,

Connect to Tacoma Community: August 2020

,
IMG_0870.jpeg

These “Connect to Tacoma Community” posts are a continuation of our Tacoma Events lists. Events have shifted from up close, in person, hand-shaking, food-sharing, hugging, and elbow-rubbing gatherings, to outdoor, distanced, small group, and remote gatherings. But the truth is, the focus always has been, and continues to be connection. We’re seeking ways for all of us to engage community, make changes, and get through this together (emphasis on together).

Take a look at our list of 10 events around Tacoma in August, and 5 Tacoma entities we suggest following if you’re looking to stay in touch with what happens in and around our city. We’re wishing you all health and discovery this August. Take care.

Connect to Tacoma with Events & Gatherings

1. Straight Talk - Race, Relationships, and Racial Justice

Monday, August 3rd
* (and every Monday indefinitely)
5 pm
From Home via Zoom

  • Free - register here

  • Panel discussion focusing on bi-racial couples in this time of the pandemic and race-based uprisings

  • These discussion are hosted by the Metropolitan Development Council and The Tacoma Urban League and are geared toward communities “not in the mainstream flow of information”

  • * Love this idea? Join every Monday! Straight Talk is a series you can engage in each Monday while the COVID0-19 crisis continues

2. Tangled: Why Your Hair Matters to Society

Monday, August 3rd
7 - 8:30 pm
From Home via Zoom

3. Free Food Boxes for Families

Tuesdays, August 4th & 18th
10 am
Tacoma Community House
1314 S L St, Tacoma

  • Free

  • Emergency Food Network and Tacoma Community House are partnering to offer free boxes of food for people in the community who could use some help with food security

  • First-come first-served

  • Staff offering the food boxes will wear masks and keep their distance to keep the community safe

Image from En Rama

Image from En Rama

Weekly Meals for the Community

4. Local restaurant En Rama in Downtown Tacoma offers free to-go meals every Wednesday. No questions asked!

  • Wednesdays

  • Pick-up a free boxed meal from 2 - 3 pm

  • 1102 A St, Suite 220, Tacoma

5. Tacoma Rainbow Center is Caring With Pride with support from Alma Mater on Thursdays in Downtown Tacoma

  • Thursdays

  • Fresh meals, non-perishables, hygiene supplies, and masks offered 11 am - 1 pm

  • 2215 Pacific Ave, Tacoma

6. Visit Peace Lutheran Church in Hilltop every Friday for a free to-go Community Meal with other community resources available as well. All are welcome!

  • Fridays

  • Pick-up from 5:30 - 6:30 pm

  • 2106 S Cushman Ave, Tacoma

If you have enough or more than enough food, these might be opportunities to give or volunteer. We take turns needing and being needed, giving and receiving, there’s a gift in all of these circumstances.

7. Old Town Summer Concert Series

Wednesdays
August 5, 12, 19 & 26
6:30 - 8:15 pm
Livestream from Home

  • Free

  • Bring the music home, pretend your down in the park in Old Town with the salty air, a blanket in the grass, a picnic, and a crowd - hey, you can actually recreate that on your living room floor or out in your back yard (minus the crowd)

  • Enjoy live music every Wednesday from different musicians each week, and next summer we all hope to be back in the park!

Images from Metro Parks Tacoma

Images from Metro Parks Tacoma

Fridays
August 7, 14, 21 & 28
7 pm parking, showtime at dusk
STAR Center
3873 S 66th St, Tacoma

  • $20 suggested donation per vehicle - register here

  • Come early to purchase food at food trucks

  • Make sure to read the details about the audio, parking, and other guidelines

  • Movie titles are subject to change, but here’s the planned lineup:

    • 8/7- Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, 1977 (PG)

      8/14- Hidden Figures, 2016 (PG)

      8/21- The Princess Bride, 1987 (PG)

      8/28- FernGully, 1992 (G)

9. Point Defiance Beach Cleanup

Third Saturdays
August 15th
9 am
Point Defiance Marina
5912 Waterfront Dr, Tacoma

  • Free volunteer event - register here

  • Help keep the beaches and parks we love clean and healthy

  • During COVID-19 group size is limited, so please be sure to register (a household counts as 1 volunteer within the limit)

  • Cleanup continues rain or shine, so dress for the weather

  • Also, if you miss this day, or if it’s already full of volunteers, take a look at other Tacoma park cleanup opportunities for a chance to lend a hand

10. Skill in Action: Virtual Workshop with Michelle C. Johnson

Sunday, August 30th
12 - 3 pm
From Home Online

  • 3 levels of payment: $35 community - discounted, $45 sustainer - covers your own participation (sold out!), $55 supporter - covers your participation and supports others as well - Register here

  • This is a workshop brining together social justice, yoga, and community

  • Michelle C. Johnson will lead an exploration of how we take action and respond to systems of oppression

  • Open to all levels of yoga experience and includes dharma talk, meditation, asana, and discussion

Connect to Tacoma with Ongoing Engagement

We recommend following these organizations, communities, businesses, entities, etc. There are so many more we’d like to suggest, but that’s for another month, another chance, another list. If you haven’t explored these or gotten connected, take a look. We’re pretty sure you’ll be welcome.

Tacoma Pierce/Pierce County Habitat for Humanity

Vision: “Tacoma/Pierce County Habitat for Humanity’s vision is to build and foster a community where everyone has a decent, affordable place to live. Our Christian foundation calls for us to set aside religious differences and work toward a common goal: to eliminate poverty housing in our community.

  • Everyone needs a foundation to build a future.

  • Every home is a building block.

  • Every home improvement gives children a better chance for a stronger future.

  • Every donation helps a family help themselves.

  • Every helping hand makes a difference.”

Follow Tacoma/Pierce County Habitat for Humanity on Facebook
Follow Tacoma/Pierce County Habitat for Humanity on Instagram

Image from Yoga Wild

Image from Yoga Wild

Yoga Wild

About: “We are a yoga company for students outside the typical yoga demographic. Too many are excluded from the mental and physical benefits of yoga due to cost or lack of representation. We have a studio with 20 classes a week at sliding-scale pricing. At Yoga Wild, we also encourage students to get out in nature and their community with classes, series, and volunteer work parties throughout Tacoma.”

Note: Yoga Wild is adapting to the times to keep everyone safe and healthy. The studio is closed, but you can find lots of online live classes and practices via YouTube as well.

Follow Yoga Wild on Facebook
Follow Yoga Wild on Instagram

Mission: “Our mission is to cultivate a space for professional Women of Color to nurture community, collaborate, and share professional, educational and life resources.”

Follow Tacoma Women of Color Collective on Facebook
Follow Tacoma Women of Color Collective on Instagram

Tacoma Public Schools

About: “Tacoma Public Schools (TPS) is one of the largest districts in Washington State serving approximately 30,000 children in preschool through grade 12. The district has 35 elementary schools, 11 middle schools, 10 high schools and 4 early learning centers. 19 schools are designated as innovative.  TPS has nearly 5,000 employees and is one of the largest employers in Tacoma.”

Follow Tacoma Public Schools on Facebook
Follow Tacoma Public Schools on Instagram



Grit City Magazine

About: “Grit City Magazine was founded on the notion that Tacoma has good stories to tell. We explore the places that define it, pay homage to the history that built it, and celebrate the people who make it what it is today. This is a city of makers and craftsmen, artists and philosophers, natives and newcomers, dreamers and doers, and above all, grit. If you have a story to tell, we want to hear it.”

Follow Grit City Magazine on Facebook
Follow Grit City Magazine on Instagram
Subscribe to Grit City Magazine

KEEP IN TOUCH ABOUT TACOMA LIFE, TACOMA COMMUNITY, TACOMA HOMES, AND A BIT ABOUT US

This week we’re grateful for the @windermereabode community and the chance to be part of one of our favorite Thanksgiving traditions: Community Dinner Kits 💛 Our colleague @melohogan.realtor and her husband Steve started out 10 years ago makin
On this closing day the biggest excitement came from a 7 year old who’s about to have his own room and who loves (fervently) the bathroom downstairs with orange walls. We’re excited for the whole family. Friendly neighbors came over to sa
I’m grateful Michael is willing to join me again, again, again and again on Orcas Island. We went last week so I could turn 41 in a place where my heart feels quiet, where deer tracks and bird tracks cross on the beach, where paths bordered by
When even the east glows at sunset What stills me in one window frame Where fabric flower feather and wax make the table a place How light of sky and light of candle and light of bulb need their own names Why home is also the distance seen beyond its
There’s change in the air across Tacoma, the return of things once lost, the reopening of places once closed, the transformation of one restaurant into another, the creation of brand new places to gather, shop, eat, and drink. We’ve been
From Sunday to Tuesday we joined almost every single person from @windermereabode for a retreat at @seabrookwa. We entered a time of camaraderie, visioning, personal exploration, and so many hugs. I don’t know how many realtor retreats are full
We took our two hearts out for an impromptu lunch at @threeheartstacoma today and we suggest you do the same. When we read the news that they’re extending their soft launch and staying open for the week instead of closing until next Tuesday we
Featured
What's New, Tacoma? 17 New Businesses + 3 Coming Soon
What's New, Tacoma? 17 New Businesses + 3 Coming Soon

There’s change in the air across Tacoma, the return of things once lost, the reopening of places once closed, the transformation of one restaurant into another, the creation of brand new places to gather, shop, eat, and drink. We’ve been experiencing this change across the city and wanted to pull some of it together in one place. What follows is a list of 17 new, renewed, and returned businesses along with 3 coming soon. See if you can enjoy and support something new this month; if you do, we’d love to hear about it!

Tacoma Community: 15 Things to Do in October
Tacoma Community: 15 Things to Do in October

We’ve rounded-up and narrowed-down 15 ways to get out into community this October. Don your most intellectual scarf and hat combination for a literary night, dance and eat with the Greeks, step into a candlelit tour our 1855, get psyched up about cycling (and bicycle fashion), try forest bathing, don your most eccentric scarf and hat combination for the film festival, write letters for fun, tour art studios, hear from Latinas who experience being The Firsts in so many ways, take a local art walk, and celebrate Día de los Muertos. We’ve got some ways to volunteer in here too—lend a hand with Habitat for Humanity, pick up litter, or pull weeds and plant seeds at a favorite park to keep Tacoma green.

Get Out of Town: Puget Sound Day Trips
Get Out of Town: Puget Sound Day Trips

Once in a while, we all need to get out of town. This month we’re sharing about Port Townsend and Vashon Island, two places we go again and again when a change of scene is calling. They’re places where the beach is always near, where parking is easy, where woods and trails beckon us away from the sidewalks. Places where small, local bakeries, coffee roasters, independent bookstores, and one of a kind shops outnumber chains by far. We’ll share some of the ways we pass the time and how we fill our stomachs (never a problem). Don’t worry too much about planning; these destinations are so close to Tacoma, you can show up again and try what you missed. Wake up one morning and just decide to go!

Tacoma Outdoor Dining Guide
Tacoma Outdoor Dining Guide

Want to go out and really be out—out in the open air, beneath a colorful umbrella, on a shaded patio, beside a bustling sidewalk, seated on a deck overlooking the water, pulled up to a bar counter by the street? We’ve gathered over 60 of Tacoma’s outdoor dining spots by neighborhood to get you started. Take a look at our list of restaurants, cafes, and bars with outdoor seating, then get yourself away from the screen, out the door, and into the life of Tacoma’s summer. See you out there!

Out on the Town 2024: Tacoma Tuesdays
Out on the Town 2024: Tacoma Tuesdays

Tacoma, Tuesdays, Trivia, Tacos, Talent. It’s the truth, there’s stuff to do. We have 19 of those things listed right here (twenty would have sounded so good) and not all of them start with “t.” There’s ballet and book club, wine and film, story time and bingo. So dust off your dancing shoes, clean your spectacles, strap the baby in a stroller, study up on random facts, warm up your vocal chords, and work up an appetite; it’s Tuesday in Tacoma!

Tacoma Love: 5 Good Things—Vol. 4
Tacoma Love: 5 Good Things—Vol. 4

This is not an ultimate, all time, best of the best, win or go home, top 5 list. No, we aren’t really bringing that kind of energy to life. This is the 4th edition of 5 things we like in Tacoma from a list of way more things we like in Tacoma. Sound good? An annual rogue art treasure hunt, a tiny slip of sandy beach, an old place to watch new and cult classic films, a weekly opportunity for repairing your stuff, and a spot where the noodles and broth fill you up in a good way. Some of it’s free. All of it’s good. We’re not making any other claims (who needs all that best-stress anyway?).

The Sunset Side: Tacoma's Other Waterfront
The Sunset Side: Tacoma's Other Waterfront

This month we're here to give a shout out to the other waterfront, the home of Titlow Beach, Seashore Drive, the iconic Narrows Bridges, and the Tacoma sunset. We’ll share where we eat and what we order, the trails we like to take, and what makes this side of the city feel like home. All you need is one evening for a waterfront getaway.

Hi, I'm Michael Duggan, a licensed broker with Windermere Abode. I would love to help you through the home buying or selling process. Please contact me to set up a meeting and get things started.