Getting out with kids to dig in and help others is never a bad idea. Participating in community volunteer opportunities helps kids build empathy, connection to community, and, in the case of Solid Ground’s second annual Day of Service, muscles.
What Is Solid Ground’s Day of Service?
The event takes place Aug. 22, from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m., and aims to draw hundreds of volunteers to three Seattle locations.
During those three hours, volunteers will plant and tend to garden beds, beautify parks, and freshen up a fleet of ACCESS vehicles used by Solid Ground Transportation (SGT) to transport people who can’t use Metro’s fixed-route system. The fleet gets riders to critically needed health and human services resources seven days a week, 24 hours a day.
About Solid Ground
The nonprofit organization was founded in 1974 to ensure all members of the community have access to secure housing, nutritious food, and accessible transportation, and to advance policies that positively impact low-income communities.
“Solid Ground works to meet the basic needs of families in King County while empowering them to move beyond poverty and pursue goals of their own choosing,” says Shalimar Gonzales, Solid Ground’s CEO. “Every year, more than 250 children find a home in Solid Ground housing, where they have access to tutoring, mentoring, asset-based development programs, behavioral health support, and daily activities designed to let kids be kids.”
Lending a hand during Solid Ground’s annual Day of Service. (Image courtesy Solid Ground)
Choose Your Location
Gonzales says the annual community-building event is an opportunity for volunteers to roll up their sleeves and take action to create the society they want. Volunteers can choose to spend the morning at one of three sites:
- Solid Ground Transportation: Participants will help clean and refresh buses
- The Giving Garden at South Seattle’s Marra Farm: Volunteers will help build soil, prepare vegetable beds, plant vegetable starts and seeds, weed, compost, water, harvest, and wash produce. The produce will be donated to food banks and community centers. They will also beautify the adjacent city park, Marra-Desmione Park.
- Sand Point Housing: Families can help beautify the grounds of Solid Ground’s permanent supportive housing campus, which is home to more than 400 adults and children who have experienced homelessness. They will also help clean up adjacent Magnuson Park.
School Supply & Snack Drive
Volunteer families are encouraged to bring donations of new school supplies and essential items to help more than 250 kids living at Sand Point Housing and Broadview Shelter and Transitional Housing head back to school with what they need. Items needed include:
- Flash drives
- Calculators (especially TI graphing calculators)
- 3-ring zipper binders
- Spiral & composition notebooks (college & wide ruled)
- 3-ring binders (1″, 2″ & 3″)
- Loose-leaf paper (graph, college, wide ruled)
- Mechanical pencils & standard pencils
- Black & blue pens
- Shelf-stable snacks like:
- Fruit snacks
- Granola bars & breakfast bars
- Trail mix snack packs
- Jell-O & pudding cups
- Snack-size bags of pretzels, chips, popcorn, etc.
- Juice boxes
- milk boxes
Why This Work Matters
Gonzales points out that there were nearly 2,000 children under the age of 18 experiencing homelessness in King County. One in eight children in the U.S. struggles to get enough to eat, while one in 10 belongs to a family living below the poverty line.
Through Solid Ground, “Children in King County can have safe and secure homes with the support of homelessness prevention and rapid rehousing programs, and get fresh, nutritious food classes through our food access and education programs.”
Volunteer Perks
And there’s a bonus: all volunteers of the Solid Ground Day of Service will also be eligible for a free two-day ticket to Bumbershoot 2025, while supplies last, through the Bumbershoot Gives Back, Powered by Amazon program.
How to Register
To participate in the Solid Ground Day of Service, you’ll need to register before the day of the event. Click here to register online.
- Youth under 18 must have a parent or guardian sign an additional Youth Volunteer Waiver.
- Kids under 14 need to be accompanied by a parent, guardian or registered adult group leader.
For a full list of needed donation items or to learn more about the Solid Ground Day of Service, go to solid-ground.org/day-of-service.
