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Summer Splash
While we have several parent/child teams throughout our Windermere office, most children don’t find Real Estate to be as riveting as their parental counterparts. Luckily for them, Windermere puts on an exciting event every summer to keep those kids engaged: Summer Splash, held at Greenlake and open to the public, is a rousing time full of games, prizes, food, performances, and more!
Windermere partners with Seattle Parks & Recreation to host this amazing event annually, and it’s an absolute hit for everyone. Each office creates an interactive booth for kids to win prizes, swag, or create arts & crafts. Our office tends to repeat our winning booth, Pop-A-Shot, with kids going head-to-head in a chance for the ultimate prize: the coveted basketball whistle, a stunning plastic toy unlike the other 500 we received in the bulk order. Aside from our personal popularity, Summer Splash boasts the impressive Crew Races on the lake, kayaking, paddle boarding and this year even showcased a dog walk to gloat your perfect pup.
Our broker Dan Dittmann is a frequent host of our Pop-A-Shot booth, bringing smiles and laughter to everyone who participates – he’s a wonderfully positive presence that we are grateful to have. We love the energy this event brings, and we also love meeting the brokers & their families of our neighboring offices. The performances need to be raved about as well; they include magic shows, singing, cultural dances, science experiments, and then some. It truly is a lively experience we all love to look forward to, and if you’ve ever wanted to pick out a unique rubber duck and race the others using a squirt gun, then this is the event for you!
Community Service Day at Mary’s Place
For Community Service Day we were excited to partner with Mary’s Place for the first time. They had recently acquired a new location in Shoreline to be used as a day center for families. Our mission was to give this building some much needed love to make it feel more inviting.
Our team came with all our gloves and back hoes and grit to spare. We had a group working on the inside of the building doing a deep clean of the whole location! And the rest of us where outside cleaning and converting the parking lot to a safe and clean play area for the kids. We weeded the front of the area but it looked too sparse. Luckily we were close to both a Home Depot and Lowes so we had a group do a run to get some flowers and greenery to make the place beautiful.
For our last project of the day we put our muscle to work to create some large flower beds. This was to create a functional and pretty barrier in the parking lot so the kids play area was away from any traffic and they always would have a safe zone to be in. They turned out really great and I especially loved the lavender that was planted in them.
We were so happy to make this place feel a little more fun and comfortable place for our community to enjoy. If you would like to learn more about Mary’s Place click on their logo above or go to www.marysplaceseattle.org
The Windermere Cup
On a hot May morning, with a fresh cup of coffee in my hands, I made my way down to the Montlake Cut. I had never been to the Windermere Cup before, but hearing all about it at the office, I jumped at the chance to volunteer.
After wandering around the shoreline, passing groups of other early raisers caring there blankets and chairs; I found the seas of tents and booths. I helped finish setting up the Windermere swag booth and took armfuls of free flags, sporting the Windermere Cup logo. For the next few hours I was flag girl, passing out flags to everyone I met, answering questions and giving directions. Once my job was done I met with some friends and we got some scones and watched the race. It was a fun and exciting event. Below is an article with more information about this event.
-Kiley Koehler | Northgate Office
On May 5 the Montlake Cut will play host once again to the Windermere Cup rowing regatta. For the past 32 years, Windermere Real Estate and the University of Washington have joined together to host this event, which brings the world’s best crews to Seattle to compete against the perennially acclaimed UW men’s and women’s teams. Held annually on the first Saturday in May, the Windermere Cup is both an international sporting event and opening day party, followed by the world’s largest boat parade.
The races will be headlined by four of the strongest crews in the world. On the men’s side, UW Rowing will be opposed by two strong squads. Oxford Brookes University is the defending collegiate champion in Great Britain, and the University of British Columbia holds the most recent collegiate title in Canada. Both will oppose a Washington men’s crew that has been the most dominant program of the decade in the United States and missed out on a national championship by less than a tenth of a second in 2017. The reigning national champion UW women will be opposed by the Dutch national team, which recently placed 6th in the world at both the World Championships and the 2016 Olympic Games.
In addition to the 23 crew races throughout the morning, the family-friendly Windermere Cup event also includes food vendors, booths to purchase UW and Windermere Cup apparel and commemorative gear, as well as a bouncy house for the kids. Admission to the event is free.
Windermere Cup App:
The crew races start at 10 am and end around noon. Following the final Windermere Cup race is the Seattle Yacht Club’s Opening Day Boat Parade. Download the Windermere Cup App by downloading Attendee Hub, available on the App Store for both Android and iOS. There you can access schedule and team information, event details, and more! For live race results: https://event.crowdcompass.com/w18c
Windermere Party on the Cut:
This year’s pre-race Party on the Cut will take place Friday, May 4th, from 6 PM to 10 PM. Join us on the Montlake Cut for an evening of live music, lawn games, and food and drinks. $25 gets you into the beer garden where you can hear live performances by Groove Surfers, Brian DiJulio & the Love Jacks, and Spike & the Impalers. Kids get in for just $10, and tickets can be found through Brown Paper Tickets.
Windermere Cup Book:
This book is about the athletes, colorful characters, and brilliant people the Windermere Cup rowing regatta has featured every first Saturday in May since 1987. Through interviews, original documents and pages upon pages of breathtaking photographs, author Gregg Bell captures this event’s more than 30 remarkable years, its spirit and its soul.
The Windermere Cup is a touchstone for our company, our family of offices and agents, and the University of Washington. Not only is this an international sporting event, it’s a celebration of camaraderie, teamwork, and community – and truly great tradition that we are honored to be a part of.
For more information please visit windermerecup.com and follow us at Facebook.com/WindermereCup and @WindermereCup on Twitter.
The Remodel
We had vibrant red accent walls. We had tired, creaky chairs. We had an unsightly structural pole in the Resource Room that I would frequently walk into while trying to multitask. These minor bumps, plus countless more, prompted our owner OB Jacobi to call for a Remodel of the Northgate Office. It posed a bit of an inconvenience for our brokers – the regularly used computers were gone, our kitchen was ripped apart, the copy machines were piled in the back of the office near working desks, but worst of all – the coffee pot was tucked away in the back corner (gasp!) and we now had to walk several more paces for our morning joe. We even received our first water cooler, and when empty, the office would erupt into a fiery rage of whodunit.
Kidding aside, everyone adapted to our strange new set up with understanding. It added laughs to the conversations when we had to wait for the jackhammer to quiet down between words, and it motivated people to gather around our odd cubicle kitchen and reminisce about a simpler office. Luckily for us, the wait was worth it.
We have a stunning new kitchen with backsplash and under lighting. We have new computers, new copiers, and a brand new Keurig.
We. Have. Shiplap.
But most importantly, we’re all just fortunate we don’t have to wash our mugs in the bathroom anymore.
The LEGACY Party
It’s no surprise that all of our brokers were devastated when Steve Senescall, the Managing Broker at Windermere Northgate for 34 years, announced his departure. As a longtime figure in the Real Estate business and close friend to many, Steve had built a reputation for kindness, care, and compassion. His legacy – a word he loved to roll his eyes to – will forever be a part of the foundation of this truly amazing office. To say our thanks & farewells, we had a beautiful party in his honor, full of wonderful people and valuable memories. We called it “Steve’s Legacy Party”.
One of our brokers, Charlie Cowan, owns the gorgeous Chelsea Station Inn in Greenwood and offered to host. Another broker, Allison Moceri, organized and crowd-funded the catering from Kaspar’s. After all the wine was drank (or spilt) and everyone had mingled, we were blessed with an original song, “Old Broker Blues”, written and performed by broker Dan Dittmann, known in the industry as Sweet Baby James – it led to tears, laughter, and a fleeting moment for us all to look around and appreciate our time together.
We miss seeing Steve on the daily, but are ecstatic that he now has plenty of time to spend with his stunning wife Connie, their children Stephanie & Sean, and his grandkids Dylan, Audrey, Samantha, and Tanner. We miss you, Steve!
2nd Annual Putt Putt Championship
It’s that time of year again…the leaves are falling and there is the smell of competition in the air! It’s the Northgate Putt Putt championship!!
We could not have a normal Halloween office party with only costumes or silly hats. We also wanted to raise some money for the Giving Tree and bring back the popular sport of office putt putt. The staff collected boxes and created a total of 9 putt putt holes with homemade obstacles. Some of my favorites where the Castle complete with a draw bridge and heads on spikes (pictured on the right above), a bridge with a tissue paper river, and the cemetery of grave stones.
The fun did not stop there. Every year our staff chooses a theme for a group costume. Can you guess the theme for this year???
It was Real Estate!!! Our brokers got a real good laugh out of it and Hannah, Holly and I had a great time having them guess what we each were. In the picture above, Holly, on the left, was a new listing; she had her listing sign hat, pictures, and flyers! I am in the middle, and was Earnest money; I sported a money green blouse, large dollar bills, my earnest money forms & a ‘Hi my name is Earnest’ name tag. Hannah, pictured on the left, was a Silent Talker, wearing all black and keeping silent; she dressed in comical silent talkers that could be used for any home.
By the end of our office party we had counted up the strokes and announced Tyler Anderson as the winner of the coveted Putt Putt Trophy and some donated prizes.
Community Service Day at YWCA
This year for community service day we continued to work with the YWCA, but at their downtown location. We took a tour of the facility and learned about the number of services this large location provides. I was so impressed with all the hard work YWCA was doing and the extensive programs they have created. They go beyond a meal and offer a range of assistance to fit the needs of the family or person.
We had arrived just after breakfast, and our first task was to clean up the dining room area. Next we split up into three different groups to do different tasks. One group was helping cook and prepare the lunch meal for the day. Another group in the kitchen was preparing food for meals for the next day and helping organize the industrial size freezer.
Our last team was in the basement area, first organizing a large number of donations that had come in the day before. After organizing the donations, the basement storage area was reorganized and cleaned. Lastly, we cleaned and organized the kitchen storage area to get rid of any expired or tampered donations and food.
Though out the day our groups switched around tasks so we all got to tryout different jobs. After serving our two rounds of lunch and cleaning the dining room in between each group of visitors; we cleaned up the kitchen and took a group picture and said our goodbyes to an amazing folks at the YWCA!
If you would like more information about YWCA please click on the logo above or go to ywcaworks.org
Northgate office Putt Putt Party
In early June our Office Manager, Shelby, announced that she would be leaving us in a few weeks to go back to school full time. She had been doing classes part time, but had an upcoming trip to Peru for a class and wanted to commit full time to getting her Biology degree. We all are going to miss Shelby, she had worked at our office for 3 years and we all wanted to have a fun going away party in her honor.
She requested an ice cream social and we jazzed it up with a Putt Putt competition. The layout of our office was the perfect set up to have 9 holes set up in our hallway as it creates a large loop. Many of our brokers are avid golfers and made donations of extra putters, greens, and balls. In Shelby’s honor we added a $5 minimum buy in to the organization of her choice, the YWCA.
Throughout the next few weeks Shelby and I collected boxes from packages sent to our office and put our craft skills to the test. We created some homemade golf flags, obstacles, and used some extra holiday decorations from storage It was a modge podge of a course and not up to code, but we all had a fun time playing!
Community Service Day at YWCA & Youthcare
Today we went to the YWCA Phillis Wheatly Branch & the downtown YouthCare location for our annual community service day. Half of our volunteers went to YWCA to help with their donations; the YWCA supports homeless families in need of assistance. The other half of our team cooked and served lunch at YouthCare, an organization helping the homeless young adults in Seattle.
At YWCA we first got a tour of their amazing facility serving the families in the area. Throughout the day we organized donations and did yard work. Then we put together goodie bags full of food, hygiene items, and other snacks for after school programs. Having these items prepackaged made them easy to hand out to anyone stopping by that needed a few things to get them though.
Our last big project for the day was moving all the donations in storage from a shed to a brand new donated shipping container. It was a lot of food to move and organize but it looked really great when we are all done!
At YouthCare our group first planned out the meal they were going to prepare and serve. A few weeks before our community service day; I worked with the YouthCare volunteer coordinator who provided a list of suggested foods we could prepare and food donation ideas; together we figured out the menu we would serve. In the next day or so we had brokers donate all the ingredients we needed for the meal and a bit extra too. Creating the collection worked out really great, so those that could not participate in cooking and serving could still be apart of our community service day.
Once bringing over the raised money and donations to the Orin location in Downtown Seattle. We got to work chopping and cooking. After serving the meals; which is defiantly the best part, we cleaned up the kitchen and took our group photo.
If you would like more information about YWCA and YouthCare please click on the logos above or go to youthcare.org & ywcaworks.org
Our Annual Giving Tree
Every year, at the start of December, our office partners with the elementary schools in the Northgate area to bring the joy of holiday giving to all. This year for our Giving Tree we “adopted” 20 kids.
The children had written down there wish list letter to Santa and the teachers contacted parents. Parents were able to write in more details on sizes, favorite colors and there children’s’ interests to help us get the perfect gifts. Our staff typed out the letters and information, and we sent it out to our brokers. One by one kids were all adopted!!
In the next few days presents where shipped and brought in. Holly, Hannah and I put on our elf ears and wrapped and organized them by there corresponding number. Within a few weeks we had made sure each kid was getting a good size pile of presents, will most if not all of there items on there lists.
The Giving Tree is one of my favorite events that we do at our office. All of our brokers love to participate and it feels great to focus on giving at this time of year. It warms my hear when Brokers bring in there gifts and tell me they had there kids help them pick out the presents and were using our Giving Tree drive to teach them about giving to others.
