Sweet Honey and the Familyworks

Interested in getting your hands on some of Wallingford’s finest honey, produced in Wallyhood’s own backyard apiary? Maybe you just like beer and chocolate? Read on!

We had the great pleasure of attending the annual FamilyWorks dinner and auction a couple weeks back. About a hundred people attended, there was a silent auction and tasty food compliments of the Tom Douglas restaurants. It was a fun and satisfying way to spend a Sunday night, and we enjoyed chatting with our neighbors and other supporters of the good works that Familyworks does.

There were speeches by those you would expect to hear from (Jake Weber (the director), the board director, etc.) and Molly Moon Neitzel gave an emotional introduction to her Anna Banana Milk Fund, named in memory of Molly’s much-loved younger sister.

But perhaps the most striking part of the evening was two short speeches by clients of FamilyWorks. The first was an eighteen-year-old girl who first come to FamilyWorks as a pregnant 13-year-old girl. She described how FamilyWorks had, without judgement, connected her with a support network, helped her feed herself and her child and taught her how to be a parent. She just matriculated at the University of Washington as a freshman, supported by a scholarship from Boeing.

FamilyWorks helps our community in so many direct and indirect ways: their food bank provides healthy food for those who otherwise couldn’t afford it, their parenting classes and playgroups help parents who are trying to raise children under difficult circumstances, they even provide bus passes for people trying to get to work to earn a living.

Wallyhood donates 10% of our revenue to FamilyWorks, but we like to add to that wherever we can.

As regular readers know, we keep bees in our backyard here in Wallingford, and fall is honey harvest time. As we’ve done in past years, we’re donating a case of our honey to FamilyWorks. If you’d like a pint jar of our 2011 honey harvest, simply donate $50 (or more) through the FamilyWorks web site donation site and specify “Wallyhood Honey” in the “Designation” field. We’ll get in touch with you to arrange drop-off or pick-up. No limit on the number of jars we’ll give away, but donations must be made by Sunday, November 13th.

But wait, there’s more than one sweet way to help out FamilyWorks! This Thursday, November 1oth 6 – 9 pm is BitterSweet:Beer+Chocolate, a fundraiser for FamilyWorks featuring eight local craft breweries, eight chocolate beers, eight beer and chocolate pairings and one live Gypsy jazz band. Tickets are $35 (advance only), check the web site for details.