Washington state 36th District Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles is holding an informal discussion about the situation in Haiti, what is being done to create a positive future, and ways individuals can get involved and help for the Queen Anne community on Wednesday evening.

Nearly one year after January’s devastating earthquake, Haiti is struggling under the weight of a cholera epidemic, political violence, and massive dislocation.  Yet, despite all of this, there is hope for a bright future in Haiti.

This will be an opportunity to learn about the underlying causes of Haiti’s current situation, ranging from public health to infrastructure, agriculture to trade policies, and more.  Speakers from NGOs, government and within the community will be presenting from their own personal experiences and their organization about working and volunteering in Haiti, and will offer their insights and answer questions in informal discussions.

A number of presenters will be sharing their personal experiences working in Haiti, and answering questions from the community. The following will be in attendance:

• State Rep. Eileen Cody and Dr. Jane Simonsen, Haiti Relief Program of Group Health
• David Eller, World Concern President
• Erin Murphy, Seattle Against Slavery
• Phillip Thompson, Seattle Univ., Engineers Without Borders

Representatives from Puget Sound Health Partners, Sustainable Organic Integrated Livelihoods (SOIL), and other organizations will also be present.

The discussion will take place from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. on Wednesday, December 29 at the home of Sen. Kohl-Welles and Alex Welles, located at 301 W. Kinnear Pl. (the corner of 3rd Ave W in Queen Anne).

The event will include refreshments and light fare, and there will be opportunities to donate to the presenting organizations. For more information, or to RSVP, please contact Devon  Jenkins at seattlehaiti2010@gmail.com or 206-424-6049.

For two weeks in 2009, Ballardite Tracey Higdon volunteered at a health clinic in Haiti through the non-profit organization Friends of the Children of Haiti. After January’s massive earthquake, the clinic near Jacmel is  now one of the last standing in the region. On March 26, Higdon is returning to the country to organize a Haitian team to repair and repaint the building. There will be a fundraiser and bon voyage party at The Leary Traveler (4354 Leary Way NW) next Tuesday, March 9, from 6:00-9:00 p.m. to help send Higdon to Haiti. For more information, visit the Send Tracy Back to Haiti Facebook page or email Tracey2Haiti@gmail.com. You can also read more about Higdon’s trip on our sister site MyBallard.com.

Yogalife‘s Queen Anne location is offering a class from 1 to 2 p.m. tomorrow, Saturday, February 6 benefiting “Stand With Haiti”, a project of Partners In Health, an organization that has been working to improve health care in Haiti for over 20 years. Tomorrow’s class will be donation-only, and open to individuals and families with members of all ages. Read more about Liv’s family yoga classes here. For more information, call (206) 283-9642.

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!

(Thanks to Seattle Times food blogger Nancy Leson and her wonderfully informative Tweets for the tip!)

Local chain Pagliacci Pizza has just announced it will be donating 100 percent of the proceeds from all of its locations today, Thursday, January 28, to the Red Cross Haiti Relief Fund. According to the owners, they decided to dedicate today to helping those in Haiti after overwhelming company-wide support for a fundraising project. They wrote on their blog,

I, like all of you, have witnessed the news footage from Haiti over the past few weeks. Total devastation. You can’t help but be moved by the images in the press. As I was deliberating what we should do as a company, several of our employees had similar thoughts. Devesh Kumar, a driver from Miller Delivery Kitchen, was the first to approach me about what Pagliacci could do as a company. The whole Sand Point Delivery Kitchen crew talked about donating their tips to aid relief efforts. Jason Cheung, the University Pizzeria General Manager, sent out an email to all of our managers asking if their crew was interested in donating tips for a day and if Pagliacci would match their donations. Our crew really wanted to help and so did I.

In addition to donating today’s proceeds, Pagliacci will also be matching all of their employee contributions to the fund and working with their vendors to encourage a donation of the food and packaging used today.

Pagliacci has 21 locations throughout Seattle, including their Queen Anne pizzeria, located at 550 Queen Anne Ave N, which will be open from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. today.

(Photo courtesy of Pagliacci Pizza via Flickr. Thanks to Patrick for the tip!)

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.

Authentic Ghanaian restaurant KwaTay Lounge, located at 315 1st Ave. N., will be holding a fundraiser for the victim’s of the earthquake in Haiti on Saturday, January 16 from 8 p.m. to 2 a.m.

Organizer Wendy Cadet, who works with the Elise Joseph Foundation to bring donated medical equipment and trained nurses to Haiti year-round, is hosting the fundraiser to collect supplied and relief donations from the community.

“I am trying to get help for people in Haiti, my mom and dad and other family members are in Haiti and we have not heard from them. The organization has a plane, pilot, doctors and nurses ready to be deployed. We need medical supplies, non perishable food, money, clothes anything that can help,” she wrote on the event’s Facebook page.

Admission will be $10. In an email sent out later this afternoon, Cadet said there will also be Haitian art available for sale at the event. For more information, contact Cadet at 206-595-3127, or Elise Joseph Foundation President Gilda Jean-Louis at 267-808-4714.