Always helping children
Published 11:06 pm Tuesday, July 10, 2007
LYNNWOOD – Sue Emme refused to let any child go hungry during her 20 years as an elementary school cook.
The Edmonds School District’s policies prohibited her from giving out free food, so she’d dig into her own pockets and pay for students who couldn’t afford lunch.
Since retiring from her job in May 2004, she’s found a new way to help children.
Emme, 68, holds massive garage sales at her home each summer to raise money for programs that benefit low-income families. This past weekend, her annual garage sale raised $3,520 – about double what she made last year.
Many customers paid with big bills, then told her to keep the change.
“We were so shocked,” Emme said. “They knew it was going for a good cause.
The money from her sale is expected to fund the Lynnwood Police Department’s Shop With a Cop program. The program pairs Lynnwood police officers with low-income families to help them shop for holiday presents.
“Think of how many moms and children we can help with this at Christmas,” Emme said.
At last year’s garage sale, Emme raised $1,800 for the program, which helped a dozen families buy Christmas gifts.
“Her involvement has been an immense benefit to the program,” Lynnwood police Deputy Chief Paul Watkins said. “She’s kind of the silent angel for the program. Had it not been for her diligence last year, the event would not have been the success that it was.”
Emme held her first charity garage sale after retiring from her job as a school cook three years ago. She raised $1,400 and gave most of it to Lynnwood Elementary School, where she’d worked for 12 years.
With the cash, 120 children from low-income families were able to buy books during the school’s book fair.
As a condition for her donation, Emme asked the school to stage a fake school-wide drawing for the book money, “So that (the students) wouldn’t be pointed out as being poor,” she said.
“That’s a stigma on them, and they don’t want it,” Emme said.
In 2005, Emme used money from her garage sale to benefit victims of Hurricane Katrina. She also sent money to the family of an Arlington boy who needed an artificial ear, she said.
“It makes you realize it’s really worth it,” she said.
Emme learned about Shop With a Cop when the program was held in Marysville in December 2005. After last year’s garage sale, she told Lynnwood police she would donate the proceeds to Shop With a Cop if the city wanted to play host to the event.
Now, Emme is looking for someone else to coordinate future garage sales. Kathy Hoff, a retired teacher from the Edmonds School District, helped organize this year’s sale.
Emme’s husband, Frank Emme, 73, was recently diagnosed with congestive heart failure. Three years ago, doctors told him he had Parkinson’s disease.
The Emmes are moving to a smaller home. While packing, they set aside a lot of items for last weekend’s sale, Sue Emme said.
“I’ll do everything I can to help keep it going. I just won’t have an area to keep stuff anymore,” she said.
