Get Your Tickets Now for our Biggest Event of the Year

Blue Jean Ball Auction Sneak Peek

Have you purchased your tickets yet? If you've been to our annual Blue Jean Ball then you know how much fun it is! We do it big for a small nonprofit:  we start with an Italian Buffet Style dinner, plenty of wine and beer on tap while you peruse the Silent Auction and Raffle tables.

Don't forget to buy a cork for the Wine Pull so you can have a bottle to take home. Will you be lucky one to win the $200 bottle of Adrice 2020 Carpe Diem Cabernet Sauvignon?

Our Buy it Now Corner is filled with gift cards and certificates to some fabulous restaurants and stores. Its a great opportunity to try a new place or go with an old favorite. Either way you are helping to feed children and elderly in need.

Then its Bingo Time! Back by popular demand are a few bingo games with great prizes and the bingo blackout finale of a 50/50 split. So fun!

Come in denim or bling or both. We can't wait for you to join us!

This year's auction items are above and beyond! We know you want a sneak peek...follow us on our Facebook page or Instagram to see all we post. Here is just a teaser:  A Luxurious 7 Day Cruise for Two on Holland America, an overnight stay and dinner at Tulalip Casino Resort or Suquamish Clearwater Casino Resort on the Olympic Peninsula, a fabulous multi course dinner and wine pairing for 4 at Travolata and much, much more.

Your admission price includes an Italian dinner, 2 drink tickets (Beer, wine or non alcoholic) and bingo.

With your support, Operation Sky Valley will be able to continue to provide thousands of meals for those in need.

Scavenger Hunts by Let's Roam

Looking for something fun to do with your kids this summer? Let’s Roam’s scavenger hunts are fun for the whole family. Let’s Roam offers 9 different scavenger hunts in the Seattle area. Pick a theme or pick a location and go have fun!

https://www.letsroam.com

Operation Sky Valley Awarded a Candid Gold Seal of Transparency

Operation Sky Valley has earned the prestigious Candid Gold Seal of Transparency 2023 on GuideStar!

Guidestar is the premier destination for nonprofits and nonprofit research. Guidestar gathers and verifies information on more than 1.8 million IRS recognized tax exempt organizations and thousands of faith based nonprofits. This critical information is used by foundations and grant makers all over the world to determine which nonprofits they will provide funding to.

“Nonprofit profiles help the sector take a leap forward from data and information about charities to powerful knowledge and insight to help us make informed decisions.”-Victoria Vrana, Senior Program Officer, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

*Source GuideStar

Everything is Going Up in Price

What incredibly unstable financial times we are living in. It seems everywhere you turn right now prices have gone up and quality and quantity have gone down. They have clever names for it: stagflation, shrinkflation and backwardation to name a few. The bottom line though is that nearly everything we buy or rent is more expensive than it used to be.

This past year for Operation Sky Valley we have directly experienced a 25% increase in our facility rent, increased gas prices, our insurance has gone up, van repairs and new tires have been more expensive than ever, garbage service prices has increased, some of our food purchases have nearly doubled in cost (these past few years) and all food products have increased in general.

We held off increasing the price of Child Sponsorship despite these financial hits as long as we reasonably could. In fact, we have never increased the cost of sponsorship since the program’s inception in 2019. Starting April 1st our new sponsorship cost per child is increasing to $48 per month. If you are currently sponsoring a child, your price will not increase unless you choose to sponsor a different child or add more children.

Despite these increases in prices, we remain committed to providing supplemental food to children and elderly in need, in our effort to eradicate hunger and as we have done since 2009. We thank you for your continued support.

Keeping the Community Fed

Operation Sky Valley’s programs are keeping community fed | The Snohomish County Tribune newspapers

Check out this article about Operation Sky Valley and the programs we offer to those in need. We’ve been feeding for 13 years this year and much has changed since we started…high inflation, food insecurity has risen due to cost and availability and many families have been under tremendous stress these past few years. Read about what we are doing to help alleviate some of these situations.

Look What You've Done

Thanks to our donors and volunteers, we were able to make the holidays brighter for over 400 children and seniors this holiday season!

Its No Small Feat Providing for Over 400 People

Our volunteers went all out in December to provide gifts and food to over 400 children and elderly in need. Countless hours were spent gathering, sorting, assembling and delivering joy to those we serve from Monroe to Othello and several towns in between:

 Monroe-provided excess, close to expiration food to another outreach program.

 Sultan-Operation Full Bellies children and seniors received special food donations as well as jumbo sized gift bags filled with toys, presents, treats and personal items.

 Supporting those who go out of their way to support us; we also filled and delivered these jumbo bags to the teens at the Sky Valley Youth Coalition VOA.

 Gold Bar-Partnering with Mountain Valley Chapel we helped to provide Christmas to over 100 children in need in town-toys, new pajamas, slippers, blankets and even household gifts for their families.

 Skykomish-Joining up once again with Skykomish Food Harvest we helped to provide Christmas to the children up there. New toys, stockings and teen gifts were shared with nearly 100 children in the Upper Valley.

 Wenatchee-Teaming up with a program that helps families transition from homelessness to housing we were able to provide new household items and toys to their children and families.

 Othello-Assisting our outreach partner, Agape Food Ministries; we provided the ability for them to reach out to an additional 100 children with a new toy this Christmas and special treats for the 100 low income preschoolers we feed year round.

 We would like to offer a special thank you to our generous donor stores who allowed us to bless so many this Christmas: Les Schwab, Costco, Walmart and Grocery Outlet.

 Thank you also to those of you who were able to help us with special Operation Santa offerings to fill in the gift gaps.

 Happy New Year to you All! We are looking forward to serving those in need, as we have since 2009!

What is Operation Team Up?

Operation Team Up was created in 2009 with the belief that we are stronger together. Alone we can do some things but when the best of us is partnered with the best of someone else we can do much more. We brought this philosophy to our outreach programs and have created strong and enduring partnerships to benefit those we serve.

Our most recent Operation Team Up outreach has been in the month of August, our annual Back to School events. In the months prior we take an inventory of what we have received as donations and seek our partners for this school year’s events. This year we chose to support:

• Mountain Valley Chapel in Gold Bar-we provided their annual Back to School Fair with new socks, underwear and shoes for the 110 children who came to their event. We were also able to provide them with a ton of school supplies to share out, with the remaining supplies being donated to Gold Bar Elementary.

• Mountainview Christian Fellowship in Sultan-we were able to bless them with 350 kits of supplies and extra school items for the children of Sultan.

• CedarWood International of Mountlake Terrace-we provided them with new socks, underwear, and shoes for their Back to School event at their free Clothing Bank. To the delight of their clients we also shared with them bags full of new insulated lunch boxes.

• Agape Ministries in Othello-is receiving a load of school supplies for their middle and high schools students.

We want to thank our generous donors who make this possible: Walmart, Costco, Good 360, Old Navy, BECU and Housing Hope.

The Devastating Cycle of Food Insecurity

Washington residents continue to experience a dramatically higher level of food insecurity — from 10% before the COVID-19 pandemic to 27%, according to the latest University of Washington and Washington State University research on food insecurity and food assistance in the state.

https://www.washington.edu/.../food-insecurity-remains.../

Its Nearly Time For Our Annual Auction

Saturday November 12th is the date for our annual night of fun. Mark your calendar as committed to join us at this year’s Blue Jean Ball Fundraiser. Just like last year; the evening will be filled with good food, wine, a few games of bingo, a fabulous silent auction and fun raffles.

We are working hard already to make this event even better than last year’s. So start thinking about everyone you want to invite and we will work on the details. Send us your email and we will get you on the “In the Know” list and notify you when tickets are on sale…Events@operationskyvalley.org.

https://operationskyvalley.betterworld.org/events/blue-jean-ball-auction-dinner