As the economy continues to tank, you might find it comfortable to assign an evolutionary framework to your environment. The weakest fade away. The strong survive. But as one neighbor recently pointed out to me in e-mail, it's not the weakest that we lose. It's the exotic. In these challenging times, we must work to preserve our freaks.

Home Alive is a weird organization. The nonprofit is a martial training ground in the middle of tolerant Capitol Hill and run in a fashion that seems more like it is organizing all-ages rock shows than women's self-defense courses. But its cause of fighting back against violence is worthwhile. Unfortunately, after 16 years, Home Alive is being forced to close down at the end of this month unless it can get out from under a massive pile of debt and find its financial footing. Its days with an office on 10th Ave are surely over but there may still be time to keep Home Alive on the Hill. Here are two events you might want to consider getting involved with if you'd like to help:

Read the rules then leave a comment in support of your favorite area nonprofit in the CHS Snowball 2008 group giving experiment. Comments close at 5p.

Tally as of 3p -- P-patch Trust (in support of park at Summit/John) is in the lead

Jubilee Women's Center         ||
Lambert House                     ||
NW Harvest                          |
Real Change                         |
P-patch Trust                        ||||
Providence Hospitality House  |

Tonight was supposed to be the Capitol Hill Community Council's public holiday party at Cal Anderson's shelterhouse. We wrote this about the event last week -- This Hill holiday party will not be cancelled. We were right. It was not cancelled. It was postponed. Party will now be January 8th. Mark your calendars.

One happy byproduct of the unhappy postponement is this: I have four pies -- two cherry, two apple -- donated for the event by High 5 Pie sitting on my dining room table and only room in my freezer to store three. That leaves one pie available for you, CHS neighbor. Here's how you can acquire that pie on this snowy, slushy, icy day.

The CHS Snowball 2008 giving experiment is winding down -- Friday is the last day to get us to goal to kick in a bonus donation from pffft and the last day to add your comment vote for your favorite area nonprofit. We're at 89% of our $700 goal which is amazing.

• To get your hands on a High 5 Pie, delivered anywhere within the boundaries of CHS, leave a comment with...

CHS is an experiment in collaboration. When you leave a comment here, you are working with the group to expand the conversation. Users post stories, pictures and videos. More and more, we're finding ways to work together in significant ways -- I'm looking forward to seeing what Cheesecake and EmilyP cook up with his next video episode and her design skills.

In that spirit, we'd like to try another new thing -- CHS Giving Snowball 2008, an experiment in holiday giving. At the center of any community collaboration, there needs to be a driver. For Snowball 2008, it's neighbor pffft who wrote in looking for a way to expand his plans for holiday giving. Pffft will help get the Snowball rolling by throwing $100 in the group pot (see below) and pledging $400 to Northwest Harvest if we meet our $700 giving goal. Thanks pffft! CHS is also throwing $50 in the community pot to get things rolling. And there is no time like the present to get things rolling -- I'm hearing all sorts of anecdotes about challenges faced by...

• Can a gay book club and Christmas trees save Dunshee House?
• Another good wrap-up of the weekend's townhome forum. Summary: Townhomes range from 'nicer' to 'fungus.' Problems: Inadequate design and environmental reviews, cookie-cutter designs, fences. Solution: better update to multi-family zoning rules.
• Look inside a Brix townhome.
• Capitol Hill Times likes Pike Street Fish Fry.
• Capitol Hill art walk is Tuesday night.

The Country Doctor (low income health clinic, 19th & Republican) and Miller Community Center are planning a joint holiday party at Miller on December 15th (10 AM - 3 PM).

Their joint supply of presents for the kids was being stored in the basement of the Country Doctor, and much of it was ruined when the basement flooded during our recent storm.

They are in urgent need of new wrapped toys as presents. I'm sure you can drop them off at either location. Miller Community Center is at 330 - 19th Ave E. You can contact the director of Miller Community Center (Thavy Pen, thavy.pen@seattle.gov) or her assistant (Zoom Piksa, Zoom.Piksa@Seattle.Gov) or call them at (206) 684-4753 if you need more information, or if you'd like to volunteer at the party.

I am a rather recent resident to Capitol Hill and was wondering if you had some insight on volunteering or some way to contribute and meet good hearted people in their early/mid 20's. I am 23 going on 24 and between work and the usual stuff I am finding a bit of a lack of purpose in my personal life. Do you know of good places to find the simple/deep, high quality people out there that just want to do some good and meet other decent, hard-working, spirit feeding fellows, hehe. I would love to hear some good news, I don't really know where to turn, thanks so much!

• Submission period ends May 8th at 8p Seattle time.
• Non-profit must have a tax ID.
  
• One non-profit per comment. If you list more than one, I'll go with the non-profit listed first....