The weekend before last, on Saturday, May 21, John Hay students and parent volunteers put on a rummage sale and bake sale to raise money for disaster relief for victims of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. That rummage sale turned out to be a huge success, raising a total of $400 from the bake sale portion and $2,500 from the rummage sale.

The school says all proceeds from the rummage/bake sale will go directly to people in need in Japan, while any left-over items not sold at the event will go toward helping needy families here in the Seattle area.

Students from John Hay Elementary will be hosting a rummage sale from 9 a.m. to noon this Saturday, May 21 at the school to raise money for disaster relief in Japan. A variety of items, including clothing, toys, books, and small appliances, will be available at the sale. Two classes of John Hay 2nd graders will also be selling baked goods and coffee at the event, the proceeds of which will also go toward the relief effort.

Can’t make it to the sale but want to lend a hand? Volunteers are needed to help sort items and set up for the sale on Friday, May 20 from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Those interested in volunteering their time should contact Johnhayjapanrelief@gmail.com.

All proceeds from the rummage and bake sale will be going directly to the Iwate Bank in Japan, which will use the funds for relief efforts in the areas affected by the recent earthquake and tsunami.

Students from Coe Elementary School will be hosting a bake sale this Sunday, March 20 from 1 to 4 p.m. in front of the Upper Queen Anne Starbucks, at the corner of Queen Anne Ave N and Boston St., to raise money for the post-earthquake and tsunami relief effort in Japan.

The fundraiser is being run by Coe Cares, a project of the Coe PTA with a mission “to engage our children in meaningful charitable endeavors that provide an opportunity to learn, grow, and develop into compassionate citizens of today’s world.”

“Teachers, Parents, and Students at Coe Elementary CARE about our school, our community, our country, and our world. Coe Cares, a committee within the school, works to teach our children and ourselves the importance of reaching out and acting when events, good or bad, happen where we can,” wrote Coe parent and Coe Cares committee member Stacy Lawson.

“Our kids will grow up one day, and we want them to be compassionate caring adults who do not avoid getting involved and do not get bogged down by thinking that they cannot make a difference. All help is needed big and small,” she wrote.

All proceeds from the bake sale will be sent to aid the Japanese people via Global Giving Japan Relief Fund.

Update 3/21 10:50 a.m.: Originally Coe Cares planned to send the money to international independent medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders, but after learning that DWB could not guarantee the money would end up in Japan, the group decided to change the charity.

Two dozen local food bloggers will be doing their part to help end childhood hunger “one cookie at a time” by participating in the Great American Bake Sale for “Share Our Strength,” a nationwide effort by the culinary industry to raise childhood hunger awareness through nutritional programming.

Spearheaded by Queen Anne’s own Frantic Foodie blogger, event organizer and all around food expert Keren Brown, the team of Seattle-area food bloggers will be hosting a bake sale full of treats of their own creation this Saturday, April 17 from 10 a.m. to noon at the Lower Queen Anne Metropolitan Market, located at 100 Mercer St.

The following local food bloggers will be participating in the event: Gluten-Free Girl, Cakespy, Danatreat, Not Martha, Fresh Picked Seattle, A half cup.com, Pink Bites, Salty Seattle, Bring to Boil, Cornichon, The Old Hen, Northwest Stir, Mirrormirrorontheweb, Satisfythecraving, The Flying Salmon, Floraandflying, MusicandCats, Seattle Weekly, Chelsea Lin, City Search Editor, PurplehouseDirt and Teaandcookies.

Each blogger will be bringing two dozen cookies and their recipes to sell at the event so that “Readers and fans will have the opportunity to taste the baked goods from their favorite food blogs,” according to Brown.

All proceeds will support Share Our Strength and the organization’s work to end childhood hunger in America, specifically through assistance and funding for after-school and summer nutrition programs. “Summer is an especially difficult time, because the children facing hunger in America, nearly 17 million children, will no longer have access to the school-based meals they rely on,” said Bill Shore, executive director of Share Our Strength, in a press release this week.

Metropolitan Market will be providing free parking for bake sale shoppers. For more information check out Frantic Foodie.

Martha Downey recently moved to Queen Anne from View Ridge, and for her housewarming she’s decided to host a bake sale in her new neighborhood to raise money for those those in need in Haiti. A student at SCCC, Martha believes it is important to help not only those in your community, but other around the world as well. She wrote,

I chose to do this fundraiser because I finally feel old enough and able enough to do good for people outside of my community, and it has affected people I interact with daily (I have a classmate whose whole family is either in or from Haiti) and I wanted to give back and feel like I made an impact instead of just sitting back and watching it happen.

Martha and a couple friends will be set up outside the closed Peet’s on Queen Anne Ave N and Boston St. (the same spot kids from Coe Elementary held their bake sale last weekend) this Saturday, January 30 from 12 to 4:30 p.m. (or until they run out) selling homemade goodies.

As for the charity the proceeds will be going to, Martha says she’s still deciding between UNICEF and the Red Cross. If you want to help Martha with her bake sale or make a donation, contact her via her Twitter page.

Students from Coe Elementary spent the day yesterday, Saturday, January 23, running a bake sale benefiting those in Haiti. They set up shop outside the closed Peet’s on Queen Anne Ave N and Boston St, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., raising $1,645 for Partners in Health, a non-profit organization founded by Paul Farmer that has been working to support advocacy and health care in Haiti for over 20 years.

Although parents stood watch, it was clear the bake sale was run by the kids themselves, who sent volunteers with trays of treats down a block in each direction to lure in more customers. And for those not in the mood for sweet snacks, a small donation could also buy a magic trick.

Parent Stacy Lawson, who helped organize the event, says it was about teaching the kids that they can make a difference in the world. Read more from her here.

Coe will also be teaming up with John Hay and McClure in just a couple of weeks to host a rummage sale benefiting Haiti on Sunday, February 7. For more details on that and information on how to make a donation, click here.

Kids from Coe Elementary will be hosting a bake sale tomorrow outside the Starbucks on Queen Anne Ave N and Boston St. from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. to raise money for the victims of the Haiti earthquake. Red Square Yoga owner and mom of two at the school, Stacy Lawson, is helping to organize the event. She says Coe has a long track record of charitable work in the community and abroad, powered first and foremost by the students.

“We have a real history of doing social justice work on a level the kids can appreciate,” Lawson said, noting that the school has run a number of succsesful fundraisers in the past, raising over $800 at a bake sale for their sister organization, an all girls school in Afghanistan, and over $10,000 at a rummage sale benefiting tsunami victims.

According to Lawson, the events are about more than just coming together to help those in need – they’re also about teaching students, from an early age, that they can make a difference in the world around them. “The kids play a big part in the organization,” she said. “They host the sale. If they’re old enough, they can help with the baking. They post the fliers. They really understand that they can help impact things that go on around the world. It’s much more about their effort.”

Although Coe is teaming up with John Hay and McClure in just a couple of weeks to host a rummage sale benefiting Haiti, the parents and students from Coe decided that there was more they could do to help the country in wake of such a devastating earthquake, beginning plans for the bake sale on Tuesday.

“We decided that we need to put some focus on Haiti,” Lawson said. Though there will be parents volunteers supervising the event, the kids will be walking up and down Queen Anne Ave promoting the sale and talking about the group the proceeds will benefit, Partners in Health, a non-profit organization founded by Paul Farmer that has been working to support advocacy and health care in Haiti for over 20 years.

“Really this is about the kids. They’ll be on the street and they’ll be walking around and trying to get people to go come to the bake sale,” Lawson said. “We encourage them to talk about the issues and speak to about the organization that we’re contribute to.”

Lawson says they chose Partners in Health because of their longstanding work in helping Haiti from the inside out. “He’s on the ground in Haiti and he’s doing work,” she said. “[Paul Farmer is] not just about bringing in international relief teams, but he’s about helping locals solve their own problems.”

If you can’t make it to the bake sale tomorrow, you can still help by participating in the rummage sale between Coe, John Hay and McClure, which will be held on on Sunday February 7 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Coe gym, located at 2424 7th Ave W. You can donate gently used items for the sale from 3:30 to 5 p.m. on Friday, February 5 at Coe and Hay, and on Saturday, February 6 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Coe.

Lawson hopes that the rummage sale, which has been a successful fundraiser in the past, will again raise a large sum. “We feel that even in this down-turned economy, this is still something people can do, buying second-hand,” she said.

For more details and contact information for the rummage sale, click here. To support the bake sale, swing by Queen Anne Ave and Boston St. between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. tomorrow.