information from WestSide Baby

WestSide Baby will host its 14th-Annual Benefit Tea Sunday March 1, raising funds to provide essentials to local children in need. The Tea, at the Hilton Seattle Airport & Conference Center, marks WestSide Baby’s largest event of the year, with more than 600 supporters gathering for a lively afternoon of tea and philanthropic inspiration.

The 2015 Tea centers on need in our community that is often kept hidden from sight, and understanding how together we can help children grow up safe and healthy. Raising Change President and CEO Kathy LeMay will highlight the afternoon with a keynote address focusing on the role of compassion in philanthropy. LeMay’s work has taken her around the world, fighting for human rights and social justice.

The Tea offers guests an opportunity to give and many opportunities to walk away with gift packages, including roundtrip airfare for two on Alaska Airlines. WestSide Baby will also sell hand-crafted glass “BabyCakes,” created by Avalon Glassworks, with one hiding a $1,000 diamond and white gold pendant compliments of Wyatt’s Jewelers.

“This year we celebrate our increased impact and embrace our recent merger with St. Joseph’s Baby Corner in Capitol Hill. Across King County, poverty is growing and most of us do not realize the challenges families face right in our own neighborhoods,” WestSide Baby Executive Director Nancy Woodland said. “Families don’t always advertise when they are struggling and need help. The infant behind you may be sitting in a wet diaper and living out of a car with her parents, but you wouldn’t know it by looking at her. These are our neighbors, and by getting these children the essentials they deserve, they will grow up safe, warm and dry, and their parents won’t be forced to choose between buying diapers and paying rent.”

The Benefit Tea marks one of WestSide Baby’s three major annual events, alongside the Stuff the Bus diaper drive in July and the Cocktail Benefit in September.