April is the month of
Spokane Gives; this month, the Spokane community has come together to put together hygiene kits, sort books for children,
prepare a community dinner with the American Indian Community Center, and participate in so many other great projects. Don't forget to take a look at the results from our
free tax preparation and a video from
National Service Recognition Day!
Spokane Gives Month is here! It takes place during the entire month of April, and aims to give Spokane citizens a way to give back to their community. In the past three years, over 34,000 volunteers have given 170,000 hours of their time to make $4 million worth of impact for the Spokane community. There's still time for you to be a part of this community effort. Click on the image to the right to find out about upcoming volunteer opportunities.
Congratulations to the kids from The Community School who assembled 100 hygiene kits for the Union Gospel Mission with their Youth United mini grant. With that grant, they were able to accomplish this and many other volunteer activities for the greater Spokane community.
Spokane County United Way would also like to thank the group of talented volunteers from Greater Spokane Incorporated and the state volunteers who donated books; the 11 volunteers came together last week to sort books for children that were donated during the
Well Fed, Well Read campaign. The books were sorted by grade level to be donated to programs that work with K-6 grade youth.
Students Making a Difference
Story contributed by Austin Johnson, Gonzaga senior and Wolff Fellow
On Sunday April 15th, a group of 17 students from the Sinpaqcheen school prepared, served and shared a meal with members of the American Indian Community Center. Before the dinner, the students from the Sinpaqcheen school were given the opportunity to hear about all of the services and support that the center offered the surrounding community, as well as how they could get involved. After sharing a meal and learning about the center, the students from Sinpaqcheen performed an honor song for those that were present.
Join us in congratulating our VITA tax volunteers!
Spokane County United Way would like to give a huge shout-out to all the volunteers who made this year's VITA tax preparation such a huge success!
This year, we had 96 IRS-certified tax volunteers who worked 1,665 volunteer hours to serve 866 clients. They assisted their clients in getting back a total of $1.23 million in refunds. With that, we are 11% up in total tax returns filed, and 22% up in total refunds received by clients from last year.