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Capitol Hill Community Council | 2nd Annual Winter Celebration is chance to reflect on year, look ahead to challenges of 2016

image00Your Capitol Hill Community Council hopes to continue the exciting service we’ve provided the community throughout 2015, but we can’t do it alone. We’ll need the support of our neighbors and friends in Capitol Hill – just like you – to help us celebrate a successful year and cast a vision for 2016, which reminded me of an experience when someone’s gift inspired me.

Last July, Reiny Cohen, at-large member of our Capitol Hill Community Council, and I spent an afternoon buying supplies to create 200 care packs for people experiencing homelessness in our neighborhood. With four days left before the event, we hadn’t raised the necessary amount needed to cover the costs. But we made a commitment to each other and our community to do this project.

Over the next four days, our council needed to raise twice as much money as had already been donated. Hope and optimism empowered us that Sunday as we gathered more than two cart loads of supplies – toothpaste, socks, chapstick, sunscreen, and more – from the U-District Dollar Tree.

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2nd Annual Winter Celebration
Join us to affirm those values on Thursday, December 17 at 6:30 PM at Vermillion (1508 11th Ave), along with special guests Speaker Frank Chopp, Rep. Brady Walkinshaw, Seattle City Council members Tim Burgess, Lorena Gonzalez, and Kshama Sawant for an evening of celebration over food and drinks, music, and a spirit of community. We are also featuring raffle items – a linoleum rug courtesy of local artist Christopher Stearns of Westling Design and Capitol Hill Candle Co. We are grateful to our sponsors and supporters: Prime Sponsor Nyhus Communications, along with Windermere-Capitol Hill, Capitol Hill Housing Foundation, BANG Salon, Uncle Ike’s Glass & Goods, Abracadabra Printing, Capitol Hill Chamber of Commerce, Guenther Creative, QFC, Hot Cakes, Cafe Solstice, and Vermillion Art Gallery & Bar, with special thanks to our media sponsors CHS Capitol Hill Seattle and Capitol Hill Times.


As our squeaky cart rolled up to the register, the man helping us grew curious about what we were doing. “Are you buying all of this to sell for a higher price somewhere else?” he asked with a half-serious grin, “Because sometimes people do that.”

“Oh, no!” I said; Reiny shared our plan. He became visibly moved and asked how he could get involved, what could someone like him possibly do, he asked. “You can volunteer or donate, whatever you are able,” Reiny said.

Teary-eyed, he expressed how he didn’t have the means but he wanted to give something. From his well-worn, leather wallet, he produced a $5 bill and implored us to take it in support of our project.

I recalled this memory because this coming Thursday, December 17, your Capitol Hill Community Council will host its second annual Winter Celebration at Vermillion at 6:30 PM. The event is one-part celebration of the work we’ve done in the last year, and one-part envisioning how to best serve the community in 2016. Ultimately, your support of our work can ensure a successful year of service – whether by getting involved on a committee of interest, attending events and inviting friends, learning more about and joining advocacy efforts, and donating to our organization.

Like our new friend from the Dollar Tree, all of your support is meaningful; investing in our community in a way that is accessible and within your ability is absolutely valuable.

All investments are valued because we are in a time of great uncertainty – when candidates for President stoke Islamophobia to promote safety, when refugees are seen as an enemy, when Planned Parenthood suffers violent attacks and threats of defunding, when #AllLivesMatter is deflection for the critical conversations needed regarding race (though, homelessness in Seattle has increased by 21%, bias crimes against LGBTQ individuals is on the rise, and our state remains in 48th place for our inadequate funding of mental/behavioral health, so do all lives really matter?); or, when the cost to live in Seattle favors the economically advantaged. Our response to these challenges must affirm our values around #SharedCommunity, fulfilling our obligation to participate in the substance of the economic, social, and cultural ecosystem of our community.

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