfortunately Beverly can not qualify for any of the programs in her area. You must have a minor child to be eligible for emergency housing or even rent assistance. She was put on a two year waiting list for subsidized housing in the South King County area, and through SSOLE has been working with Catholic Family Services to find a place in shared housing. Beverly is hesitant to move too far from the cemetery. In an effort to help herself, she handed out thousands of flyers and started a fund at a local US Bank branch, to purchase Michael and Travis a headstone. Bank employees |
turned people away as the fund
was not set up properly, and Beverly lost any chance of getting money,
as a result Beverly received no community support. She contacted the
journalists who had written stories about her family after the accident,
but none of them were interested in helping her, or running a follow
up story. It just was not news worthy enough. Beverly has continued crisis counseling, and meets each week for a group therapy session at Harborview, but even with this assistance, she has been checked into hospitals on three occasions for suicide watch. Her car has been repaired twice since the accident, but now has a leaky radiator core and some other major issues. She can not afford the repairs and must borrow a car to visit the grave site each day. Beverly has no money, no friends, is in the process of eviction, and has nowhere to go. She was put in touch with SSOLE as a last resort. We are working hard to be sure she is placed in a safe and loving environment, to find a way to fix her car, and to help her, when the time comes get employed again. Beverly has tried in the past to ask for help. All of her efforts have failed, and so with her permission we are asking on her behalf. Her situation has become so desperate, that the only way she can see to continue being able to visit the grave and support herself, is to move into her car, and put her things in storage. Even without the tragedy of the last few months, Beverly has had an incredibly difficult life, suffering years of abuse and trauma. She truly felt that she had a second chance when she met Michael, a man who loved her for who she was. Her son Travis was the truest joy she had ever known and would have entered the second grade this year. If there is anything you can do to help Beverly, I know she would be extremely appreciative. SSOLE is accepting donations through paypal on our website, and via cash or check through the mail. Regards, Lia |
| copyright 2002 Dynamic Design Studios | ||
