You might have noticed the glare of bright yellow around West Seattle in the last few weeks. It was WestSide Baby's Stuff the Bus time.

On Sunday July 29, we parked a big yellow school bus near the Farmers Market and spent the day collecting diapers and donations while children hopped into the driver's seat and honked the horn. We are thrilled to say that we collected more than 50,000 diapers for this event. Thank you so much to everyone who stopped by, held a diaper drive, mailed in contributions or simply had a friendly wave during our debut in the West Seattle American Legion Parade. Special thanks to our sponsors, Sandra Merkin and Mark Elliott of Seattle Distinctive Homes, Coldwell Banker Danforth, Ventana Construction, Viking Bank and White Center Chiropractic and to Life Ministries for loaning us the school bus.

As a new approach to stuffing our bus, on the very exciting evening of July 20, WestSide Baby was the lucky recipient of enormous community support from two local businesses as well as many individual families. Square One Books in Jefferson Square offered to sell their preorders of Harry Potter's newest adventure as a benefit to WestSide Baby. Gretchen and Matthew donated $5 from every sale to us. I have to assume that every person who ordered their book from Square One made a conscious decision to support their local independent bookstore and/or WestSide Baby. Thank You!

Because of your purchases as well as the 900-plus diapers you brought to the Admiral Theater, we can cover more than 6,000 bottoms. The Admiral Theater even donated the theater space for the incredibly fun viewing of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.

We continue to need volunteers to sort donations and to thoughtfully pack orders for local children in need. Call us if you can spare some time - we'd love to have you.

Nancy Woodland

Executive Director, WestSide Baby

767-1662

www.westsidebaby.org