Efforts to Save Sunshine Garden

As many of our supporters know, the City of Seattle cut its funding for the Sunshine Garden Senior Day Care program from the 2011 budget. Our Sunshine Garden staff has been working with many community supporters and volunteers to collect signatures supporting the restoration of Sunshine Garden's funding (see our Facebook page). The support has been overwhelming! They collected more than 2,400 signatures from the community, with 7 local businesses helping to collect signatures and more than 60 votes and many comments of support on a City Council website for submitting ideas from the community.

CISC staff also made a 5 minute presentation at the City Council budget hearing on October 26th, with the help of a family member of a client. The final budget will not be adopted until November 22nd, so there is still time for the City Council to reconsider the decision to cut Sunshine Garden's funding.

As a former Sunshine Garden worker commented on the City Council website, "From my working experience, I can tell you that all the Chinese elderly treat the center as their second home in US. In the center, they can find their sense of belonging, friendship, care and support. Without the center, they have no where to go to seek support."

To learn more, please contact Andes at andesk@cisc-seattle.org or 206.624.5633 x 4121.

Update on 11/12: To watch the video of the budget hearing, click here. The Sunshine Garden presentation is during 200:06-205:17 of the video.