|  Once again, Microsoft Alumni Foundation is partnering with Microsoft and the United Way of King County for Day of Caring.
As we did last year, former and current Microsoft employees are coming together to make a difference in King County. This year we have 12 specially selected projects offered by non-profits with whom Microsoft alumni are highly involved. For those of you who have already signed up, thank you! You do not need to sign up again using the tool below. However, to make the day even more fun, you may register members of your family or share this email with your alumni friends. And, if you know any current Microsoft employees you'd like to work with, share it with them as well! To do so, just send them the link to the project (see project list below) for which you would like them to register. If you have not yet had a chance to sign up for the project of your choice, please take a moment to review the 12 Alumni Sponsored Projects below. It's first come, first served and many projects are filling quickly. After each project description, there is a direct link to their sign-up page. To search all Day of Caring opportunities, use this link for Microsoft alumni and employees (NOTE: The web page says "Microsoft employees" but Alumni Foundation members may use it as well). Sign up now to get the project you want. Please email us if we can answer any questions. Here's to making a difference in our community. . . together, we do philanthropy.  Marylou Brannan Executive Director | |  The First Tee of Greater Seattle The First Tee is "movin' on up!" Help them get there! The First Tee of Greater Seattle has offices at Jefferson Park Golf Course, however due to the recent construction and demolition of that clubhouse they are moving offices. The First Tee of Greater Seattle will now hold offices on the top floor of the Washington Athletic Club and we need help getting there. Come for a day of packing, moving and fun! Location: Jefferson Park Golf Course to the WAC Time: 9am www.thefirstteeseattle.org Click here to sign up for this project. Please include your name, email address and phone number. | |  Literacy Bridge Ghanaian Health & Agriculture Baseline Survey Project Literacy Bridge has a high priority volunteer project that will give you a fascinating insight into the Ghanaian communities we work in, and is one that anyone can do. We need help entering data from handwritten survey forms that were brought back from Ghana. These surveys cover the health and agriculture practices and concerns for women, men, and children in more than a dozen villages throughout the Upper West Region -- an area noted for extreme poverty and illiteracy. Join 2010 Integral Fellow and Literacy Bridge founder Cliff Schmidt for a rewarding day of helping improve the lives of others. www.literacybridge.org Click here to sign up for this project. Please include your name, email address and phone number. | |  Kirkland Boys and Girls Club Sprucing up the Club Here is an opportunity for all alumni to come into your local Boys & Girls Club and assist the kids. Budgets are tight and general maintenance to the building takes away from the program budget. They would love to have a large group of Microsoft alumni and employees who wish to push away from the computer for a half-day and help the Club that helps kids. We will be painting, mowing and using weed eaters to transform the look of this 30 year old building. The Kirkland Boys & Girls Club is located at 10805 124th Ave NE Kirkland, Wa 98033. 425 827-0132. This Club is the closest B&GC to Microsoft headquarters and it caters to close to 2,500 youth each and every year. This Day of Caring project is scheduled for only a half day (9:00am-12:00noon) on Friday Sept 21st. www.kirkland.positiveplace.org Click here to sign up for this project. Please include your name, email address and phone number. | |  North Seattle Boys & Girls Club Lots to do! Please help! Join 2012 Integral Fellows nominee Brian Donaldson to pitch in and help around the Boys & Girls Club in North Seattle. This was the first club built in Washington state. You can help keep its legacy of being a "positive place for kids" vibrant by rolling up your sleeves and helping to spruce up the club. Our project list is big and varied, but the kids will appreciate your help! Contact us for specific project questions. The North Seattle Boys & Girls Club is located at 8635 Freemont Ave. NE. It's very convenient for those who live on the west side of Lake Washington. www.ns.positiveplace.org Click here to sign up for this project. Please include your name, email address and phone number. | |  Microsoft Alumni Foundation Tell the Day of Caring Story Help MSAF staff and volunteers capture the great work being done by alumni and volunteers! We will spend time visiting alumni projects during the day to record by photo, video, and the typed word what is happening. Visits will be punctuated by frequent social media posts and will culminate in a story documenting the collective power of Microsoft alumni and current employees working together to give back to the community. www.microsoftalumni.org Click here to sign up for this project. Please include your name, email address and phone number. | |  NetHope Women's Tech Connect Focus Groups Going quickly! Only a few spots remain! Use your strategic, technical and customer orientation skills to help design a mentoring program that connects Women IT Professionals and female college-age computer science majors in the global northern hemisphere with their southern counterparts. The NetHope Program Directors will lead you through a series of exercises to get your input on this exciting new program scheduled to be launched later this Fall. Join 2010 Integral Fellow Frank Schott as you delve into such questions as: How can we use the latest social media tools to deliver maximum benefit to the mentors and their protégés? How can mobile solutions be used to enhance the mentoring experience? What about our value proposition resonates? How can we drum up interest through the Microsoft Giving Campaign and throughout the year? How can we best engage with Microsoft Alumni? These questions and more will be part of this four hour volunteer effort. Location: Microsoft Campus (downtown Bellevue) - Exact location will be forwarded to you by September 10. Limit to 25 volunteers. NetHope has received support from Microsoft (company, employees and alums) since 2004. www.nethope.org Click here to sign up for this project. Please include your name, email address and phone number. | |  Seattle Children's Hospital Going quickly! Sign up today! Contribute your time and talents to help the patients and families of Seattle Children's Hospital. We will have activities that will provide supervised interaction with our patients & families in our inpatient playroom and our sibling playroom. These will be in 4 separate sessions between 9-3 to allow for all members to have some direct interaction with patients. There will also be other fun and helpful activities for all members to help with in between the session times. These activities will include making craft kits, wrapping crayons for distribution throughout the hospital (we go through over 12,000 crayons a year!), helping with toy washing and more..... www.seattlechildrens.org Click here to sign up for this project. Please include your name, email address and phone number. | |  Starlight Children's Foundation Northwest Holiday Preparation/Personal Shopping & wrapping! Going quickly! Sign up today! When a child is diagnosed with a serious illness, the day-to-day joys of childhood take a back seat to the rigors of treatment and hospitalization. Since 1992, Starlight Children's Foundation Northwest has dedicated itself to improving the quality of life for children with chronic and life-threatening illnesses and life-altering injuries by providing entertainment, education and family activities that help them cope with the pain, fear and isolation of prolonged illness. Starlight touches the lives of more than 7,000 Northwest families each MONTH! Many of these families are not able to celebrate the holidays exactly how they would like with finances being very tight, so that is where Starlight steps in to sponsor as many of our families that request the help. Volunteers will help pull toys for a variety of holiday parties at local hospitals for the upcoming holiday season. Volunteers will also be personal shoppers for our registered Starlight families that would like to be sponsored for the holidays. Each family has provided a wish list with all the requested information. Volunteers will go into our toy store and shop for items for these individuals and box them up and prep them for shipment. Location: 5001 150th Ave NE #110 Redmond, WA 98052 Time: 9:30-1:30 www.starlight-northwest.org Click here to sign up for this project. Please include your name, email address and phone number. | |  Technology Access Foundation "Step up for STEM Up!" Going quickly! Sign up today! STEM Up is an academic-enrichment program for students in middle school grades, provided by TAF. STEM Up participants learn advanced technology that is relevant to STEM career paths, strengthen their academic and life skills, participate in STEM knowledge competitive events, and engage in early college readiness. Another TAF program is TechStart, which is offered to elementary school students during the school day at our partnering schools. We help students improve academically through projects that directly relate what they learn in school to real-world experiences.
At the beginning of the school year, TAF needs help processing new enrollments to TechStart, which involves entering new information into our student database. This is a great deal of information that requires attention to detail (and patience with reading handwritten application forms) and some familiarity with database work. We will also need help with the Lego Mindstorm Robotics kits inventory! We have 90 kits with 431 pieces each, and each one needs to be checked before it's used again. Additionally, we need help prepping our four classrooms at TAF's new home, Bethaday Community Learning Space. Help us put up posters, arrange classroom supplies, and generally make our classrooms student-ready! Finally, considering your group's professional experience with Microsoft and beyond, we would love to have all or some of the volunteers take part of their time at TAF on September 21 to help us create STEM career exploration projects for our students for the coming school year. This will include a fun activity that will contribute directly to our college & career readiness curriculum, as well as provide your volunteers with an opportunity to make a personal impact!" Our hope is to recruit 12 Microsoft Alumni volunteers for Day of Caring on September 21st from 10:00-2:30. Lunch will be provided. This project location is at the Bethaday Community Learning Space (605 SW 108th St., Seattle, WA 98146). www.techaccess.org Click here to sign up for this project. Please include your name, email address and phone number. | |  Friends of Youth A Resting Place for Homeless Youth Going quickly! Only a few spots remain! Creating a welcoming environment for Homeless Youth requires lots of thought and pre-planning. We're opening our Homeless Youth Services Center in Redmond beginning in September and we need a small group to help us spread the word! Putting together Give a Party packets and preparing for the ribbon cutting and open house will allow us to better serve the youth who come to us for help through informing the public of this important program. You will use your crafty skills to create fun, informative visual displays, welcome gifts for clients and more! This project is for a group of 6-8 volunteers on September 21st from 9 AM to 3 PM at the Friends of Youth office location at 16225 NE 87th Street, Building-A in Redmond, WA 98052 Phone number: (425) 869-6490. www.friendsofyouth.org Click here to sign up for this project. Please include your name, email address and phone number. | |  VisionTrust Feed orphans in Southeast Asia Going quickly! Sign up today! Join VisionTrust on the day of caring at this food packing event and help provide over 1/4 million nutritious meals to orphaned and at-risk children in Southeast Asia. Volunteers will assemble packaged meals that will be distributed to children who are living in extreme poverty and at risk for malnutrition. Your commitment to volunteer will provide life-giving food for these children. www.visiontrust.org Click here to sign up for this project. Please include your name, email address and phone number. | |  Conservation Northwest THIS PROJECT IS FULL! This project involves seed collection and native plant planting at Gold Creek near Snoqualmie Pass.
September 21, 9:30 am to 3pm. Orientation from 9:30am to 10am, lunch break at noon. Gold Creek valley, just east of Snoqualmie Pass, plays a tremendous role in providing habitat connectivity for wildlife moving north-south in the Cascades. Gold Creek itself is home to a resident population of bull trout, while the valley provides home and passage for species ranging from pika to black bear. The WA Dept. of Transportation is constructing two underpasses at this location to restore the creek and connect habitat under I-90. We are working with the Forest Service to begin restoring adjacent habitat. This location is also an important recreation spot with picnic areas, an ADA accessible trail, and trailhead into the Alpine Lakes Wilderness. Heavy human traffic has harmed the native plant population, while promoting many invasive plants to take hold. To date, volunteers have worked to pull invasive plants in this location to reduce their populations. This year we will plant native plants and collect seed for dispersal to restore habitat. Drive Interstate 90 east to Exit 54, 2 miles east of the Snoqualmie Pass summit. Exit I-90, turn north, crossing under the freeway. A few hundred feet north of the highway interchange, turn right onto a narrow paved road (FR 4832) and drive east parallel to the freeway for 1 mile. Turn left on Gold Creek Road (142) and turn left in 0.3 mile into the Gold Creek Pond parking lot. Join 2012 Integral Fellows nominee Paul Bannick and others to help preserve our environment. www.conservationnw.org Click here to sign up for this project. Please include your name, email address and phone number. | | | | | |
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