NON-PROFITS ELIGIBLE FOR MAY 2022 GIVING CIRCLE
NON-PROFIT CHOSEN: Spin Cafe
Checks due Friday, May 20th!
SPiN Cafe
SPiN Cafe serves people experiencing homelessness on Whidbey Island, as well as community members who might have a place to stay, but nowhere to call home. Some of our guests live in stable housing and work, yet struggle to put food on the table and meet their family’s nutritional needs. SPiN serves an average of 25-30 guests at each meal. In addition to our meal services, SPiN provides access to laundry services, housing referrals, and information on local services and shelter. There is no qualifier for receiving SPiN services. We are open to all regardless of income, race, ability, gender identity, sexual orientation, faith, or creed.
SPiN Cafe was founded by Vivian Rogers-Decker during her tenure as Student Support Specialist and Homeless Liaison for the Oak Harbor School District. The students and families she worked with faced every degree of homelessness, from sleeping on friends’ couches to living in campers, cars, tents, in the woods and on the beach. Then and now, many youth and families lack access to basic amenities: meals, showers, hygiene products, laundry services, or a safe place to ride out a rainy day.
SPiN Cafe was born of the idea that providing for these needs, in a welcoming and respectful environment, could improve a student’s overall health and welfare, leading to increased attendance, a more positive outlook, and, ultimately, academic success.
Since opening our doors in 2012, SPiN Cafe has morphed into a multi-purpose organization, not only serving local students and their families, but also the Whidbey Island community as a whole.
SPiN Cafe strives to operate as independently as possible, depending primarily on the talents and gifts of our guests, volunteers, and local community organizations to drive our program services and development. We firmly believe in the importance of collaborating with our fellow human service agencies and faith organizations to meet the diverse needs of our community while reducing the duplication of efforts.
Whidbey Island Dance Theatre
Whidbey Island Dance Theatre (WIDT) was founded in 1993 with a love for dance. Back then it was known as Whidbey Dance Theatre, and it began with the idea of creating a new and exciting opportunity for young people in its community; young creatives of all ages, who also loved dance, could find their place on stage with their peers.
Hard work paid off. As the company moved forward and found its legs, it provided real, pre-professional dance experience to outstanding young dancers. Its participation in the wider world of dance followed. The juried, national association of ballet companies, “Regional Dance America,” chose WIDT as an RDA performing company from 2001-2012.
WIDT is a non-profit, pre-professional, dance production company. We need help year-round so we can continue creating great works for the community and provide excellent pre-professional performance experience to our dancers and community performers. Your donations support everything from backdrops and set repairs to administrative supplies, from rents to guest artists and choreographers. Nothing we do is extravagant, although we make everything we do look as though it is. That's the magic of live performance dance!
Island Shakespeare Festival
We believe art is for everyone. By providing accessible classical productions in innovative and compelling ways, we intend to ignite the power of theatre to illuminate, inspire, and foster our ability to live, locally and globally, in connection with each other.
We believe in accessing the classics through intersectional storytelling and a commitment to excellence, so they become alive--relevant-- visceral—to the widest possible audience. Gatherings of audience and artists add immeasurably to the quality of life in our regional community, resonating long after the experience has ended. The classics are an important cultural touchstone, expressing the humanity that exists across borders and generations, affirming that we are more similar than separate.
At Island Shakespeare Festival, the center of everything we do is reflected in our values. We believe in:
Accessibility: We believe in three pillars of accessibility. One, that art should be available to all, regardless of financial constraints. Two, that classic theatre should be engaging and resonant to a modern audience. Three, that we anticipate the needs of all audience members and artists so everyone can enjoy the multi-sensory experience of live theatre.
Anti-Racism: We work to dismantle systems of oppression in ourselves, our work, our organization, and our community while we build a care-centered culture of belonging.
Intersectional Inclusion: We believe that classic theatre belongs to everyone, and we strive for inclusion and representation of the scope of humanity in our audiences and in our company of artists.
Excellence: We believe excellence is iterative. Never resting on our past accomplishments, we relentlessly strive to improve even in the smallest of ways.
Regenerative Sustainability: To us, sustainability is foundational. We seek to build a base so that we may persist with financial, environmental, and creative endurance.