Kayla Healy is a 17-year-old high school senior who has lived with Cystic Fibrosis for her entire life. Unfortunately Kayla’s disease has progressed to the point that she needs a double lung transplant to save her life, and her family is turning to the community to help them raise the money for the procedure.
Though the realities of her disease are nothing new, Kayla has never let her Cystic Fibrosis limit her. At her young age she has stayed as active as possible, even competing in three triathlons. From Kayla’s website:
Kayla has been hospitalized many times throughout her life and has rigorous daily routine of treatments and medications to keep her lungs functioning. The hospitalizations have become more and more frequent and her medication and treatment routines have increased. Recently Kayla has learned that her degenerative disease has progressed to a stage that she is in need of a double lung transplant to save her life. She is currently awaiting her new lungs and looking forward to many activities her current lungs don’t allow her to do. With her new lungs she plans on taking some deep breaths, play softball, snowboard and ski and even run again.
The cost for a double lung transplant is somewhere between $600,000 and $1,000,000, and even with two insurance policies, Kayla’s family will have to pay upwards of $100,000 out of pocket for the surgery and associated medical costs. So Kayla’s family has taken to fundraising in the community to come up with the additional funds. Kayla’s uncle, Queen Anne resident Matt Gangemi, is doing his part by putting on a fundraiser soiree for Kayla that he hopes will get them the rest of the way.
“We’ve gone a long way toward raising this money,” Matt says, but the family is still shy of their goal. As of noon on Tuesday Kayla’s family has raised $92,216.29 of its $100,000 goal, leaving just $7,783.71. to go.
Matt is putting on a soiree and silent auction on Saturday, July 9 (6 p.m. to midnight) to help raise the remaining funds for Kayla’s surgery. The fundraiser will include wine, beer, hors d’oeuvres, dessert, live music, dancing, a photo booth, and over 70 items for auction. All proceeds will go toward Kayla’s medical costs. Tickets are $40 per person, or $75 for a pair. Details can be found at the Facebook event page, or at COTAforKayla.com. To purchase tickets, click here. If you can’t make it to the soiree, but would like to make a donation to support Kayla, you can do so here.
The local Queen Anne Medical Weight Loss donated 600 pounds of food to the Ballard Food Bank on Thursday, May 26, in honor of the first 600 pounds lost by clinic clients. And according to the Ballard Food Bank executive director Nancy McKinney, the bulk donation came a time when it was very much needed – donations typically come in during the holiday season and taper off after, “But food is always needed by people in our neighborhood. And it’s been a particularly difficult year,” Nancy says.
“The food drive was a win-win project,” QAMQL program director Brian Grev said in a press release. “We got the idea from one of our patients who collected 100 pounds of food from friends and neighbors to celebrate her considerable success – now over 100 pounds lost.”
Learn more about Queen Anne Medical Weight Loss, a division of Queen Anne Medical Associates, PLLC., at its website.
It’s that time of year again: the 18th annual Dining Out For Life event, in which 150 Seattle area restaurants will donate portions of their proceeds to the Lifelong AIDS Alliance, is happening this coming Thursday, April 28.
There are a number of Queen Anne restaurants participating in the fundraiser for either breakfast, lunch dinner, or all three. Check out the list of participating neighborhood spots:
Intiman Theatre received a sizable donation in its effort to raise $1 million this week – in the form of a $100,000 matching gift from an anonymous donor, the theatre announced Friday.
Intiman, which first announced it would face closure unless it raises $1 million by September back in February, has already raised $200,000 from community supporters to save the local theatre. The organization hopes to raise half its need – $500,000 – by the end of the month, another $250,000 by June, and the final $250,000 by the fall. The $100,000 matching fund could help push the theatre significant closer to meeting the March portion of its goal, that is if the challenge is met.
“This generous grant provides us with an opportunity to raise at least $200,000 in a short amount of time,” said Intiman’s Finance Committee chair Paul Lawrence in a statement. “We’re grateful for this matching opportunity, and we’re working hard to spread the word. We are asking everyone for whatever support they can give now.”
According to the terms of the grant agreement, all donations made to the Impact Intiman campaign beginning today, Friday, March 25, will be matched dollar-for-dollar by the anonymous donor. There is no time limit for donors to meet the match, but Intiman hopes to meet its $500,000 mark by March 31st in order to stay on track with its fundraising goals for the rest of the year.
Those interested in making a donation to Intiman can do so from the theatre’s website.
For more information see our past coverage, or contact Becky Lathrop at beckyl@intiman.org or 206.204.3322.
Emergency responders and hospitals often give out free teddy bears to children involved in an emergency or frightening situation. Through the month of March, all Bartell Drugs stores, including the Greenwood store at 120 N. 85th St., are collecting new or gently used bears and money for the Annual Warm 106.9 FM Teddy Bear Patrol campaign.
From the press release: “Designed to help bridge the communication gap between a frightened child and an adult stranger, the program puts a teddy bear in the hands of community police departments, hospitals and emergency response teams so they may give the bear to a child involved in a stressful situation.”
To donate, you can either purchase the Bartell Teddy Bear for $7 (Bartell Drugs will then donate a second bear to the campaign); donate money towards the purchase of a bear; or donate a new or gently used bear that is under 12 inches long.
It’s been one year since Zaw pizza opened up on the hill, and to celebrate the bake-at-home pizzeria is launching a new month-long campaign called Zaw School Days at its Queen Anne location. Starting today, on every Tuesday and Wednesday all month long Zaw will donate $5 to your school or PTA funding efforts for every order $20 and up.
“We’ve been honored to be a foodie fixture in the Queen Anne community for almost an entire year! We thought: “What better way to celebrate than to find a unique way to give back to the schools in the Queen Anne community!” Zaw said in a statement about the program. “It’s our way of saying, “thanks for being a great neighbor and allowing us to be a part of the great Queen Anne community!”
While the rummage sale won’t take place until the last weekend of February (Friday, Feb. 25 through Sunday, Feb. 27), but FOLKpark is already collecting donations to be sold at the sale. The rummage sale will be held at 512 1st Ave N in Lower Queen Anne. Community members who’d like to donate their old stuff to FOLKpark for the rummage sale should contact Jean Sundborg at 206-283-6140 and arrange a time to bring their donations to the sale site.
FOLKpark is also looking for volunteers work the days of the sale, and in the weeks coming up to the event, helping to prepare. If you’d like to volunteer, reach out to FOLKpark via its Facebook page, or by calling the number above.
Newly engaged Seattle couple Kate Donahue, 25, and Jesus Sanchez, 28, were killed from injuries sustained in a New Year’s Day attack while visiting family in Puerto Rico, according to the Seattle Times.
Jesus Sanchez and Kate Donahue
According to family and friends, Donahue, a popular nurse at Group Health, and Sanchez, a Boeing engineer, lived together with Sanchez’s roommate Rob McMurray, 25, in a condo in the Queen Anne neighborhood.
Donahue and Sanchez were severely injured in an incident on New Year’s Day at a celebratory family dinner. The two were in Puerto Rico to meet Sanchez’s family when, according to the Seattle Times report, Sanchez’s uncle, Justino Sanchez Diaz, doused the family with propane and torched the gathering. From the Times:
According to friends, the uncle had purportedly planned the gathering to mark the new year, two family members’ birthdays and the couple’s engagement. As the dinner got under way, he set the party ablaze with kerosene and a 20-pound propane tank, police said.
Police report that before the family gathering, Sanchez Diaz had covered the walls with gasoline and set canisters of fuel under nearby furniture, including the dining room table.
As the group sat down to eat, he came out with a tank of propane gas, doused the people with kerosene and set them on fire with a homemade torch.
Sanchez passed away Tuesday, January 4. At that time three other victims—Sanchez’s grandmother, cousin, and younger sister—had also passed. On Tuesday Donahue was airlifted in critical condition from Puerto Rico to the University of Miami/Jackson Memorial Burn Center, where she passed away peacefully on Thursday, according to family members. Donahue had sustained burns on more than 80 percent of her body and was in a medically induced coma when her organs began to fail Thursday.
“She did go peacefully,” Donahue’s aunt Patrice Moore told the Times. “She was still unconscious … she was in no pain.”
The couple had planned to get married in Kerry Park this summer, according to KOMO News. “From what I’ve heard, he [Sanchez Diaz] did have some mental issues. I’m not sure what they were, but he’d never been aggressive before,” Moore told KOMO.
“It was something nobody expected,” local police Lt. Francisco Rosado told the Times. “We haven’t even had five murders in the last decade.”
Family members have not speculated on a motive, and police say Sanchez Diaz has kept silent and refused to eat since his arrest.
A PayPal account has been set up to gather donations to help cover the costs of medical care, transportation and funeral arrangements for Donahue and Sanchez. It is accessible through the “Support for Kate Donahue and Jesus Sanchez” Facebook page. As of 10:45 a.m. Friday $2,800 had already been raised.
A Wells Fargo bank account has also been set up to help with medical and funeral expenses. To make a donation, go to any Wells Fargo branch and ask to contribute to the Kate Donahue and Jesus Sanchez fund, or account #6174877891.
Donahue and Sanchez were regulars at the popular Lower Queen Anne dueling piano bar Chopstix. In fact the couple met there, and later got engaged there just a few months ago. You can watch the video of Sanchez’s proposal here.
Chopstix, located at 11 Roy Street, will be hosting a fundraiser to help raise money for Donahue’s and Sanchez’s families next week, at at 6 p.m. on Thursday, January 13. The piano players will be donating all of their tips to the Wells Fargo account set up for the families, and Chopstix will be donating a portion of their sales that night to the fund.
If you need to work off some of that Thanksgiving dinner, head over to Denali Fitness in Interbay. They are holding a fundraiser for Food Lifeline and you can enjoy a free workout if you donate at least one can of food.
The promotion runs through Sunday (11/28) and Denali’s says anyone is welcome, including your out of town guests.
Denali is located at the corner of 16th Ave West and West Bertona Street.
Costumed kids filled the streets of Queen Anne on Sunday, and right about now they’re probably counting up their stock-piled bounty, arranging them into categories, and either rationing their candy treats, or filling up on them—or a little bit of both.
MSN Money’s SmartSpending blog has a smart idea that will keep your kids from needing extra visits to the dentist and that will give America’s overseas troops a taste of home. Dentists across the nation are buying back extra candy for $1 a pound, and sending it to the troops through the Halloween Candy Buyback. The only participating location in Seattle is in Greenlake.
For more information, read the full story on our sister-site, Maple Leaf Life.
So many people gave money to The Seattle Public Library this morning that the library foundation’s website couldn’t keep up.
“The overwhelming amount of traffic to the gift processing part of our website caused it to crash. We are so sorry for this inconvenience,” wrote Jonna Ward, executive director of The Seattle Public Library Foundation.
That’s good. It means the public is supporting the library at a time of deep budget cuts.
Because of citywide budget shortages, the library’s 2010 budget was cut by $1.17 million (2.4 percent). Next year the library faces cuts that could range from a low of 9.5 percent ($4.9 million), to a high of 14.5 percent ($7.4 million).
So it was great news when an anonymous donor offered the library foundation a grant of $500,000 if donors can match it, for $1 million in all. Our news partner The Seattle Times has a story on that announcement today.
The foundation has set up an alternate way to give, here. Or call 206-386-4130 to make a gift by phone
Help get kids ready for the 2010-2011 school year. World Vision and Bartell Drugs are teaming up for the 7th annual “School Tools for Kids in Need” drive.
From the press release:
This three-week school supply drive is especially important as 58,000 local children could begin the school year without the basic school supplies needed to succeed. Basic Needs List suggestions found in Bartell’s “School Aisles” include:
* Acme Rulers
* Dixon #2 Pencils
* Bic Cristal or Round Stic Ink Pens – 10 pack. Blue or Black
* Elmer’s Glue – Glue-All or School Glue/4 oz. bottles
* 3M Scotch Scissors for Kids
* Avery Glue Stic/2 pack – Acid-free, photo-safe, permanent, washable
* Pentel Hi-Polymer Erasers – 3 pack
* Avery Poly Binders – 1/2″ or 1″ sizes
* Prang Crayons – 24ct
* Avery Hi-Liter Markers – Yellow or Pink
* C Leonard Erasers
All 58 Bartell Drug locations, including the Upper ( 1929 Queen Anne Ave N.) and Lower ( 600 First Avenue N.) Queen Anne locations are participating now through August 29th.
The 3rd Annual Seattle Brain Cancer Walk is happening this Saturday, June 26 at Seattle Center’s Mural Amphitheatre from 7 t0 10:30 a.m., where organizers, volunteers and family and friends of those affected by brain cancer will walk to build awareness, raise money and advance the search for a cure.
Walkers will get to choose between making two loops around the longer course, 1.1 miles, or the shorter course, .3 miles. The entire event will take place on the Seattle Center campus.
The Seattle Brain Cancer Walk was founded in 2008 by a group of committed volunteers and families, and has since raised over $400,000 for research, comprehensive care and clinical trials for brain cancer patients in the Pacific Northwest.
This year the Brain Cancer Walk has already raised $331,043.08. Online registration for the event will close at 5 p.m. today, Thursday, June 24. To register click here. For more information on walk-day, click here.
The 2nd annual “Stock the Pantry” food drive is underway at all Bartell Drugs locations, including both in Upper Queen Anne (1929 Queen Anne Ave N) and Uptown (600 First Ave N).
The 2-week drive, which ends on June 13, helps Northwest Harvest restock their shelves for the summer months when more families depend on the food because children are not getting free or reduced-price meals at school. Only 2 out of 5 low-income children who receive a school lunch also receive a lunch in the summer months, according to the Western Region Anti-Hunger Consortium.
Some “kid-friendly” suggestions from Bartells include tuna, instant oatmeal, macaroni and cheese, peanut butter, cheese crackers, applesauce and canned fruit in individual serving sizes.
Bartell’s aims to collect 25,000 pounds of food donations this year.
Local non-profit Successful Schools in Action, which works to provide support and resources for schools, students and teachers at seven schools in Queen Anne and Magnolia, raised just shy of $30,000 at their 4th annual community breakfast last week, making the event the most successful breakfast fundraiser they’ve ever had!
SSIA says the funds are essential to their operations, enabling them “to continue providing tutors for struggling students, debate for every student who wants to participate, and Collaborative Conversations to support our teachers, empower our families, and engage our community.”
In a letter sent out today the organization thanked the community for their continued support.
We appreciate the incredible sponsor support we received this year from so many local businesses and organizations. Special recognition and thanks to our Signature Sponsor, Vulcan, and our Table Sponsors, JAS Design Build and King & Oliason.
Read up on the some of the past work SSIA has done in the community here, here and here. If you’d like to support SSIA, make a donation here, or eat out through the Celebrated Chefs program and have 5 percent donated on your behalf. See participating restaurants here.
(Photographer: Samuel Kuntz. Photos courtesy of SSIA).
The Interbay P-Patch at 2451 15th Ave W, a 132-plot, 43,000-square-foot urban garden in the valley between Queen Anne and Magnolia will be celebrating the opening of the Interbay food bank garden on Tuesday, March 30 at 5:30 p.m. with a community gathering. From the Seattle Department of Neighborhoods,
There will be a traditional first kale harvest, perhaps some planting, definitely some soup, some stories, lots of laughter and camaraderie, and who knows? Possibly even some sunshine!
In 2009 the Interbay P-Patch donated over 5,000 pounds of produce to local food banks, including the the Ballard Food Bank, Mary’s Place and St. Martin’s.
Picture Perfect Queen Anne is a volunteer-run organization dedicated to beautifying the neighborhood’s main entrances and business districts in the hopes of making Queen Anne a welcoming and vibrant community. (You may have noticed their signs up and down Queen Anne Ave N from Galer to McGraw or some of the flower beds they’ve planted).
PPQA has been working to raise $16,000 for the completion of their “Green Gateways” program (i.e. fixing up the entrances to Queen Anne, installing pavers, and covering the costs of continued gardening and maintenance). Last month the group was just a few thousand shy of their goal.
This week the 8-person board of directors got an extra helping hand when on Sunday, March 14, Noah, a 9-year-old Queen Anne-er and son of PPQA board member Jeff Parker, took to the streets to raise a little extra money for the cause. Board member Virginia Hand wrote,
Noah set up a table at the intersection of Queen Anne Avenue at Boston and started asking passing neighbors to donate to PPQA and the Green Gateways project. Along with homemade banana bread, cookies and brownies (his father says Noah is a baking machine), Noah rewarded contributors with flower seeds donated by Ed Hume Seeds. By the end of the day, Noah had raised over $150, a big accomplishment for the fourth-grader and a meaningful contribution to PPQA.
PPQA is especially grateful to Noah for raising awareness about the group’s mission to make Queen Anne Avenue greener as well as more pedestrian safe and family friendly. Projects include the installation of new cross walks, street lamps, and sidewalks such as those just completed at Queen Anne Avenue at Galer and McGraw Streets.
To sum up, PPQA deemed Noah’s fundraiser “a big success.” If you’re interested in learning more about the project or making a donation yourself, click here.
As for what the neighborhood can expect from PPQA this spring, during the last week of April the group will be installing 30 18″by 18″ pavers inscribed with the names of community members and organizations who have supported the project at the intersection of Galer and Queen Anne Ave N. And on May 1 neighbors will get together for PPQA’s big spring planting day. Anyone interested in sponsoring PPQA and getting their name on one of the last pavers left have until Monday, March 22 to do so. More information here.
Don’t be surprised if you notice a little something extra on your doorstep today. The Queen Anne Cub Scouts from Troops 70 and 72 will be walking through the neighborhood on assigned routes from 9 a.m. to noon placing door hangers on homes as part of their annual Scouting for Food drive.
The hangers will provide information on hunger in the community and ask for those who can to leave donations of food and toiletries on their porches by 10 a.m. next Saturday, March 20, when the scouts will come back to collect, weight and deliver them to the Queen Anne Helpline and Ballard Food Bank.
“In 2009 the food drive brought in over 600 pounds of donations. Our goal this year is to exceed 1,000 pounds of donations,” wrote scout parent and 2010 Scouting for Food campaign co-chair Mary Chapman. “The Queen Anne Helpline and Ballard Food Bank are especially in need this year to help hundreds of local households make ends meet as a result of the current economic situation.”
We’ve just heard that Macrina Bakery will be donating 100 percent of the proceeds from all of their locations today, Wednesday, February 3, to the Red Cross Haiti Relief Fund. Macrina has three locations in Seattle, in Queen Anne, Belltown and SODO. The Queen Anne location is at 615 W McGraw St. They’ll be open until 6 p.m. today, plenty of time to buy some bread for a good cause!
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Kayla Healy is a 17-year-old high school senior who has lived with Cystic Fibrosis for her entire life. Unfortunately Kayla’s disease has progressed to the point that she needs a double lung transplant to save her life, and her family is turning to the community to help them raise the money for the procedure.
It’s that time of year again: the 18th annual 
The 2-week drive, which ends on June 13, helps 
We’ve just heard that 