The Rescue Mission board is scheduled to meet this Monday evening at 6 pm. at New Life Square.  On the agenda for this months meeting is our annual budget and a meeting with Kent McLaren, architect for Adams Square.  Look forward to seeing all the board members there. David 

Friday afternoon TRM is holding a party for the kids of Tyler Sq. and Family Shelter to celebrate the end of school.  There will be a BBQ and lots of fun so please take time to stop in if possible.  We want to make sure that we are supporting our scholars.  When:  Friday at 4pm.  Where:  Tyler Sq. playfield.dc 

Great News!  The Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco has awarded a $1 Million grant to Adams Sq. Family Center!  This puts our total at over $5 million and counting towards the $9 Million goal.  Congratulations to all the great folks who helped with this request.  Kevin Foster, our partner from Foster and Assoc., Mar Corpuz, Lynette Grubbs worked really hard on this and deserve a lot of praise.  Praise the Lord.  We keep moving forward! dc 

Jack Falk, a longtime TRM volunteer and resident at Jefferson Sq. has been getting alot of press lately.  He was featued in a Seattle newspaper and then again a few times in some other news outlets and now Jack has his own feature article in the News Tribune.  Jack is such a sweet man and we are so proud of him.  Here is the link to his article  http://www.thenewstribune.com/front/topphoto/story/390151.html

The Finance Committee of the Tacoma Rescue Mission Board met to review the budget that I am proposing for 2008/09 yesterday at the Administration office.  There were lots of great questions and comments about the budget and the committee was definately impressed  with all the great work that has gone into putting the budget together.  They unanimously approved it for proposal to the full board at the end of this month.  At that point they board can choose to accept or amend the budget.  July 1st is the beginning of our fiscal year and we are quite disciplined about staying within our budget so this plan is critically important for the coming 12 months.  A big thank you to the committee members and huge thanks to Sue Horgen for all the work she puts in to keep our financial ship afloat.  We couldn’t do it without her.  DC 

Now that gas prices have totally spun out of control I have finally gotten motivated to try to save on trips to work. While I only live a few miles from TRM, or maybe because I only live a few miles from TRM, I never have ridden my bike to work.  That all changed Monday when I decided to take the leap.  It was actually not a big inconvenience and helped me feel like I was doing my little part to save gas.  In addition it put a few extra dollars in my pocket, theoretically anyway.  I then decided to carpool to work with Sue, which was really easy.  There have been other TRM folks who have done a few simple things as well:  Katy L. at the Family Shelter has been riding her bike too and finds it a great way to get a little exercise and save $ stay green.  Lynette Grubbs, our wonderful grantwriter,  walked to work on a couple of occassions last summer, and many of our folks ride the lightrail and walk up to New Life Sq.  My point is that we need to encourage each other in these simple ways we can save money.  Offer to carpool, check out the bus schedule, or walk on occasion if possible.  I know that I’m going to try to use my bike or carpool when possible this summer and I hope you will too.dc 

1) Thanks to everyone who came to our coffee social.  It was fun to just take a few minutes to chit chat together before we hit it hard again.  I hadn’t seen some of you in a while so it was fun to reconnect.  With so many different sites and areas of ministry it is important that we take time to just say, “Hi”.  2)  Today Mar and I are visiting the Pierce County officials who handle funding for capital projects to talk about Adams Sq. and our request for support.  This is a critically important partner and we would really appreciate your prayers on this one.  We are taking a special guest with us, Tiffany Salese, to share all the great ways she believes the new family center will better serve our clients.  3)  Jann and I made a new friend for the Mission the other day.  We visited with Steve Bell, owner of Pacific Crest Cabinets, about their support for the Adams Sq. project.  Steve has offered to help with the cabinetry and support us 100%.  This is going to be a great partnership.  Click on their website to see all the great things they do.  Their shop is huge and is state of the art.  It is also extremely environmentally friendly.  http://www.pacificcrestindustries.com/ 

We are having a staff coffee hour at Commencement Bay Coffee from 10-11am Tuesday for all TRM staff who can make it.  This is just a fun, unstructured hour for us to get together and catch up/socialize away from work.  Please make time to come if you can.  Coffee and snacks are free.  Commencement Bay is at 2354 Jefferson, near Jefferson Sq.  See you there.  DC 

Its been a long road, but we have finally settled the insurance claim for the building that burnt down on the Adams Sq. property two years ago this coming August.  Our attorney Ron Thompson, who has been a longtime board member, negotiated with the previous owners and the insurance company to come up with a fair and equitable settlement that honors all the parties.  Gateways for Youth, the non-profit organization that owned the property, has a long history of charitable service in the state and they will receive half of the settlement.  This settlement will allow TRM to keep moving forward on housing homeless children and their parents at the site.  Our portion of the settlement, $220,950, will go directly towards the new family center.dc 

Brad Cheney, our friend from the Cheney Foundation, called Tuesday to let us know the Foundation has committed $50,000 to Adams Square Family Center this year and they want to talk to us about an additional $50,000 next year!  This is great news and we are very grateful to the Cheney Foundation.  They have a long, long history of supporting the Tacoma Rescue Mission.  One great thing they do is give us a yearly grant to help our Christmas party.  How nice is that?  They are great people. David