Communities – Windermere Eastside

Eastside Windermere Foundation Receives Bellevue Lifespring Wings Award

March 29, 2019

“Real estate transactions come and go but helping people goes on forever…”

This summarizes a cornerstone belief of Windermere’s culture. 30 years ago, we started the Windermere Foundation to propel this belief into action with the mission to support at-risk youth and members of our communities who are experiencing homelessness and difficult circumstances.

Lew Mason, the Managing Broker at our Yarrow Bay office and Eastside Windermere Foundation Coordinator, while receiving the third Bellevue LifeSpring Wings Award for outstanding community contribution.

We have been lucky enough to collaborate with over 500 organizations to facilitate this effort, including Bellevue LifeSpring. Last week we were honored to receive the third Bellevue LifeSpring Wings Award for outstanding community contribution, and we would like to take this as an opportunity to spread the word about this incredible organization.

Like the Windermere Foundation, Bellevue LifeSpring is committed to making our communities a better place to call “home.” A group of women first started the organization as Overlake Service League in 1911 to help break the cycle of poverty by providing basic needs for children in low-income families, which allowed them to focus on their education. They served Bellevue’s population of just over 150 by delivering food baskets, goats for milk, and seeds and farm equipment to plant and harvest food. During the Great Depression they also helped people find jobs.

Over a century and several population booms later, Bellevue LifeSpring’s methods and services have changed but their dedication to improving our community remains the same. Today, they partner with the Bellevue School District to provide food assistance to students, offer need-based scholarships for summer school and college, distribute vouchers for new back-to-school clothing at local merchants, and supply vouchers for year-round clothing needs at their thrift store, Thrift Culture.

We are so grateful to have Bellevue LifeSpring’s support and recognition with the Wings Award. We look forward to many more years of working together to build a better future for everyone. Find out more about Bellevue LifeSpring’s programs and how you can help here.

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The Season of Giving: Windermere for Kids 2018

December 6, 2018

On Saturday, over 250 Windermere Real Estate brokers and staff from six Eastside offices came together for the 17th year of Windermere for Kids.

The morning of the event, over 100 “little shoppers” between the ages of 7 and 12 were provided with a gift card to spend at Target for their holiday shopping. Our brokers helped each child select special gifts for their family members and, as an added treat, surprised the little shoppers with a gift for themselves!

Six wrapping stations were each powered by 15 to 20 brokers who wrapped and tagged each purchase. While the children waited, they rejoined their families to enjoy crafts, treats and photos with Santa.

Over the last 20 years, Windermere Real Estate/East, Inc. has helped deliver the holiday spirit to over 1,700 deserving families on the Eastside. It’s no wonder that this event has been a favorite for our brokers, who choose to support Windermere for Kids over having a company holiday party.

See more photos on our Facebook page.

Helping Homeless Youth Stay Warm From Head To Toe!

November 16, 2018

The final count on donations are in, and WOW, you are all so incredible! During the four-week winter drive for YouthCare, our Eastside offices collected donations from agents, staff, and the community, which included over 524 hats, gloves, scarves, socks, and an assortment of other accessories and cash donations. A huge thank you to all who donated to the homeless youth in our community!

With the onset of winter, Windermere offices throughout the greater Seattle area came together this month to host another “We’ve Got You Covered” winter drive for YouthCare, a nonprofit that provides critical services to homeless youth. This drive is a part of Windermere’s #TackleHomelessness campaign with the Seattle Seahawks which aims to raise money, donations, and awareness for the homeless youth crisis.

This winter, YouthCare predicts that over 1,500 young people in Seattle will call the streets home during the coldest time of the year, challenging local businesses to help however they can. So, for the third year in a row, over 30 Windermere offices came together to answer the call by collecting new hats, scarves, gloves, and warm socks.

The staff at YouthCare were grateful to receive the delivery of the bins full of donated items. According to Nicole Phaysith, Communications Specialist at YouthCare, “As the rain endures and the temperature drops, it becomes that much harder for young people to focus on the day ahead. We are so grateful for the generous donation of cold weather essentials from Windermere and the community. We’re able to offer young people respite from the cold—and one less thing to worry about on their road to stability and independence. Thank you for keeping homeless youth warm and dry so that they can plan for their future.”

We are grateful to be able to partner with Gentle Giant Moving Company again this year, who generously donated their time, muscle, and trucks to pick up and deliver all of the donated items to YouthCare.

This drive would not be possible without the support of the Seattle Seahawks, our offices, and all those who donated. From all of us at Windermere, thank you for making our Winter Drive a success and helping to support homeless youth in the greater Seattle area!

This post originally appeared on the Windermere Blog.

The Seahawks and Windermere Return for Another Season to #TackleHomelessness

September 10, 2018

Posted in Seahawks by Shelley Rossi

All of us at Windermere are very excited to kick-off our third season as the Official Real Estate Company of the Seattle Seahawks!

Once again, our #tacklehomelessness campaign is front-and-center, with the Windermere Foundation donating $100 for every Seahawks home-game defensive tackle to YouthCare, a Seattle-based non-profit organization that has been providing services and support to homeless youth for more than 40 years. During the past two seasons, the Seahawks have helped us raise $66,800 through our #tacklehomelessness campaign, and this year we are looking forward to raising even more money – and awareness – for this important cause.

Our partnership with the Seahawks and YouthCare fits perfectly with the mission of the Windermere Foundation which is to support low-income and homeless families in the communities where we have offices. Through the #tacklehomelessness campaign, we hope to be able to do even more.

A “scorecard” will be posted after each home game with an update on how much we’ve raised. You can follow our progress throughout the Seahawks season on our Facebook page at Facebook.com/WindermereRealEstate and on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/windermere/.

This article was originally posted on the Windermere Blog.

Community Service Day 2018

June 19, 2018

On Friday, June 8th our Windermere offices closed their doors for our annual Community Service Day. Since 1984, Windermere has dedicated a day to giving back to the community and assisting with neighborhood improvement initiatives.

We’re proud to share these projects completed by our East, Inc. offices:

Jubilee Reach

The Bellevue and Bellevue West offices teamed up to lend a hand at Jubilee REACH. This local organization supports the social and emotional needs of children and their families through mentoring, tutoring, and after-school clubs and sports programs within Bellevue public schools. Our Windermere team helped with a variety of maintenance tasks including painting doors and benches, landscaping, replacing lights, washing windows, repainting the basketball court, pressure washing walkways and play sets, and more. We are proud of our offices’ hard work at this site, and we are grateful to Jubilee REACH for their important contributions to our community and for letting us be a part of their mission!