Shoreline PTA Council 'speed-dates' its community partners

Scott Lingle (center), Center for Human Services
talks to PTA leaders

By Lisa Surowiec

On January 5, the Shoreline PTA Council held a Community Partners Meet and Greet for our PTA leaders to get to know some of our community partners.

We did something similar last year with a slightly different group of people at the table, and we decided to repeat the event. This year, rather than having the partners as a panel, we tried a "speed dating" scenario, with Presidents rotating to each organization for more personal connections.

Rob Beem, City of Shoreline
displays the map of Shoreline neighborhoods

The idea behind this event was to find common ground between our agencies. We would like to make our small community smaller, in that the more we can put faces to names and the more we understand our community resources, the better we can build bridges to support each other.

PTA Council and Community Partners
in face to face conversations

We are grateful to the following people for giving up their evening to help build those bridges:

• Center for Human Services -
•   Scott Lingle
•   Cathy Matson
•   Heather Banks
•   Paula Thomas
•   Rhoda Schlatter
• Hopelink – Kevin Osborn
• NUHSA /City of Shoreline Neighborhoods – Rob Beem
• Power of One – Karen Kessinger
• Shoreline Community Care – Bill Bear
• Shoreline-LFP Arts Council – Lorie Hoffman
• Shoreline Public Schools Foundation – Cindy Pridemore
• Shoreline School District Truancy Officer – Alison Wycoff

The Shoreline PTA Council is made up of a board and Presidents from all 16 Shoreline PTAs.