Last week was a busy one for me and for most at the Mission.  Here are a list of a few of the biggies: 1.  With the hiring of Alvin Helms as our COO, the board approved our Past President Mark Taylor from Weyerhauser to fulfill Alvin’s term of office.  congratulations and many thanks to Mark for his service.  He has faithfully organized groups from Weyerhauser to serve food each month and raise dollars for the Good Neighbor Cafe.  2.  TRM has hired Masterworks, a marketing firm, to audit our mail and fundraising process.  Last week they were in interviewing various staff and examining how we handle our mailings, newsletters etc. to make sure we are being effective and efficient.  I think this will produce better communication and efficiences.  It’s a ‘must-do’ when you consider the cost of postage these days.  3.  I officiated a funeral Friday for a man who died while high on Meth, causing an accident that killed others and himself.  this was very hard and reminded me once again why we do what we do…to save lives.  It was a sobering reminder that what we do is critically important.  This man wouldn’t enter our program despite his families pleas, now its too late.  DC 

Later this morning I am going to visit the head of the Puyallup Tribe to thank them for their $30,000 gift to support the Adams Square Family Center project.  We keep building our coalition of community partners to make sure that everyone is aware of the huge problem of family/child homelessness.  Thanks to all the folks at the Puyallup who are supportive of this project.  DC 

The Steering Committee for the new Adams Square Family Center met for lunch today at the Tacoma Club to discuss how we can continue to reach out the Pierce County with the exciting news of this project.  Tacoma Mayor Baarsma, Mrs. County Executive Ladenburg, Pierce County Councilman Dick Muri and Ian Morrison, representative for Governor Gregoire were just a few of the influence leaders who attended the lunch.  I presented the case for why we need the new project but the real star of the show was Tiffany Salese, who shared stories from the family shelter and had everyone understanding just what these homeless families go through.  The Committee has a lot of great local leaders who are putting their weight behind the project.  Here is a list of some of the movers and shakers:  Craig Ueland (Russell), Herb Simon (developer), Willie Stewart (community leader), Patrick Kuo (developer), Jerry Korum (businessman), Linda Tollefson, Terry Brink (attorney), Allison Yeager (Union Bank) and many more.Thanks to Jann Sonntag and our team for putting this together.DC