Bringing Love and Hope to Women in Need

Martha Picinich, a business owner and graduate student at Seattle Pacific University, has taken on a new “hobby” – harvesting purses.

She collects gently used purses and diaper bags that take on a new life and a new purpose.  They are filled with donated items that are especially valuable to women and children living on the streets or in transitional housing.  In addition, each purse contains a note to the recipient sharing a...


Pete Soukus: A Chance to Trust

For years, Pete Soukus lived on top of the hill in Seattle’s wealthy Magnolia neighborhood that overlooks Interbay and Tent City 5. Pete still lives in Magnolia, but his new home now lies in the shadow of the hill, inside of Tent City 5.  Until alcohol took over his life, Pete had a career in product management and supply-chain logistics, a home and a family.  Then according to Pete, “I drank myself to the point of almost losing my life...


Raihana Mahan Enjoys Making her Clients Beautiful

Raihana Mahan is one of the most popular aestheticians in the Seattle metro area. She is known for her gentle touch, her fine attention to the smallest details, and her sparkling eyes that show her easy sense of humor.  Here is a little known fact about Raihana: she reigned as a local beauty queen Mrs. Sammamish in 2006. (Sammamish is an eastside city located in the heart of Microsoft country.)

Raihana...


Ned Halilovic: We Were Strangers Once Ourselves

Ned Halilovic is a refugee. His earliest memories are of a war zone, where people were killing one another over their religion and nationality. Just like today’s refugees from Syria and Afghanistan, only Ned’s war was a generation earlier, and closer to home.

“I was born in ’86 in a small town in southern Europe, Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina,” he says, as if anyone alive in those years could have not heard of Sarajevo. “...


Nurturing With Nature: Supporting a New Generation of Autistic Adults

Alex, my neighbor, is on the cusp of manhood. Ample facial hair, marked weight gain and height, and a pronounced husky voice confirm this milestone. I recall many years witnessing Alex’s growth – and his delays. I now find myself wondering about his future as an autistic young adult, and how his social and educational needs will be met once he ages out of children’s services.

                  Oasis tlc (Therapeutic Life Centers...


Clover Frederick: Marketer on a Mission

Is your charity making a profit? If so, you should be proud, but you might have mixed feelings. Charities often are called "nonprofits," so it does seem like a conflict. But charitable profit has a purpose. Clover Frederick, independent marketing professional specializing in nonprofits, would like to change the world's opinion of nonprofit profit.

                  "We would never begrudge a company's purchasing advertising to...


On the Towne

Last Spring, we covered a story about the Queen Anne Helpline, a Seattle-based non-profit organization serving people-in-need in the neighborhoods that are experiencing unprecedented job growth from the growing influx of Millennial technology workers. The demands for housing exceed the supply and the prices of apartments and residential homes in many Seattle neighborhoods continue to be hyper inflated.  According to a recent article in the Seattle Times, Real Estate Developers are expected to add 11,000 more units in 2016 and even more in 2017.  The operative spin is with so many more units coming onto the market, then eventually the demand for housing will be met and the prices will become more affordable for working and middle class renters. However, in the interim, the Seattle boom continues unabated and unfazed by the displacement of the elderly, families and individuals, who are being shoved out and thrust into a crisis situation.


Tim Harris: Really Changing the World

On any given day in the central business and shopping districts in cities across America, often older men and women are hawking local newspapers on the street, eking out a living selling them to passers-by, one at a time.

                  These vendors are selling what are known as “street newspapers.” They are part and parcel of a movement begun nearly 30 years ago, empowering homeless people by raising their visibility, while...