Dear 826 Seattle Fans, Since you last heard from me, we have started a new school year. Loyal readers will recall how darn close we came last spring to winning the Washington Women’s Foundation Grant which would have helped fund a dynamite project at Broadview Thomson School. We were, in fact, darn, darn, darn close...so close we got all jazzed up about helping that school...in fact, darn darn jazzed...so we decided...why not?...let’s help them anyway. So now you will find volunteers up at Broadview Thomson helping in places like Lisa Messinger’s and John Simpson’s classes—sitting down next to students like Isayas and Rowan, helping them write personal narratives—small moments in their lives. We are there to support the Writers Workshop curriculum. Their teachers tell us which students could really use a leg up onto whatever writing assignment is happening. Then we (okay, well, not really me...I’m back at the ranch trying to figure out how to inspire those Washington Women’s Foundation women to give us another try for a bigger involvement with Broadview Thomson next year) sharpen Amira’s pencil (while she ponders the correct artistic approach to the narrative essay she has just been assigned), and once pencil is sharpened and concept considered, Amira and 826 Tutor together craft that essay. Good things are happening up the street. After School Tutoring took approximately the first four days of the school year to become packed. New faces. Old faces. We have one student mentor (so far) this year. Jake Lindsay, a senior with Running Start, is tutoring away, modeling good study habits, and vacuuming galore. He is a terrific vacuumer and an even better writer. We haven’t adored a student mentor like this since last year’s Thomas and Ribika. 
Field trips are in full swing. And they are about to get into fuller swing, thanks to the generous gift of uber-volunteer Scott Rosen and his mother Meryl. Mother and son have pooled their annual giving to 826 Seattle and are financing the bus transportation for a set of field trips for classes that would love to come for a field trip to our facility but simply cannot afford the bus fees. Mind you, there are some terrific parent-teacher organizations in this city who do a bang-up job of raising funds for things like buses for field trips, but, simply put, there are some schools who have no magical way to get 30 children from south Seattle to Greenwood. That’s where generous hearts like the Rosens’ come in. Seven classes (as yet to be determined) will get a ”Surprise!” call from our world class dealer in surprises, Ms. Kathleen Goldfarb (aka Director of Programs), who will tell them that not only are we offering them a free field trip to 826 where an amazing writing adventure awaits their students free of charge, but also we (well, Scott and Meryl) are going to bring them to 826 Seattle free of charge, braving the wilds of I-5 North and crossing Aurora to come park, lickety-split in front of The Greenwood Space Travel Supply Co. Can’t forget workshops…again in full swing thanks to the magic of Samar Abulhassan, our Program Coordinator, who has, along with the most enlightened of volunteers, blessed us with such workshops this fall as: The Monster in Your Closet: Writing from Real Life and Talk the Talk! Using Improv to Write Great Dialogue. October was a month for metaphors and infantile egg puns. In other words, super fun and, well, let’s call it what it was: lucrative. It was also, well, WILD. In fact we were Where the Wild Things Are...rather Where the Wild Things Were when Dave Eggers (our founder and screenwriter, with Spike Jonze, of the movie) and Max Records, the child actor who plays Max in the movie, came to Seattle and played host to a sneak preview screening of the movie for the benefit of (you guessed it) 826 Seattle. (By the way, we tried to get them a room at the Max Hotel, but the word “max” was apparently Maxed out because that didn’t work out.) Anyway, our sneak preview were soooooo sold out and it was sooooo much fun and we made soooooo much money (as long as we are calling things what they are)...like to the tune of $47,000. A lot of that was because of our friend and super generous donor hero, Wil Shipley, who was the Seattle exclusive donor for (drumroll) $26,000. Yup. And guess what his company’s name is: Delicious Monster. 
Need I say more?
Well, I always have more to say, but for this moment what I’m going to say is a giant thanks to Wil, to Dave, and to Max for EGGing us on to make the MAXimum from the Monster movie. Favorite moment of the month: when Dave came to 826 Seattle during our after school tutoring and gave a few of our students a sneak peek at the movie which, much to their amazement, he had on his computer. 
Oh, but that was just the beginning of the money-making mania. The next week (as in one week later) our new pal Michael Chabon came to town. Yes, Michael Chabon, as in Pulitzer Prize-winning Michael Chabon. First there was the lovely cocktail party hosted by Jerry Olund (co-owner of Poppy) and his wife Silvia Furia. Michael read while the rest of us enjoyed hors d’oeuvres by celebrity chefs Jerry Traunfeld and Scott Staples. The generous guests at this event donated over $7,000 towards the work of 826 Seattle. The next morning—bright and early—we were up and at the Madison Renaissance Hotel for our 4th annual Don’t Forget To Write A Check Breakfast. I don’t want to brag or anything, but let’s just say that SEVERAL people commented on this being their favorite fund-raising event of the year. One quote: “I wouldn’t get up this early for any other fund-raiser.” As of this writing (checks and matching donations still coming in) this event made us $50,000.
This included $4,000 worth of raffle tickets. Grand prize: brunch made my Jerry Traunfeld in your own home! Winner: Christina Wohlstetter. After the breakfast Michael Chabon met with a select group of volunteers to talk writing...just one more example of a benefit to volunteering for 826 Seattle. Have I mentioned that Michael Chabon is my hero? Actually I have a number of heroes this month:
So: that brings us to today and the future. While I have been bragging about all this successful fund-raising, don’t be fooled. It is all about doing the work we do and not charging even one penny to schools or students. So, keep your eyes peeled for our winter appeal which I’m going to start writing just as soon as I finish this update—your last (official) chance to make a donation in 2009! And speaking of giving...in January we hope to open our first ever official Writers Room at Broadview Thomson School. It will be a room decorated with the 826 Seattle flare so evident in our space in Greenwood. Everyone who visits us is struck by THE FOUR CLOCKS on the wall that report the current time in various neighborhoods of Seattle.  And speaking of giving…in January we hope to open our first ever official Writers Room at Broadview Thomson School. It will be a room decorated with the 826 Seattle flare so evident in our space in Greenwood. Everyone who visits us is struck by THE FOUR CLOCKS on the wall that report the current time in various neighborhoods of Seattle.
The four clocks above were a donation from a reader. Anyone out there wants to help us out with four more clocks? Here’s the IKEA url for closer perusal: http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/60098975 And not to forget...
Yes, believe it or not, you’ve reached the end. Happy fall to everyone. - Teri Just a few of our after-school drop-in students with our chicken:
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