SEATTLE — At London Bridge Studio, in the same room where Pearl Jam recorded "Ten" and Soundgarden made "Louder Than Love," musicians, promoters and managers -- all part of Seattle's close-knit music scene-- compile care packages for the city's homeless. They're all part of The Pac NW Care Package Group.
"I live downtown and I have watched how the homeless community has grown," said vocalist and NW Folklife Festival organizer Michelle Searle, "and it's exponential."
Searle and manager Mackenzie McAnnich started the group in 2017, raising enough money to hand out a hundred packets the first year. This time they'll deliver 10 times that number.
"I get to sleep in a nice warm dry place every day and when I drive around the streets of Seattle I see a lot of people that don't have that," said McAnnich. "And I fell like how can I contribute, how can I help these folks?"
The answer: by hitting the streets. Searle and first-timer Emika Wong have picked a rainy Sunday in Ballard to hand out supplies.
"There's hats, gloves, socks, hand warmers, lip balm, toothpaste, toothbrush, some tissues and a sheet with updated resources," Searle said.
"It's something so simple but it's like a blessing," said one woman who's staying in a tent on Leary Way. "It's a gift."
Outside the Ballard library where, a week earlier, a homeless man died in his unheated van, Searle and Wong are able to hand out a couple of care packages.
"I think the biggest thing that I've learned through this is they're human beings," Searle said. "We don't know what their experience in life is like and it's really important not to take it personally if they don't want something from us."
Sometimes it's just a matter of leaving a care package outside a tent. Sometimes it's much more. Wong handed a care package to a woman named Kira.
"Things like this allow me to have hope," she said. "So that's a big one. That's everything isn't it?"
"We are not naïve," McAnnich said. "We understand that this isn't going to solve the homeless problem, like we understand that."
But an act of kindness is a touch of warmth on even the coldest Seattle days.
"This makes me feel really good knowing that I made their day and that I made a difference," Wong said.
"So this is Emika's first year this year," said Searle. "She'll be back every year."
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