Fire Safety

Last week, Bill Mace from the Seattle Fire Department came to talk to seniors about home fire safety.

Did you know that there were over 400,000 home fires last year, costing almost 3,000 lives and causing 13,500 injuries? And that the largest cause of these fires by far was from cooking?

Smoke alarms (with functioning batteries!), an escape plan, and attention while cooking - a few of the simple things you can do around the house to keep yourself and your loved ones safe!

Never leave pots unattended on your stove, or you may end up with one looking like this!

Day of Caring

September 11 was the annual Day of Caring, sponsored by United Way of King County. This year, we had volunteers from the King County Library System and from Microsoft come out and work with some of our clients.

Some helped English as a Second Language students practice their daily conversation and also performed mock interview for the naturalization test. Others worked with our After School students talking about education, careers and job opportunities.

We want to give these volunteers a big THANK YOU for coming out and giving of themselves and their time to help our immigrants and their families succeed in their new community!

There must be something in the water

Big news! Three (yes, 3) of our CISC staff members are expecting babies at the beginning of next year! Congratulations to Karia, Dock Wah and Cathy on their first borns!

And for those of you who are also expecting or have an infant at home, join us at the International Family Center-Seattle on Thursday, October 1 from 10:00 to noon for our annual Baby Boost Fair.

Lots of info and resources on breastfeeding, nutrition, child safety and more. Also free stuff for you to take home. Come and check it out!

Fighting Fraud

Congratulations! You've won our big prize! All you've got to do is give us your social security and bank account numbers...

OK. So maybe they're not quite that obvious, but scam artists often sound legitimate and it's easy to be fooled.

Last week, representatives from the AARP Fraud Fighter Call Center came to Sunshine Garden to educate our seniors on fighting fraud.

Many con artists target seniors over the phone. There are even specialists who conduct their work in Mandarin or Cantonese.

If you think you are a victim of fraud, call the toll free number at 1-800-646-2283. Leave a message and someone will call you back in your language.

For volunteer opportunities, call 206-517-9353 or e-mail waaarp@aarp.org