Seattle Seafarers Center
An Affiliate of The Mission to Seafarers and Stella Maris
SEATTLE SEAFARERS CENTER NEWSLETTER
November 2024
Save the Date for Giving Tuesday 2024
Giving Tuesday is a "global generosity movement unleashing the power of people and organizations to transform their communities and the world."
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Mark your calendars for the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, December 3rd, to participate in this international annual giving event! Join the millions of people around the world who will be practicing gratitude and generosity next week by giving to causes they care about.
Our Giving Tuesday page is live and early giving is open. Our goal is to raise $5,000 to support our mission of caring for seafarers in Puget Sound, and the first $2,000 of donations will be fully matched!
Thank You for Participating in Ditty Bag Day 2024!
We had such a successful Ditty Bag Packing Day this past Saturday. Over 75 volunteers gathered to hear about our mission and to stuff care packages for seafarers. We are estimating that we packed about 1,500 bags at the event! This is a record high for us.
We want to extend a huge thanks to:
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St. John the Baptist Episcopal Church and the Rev. Canon Elise Johnstone for hosting us yet again
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The Sea Scouts and Boy Scouts who participated and helped with the set up and break down of the event
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Our volunteer Fr Mac Murray for organizing the ditty bag packing process
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The ITF Seafarers' Trust for providing us funding to purchase 1,000 bags worth of toiletries
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Everyone who showed up and helped pack bags
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Each parish, organization, and individual who donated supplies for the ditty bags
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All of the knitters and sewers who created the hats and bags
We are so grateful for all of the people who made this event possible.
Our ship visiting team is looking forward to bringing ditty bags on each ship we visit in the coming months. Seafarers are typically on a ship for 6-9 months at a time, meaning that they are often away from family during the holidays. These gift bags are one way that we show our appreciation for these hardworking crews and help them celebrate while far from home in this season.
If you have ever been interested in going on a ship visit, let us know! We would love for you to join us this Winter in giving out ditty bags.
Don't stop knitting...
We are short on hats!
We aim to include a hand-knit hat in every ditty bag we give out to seafarers. At our packing day, we stuffed so many bags that we ran out of hats! We are in need of a couple hundred more hats or pairs of warm socks to complete these bags.
If you knit, please check out the suggested knitting patterns on our website. We welcome any warm knit hats that fit the average adult!
A New Look at the Center
We received a grant from the ITF Seafarers' Trust last month to purchase a combination of ditty bag supplies and new furniture for our hospitality Center. One furniture item we ordered was a new kitchenette cabinet to better organize the snacks and coffee we offer visitors. We had a fun time assembling this furniture piece, and we even had a few helpers. Three crewmembers of the Seattle Express had originally come to our Center to relax for the afternoon, but when they saw us assembling furniture, they jumped in to help (and even showed us what we were doing wrong)! We were grateful for the furniture-building expertise they shared with us.
Check out the before and after!