Seattle Wednesday

What another great day. Today we worked with Operation Sack Lunch, an organization feeding Seattle's hungry for over 25 years. Their mission is "to provide dignity, care and compassion through action with the example the each person can make a difference. To education and advocate acceptance and understanding of each other's differences. To ultimately bring about the realization that we are all a vital part of this world and with extended effort put an end to homelessness, hunger and hatred." They carry out their mission by providing healthy, organic meals to the hungry of Seattle. Today we helped to prepare and serve meals to the people at the Compass Center and then took the meals on the road to site where anyone can come and get a good meal. We saw probably over 150 people come to get a meal. It was a wonderful and fulfilling day.

After we finished up with our service site we took advantage of being in downtown and went to the Seattle Center, Pike Place Market and everywhere in between. We closed day with a nice meal and reflection, and another beautiful sunset.

Seattle Tuesday

Today's theme was connecting to the earth! The day began at Pigeon point Park, part of the West Duwamish greenbelt, the largest urban forest in Seattle. We joined 30 other volunteers to work with the Nature Consortium, a grassroots, community based organization whose mission is to connect people, arts, and nature. Specifically the work we did was part of the Urban Forest Restoration program. We cleared a large patch of invasive Himalayan blackberry, while being careful to leave the native blackberry.  In time these areas will be replanted with native trees and bushes. Very difficult work, but a great team effort! Two local musicians played music to keep us motivated and entertained.

Afterwards we headed to Our Lady of Guadalope church where the PV's have worked the past 2 years in building a garden, called Lettuce Pray, that helps feed local food banks. Today we spread cedar chips to keep weed growth down.

Dinner consisted of soup made with sweet potato, spinach, and veggie sausage - hearty and delicious - just what we needed after a challenging day of physical labor!  For reflection we listened to a song about letting mystery be, and pondered where mystery was found in our day...

  

Seattle Monday

In the morning we (a group of half traveling PVs and half Seattlites) made our way to Frances House in the international district for a day of service. Frances House is a place where people can come to get food, housewares, clothes and other items they might need. They have been around for over 40 years serving anyone who walks through the doors with the help of a strong group of dedicated volunteers that we were able to work alongside and learn from. On a typical day they see about 100 people and help them with whatever they may need.

After we were done at Francis House, we drove north to drop off a volunteer and we made our way up to the Fremont Neighborhood to see the Troll who lives under the bridge, check out the Ballard Locks, see Mt.Rainer in all of it's glory and even make it back in time to catch a beautiful sunset over the water in West Seattle after reflection. All in all a wonderful day.

Seattle PVs Are Off and Running!

Today marks the beginning of the 2015 Seattle PV Program. Even though we usually don't do a service project on the first day, we were asked to step in and help out with a community dinner that the churches in West Seattle host once a month. Our Lady of Guadalupe parish hosts the event each month, but a different church steps up and prepares the the meal to serve to anyone in the community that wants to come. Today there were over a 100 people that came to enjoy the meal. The PVs helped out by serving and busing the tables when the guests were finished. It was a great experience to work side by side with the other volunteers and meet the wonderful people that came to eat.

Since this was the first day of the program we did do an orientation to the week and to Seattle and also did the PV commissioning ceremony to start the week off on a great note. We were able to finish up all the beginning of the week activities in time to partake in another Seattle tradition, watching a Seattle Sounders soccer game. While we couldn't be there in person, we still wore Sounders scarves and enjoyed the game, especially as they beat their long time rivals.

We look forward to a great week ahead and hope you will join us in the journey.