Freedom is a ticket to ride

I just got another big load of bicycles fixed up for the kids at Sand Point. They are donated in various conditions, parts here, parts there. Some of them I went out and got, some of them just showed up, some were left by former residents…

I’ve given away 34 bikes over the past couple of years. I have four or five to work on now… I’m working with the parts and pieces I’ve got, a few carcasses in the bone yard.

I started working on bikes right after I got out of the hospital a few years back, because I couldn’t afford a new one.

I’m foot challenged, I can’t walk too far because of neuropathy. But I can ride! And all these parts of bikes were at Solid Ground’s Santos Place (transitional housing for single men and women at Sand Point). Roger, who runs Santos Place, said, ‘you can take these bikes and put them together.’

So I started putting together bikes and giving them away. And I started fixing bikes for the kids. I know what I was like when I was a kid with a bike; I broke it pretty regularly. And a lot of the kids that come through the Family Housing have never had a bike.

That is why I really do it is to see the look on their little faces! Because when you get a bike, it means you have arrived, welcome to the big time, you know. I know how I felt with my first bike when I was a kid and I want them to feel the same thing. It is just so cool. I do it for selfish reasons!

While we don’t currently have room at Sand Point for donations of bikes, folks who have bikes they would like to donate to help young people who can’t afford them should contact Bikeworks.

Cascade Bike Club has been just phenomenal on supplying us with bike helmets for Sand Point residents, kids and grownups!

Bill, the maintenance guy at Sand Point, is a man of the year candidate! He’s really good at reading the kids. He says, “Well, he destroyed their Barbie Playhouse and broke the swing set, well he needs one of these kind of bikes!” I work with him directly on deciding. We hit it off from the word go; I like the way he operates. So I fix them up and say, ‘These are ready to go, Bill. You got any people you think could use one?’ And he’s linked in the with case management staff. Darlene, Joshua and Liz are all incredibly supportive! The bikes get shipped out pretty quickly.

(Editor’s note: Peter’s personal stable is down to four bikes. First is his regular hybrid bike. “If your regular bike breaks down, you need to go get more bike parts,” he says. So, that’s the “basic transportation backup.” He has a recumbent, aka the Rocket Ship, which is the “research and development bike.” Peter has plans to swap out chain rings, pedal arms, etc. “Then you’ll be able to climb trees with it!” Number four is an old Raleigh Grand Prix road bike, sitting unused for a while.)

Bike to dinner and help feed hungry people

Next Tuesday evening June 29th, join the first ever Spoke & Food event to celebrate summer cycling and healthy food for hungry people! Spoke & Food is a volunteer-led event to promote bicycling to dinner and to engage the community in good works! Bike with your friends and family to and from any of the participating restaurants for dinner and a percentage of your bill will be donated to Solid Ground’s Lettuce Link program. One of the participating restaurants, Dad Watsons, will be donating 50% of the evening’s proceeds to Lettuce Link.

Lettuce Link strives to nurture healthy communities in the Seattle area through distributing fresh, organic produce, seeds and plant starts to low-income families. The program promotes self-sufficiency through gardening education, teaching sustainable food production, and raising awareness about good nutrition and food security. Lettuce Link also coordinates donations of fruits and vegetables grown and harvested in Seattle.

Garett Slettebak, a founder of the event, commented on why Spoke & Food chose to support Lettuce Link: “We were looking for a well-deserving, local non-profit or program whose focus involves food, health, and service. Our planning committee researched a handful of non-profits in the Seattle area who we felt would match up well with and benefit from the Spoke & Food event and the Lettuce Link program landed on top of our list.”

Please join Garett and others and participate in Spoke & Food. Have fun, be healthy, and support a great cause!

Here is a partial list of participating restaurants. For the complete list, bike maps and more information about the event go to Spoke & Food’s website.
Dad Watsons
The Scarlet Tree
Montlake Alehouse
The Stepping Stone
Snoose Junction Pizzeria
Naked City Brewery & Taphouse
Fiddler’s Inn
Mulleady’s Irish Pub
Cantinetta
The Hi-Life
Barking Dog Alehouse
Louisa’s Cafe & Bakery
Porterhouse
Blue Star Cafe & Pub

The right decision about the Fremont Fair

There’s an unusual calm over parts of Solid Ground this weekend as the 39th Fremont Fair commences without this agency acting as the producer for the first time in 37 years.

Don’t get me wrong, we loved the Fair and the responsibility of stewarding it through a changing set of economic and social environments. Mostly.

art by Spoonbits

art by Julie Paschkis

Hopefully, we retained the kernel of Fremontism that is the Fair’s core. What was once a party the neighborhood threw for itself to acknowledge and celebrate its strengths has changed as the Fremont neighborhood has changed. By the mid 1990s, we were growing the event and wondering if we should be measuring ourselves up against performance-heavy festivals like Bumbershoot.

Throughout the past decade, we have experimented with different production models, striving to find the balance between organizational investment in the Fair and what this social service/anti-poverty/anti-racism agency got out of it. Did we raise enough financial support, community awareness, neighborhood relations? What activities were we not able to pursue due to investing staff time in the Fair?

Last year we hit a tipping point with the Fair and made the decision to find another partner to continue it, nurture it and allow it to grow. We were thrilled to learn that the Fremont Chamber of Commerce wanted to take on the Fair. And we’ve seen them both return it, somewhat, to its neighborhood roots, and infuse new energy and ideas.

art by Spoonbits

Even better, they will still raise funding through the Fair to support Solid Ground’s services and other community nonprofits.

The Fremont Fair developed a different personae than the University District Street Fair and other Seattle traditional summer events because it possessed a magical artistic exploration in the service of community. It’s been a little weird in all the best ways.

So, here’s a tip of a Redhook to the Chamber. May you keep the tradition alive another 39 years!

The PI Big Blog  just ran a cool story about the transition, which you can read on their site.

I was particularly interested in the comments section of the blog post, where one reader answered the question that titled the post (emphasis added):

Posted by XXXX at 6/18/2010 2:53 a.m.
Will new management change the Fremont Fair?
God I hope so…

Progress lagging in 10-year plan

“Midway through the city of Portland and Multnomah County’s 10-year plan to end homelessness, an impressive number of people have been housed through a coordinated, countywide effort,” writes Joanne Zuhl, staff writer on the Street Roots blog.

“Likewise, however, an impressive number of people have arrived newly homeless to the streets through a national disaster.

“Five years into the plan, which promotes ‘housing first’ with supportive permanent housing programs, more than 7,000 homeless households have moved from the streets into housing (in Portland). At the same time, the engines of recession are driving more people to the streets for the first time in their lives.”

The numbers might not match up exactly, but you could run a search and replace on Zuhl’s piece, substituting Seattle for Portland, and pretty much make the same case: For all the good we are doing as a community creating more housing first and permanent housing opportunities (and we are accomplishing a lot there), there are still more newly homeless folks than our established community services can accomodate. Increasingly, the new homeless are families.

The 10-year plans have been integral to Federal funding of homeless services. But Zuhl reports that the Fed’s approach is changing

“On June 21, the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, which oversees the 10-year plan program, will unveil the new Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness, which in process and policy supplants the 10-year plan concept. The new plan, set on a five-year agenda, will focus on not only ending chronic homelessness, but on a wider population, including veterans, families, youths and children, setting a ‘path to ending all types of homelessness.’ That’s a major expansion, from the federal viewpoint, on the 10-year agenda and one driven by accumulating statistics that the streets are filling up with families.”

Paul Carlson, regional coordinator for the Interagency Council on Homelessness based in Seattle, told Zuhl that he couldn’t comment on the specifics of the report until it was released, and that it was unclear what additional resources would be dedicated to address family and youth homelessness.

Hopefully, more than just shuffling the federal deck, the new plan will not only bring additional resources to bear, but also respond to the increasing number of newly homeless in need of additional emergency services.

Fremont Troll ornament supports Solid Ground

The ornamental Troll

Cool: Fremont’s most famous street dweller is teaming up with NW artist Betty Gimarelli to raise money to support Solid Ground. 

He’s the Fremont Troll and his visage graces the 2010 Seattle Ornament™, continuing a 17-year tradition of commemorating Seattle’s best-loved landmarks with holiday ornaments designed by Gimarelli.

As in previous years, the ornament will be 24-karat gold-plated. The story of the Fremont Troll will accompany it. The Troll’s image is being used with permission of the artists.

The ornament will first be available at the Fremont Fair in Seattle, WA, June 19-20, 2010. The Fremont Fair, produced by Solid Ground for the past 38 years, has moved this year to the capable hands of the Fremont Chamber of Commerce. Funds raised through the Fair benefit a number of area nonprofits, including Solid Ground!

This year, for each 2010 Fremont Troll ornament sold a the Fair, Seattle Ornament™ will donate 5% to Solid Ground.

The Fremont Troll Seattle Ornament and prior years’ ornaments will be available for sale at www.SeattleOrnament.com after the Fair. As always, the ornaments will be limited editions and hand numbered.

The real life Fremont Troll, in his abode under the Aurora Bridge

Farm talk with Sue: spring harvest, greenhouses and more

Our Lettuce Link program has posted another Session with Farmer Sue. Check it out for the latest news about our Giving Garden at Marra Farm.

To see previous videos go to Solid Ground’s YouTube channel.

Undead to help feed hungry people

Supernatural powers of philanthropy will converge at the Fremont Outdoor Movies on Saturdays July 3 and 10 to support Solid Ground’s efforts to feed hungry people and shelter homeless families.

In partnership with The Fremont Outdoor movies, CoHo Team of Windermere Agents is hosting what could be a world record Zombie walk in conjunction with a food drive to support hungry folks.

Bloody Zombies photo by Hank Graham

It all happens Saturday, July 3 at 3501 Phinney Ave N. Festivities begin at noon and culminate at 9:30 pm with a screening of the classic Zombie film “Dawn of the Dead.”  The day-long “Red, White and Dead Block Party” hopes to attract 10,000 of the fun-loving undead to Fremont in an attempt to reclaim Fremont’s Zombie world record. See all the gory details here.

Zombies and spectators are asked to bring nonperishable food items to support Solid Ground’s Partners in Caring Program, which distributes food to elderly folks and people living with disabilities in Seattle Public Housing. Tickets can be purchased online.

Then on Saturday, July 10, the CoHo team will try to bust its own record of donations to Solid Ground by matching all gate fees and donations for that night’s film, “Ghost Busters.” Donations will be taken at the gate, or before the event online (type “CoHo Team” in the comments section). And while the suggested donation is $5, there’s no limit to what you can give! So come and join the legendary Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd and Sigourney Weaver in this ghost and gut busting film. Donations will support Solid Ground’s Family Shelter program.

KBCS Community Radio supports Lettuce Link

Cool: What sounds great and tastes great, too? KBCS 91.3FM! The community-based radio station, which is renowned for its coverage of social justice issues, is using its June membership drive to support Lettuce Link’s efforts to get fresh organic produce to people who are hungry.

As the only community radio station in the Seattle area, KBCS aspires to be the radio station of choice for adventurous listeners who are passionate about music, curious about our world, and who value social justice, says their website. We love them for featuring local reporters like Martha Baskin’s Green A.C.R.E. Radio and Sable Verity Commentary as well as socially conscious local musicians, such as Jim Page and Bill Frisell. Plus KBCS is the local home of Amy Goodman and  Democracy Now!

For years, community-based media have used “premiums” to encourage donors to commit to giving at higher levels. These gifts to the donor typically include things like CDs or DVDs, T-shirts, tote bags, etc. KBCS wanted a way to move beyond just offering stuff to giving their members a way to make an impact in the community.

“One of the roles of community radio is to amplify what is working locally,” Sabrina Roach, the station’s Development and Outreach Director, told me. “This year we wanted to highlight a local program focused on urban food issues and farming in Seattle. Lettuce Link has a long track record of doing this, and of adding new programs that respond to the changing needs of our communities.” Honestly, we couldn’t have tooted that horn any better ourselves!

Here’s how this will work: During the June 4-June 13 KBCS pledge drive, KBCS supporters will have the option of forgoing the pledge drive mug and instead, dedicating 5% of their KBCS donation to Lettuce Link. (To be fair and square, KBCS supporters can also choose to direct 5% to Mountains to Sound Greenway, to support their youth stewardship program.)

So tune in to 91.3 FM for great public affairs, great music and to support a growing community!