Shopping the caring way

Mary Beth Harrington, CVA

I know many people have a love/hate relationship with Amazon, but here is one way to use your purchases to help others.

Recently, I received the following notification from Amazon…

“This is the quarterly notification to inform you that AmazonSmile has made a charitable donation to the charity you’ve selected, ____., in the amount of $16,119.22 as a result of qualifying purchases made. By you and other customers between January 1st-March 31st.” 

Trust me, the $16,000 donation was not a result of all my purchases, but I suspect I contributed to a lot of them. What is AmazonSmile? AmazonSmile is simple to support your favorite charitable organization every time you shop. There is no cost to you; you just need to sign up on your Amazon account (go to smile.amazon.com for more details). According to the Amazon website (and what I can affirm), when you shop with AmazonSmile, you’ll find the exact same low prices, vast selection, and convenient shopping experience as Amazon.com, with the added benefit that AmazonSmile will donate 0.5% of your eligible purchases to the charitable organization of your choice. You can choose from over one million organizations to support.

Currently, Amazon has made the following donations: 

• Over $355 million to US charities
• Over $403 million to charities worldwide

Olympia Indie Music History Project

The City of Olympia's Heritage Commission has launched a two-year project to document, preserve and present the history of Olympia's late 20th-century “Indie” independent music scene with a focus on the 1980s to the early 2000s.

According to the city of Olympia, to complete this effort, city staff have hired a research team to support this work. Elaine Vradenburgh of Window Seat Media, in collaboration with Kelsey Smith of Lefty Copywriting, has already begun reaching out to community members and digging into local archives.

The team brings a knowledge of the local music community, strengths in oral history and historical research, and creative ideas and vision. “Music is never made in a vacuum,” says Smith. “We hope to highlight the unique climate in Olympia that influenced our musicians and produced the inspired and mutually supportive creative hub that persists today.” Community members can look for the duo as they host an Open House at the Capitol Theater at Love OlyFest this Saturday, August 27th.

To stay informed on this and other Arts, Culture, and Heritage news click here to sign up for e-mail notices from the City of Olympia.

Take a walk on the historical side

Olympia Historical Society & Bigelow House Museum are offering a Walking Tour of the Bigelow Neighborhood and Workingman's Hill this Saturday, August 27.

Led by OHS & BHM Board member Paul Parker, the tour will begin at 11 a.m. from the Bigelow House Museum at 918 Glass Avenue NE and proceed down to Budd Inlet.

After walking up Olympia Avenue and viewing its many historic homes, the walking tour will head up Puget Street.

From there, tour attendees will learn a bit about Workingman’s Hill and see some of the historic buildings and properties uphill from the historic Bigelow Neighborhood.

The group will then head back downhill past Bigelow Springs and return to the Bigelow House by 12:30 p.m. for refreshments and a brief program.

Dress for the weather and be prepared for moderate walking.

Note: For safety purposes, participation in the tour is limited to the first 25 persons to arrive by the time the tour begins at 11 a.m. Questions: email olyhistory@gmail.com

Volunteer opportunities:  

• Volunteers are still needed for LoveOly – Summer Fest. To complete the volunteer survey please click here.
• Bloodworks Northwest is on call until September 4th with the Blood Emergency Readiness Corps (BERC). In order to be able to respond to any emergency, a sufficient blood supply needs to be on hand locally and blood donations are consistently lower during the summer months. To see if you are eligible to donate, click here.
• Do you have a background in customer service or client relations? Concern for Animals is looking for volunteers that can help us operate the phones. For more details on this and other volunteer opportunities at Concern for Animals click here.

Soliciting your ideas

If you know of a nonprofit that is doing something great, celebrating a success, needs some outstanding volunteers, or hosting an event, let me know! This column (aside from a little education) celebrates nonprofits!

 Mary Beth Harrington, CVA (Certified Volunteer Administrator) lives in Tumwater. She travels the country speaking at conferences and to individual organizations articulating issues facing nonprofits. Send your ideas to her at MaryBeth@theJOLTnews.com