Woodinville Volunteer Still Helping Others

Chrissy Brackett is one of those people who do not like to be idle. When her children were school age, she started volunteering in the classroom. That led to volunteering for the PTA, which led to being on the board of the PTA. Then there were scout troops to be organized and sports teams to coach. All this while also working a part-time as an office manager.

Brackett’s kids are now grown, but her belief in volunteerism did not end with her children’s schooling. Today, the life-long Woodinville resident is president of the Eastside Assistance League, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping communities on the Eastside.

Brackett first learned of the league when a friend invited her to go on the holiday house tour, the league's signature fundraiser.

“I started talking with the volunteers there and learned about the assault survivor kits. I was impressed with that program, with helping assault victims when they are so vulnerable,” she said.

The league provides 26 hospitals across the state with assault survivor kits. The kits, distributed by hospital emergency staff, include sweat suits and toiletries for sexual assault victims. Often, those victims’ clothes are taken by law enforcement as evidence, leaving them with nothing but hospital scrubs or used clothing to go home in. Last year the league provided 1,213 kits.

“It helps them to have fresh, new clothes to put on,” Brackett said.

In addition to the assault kits program the league has three other programs:

Operation School Bell® provides new school clothing to over 2,500 students each year in the Lake Washington, Bellevue and Northshore school districts. Personnel at the schools served firmly believe that new clothing and the resulting increase in self-esteem contribute to a strong foundation for a child’s successful educational experience.

Starting Over Support assists individuals and families fleeing domestic violence by providing basic household items to begin new lives in safe housing.

Assistance League® Outreach is an umbrella program that collaborates with other local agencies to help fill specific unmet needs in local communities in a timely, responsive and flexible way. 

Operation School Bell allows low income students from local schools the opportunity to buy new school clothes. For three nights each October, Fred Meyer stores in Kirkland, Redmond and Bellevue sponsor the shopping spree. League volunteers help children, selected by their school nurses or councilors, to pick out and try on new clothes. Each child has about $100 to spend. In addition, each child is given a hand-made hat and scarf from the league's volunteer knitters. A local dentist provides bags of dental hygiene products for each child.

“You don’t think something like a bag of dental hygiene things would be exciting to a kid,” Brackett said. “But I heard one boy tell his mom, ‘Look, a new toothbrush, now I don’t have to share,’ it’s moments like that, that get to me.”

The league is always looking for more volunteers to add to its 75-member roster. For more information on volunteering, contact the league at (425) 556-5106, or email: eastsideinfo@assistanceleague.org.