With the end of the year comes the holidays, and people naturally tend to fall into a very giving mood. Back for its second year, Yelp Seattle Eastside hosted an event series called Yelp’s Giving Season which is all about giving back to the community, right at an Elite Event.
Throughout the months of November and December, each Elite Event featured a local organization to support with either physical items or monetary donations. Not only are the Elites showing up for a fun evening to experience a local business, but they’re also able to give back to the community and learn about organizations that are making a difference in the Eastside.
Making it even more fun, every person who donated to each drive was entered into a raffle for a chance to win a special something to go home with before the event’s ending!
The first Yelp’s Giving Season event of the year kicked off at Ooba Tooba in Redmond. Elites and their plus ones were encouraged to bring new pairs of socks, which would all be donated to the Congregation for the Homeless Eastside Men’s Shelter. Between 50 attendees, Yelp Seattle Eastside was able to bring in 194 pairs of socks for the shelter. Outside of providing tacos, quesadillas, burritos, AND margaritas… Ooba Tooba also generously matched the Yelper’s donations, bringing the count to 388 pairs of socks in just two hours. The raffle prize winner went home with a gift basket with goodies from Woods Coffee valued at $100.
The next event in the Yelp’s Giving Season series was hosted at Serial in Bellevue. Yelp Seattle Eastside partnered up with Forever Home Dog Rescue for a dog food drive. The Elites and their guests brought in 14 units of food, two toys, treats, and over two hundred dollars in cash to the organization. The raffle prize winner went home with two bottles of wine and two wine glasses from Three of Cups Winery.
Breaking the trend of Elite-only events during Yelp’s Giving Season, the third event was a food drive open to everyone in the Yelp community at Metier Brewing Co. The first twenty to show up and donate were given a drink ticket for a free beer, and entered into a raffle to win two tickets to board Argosy Cruises Stay and Play Locks Cruise. The food drive ended up bringing in 97 lbs of food and $30 to benefit Hopelink.
The second to last Yelp’s Giving Season event took place at FogRose Atelier in Bellevue. Yelp Seattle Eastside partnered with MEOW Cat Rescue to bring in food for the cats and kittens at their shelter. The raffle winner won a date night package containing two movie tickets and a $50 gift card to Agave Cocina courtesy of Grand Ridge Plaza. That evening, the Yelpers and their guests managed to bring in 20 cans of wet cat food, two large bags of dry food, and $68 in cash.
Saving the best (and favorite) Yelp’s Giving Season event of the year for last, Yelp Seattle Eastside partnered up with Matthews Winery to host a holiday shindig and toy drive to benefit Toys for Tots. Elites and their guests brought in 74 toys and over $70 for the organization. This event featured several raffle prizes for winners, including a Duke’s Chowder House cookbook, gift card to Matthews Winery, and a gift card to Boiling Point.
A huge thank you goes out to all of our Elites and their guests for coming together to give back so generously to our community. We also couldn’t have done this amazing event series without our donation partners, event partners, and the organizations for sending representatives to educate our Yelpers about how they’re making a difference in the Eastside.
We can’t wait for the 2020 Yelp’s Giving Season!
