Communities in Schools of Lakewood offers a digital publishing class on Fridays for 3rd-5th grade kids at Tillicum Elementary. Teacher Christina Klas invited me to speak with the class for a few minutes about publishing on the internet. To show a quick and practical example of publishing in today's media world, I snapped the above picture with my cell phone, added a few sentences, and posted it to The Suburban Times. Using a white board screen connected to the internet in the school's library, I refreshed The Suburban Times website and up popped the kids picture. They thought that was pretty cool. From my cell phone to the internet in a few clicks.

Loads of good questions followed. The kids seemed genuinely interested in the idea of communicating ideas and thoughts with little more than passion, pictures and stories.

I was even invited to come back and sit for an interview. I'm honored, and look forward to seeing what these kids come up with. Thank you for invite (and your hard work) Christina, do count me in for a return visit. The kids were great.

The Boys & Girls Clubs of South Puget Sound (BGCSPS) hosted an "ROI Breakfast" for major donors Thursday morning at the Donald G. Topping HOPE Center off 66th in Tacoma. This club is "the exact center of Pierce County," noted Boys & Girls Clubs Director of Development Judy Hosea. "I call it the hub of Pierce County."

Once breakfast was served, attendees were treated to a short presentation outlining the Return on Investment (ROI) of attendee donations. Just 17.6% of BGCSPS's budget in 2011 came from government grants and contracts. Meanwhile, contributions and private grants totaled 44.1%.

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With proceeds from the Lakewood First Lions Club's annual Oktoberfest celebration and fundraiser club president Diane Formoso (L) presents checks of $400.00 each to Janne Hutchins for the Living Access Support Alliance (LASA), and Dave O'Keeffe for Lakewood Communities in Schools.

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Bidding begins now and ends Friday, Feb. 10 at 1 p.m.

The following gift cards are available to bid on or purchase via the Buy Now option, which involves purchasing the card for three times its stated value.

1.  Cabela’s  $100.00 gift card - minimum bid $150.00
2. Cabela’s  $ 50.00 gift card - minimum bid $75.00
3. Auto Zone $100.00 gift card - minimum bid  $150.00
4. Spa Finder $100.00 gift card - minimum bid $150.00 Local spa can be found at spafinder.com (several locations in the area)
5. Spa Finder $100.00 gift card - minimum bid $150.00
6. Spa Finder $100.00 gift card - minimum bid $150.00
7. Dillard’s $25.00 gift card - minimum bid  $40.00

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Omar: 458824 

Meino: 458723 This pet of the week is a true kitty Casanova. Meino is a 2 year old black tabby with white. He’s a neutered male and would love a home in time for Valentine’s day. Meino came to the shelter as a stray and is now hanging out in our new Petunia Louise Community Cat Room. He LOVES napping in the window seat and people watching. He’s very playful and very affectionate. He can get a little rough at times when he plays and would do best in a home with older children. Come meet this handsome man today!

Contact The Humane Society for Tacoma & Pierce County, (253) 383-2733 for more information. You can now see all shelter pets online.

After more than 111,000 online votes and 7,800 Facebook shares, the 2012 recipients of the eighth annual Harlequin More Than Words award are Mindy Atwood of Hilliard, Ohio, who runs Patches of Light, a nonprofit organization where anonymous angels pay the rent for parents of desperately ill children; Helen McGovern of Tacoma, Washington, who oversees Emergency Food Network, which distributes food to 67 food banks, meal sites and shelters, including those with health restrictions; and Sally Spencer of Toronto, Ontario, who manages a mentoring program that rescues at-risk children.

(more...) ]]> http://www.thesubtimes.com/2012/01/31/emergency-food-network-receives-15000-from-harlequin-books/feed/ 0 http://www.thesubtimes.com/2012/01/30/32505/ http://www.thesubtimes.com/2012/01/30/32505/#comments Mon, 30 Jan 2012 22:06:58 +0000 russell http://www.thesubtimes.com/?p=32505 The Lakewood Boys & Girls Club will take over the Ram Restaurant & Brewery from 4pm to 9pm for a fundraiser that will see  10% of all proceeds during this time donated to the Lakewood Boys & Girls Club.

The money goes to support programs and to allow 270 kids a day to be exposed to a safe, positive place to go after school, where they can have fun and build relationships with caring adults and other youth! Please come out and enjoy some food and support the youth in Lakewood as they strive to reach their own GREAT FUTURES!!!

The Ram Restaurant is located at  10019 59th Ave.  Lakewood, WA 98499

For questions or more information contact Erik Kramer (253) 502-4661 or kramere@bgcsps.org 

The Lakewood Boys & Girls Club will takeover The Ram Restaurant & Brewery (in Lakewood) on Tuesday, January 31st.  From 4-9 p.m., the Ram in Lakewood will donate 10% of all proceeds to the Lakewood Boys & Girls Club.  So, lets try to fill this place. Please, come on out enjoy some great food and drinks and support our youth at the Lakewood Boys & Girls Club.

Applicants must be registered to vote in the State of Washington, reside in Pierce County, and licensed to practice law in Washington State.   Ethics Commissioners also may not hold or campaign for elective office, be an officer of any political party or political committee, be a lobbyist, assist a lobbyist, or employ a lobbyist.

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The annual survey - which is in its sixteenth year - is scheduled for Jan. 26-27. The Pierce County Department of Community Connections and the Tacoma-Pierce County Coalition to End Homelessness seek more than 100 volunteers to survey individuals and families at meal sites, day shelters, health clinics and on the streets. The Homeless Network is accepting donations of personal items that will be distributed over the two-day period.

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More information is available here.

If you have questions, please email Heidi Wiser athwiser@ci.dupont.wa.us

Members of Lakewood Rotary braved cold temperatures Wednesday morning to fix the "Welcome to Lakewood" sign at the intersection of 127th and Nyanza. Steve Mazoff, Duncan Cook, Greg Horn, Richard Simmons, Ted Wier and Lowell Johnson (from left) repaired the sign (originally erected by Lakewood Rotary) which suffered damage at the hands of a vehicle.

Caring for Kids Needs Your Help!

The Happy Hearts Dinner Auction is just around the corner. February 11^th at the McGavick Center at Clover Park Technical College at 5:00 P.M. we will be holding our annual fundraiser to help kids in need in our community. Remember we are an all volunteer organization, so all the money we raise goes directly to help the kids, as we work through our local schools and organizations. We provide school supplies, clothing, hygiene products, food, books and ready to learn materials.

(more...) ]]> http://www.thesubtimes.com/2012/01/11/caring-for-kids-happy-hearts-dinner-auction/feed/ 0 http://www.thesubtimes.com/2012/01/10/emergency-food-network-meets-the-need-in-2011-a-challenging-year-for-countys-hungry/ http://www.thesubtimes.com/2012/01/10/emergency-food-network-meets-the-need-in-2011-a-challenging-year-for-countys-hungry/#comments Tue, 10 Jan 2012 19:07:58 +0000 russell http://www.thesubtimes.com/?p=31845 At the end of year, Emergency Food Network (EFN) Director Helen McGovern looked at EFN’s food distribution numbers and was able to quantify the state of the emergency food system in 2011. Our emergency food system had surpassed its 2010 total by more than 2 million pounds. For all of 2011, area food programs had distributed 19,396,885 pounds of food. That translates to 15,517,664 meals, more than 1 million more meals than the prior year. Emergency Food Network provides 80% of Pierce County’s emergency food.

The demand continues to increase, and EFN continues to keep pace with the demand. “We are ending the year at EFN with hope, as we faced the largest challenges we have encountered in the near 30 years of Emergency Food Network,” says McGovern.

Area food programs see an average of 147,000 visitors each month. Demand for emergency food in our community increased 43% from 2008 to 2010, and then grew an additional 6% this year. Total visits to food banks, meal sites and shelters topped 1,285,000 visits, an increase of 74,000 over 2010.

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On Christmas Day 75 families served by LASA woke up to a merrier Christmas thanks to the generosity of our community. Gifts ranged from sending a family with a life threatening illness to Great Wolf Lodge for the weekend to providing a gas voucher to help a dad get to work. We had enough goodies that we were able to open our doors at the last minute to help people in need besides our usual clientele. We want to thank the following companies for placing Christmas trees and mini-giving trees for the pubic to be able to grab a child's wishing star and make their Christmas Dream come true.  (more...)

Caring for Kids has had a very busy year. In Clover Park School District alone 71% of the kids are on free and reduced lunch with 95% of that number being free. Being an all volunteer organization we work every day helping our kids in need. Since the first day of school in September, working directly with school staff, we have filled 723 clothing bank orders. The year end total is 1,423 orders for 2011. In August we held the Ready to Learn Fair and participated in two additional events at Springbrook Park and Tillicum Community Center. We helped 2,441 kids with school supplies, backpacks and hygiene products. In 2011with the Ready to Learn Fair and the school supply bank orders we helped a total of 3,485 kids in need with school supplies.

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The Lakewood Officers’ Charity is pleased to announce the 2nd annual “Shop with an Officer” event was completely successful. The event happened December 19 at the Lakewood Walmart (7001 Bridgeport Way SW, Lakewood, WA 98499).  Lakewood Police Officers picked up 20 local children and drove them to the Walmart in patrol cars for a little holiday shopping. Below are a few items to note: (more...)

The shelves in Steilacoom’s food pantry are well filled, thanks to the generous donations from the community during the recent Scouting for Food drive.

Ben: I am sorry that I missed your roast on Friday. Congratulations on your year as president. Might I add that you look great in the pictures.

Lakewood Rotary President Ben Sclair made to dress as a cheerleader, hearkening back to his college days at the University of North Dakota.

A multi-decade Lakewood Rotary tradition continued Friday, December 16 when club members roasted their president, Ben Sclair, at it's noon meeting at the Tacoma Country & Golf Club.

The clubs newer members, called Puffins, take-over the final meeting before Christmas to have a little holiday fun, enjoy some holiday libations (Tom & Jerry's) and raise money to support delivery of Christmas food baskets to area needy families. (more...)