Tikkun Olam at Temple Beth Am

Connecting our congregation to social action opportunities

Author Archives: Tamara Bailey


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Mary’s Place Families return to Temple Beth Am December 24-31, 2013

We are delighted to offer homeless families a cozy place out of the cold at our Family Shelter at again this December. Thanks to everyone who made the summer stay so successful; we hope we can count on your help again.

Volunteers are needed to provide dinner, drive the brand new 15 person van and stay with our guests. We’d love to have a group of teens help with the children! Because of Mary’s Place holiday schedule, families will be staying all day at TBA December 25 and we will need some extra volunteers and activities that day.

Orientation for NEW Mary’s Place Volunteers will be Dec. 18 7:00 pm at Temple Beth Am.

Contact Tamara Bailey (tamara@weinbail.com) or Sue Covey (susancovey@comcast.net) for more information.

LARGE TENTS NEEDED! If you have a large family size tent we could use in the social hall for the week, please contact Tamara Bailey.


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Mary’s Place Families at RUMC June 11-18 – Help needed

Ravenna United Methodist Church has graciously agreed to host Mary’s Place Families an extra week when they had nowhere else to go. This small congregation right around the corner really needs our help! If you are a trained Mary’s Place Volunteer  available to stay with families in the evening or overnight or bring dinner, please contact tamara@weinbail.com or alyson@marysplaceseattle.org.


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Mary’s Place Family Shelter returns to Temple Beth Am Dec. 26-Jan.8

As the days get shorter and the nights colder and longer, think how distressing it is to be to be out in Seattle with children, not knowing where you are going to spend the night. For the 1500 families on waitlists for transitional or permanent housing in Seattle, this is part of an everyday reality. Through Temple Beth Am’s participation in the Mary’s Place Interfaith Rotating Shelter network, we have a chance to respond our neighbor’s need for shelter. With few emergency family shelter spots in the whole city, our contribution makes a big impact for four weeks each year. We are able to do this because of the work of the over 100 volunteers at TBA who have created this caring community since the Mary’s Place Family Shelter Project started in August, 2011.

 Our next turn to host the shelter is coming up at the end of December. We count on all of you to help us make this a warm and welcoming temporary home. Moms and kids will be with us for two weeks, Dec. 26, 2012 – Jan. 8, 2013. Families come to eat a homecooked dinner and recover from a day spent looking for housing, work and child care. We need volunteers to transport guests, contribute dinner and stay with our guests in the evening and overnight. Your presence makes such a difference in these families lives; I hope you will be able to respond to this community need.

 Please visit our online sign-up at http://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0F4DA8A728A02-tbafamily2 or contact Family Shelter Coordinators, Sheila and Paul Kasprzk at plsh2@comcast.net or Tamara Bailey at tamara@weinbail.com for more information. 

All volunteer meeting at Temple Beth Am December, 12, 7-8:30.


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Share the Feast this Thanksgiving!

Temple Beth Am, along with other community members, provides a monthly supper to the formerly homeless residents of Plymouth Housing Group’s Scargo/Lewiston Apartments. For the last three years, TBA members have come together to share the bounty with our friends at Scargo, many of whom are far away from or no longer in contact with their families. Thanksgiving dinner is served at noon with the help of Scargo staff.

Thanks to everyone who has already responded. Scargo residents are so appreciative of our home cooking! We still need more food and volunteers to serve dinner and clean up from 12-2pm.

Ready to serve food should be dropped off at Scargo Thanksgiving morning, Nov. 22, between 10 am and 12 noon.

Food Still Needed: 6 COOKED and sliced Turkeys, 5 pies, 3 dozen rolls, 5 gallons of juice/cider, 5 pans (13X9) mashed potatoes, gravy, 2 pans stuffing, 2 pans green bean side dish, 2 pans sweet potatoes.

Contact Tamara Bailey at tamara@weinbail.com

Learn about Plymouth Housing Group: http://www.plymouthhousing.org


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Volunteers Needed for Mary’s Place Shelter

Our Family Shelter Program works because ordinary people take time out of their busy lives to provide help to families in crisis in our community. And right now we still have an urgent need for volunteer drivers and overnight hosts between December 27, 2011, and January 9, 2012, when Temple Beth Am will be hosting homeless families from Mary’s Place.

Last August, Lin-Marie Nacht, TBA congregant, public defender and mother of two very busy children, shuttled families back and forth, hosted our guests in the evening and overnight, washed all the sheets and blankets, and delivered them along with the beds to the next host congregation. Continue reading →


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Family Shelter at Temple Beth Am December 27, 2011-January 9, 2012

The days are getting shorter and colder and Linda doesn’t know exactly where she and her two sons are going to sleep tonight. She has been crashing with a friend, but the moldy basement room they are sharing triggers her son’s asthma; she is concerned about the drinking going on in the house and its effect on her children. She has spent all day at Mary’s Place, a Belltown Day Program for homeless women, calling for a space in an emergency family shelter or transitional housing program, but has only been able to put her name on waiting lists. Continue reading →