Make some time on Saturday June 2 to stop by for lunch at the West Seattle Thriftway store at the corner of California Ave. s.w. and s.w. Morgan Street. It's a benefit barbecue being put on by the West Seattle Rotary Club and hosted by West Seattle Thriftway in support of Pencil Me in for Kids, a program that helps young students succeed by purchasing much needed school supplies.

If you have never had the BBQ at Thriftway this is your chance to have some excellent food and help students in a meaningful way.

http://www.westseattlethriftway.com/index.html

The event will run between 11 and 2 pm.

Here's some background on the program from their website.

Many "basic" school supplies are required for each child, at each grade level, and are either supplied by the school or purchased by each family for their children.

Did you know that there are many kids in our Public Schools that can't afford those supplies?

Did you know that for some grades levels, those basic supplies can *cost upwards of $94 per child? (2007 estimate from national news data.)

Did you know that many items not supplied are either supplemented through local fundraisers, or paid for by your child’s teacher out of pocket?

Our main goal is to raise money to purchase basic school supplies and to get them to kids in need before school starts each year.

As an ALL VOLUNTEER PROGRAM, 100% of all monies raised from donations go to support this program.

Also, with the help of many businesses, and product suppliers, we have been able to purchase items at deep discounts in order for the monies raised to be used to benefit even more kids, and to purchase lunch sacks &/or backpacks for each child too.

With the help of Seattle Public Schools Family Support Workers, we obtain lists of needed supplies, and make deliveries to the schools in late August.

We have assisted in supplying items to as many as 11 local schools (West Seattle to South Park) over the years.
We currently have 11 schools on our list:
Alki, Arbor Heights, Sanislo, Pathfinder, Rox Hill, Lafayette, West Seattle Elementary, Gatewood, Highland Park, Concord, & Schmitz Park. These schools were chosen based on the area covered by the Family Support Workers in our area.

We used to cover 13 schools; however, Cooper & Fairmont Park have since closed. (There have been several years Schmitz Park & Lafayette have not participated.) It is up to each school to create a list of their supply requests an get them in on time to be included.