Housing Hope gets $38K for new children’s therapeutic center

Housing Hope gets $38K for new children’s therapeutic center

The annual “An Evening at Emory’s” event at Emory’s on Silver Lake raised over $38,000 for Tomorrow’s Hope Child Development Center at Housing Hope.

The money will go toward transforming Tomorrow’s Hope into a state-licensed therapeutic childcare center. The funds raised will enable the center to provide enhanced early intervention services to recover from trauma, reach on-target development and enter kindergarten on equal footing with their higher socio-economic peers.

In addition, the parents will receive the skills and resources to improve family functioning and support their children as they recover from trauma. And teachers will receive continued training on supporting families as they recover from trauma.

This transformation will ensure Tomorrow’s Hope teachers can fully meet the complex needs of kids with developmental delays so they can succeed in school and break the cycle of poverty as adults.

Rotary chooses students of the month

Two Kamiak High School students recently have been recognized as students of the month for the South Everett Mukilteo Rotary.

September’s student of the month, Queenie Ngo, has been active in school through the Human Rights Club, Key Club and serving as the junior class president. She participates in community service through Key Club activities, such as the Linus Project, and volunteering at Cocoon House. She plans to major in critical theory and social justice. Ngo, who was born in Vietnam, said living in two very different cultures has led her to lead life with an open mind, full of acceptance.

October’s student of the month was Elliot Szoke, an Eagle Scout who has been volunteering with the Mukilteo Elementary outdoor classroom since he was a 5th grader there. He’s also an active athlete, participating in football, wrestling and lacrosse. He attributed his leadership skills to his teachers who have given him opportunities.

A $25K grant to feed students at Edmonds schools

The Foundation for Edmonds School District has been awarded a $25,000 Rite Aid Foundation KidCents Regional Grant to expand Nourishing Network food and family assistance programs.

“As the number of students experiencing hunger and homeless in our district grows, so too does our need for additional resources to fund and expand our food assistance programs,” said Deborah Brandi, Executive Director of the Foundation for Edmonds School District.

The Nourishing Network was created in partnership with and at the request of the Edmonds School District to provide food assistance for hungry and homeless students and their families. On average, 33% of students in the Edmonds School District qualify for the federal free or reduced lunch program and an estimated 650 students will experience homelessness during the school year.

More than 4,000 non-perishable food items move through Nourishing Network pantries each week of the school year. In 2018-2019, the Foundation provided 7,221 weekend meal kits for 275 homeless students and served 3,790 free summer lunches.

“The Nourishing Network began as a weekend meal program but has grown to include a summer meal program, monthly pop-up pantries as well as comprehensive supports for more than 300 of our district’s most vulnerable students and their families,” Brandi said. “We thank The Rite Aid Foundation for helping to fund these essential services with this grant.”

That’s a lot of litter

The Snohomish County Public Works Litter Wranglers program picked up a lot of trash off a lot of streets this year — more than 6,000 bags full of litter and 800 miles of streets, to be exact.

That’s a record breaking milestone for the six-person crew of seasonal county employees. In its inaugral year in 2017, the group was only expected to clean 300 miles of roads.

“The fact that 800 road miles were cleaned, equal to about half the total road miles we maintain, is astounding,” Snohomish County Public Works Director Steve Thomsen said. “This is the same number of crew members and time out in the field as the previous two years. They have just found ways to be more efficient and have a greater impact.”

In the past three years, the crew has collected more than 17,000 bags of litter. That helps road maintenance crews stay focused on carrying out the important work of fixing vital infrastructure, a new release from the county said.