Peace Out

12/30/2024

I have to share a Peace Out story!!!☮️🥹 I love love love seeing our Peace Out grads continue to give!!! Mackenzie McAleenan is all grown up, raising her own little philanthropist!!!!!! 🥹😇🥰 Kenz went through our philanthropy program at Curtis in 2010 and is now a volunteer designer in our Community Makeover!!!!! She is collecting cleaning products and toiletries for our makeover and just sent me these pictures today ❣️ She found out that our recipient loves clean, homemade products, so her and her daughter are making some!!🫧🧽🧺 and check out the lists of items they are donating!!!! Im so proud right now I CANT EVEN STAND IT!!!!!!!!! 😭😭🎉‼️

07/18/2024

I get so much joy from making someone special, feel loved and appreciated 🩷🌸 even if I have never met them

The other night I was thinking how much I enjoy our makeovers and thought why don’t I squeeze in a little free room organize/makeover 🫶 before we start planning our next big one!!?

So I reached out and asked my FB friends to nominate someone special they know who is always loving on others; someone who deserves to get some love back 🩷

Meet our winner, Auntie Joni!! 7 judges reviewed your 11 nominations and Joni won with flying colors!! 🌸💗💕

Here is her nomination 🦋 I think you’ll agree she sounds pretty special 💕

I want to nominate my aunt Joni. She lost her husband in 2000 and raised two teenage boys on her own. She has cared for her mom religiously who also was diagnosed with colon and liver cancer 15 years ago. As her parents have aged she is over there multiple times a day to help them and make sure they eat. They recently adopted a dog and she has helped with all the training for them since she knows it makes them happy. When my dad was diagnosed with cancer she walked the journey with us helping to navigate the medical stuff. She then helped my mom with the estate stuff once he passed. When my mom, her sister was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer she jumped in and helped with Dr appointments, chemo and such at Seattle Cancer Care Alliance. She was by our families side as we had to make decisions as three kids in our thirties with no idea what to do. After my mom passed she helped me as the executor figure out how to do everything. Not only did she walk me through it and help she did that while still taking care of her parents and now has stepped in to support my own children reminding them of their grandma and how much she loved them. Despite all she handles with her own two boys, and two grand boys she always has time to help me with and advice or questions I have. She loves my two children unconditionally and helped myself and my sister with anything we need. Lately my grandparents health has declined and she has spent a great deal of time there while balancing her grandsons. And anything I need. She deserves this sooo much as she does nothing for herself and runs around helping Everyone else selflessly.

-Nominated by Rachel Stone
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My wish is that some of you guys would want to help me love on her 💗🌸🩷

I will be spending a day organizing at her home in September. If you feel inspired to give a few bucks towards her special day, I will make you an official “Auntie Sponsor”🌻💛

As an Auntie Sponsor 🌻 I will tag you in the reveal video, before and after photos and of course put your name on her card and any organization items we are able to purchase her for that day 🫶

It’s just a small way to love on a special auntie who spends her life loving on others 🦋

When we use our resources (big or small) to bring a little more happiness to this world, our own lives are impacted in such a positive way!! 🩷 I swear I get more out of these little give projects, than the person we’re loving on 💗

Thank you for being a part of this with me!! Thank you for always saying yes 🩷 because

Venmo’s for the Auntie day: Michelle-McLean-2 🌻

Auntie Sponsors:
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03/16/2024

I hesitated to share this (for like 5 seconds 😂😂) We had other plans this morning that had to be changed 🙃 because I told Lance -Honey I have never gotten an award from Pierce County before!!!! 😂😂😂😎💅

Thank you Tanya for nominating me 😭😭 I love you!!! 🥰

03/26/2022

Be a part of our next Community Makeover!! We need your help loving on our local teachers and making their classrooms AMAZING!!! 😇🚌 Here is our wish list 🙏 take a peek 👀and see if there is something you can get!!!

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03/16/2019

Dear Parent:
This is the letter that I wish I could write.
This fight we are in right now. I need it. I need this fight. I can’t tell you this because I don’t have the language for it and it wouldn’t make sense anyway. But I need this fight. Badly. I need to hate you right now and I need you to survive it. I need you to survive my hating you and you hating me. I need this fight even though I hate it too. It doesn’t matter what this fight is even about: curfew, homework, laundry, my messy room, going out, staying in, leaving, not leaving, boyfriend, girlfriend, no friends, bad friends. It doesn’t matter. I need to fight you on it and I need you to fight me back.
I desperately need you to hold the other end of the rope. To hang on tightly while I thrash on the other end—while I find the handholds and footholds in this new world I feel like I am in. I used to know who I was, who you were, who we were. But right now I don’t. Right now I am looking for my edges and I can sometimes only find them when I am pulling on you. When I push everything I used to know to its edge. Then I feel like I exist and for a minute I can breathe. I know you long for the sweeter kid that I was. I know this because I long for that kid too, and some of that longing is what is so painful for me right now.
I need this fight and I need to see that no matter how bad or big my feelings are—they won’t destroy you or me. I need you to love me even at my worst, even when it looks like I don’t love you. I need you to love yourself and me for the both of us right now. I know it sucks to be disliked and labeled the bad guy. I feel the same way on the inside, but I need you to tolerate it and get other grownups to help you. Because I can’t right now. If you want to get all of your grown up friends together and have a ‘surviving-your-teenager-support-group-rage-fest’ that’s fine with me. Or talk about me behind my back--I don’t care. Just don’t give up on me. Don’t give up on this fight. I need it.
This is the fight that will teach me that my shadow is not bigger than my light. This is the fight that will teach me that bad feelings don’t mean the end of a relationship. This is the fight that will teach me how to listen to myself, even when it might disappoint others.
And this particular fight will end. Like any storm, it will blow over. And I will forget and you will forget. And then it will come back. And I will need you to hang on to the rope again. I will need this over and over for years.
I know there is nothing inherently satisfying in this job for you. I know I will likely never thank you for it or even acknowledge your side of it. In fact I will probably criticize you for all this hard work. It will seem like nothing you do will be enough. And yet, I am relying entirely on your ability to stay in this fight. No matter how much I argue. No matter how much I sulk. No matter how silent I get.
Please hang on to the other end of the rope. And know that you are doing the most important job that anyone could possibly be doing for me right now.
Love, Your Teenager
© 2018 Gretchen L. Schmelzer, PhD, original post June 23, 2015

11/24/2017

Incredible day working with over a hundred volunteers, serving our annual Community Thanksgiving dinner ❤️⭐️⭐️💯😎

11/16/2017

It's Starbucks Giving Tree time!!!! ❤️🎄🎄🎁 For the 5th year in a row, together with Starbucks partners from the Seattle world headquarters, we will be bringing over 400 gifts to local families in Pierce County and homeless teens in Seattle!!!