Dreading the commercial crass onslaught of The Holidays? Get an early break from it tomorrow, and do some good:
Wallingford Presbyterian Church, that little church at Ashworth and 42nd St, will host our annual Alternative Gift Fair at the church from about noon until 2 PM on November the 8th. The idea of the Alternative Gift Fair is to get meaningful holiday gifts without all the lines and wrapping paper and focus on “stuff” that can be part of holiday shopping. We work with charitable organizations to develop small cards representing what gifts of various amounts purchase for the organization, and the gifts can be given “in the name of” the recipient.
This year, organizations at the gift fair will include: 45th Street Clinic, which provides health care services for adults and kids, including many non-English speaking families and homeless youth; PROVAIL (has offices on Stone Way) which provides a wide range of services for adults and children with disabilities, including therapy and dental care as well as employment services and community living programs; Noel House, a Seattle shelter for homeless women; and Heifer International, which provides families with livestock as part of economic development and social justice work worldwide.
Examples of gifts through Heifer International: $20 is a “flock of chicks”, $30 is “honeybees”, $60 is a “trio of rabbits”, $120 is a “goat”. All gift amounts go directly to the organizations, so 100% of your gifts go to their programming.
OK, maybe you can’t do ALL of your holiday shopping at the Alternative Gift Fair–a card with a picture of honeybees probably won’t cut it for a 6 year-old with her/his heart set on a particular toy–but why not save yourself some time, decrease the annual holiday waste stream a bit, get to know some local people at these organizations who are doing great work, and support the organizations and the folks they serve, all at once?
Hope to see you at the Alternative Gift Fair on November 8th!