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The GoodLetter Thursday, November 28, 2002
GoodThings, Inc. :: Stories, actions,
ideas, and greeting cards that connect us.
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Greeting Card of the Week
Holiday Card Offer: Be good, be mine
Thanks to all of you who have taken advantage of our special holiday card offer. You may know that through the end of the year, if you order a pack of GoodThings holiday cards from the top row of cards (see below), you'll get the GoodThings Valentine's Day card below it as a free bonus. Simplify your life and your card buying -- send a few GoodThings holiday cards this year and get a unique Valentine's Day card well in advance. Cash-strapped this holiday season? Few things are as meaningful as sharing a heartfelt card with your friends and family. And, of course, every card you send helps us continue to foster awareness of progressive actions and ideas around the world. (We print all our cards on recycled paper using soy ink.)
Please visit our online store today by clicking here or on any card
Hurry to place your orders to guarantee delivery to you in time to use them for the holidays! If you think
customized GoodThings Greeting Cards would be perfect for your non-profit organization to use for various correspondence, send an e-mail to cards@goodthings.com and ask us about our card customization program and volume
discounts.
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This Week's Feature
Thanks Is All Around
by Barcy Fisher, with Susanna Rojas
A serendipitous summer walk offers a reminder of the importance and beauty of giving back to the community. It also reveals a lesson in thanksgiving.
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Dear GoodLetter readers,
A couple of years ago, I went walking with a friend through Madrona, a lovely little Seattle neighborhood. As a side bonus of the walk, we stopped in to check on a restaurant renovation that my friend's friend, John, was working on. John, a teacher in a previous life, had always wanted to open a restaurant, and as we walked into St. Clouds, which had a few weeks of renovation left yet, John's excitement was palpable. He showed us around the kitchen and dining area and pointed to the place in the bar where future musicians would perch and entertain.
Basically, with construction dust still in the air, he painted for us an amazing picture of his dream. St. Clouds was to be a place where people gathered with family and friends for community, fun, and, of course, delicious food. The name of the restaurant came from John Irving's novel Cider House Rules, where St. Clouds was an orphanage, a home, and a family to those society had left behind.
I always love people who dare to live their passion, in spite of the great odds that often conspire against them. The restaurant business is fraught with difficulties, and John, although aware of the challenges that might lie ahead, was so passionate about building his dream restaurant, that I left there that summer day with absolutely no doubt in my mind -- his dream would become a reality. What I didn't anticipate then was just how big an impact John's dream might have on an entire community.
Fast-forward two years. St. Clouds, co-owned by John and business partner Paul Butler, has become a thriving neighborhood restaurant replete with a posse of regulars, sweet potato pie to die for, and swingin' live music every night. But it's become so much more. It has become a community of caring and compassionate people that for well over a year now has banded together to feed homeless men, women, and children from throughout the area. John and Paul, as a true reflection of their passion for community, voluntarily opened their kitchen, and with great enthusiasm and commitment, began a program to cook and provide home-cooked meals for those who don't have a home.
The idea had taken shape for John and Paul a little over a year ago when a neighboring church offered its property as a temporary site for Seattle's Tent City, an alternative shelter for some of the city's homeless. At the community meeting with Tent City organizers and residents, John heard a presenter tell the audience that no meals would be cooked at the Tent City site due to health code requirements. "I began to wonder," said Platt, "how can you have a place you call your home and not be able to cook there? I realized that the Tent City residents would never have a home-cooked meal."
John and Paul invited the Madrona community -- friends, parishioners, St. Clouds' clientele, and Tent City residents -- to come join them in cooking meals for Tent City. The volunteers donate the raw ingredients (fresh garden vegetables, fresh fruit, grains, etc.) and everyone contributes to the actual meal preparation. With John asking volunteers to bring "food donations, smiles, and a 'go for it' attitude," St. Clouds became a beehive of activity. Meals were created for Tent City during its temporary stay in Madrona, and when Tent City moved to another location a distance away, John decided to look for a way to provide meals to shelter programs located closer to the area.
With the help of Seattle's Meals Partnership Coalition, two other charities were chosen, and in 2002, St. Clouds and an array of community volunteers began to cook, deliver, and serve meals once a month to the residents of the Seattle YWCA Women and Children's Shelter and the Compass Center/First Church Men's Shelter. In September 2002, a third program, Jubilee Women Center, also began receiving meals. St. Clouds has made cooking for the homeless a tradition by opening the restaurant every third Wednesday of the month, using the same model for raw material donation and food preparation, and delivering the meals to homeless shelters. Everyone involved is encouraged to unleash his or her culinary creativity, or simply a zeal for peeling potatoes.
"Food is such a necessity," says John, "and community is built around food. What is phenomenal about this experience is that people come together as a community to cook meals and the individuals who have no home can have a moment of home and community through a meal."
Who knew my summer walk would lead me to such a good thing?! To me, St. Clouds' story is a powerful example of how one person's passion and commitment to giving back can enrich an entire community. Sometimes it just takes one person with a passion to make all the difference.
I think it's only appropriate that this GoodLetter coincides with the American Thanksgiving celebration. But certainly, the ideas of thankfulness and gratitude are universal. Maybe you live in or near Seattle's Madrona neighborhood, maybe you don't. Maybe you live in Seattle, maybe you don't. Maybe you live in the US, maybe you don't. It absolutely doesn't matter.
Have a meaningful "thanksgiving."
Barcy Fisher, with Susanna Rojas
Seattle, Washington
Barcy is the founder of GoodThings. In the interest of full disclosure, she's also a minor investor in St. Clouds. She talks up the restaurant any chance she gets, not because she ever dreams of becoming wealthy, but because she loves to support people, like John, who make all of our lives a little richer by living their passions. Susanna is a country and blues singer, a fan of St. Clouds, and a regular volunteer in the St. Clouds kitchen.
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