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Summer '09 : Celebrations

From the Director

Dear friends and colleagues, With the beautiful summer weather finally arriving, it is time to celebrate the accomplishments of the past year! And there are many to celebrate, like the hard work of the students in our Afterschool Program, the success of our new sports program, the service of over 100 EACS volunteers, and the generous giving of donors and corporations. I invite you to join us in this celebration through renewing your support to our organization through volunteering, donating, or attending the Somali Culture 101 training on June 11.
All the best,

Join Us: Celebrating Somali Culture

Somali Culture 101: Demystifying stereotypes and media images June 11, 1:30-3:00pm, NewHolly Gathering Hall (7054 32nd Ave S, Seattle, 98118)

East African Community Services—in partnership with other NewHolly agencies—is sponsoring a panel workshop on Somali Culture. The event is targeted to service providers or community members that regularly work with Somalis and want to know more about Somali culture, current events in Somalia, and challenges Somali refugees face in the US.

Celebrating Small Stories of Big Successes

Small stories of big successes make up the fabric of our community here at East African Community Services. On Wednesday, February 25, we hosted a Family Math Night in conjunction with the ASC Family Center and Seattle Public Schools. Seeing over 25 staff and volunteers facilitate 9 educational games for over 75 attendees was one of the most rewarding and energizing experiences our Afterschool Program can claim recently—which is saying something, given the constant buzz of activities around here! Each kid pulling their shy-to-speak-English mom through a whirlwind of addition, fractions, and flashcards was a little success story.

One mom arrived at the Fractions table, loosely labeled a 5th grade level skill. She sat down with her 1st grade daughter in her lap, and apologized to the facilitator that she and her daughter were both 1st graders—limited vocabulary, “bad” at math, unconfident… After maybe 10 minutes of having the game explained and working through it, the mom was beaming with a smile of proud accomplishment, because she was able to master every concept of the game. She was so excited that she could play a 5th grade game! The facilitator told me later that she watched the woman’s confidence blossom in front of her eyes in that brief space.

That is the kind of success that makes our program great; that is the kind of success that our community really needs to move forward on an individual and family level towards empowerment in this society. Check out our Afterschool Program featured in a national newsletter this June: http://www.brycs.org/brycs_spotsummer2009.pdf

We also celebrate the success of East African Community Service’s affiliated sports program. In April, Mohamed Hagi took a team of young adult soccer players to Columbus, Ohio, to participate in a national Somali soccer tournament. They played very well. Donate today in support of a new program this summer that will help our East African girls learn basketball: http://www.eastafricancs.org/donate.php

Volunteers: Above and Beyond

If you ask any of us at EACS, we will tell you with certainty that we are blessed with some of Seattle’s greatest volunteers. There are currently over 50 volunteers active in 5 programs, from tutoring children to building databases. In the past several months, 20 students traveled a combined, roundtrip total of 4,560 miles to volunteer with us (from University of Illinois and Central Washington University).

Each volunteer is a critical element in the success of our mission to build capacity in King County East Africans. Here we celebrate four volunteers who have really gone Above and Beyond (they celebrate with gift pizzas donated from Tutta Bella’s!).

Taryn, Afterschool Program Tutor: Taryn has been with us since January through a Service Learning project at the University of Washington. During her time here, she has written papers on the challenges facing Somali refugees and the piece EACS plays in helping with adjustment. She has gone Above and Beyond by her intentional advocating for us in her network of friends and family. Through Taryn’s outreach, we have had several more volunteers added to our fold and made some very exciting connections to potential fundraising opportunities! Taryn, we celebrate you and your everyday advocacy. Good luck in East Africa this summer.

Sam, Database and ESL: Sam, a NewHolly community member, found EACS on his own in January as a place to bring his community church group once a month to volunteer. Not only has his group contributed 8-10 monthly volunteers and 2-3 more regular volunteers, Sam also went Above and Beyond by building a brand new client database for EACS in Microsoft Access. This database will allow us to much more accurately track the progress of clients through EACS’ various programs and report on social impact. Thanks, Sam, for bringing so many people into our circle. We are truly grateful for your involvement!

Christine, Afterschool Program and Computer Literacy Tutor: Christine found us serendipitously this winter when she had a lot of time to volunteer. Eager for as many hours with us as possible, she has volunteered across the spectrum of accompanying energetic field trips, teaching computers, fundraising for us, and even training EACS staff. Most recently, even though a new job interferes with regular volunteer hours, Christine has gone Above and Beyond by connecting EACS to a donor to cover a quarter of our annual Afterschool Program Healthy Snacks Project! Christine, your energy is tireless and we truly consider you a friend of EACS. All the best as you prepare to join the Peace Corps.

Bethanie, Immersion Excursion Leader: Using her position in Central Washington University’s Civic Engagement Center and pulling from experiences around the world, Bethanie organized a group of 7 students to volunteer with EACS, learn about refugees, and donate ESL books collected through a campus book drive. If this were not enough, Bethanie really went Above and Beyond by organizing a social awareness fundraising event on campus for EACS called Unheard Voices: A Call to Action on May 26. The event raised over $200 for EACS programming. Bethanie, we only wish you were moving to Seattle! Good luck with the move to D.C. and all future programming. Thank you for what you did for EACS.

A Word to Our Sponsors

East African Community Services has received some great corporate support over the past few months that we want to celebrate:

Theo Chocolates donated many bars of Fair Trade chocolate to help us celebrate our volunteers on Valentine’s Day!

Choice Tea has donated lovely samples of Lemon Lavender Mint tea to acknowledge our volunteers’ dedication!

The Body Shop donated hundreds of dollars worth of samples for our Family Math Night to help us celebrate the hardest-working of all: our Afterschool students’ moms!

Tutta Bella’s donated free pizzas to help us celebrate our Above and Beyond volunteers!

Columbia City Cinema donated movie tickets that went to our High School Peer Leaders for their dedicated volunteering!

The Seattle Aquarium trip was possible through donated Aquarium passes!

Thank you to all our sponsors! It is a joy to partner with you in acknowledging our volunteers and community members.

If you are interested in sponsoring EACS, contact Melody today!

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