Thursday, June 14, 2007

A Summer's Worth of Events!

Even after expanding to include a fourth Summer event, we've now filled the seats for every dinner! The only event that can handle more sign-ups is the End of Summer Barbecue... which we won't have to cap until we get to 20+ participants. I can't express how pleased I am that so many wonderful friends and family members have stepped up to support this idea.

The Full Belly Seattle was born after O and I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how we could put resources, both volunteer labor and financial aid, into helping. We wanted to support an agency dedicated to helping people recover from the gross inequities in our global reality. I felt inspired by friends like Andres, who has been volunteering with Katrina Relief efforts and locally with Habitat For Humanity; and Calvin and Meredith who first introduced me to the idea of financially sponsoring a peace-seeking Buddhist monk across the globe. I was moved by the Nobel Peace Prize winning microlending pioneers, and by how compelling this concept is to our fellow first worlders with a social conscious. And most of all, I have been inspired by my fellow social worker Seth Altshuler who walks the talk every day, and has been a constant ally of our planning and efforts.

Olaiya and I are proud to have such a generous, inspiring, supportive group of people around us. We hope to create a memorable series of dinner parties and keep our momentum going. Please give us feedback once the dinners are underway, and any suggestions you might have as we start planning events for Autumn. We look forward to your comments, and we'll try to update the blog with photos and stories.

If you have signed up for an event, expect an email a couple of weeks in advance with directions, time, and suggested payment options. We'll be getting those out for the June 30th dinner right away. Peace.

Monday, June 4, 2007

Fabulous First Wave of Response

I'm very excited to announce that we've "sold out" the French/Moroccan Mid Summer's Night event. I've even had to express regrets to two people who wanted to come but we cannot accommodate. Plus, we already have thirteen (Update: now 16!) reservations for the End of Summer Barbecue! And only one or two seats left for the Spring into Summer kickoff dinner. (Update: This event is fully booked now as well!)

We've also started organizing our first extra event... a supplementary Summer Dinner for some friendly folks from Jewish Family Service. I think we're going with a Spanish theme... "una noche Andalusian" perhaps? (Whoops, this July 14th event is now totally booked as well!)This event started because there was a group of people interested, who weren't very well connected with our other friends/family. So long as we have the energy and availability, I think O and I are excited to be able to create a special event like this. If you have a group of 6 people in mind, feel free to propose anything!