Jed Fowler says you don’t need to be a brainiac to volunteer at Homework Help. As a longtime Homework Helper, he says his role consists of “part cheerleader, part coach, part road block diagnostics. “Sometimes it’s about the homework, sometimes it’s about the helping,” he says. Homework Help is an after-school drop-in program for K-12 … Continued

Anyone living in Seattle 30 years ago or earlier will remember Frederick & Nelson, the retail institution whose flagship department store in Seattle once served as one-stop shopping and a cultural hub. From its tearoom to its beauty salon to its nursery to the annual photos with Santa Claus, Frederick & Nelson was a commercial … Continued

Atticus Diaz, 7, has enjoyed the Library his entire life. His mother, Kiersten Henderson, prepared to give birth to him by checking out baby DVDs from The Seattle Public Library. Today, Atticus visits the Library – usually the Ballard Branch – to check out books with his dad and browse magazines like “National Geographic.” “I … Continued

We regret to share news of a loss in our Library Foundation family. On Aug. 7, we lost pioneering Library leader Macon “Mimi” Howard at age 83. Mimi served as a trustee of The Seattle Public Library from 1982 to 1992, then as a member of The Seattle Public Library Foundation’s Board of Directors from … Continued

This story originally appeared in the Foundation’s 2018 Report to Donors. Find the full publication here. Brandon Wong and Many Uch are volunteers who run an advocacy group for currently and formerly incarcerated Asian-Pacific Islanders across the state. But when they partnered with the Library, they connected with resources that could advance their cause – … Continued

This story originally appeared in the Foundation’s 2018 Report to Donors. Find the full publication here. Last year, The Seattle Public Library expanded its Digital Media Learning programs to include a virtual reality program that promotes the Library’s collections in creative ways and educates people on local history in the process. Cara Pangelinan, a junior … Continued

This story originally appeared in the Foundation’s 2018 Report to Donors. Find the full publication here. Apple Washington, director of South Seattle’s A 4 Apple Day Care, says the literacy program she offers to the 12 kids in her care started with her young son. When he went to preschool, he came home with a … Continued

When reflecting on what civic courage means to her, it came naturally for Ruth Tedla to think of the Botswanan philosophy of Botho: “I am because you are.” Born in Ethiopia and raised in Botswana before moving to Shoreline two years ago, Ruth incorporated this spirit of interconnectivity and community into her winning essay for … Continued

Seattle has always been a “city of literature” – it’s the most-educated big city in the United States and the second-most literate, and also home to writers from Richard Hugo to Octavia Butler to Ijeoma Oluo. Indigenous people of the Salish Sea have carried a storytelling tradition over thousands of years. In October 2017, UNESCO … Continued