We hope you had a chance to visit a You’ll Heal Tacoma public art installation by Jessica Spring of Springtide Press in the past few weeks. The interactive exhibit asked the question, “How will you heal?” And there are a lot of answers. One of our answers, which is actually over a dozen answers, is this list of community opportunities. November is a lot of things. It’s a dark month. It’s often a wet month. It’s the month of the election. It’s a month of celebration and giving and of growing concern for those without warm homes and safe shelter.
Our list of ways to connect to Tacoma community in November is made with all of this in mind. We’ve organized it into 3 sections:
Connect to Tacoma with Events & Gatherings
Connect to Tacoma by Volunteering, Donating & Accessing Services
Connect to Tacoma with Your Creative Power
This last section is a new one because we felt like, and because you can only invite people to so many online events!
In this list you’ll find opportunities to give bikes or books away for other people to use, chances to volunteer outdoors in our parks, a film festival, storytelling about homelessness, an online concert, a Then & Now tour of Tacoma, a chance to make sandwiches for neighbors in need, a fundraiser for Feed253, Zoolights and more!
Connect to Tacoma with Events & Gatherings
1. 15th Annual Tacoma Film Festival
Friday, November 6th - Sunday, November 15th
Film Festival Online + Outdoor Screening
Prices Vary - Purchase Individual Tickets - Find Passes - Find Free Screenings
The Tacoma Film Festival features over 125 film this year! Pop your own popcorn and watch films from home while looking forward to future years of being in the theater again
The centerpiece film is Since I Been Down (a film we’ve been eagerly awaiting!) - And the good news is Alma Mater is hosting a free screening and panel discussion in the outdoors at The Patio
Follow Tacoma Film Festival on Facebook for news and updates
2. Fort From Home - Historical Knitting & Victorian Cooking
Saturday, November 7th
Saturday, November 21st
11 am - 12 pm
Online Events
Tiered Pricing - from $10 to $50
Questions and interaction encouraged in the text chat during these events
11/7/20 - Fort From Home: Knitting - Unraveling the Sontag - learn about historic knitting and the unique Sontag design
11/21/20 - Fort From Home: Cooking - “Receipts from the 19th Century” - hear about historical food research and learn about adapting Victorian cooking to a modern kitchen
3. Associated Ministries Focus Week: Working Together
Monday, November 9th - Thursday, November 12th
5 - 6 pm
Online Event via Zoom
Free - opportunity to learn and hear stories - donations accepted
Each evening Associated Ministries presents a 1 hour gathering of stories and encouragement from neighbors, leaders, and staff focusing on a different aspect of homelessness
Nov 9 - Youth homelessness
Nov 10 - Family homelessness
Nov 11 - Housing our veterans
Nov 12 - Chronic homelessnessRegister and attend 1 night or all 4 nights, just participate as much as you can
4. Tacoma Refugee Choir Online Concert: Creating Home Together
Saturday, November 14th
6 - 7 pm
Facebook Live & YouTube
Free online concert - donation and auction opportunity
Pre-register to receive a party envelope and the chance to win a door prize!
Program features performances from the choir (their first ever online concert!) as well as stories told by some of the members
Tacoma Refugee Choir believes: “Though we as individuals may feel powerless to change conditions for the 70+ million people displaced by wars, famine, and natural disasters, we are not powerless to ensure that those who find themselves in our community are welcomed and loved.”
5. Pretty Gritty Tours Virtual Tour - Tacoma: Then & Now
Saturday, November 21st
8 - 9 pm
Online via Facebook Live
Free virtual city tour
Pretty Gritty Tours along with the City of Tacoma is offering a virtual exploration of iconic Tacoma locations - see how they once were, what remains, how they’ve changed
Financed in part by Federal funds from the National Park Service, Department of the Interior administered by the Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation (DAHP) and the City of Tacoma
6. Zoolights
Friday, November 27th - Sunday, January, 3rd
5 - 9 pm
(Closed December 24th & 25th)
Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium
5400 N Pearl St, Tacoma
Ticket prices vary - $5.50 to $14 depending on day, age, and membership
Zoolights ins’t canceled and it isn’t even online and yes, it still is 2020 - amazing - an event you can attend in person, a tradition you can keep!
The zoo is about to be transformed by over 700,000 LED lights including a 23 foot high Mt. Rainier, Narrows Bridges, sea turtles, polar bears, penguins, and a 117 foot tunnel of light (longest tunnel yet!)
Safety protocols like one-way paths, face coverings, and timed tickets are in place to keep everybody healthy
Connect to Tacoma by Volunteering, Donating & Accessing Services
7. 2nd Cycle Back Alley Bike Drive
Wednesdays
November 4, 11, 18 & 25
11 am - 4 pm
2nd Cycle Tacoma’s Community Cycle Center
1205 Martin Luther King Jr Way, Tacoma
Free - donation opportunity
Have an unused bike or good bike parts hanging out in your garage or closet or hallway or entry or under the bed (we don’t know how you do)? Put your bike stuff to good use at 2nd Cycle!
Drop-off on Wednesdays only!
Bikes should be free of excessive rest and without extensive frame damage
8. Sandwiches & Snacks for the Tacoma Rescue Mission
Fridays
November 6, 13, 20 & 27
4:30 pm
Windermere Abode
2200 N 30th St, Tacoma
Looking for another way to get involved, give, and help keep the Tacoma community healthy and fed? Find representatives from our Windermere Abode office every Friday at 4:30 pm ready to transfer your sandwiches to the Tacoma Rescue Mission!
Volunteer & Giving Opportunity
Make sandwiches (tuna or meat are very popular), wrap them up, and meet brokers from Windermere Abode in the back parking lot (along McCarver St). The Abode crew will load their cars and deliver to the Tacoma Rescue Mission where these meals are in high demand!
Sandwiches, apples, oranges, or prepackaged snacks are all welcome and we promise to keep our 6 feet of distance when you drop-off :)
If you have questions, just get in touch with us and we can make sure you have the details you need (253) 226-2787, michael@dugganhomes.com
9. Metro Parks Volunteer Work Parties
Saturdays
November 7, 14, 21 & 28
9 am - 12 pm
Various Tacoma City Parks
Free - volunteer opportunity
During COVID-19 group size is limited, so please be sure to register (a household counts as 1 volunteer within the limit)
Visit Metro Parks Volunteer Page to sign up for clean-up at a variety of parks like China Lake, Oak Tree, Point Defiance, McKinley, Wapato and more
Cleanup continues rain or shine, so dress for the weather
Starts Friday, November 13th
Online
Opportunity to give!
More details to come on this annual event that not only supports families with Thanksgiving meals, but offers support year round to the YWCA through homey meals twice a week, and aids families by giving grocery assistance when funds are tight
Usually we all meet up in a big room downtown with live music, a silent auction, photo booth, and fabulous raffle items - but that’s just not in the cards this year - so stay tuned for an online version of this always fun and worthwhile event
Follow Feed253 on Facebook, and visit their site to make a donation now (no time like the present)
Connect to Tacoma with Your Creative Power
This section about connecting through your own creative power is an invitation to do something simple that creates a bond between you and someone or something outside your household. It isn’t necessarily about art, or making, or being crafty. It’s about finding ways to connect to community that don’t involve a big event, or going out to lunch, or receiving any kind of official invitation. It’s up to you and what you come up with! But we have a couple of ideas this month to get you started.
11. Pie Exchange - For a Holiday or For the Heck of It
Any day
Any time
Your Kitchen + Chosen Meeting Point
Sometimes connecting to community is something you just do on your own steam, with your own hands, using your own ideas, just because you feel like it! Feeling powerful yet? I hope so.
Invite a friend or two or three, choose a day, arrange a meeting place, make enough pies for each friend to take one home, then exchange those circles of deliciousness!
A few ideas: share your recipe (write it on a recipe card like Grandma, send a link, or print a copy), make a follow-up date at a park or patio to return pie plates, bundle up, bring coffee to keep your hands warm, and make it a date.
12. Give a Book, Take a Book - Connect to Tacoma’s Land of Little Free Libraries!
Any day
Any time
Your Bookshelf + A Tacoma Little Free Library
Free - sharing opportunity!
Someday this month take a ramble through the world of your bookshelf and see if there’s a book, or two, or ten you might want to part with, to share, to put out into the world of Tacoma.
Then walk down your street to a Little Free Library. Or get in the car, or on your bike, pull a wagon, take the bus, however you get around, get thee hence to one of those cute little boxes you see around the city filled (or sometimes in need of filling) with books. Put yours in. Maybe you’ll even find a book to bring home.
Not sure how to find a Little Free Library (once you start seeing them, you won’t stop!)? Visit LittleFreeLibrary.org and search their Tacoma map, or put in your zip code.
If you use social media, post a photo of the library to encourage people to go out and find some good reading. You can even use the sweet little #shelfie hashtag.