Baking treats and collecting socks for the homeless

Island resident has a ‘caring soul’

By Andy Nystrom • November 6, 2020 10:30 am

Geri Alhadeff’s passion for giving is growing.

The longtime Mercer Island resident and community volunteer has been giving her oven a steady workout the last few months by baking 80-100 desserts every other week for homeless people in Seattle through the Operation Nightwatch nonprofit organization. When two of her friends learned about what she was doing, they were inspired to put a similar plan on their plate.

When Alhadeff found out about Operation Nightwatch’s sock drive for the homeless, she put both feet forward and apprised her family and friends through Facebook and an email that she would be collecting socks. People came through in a massive way by delivering socks through Amazon and dropping them off in a box on her porch.

Alhadeff thought she’d get 100 pairs. She got 399 pairs.

“Everybody was just wonderful the way they responded,” she said of the donations she received during the six-week collection period. She’ll deliver the socks later this month and will help Operation Nightwatch volunteers prepare the socks to be distributed to those in need.

“She has a vast network of friends, young and old, who always ask her for advice. And she always has time to listen — really listen. She just has a very good and caring soul,” said her husband Jack. The couple has lived in the same Island house for 42 years and will mark their 49th wedding anniversary in March.

After Geri, 71, stopped working at the age of 50, she couldn’t stay idle for long. She logged copious volunteer hours at the Island’s Youth and Family Services (YFS) food pantry over the years until the building closed in March when COVID hit.

“I was frustrated because I found that my passion was to help people that didn’t have money to buy enough food and clothing,” said Geri, who volunteered with Northwest Harvest and then hooked up again with Operation Nightwatch, where she and some of her family members and friends banded together to cook and serve dinner for 75-100 homeless people once a month prior to the pandemic.

Since September, Geri has baked brownies, cakes and cookies at home and delivered the treats to Operation Nightwatch. She pulls her vehicle up to the building, pops open her trunk and her creations are ready to be taken to their destination by volunteers.

“I think they’re thrilled. The staff is happy that we’re doing this. I get comments, ‘Oh, this smells delicious, they’re gonna love it,’” she said.

Years ago after watching a television special about a fifth-grader who made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for the homeless, Geri and some of her friends followed the youngster’s lead and made sandwiches and delivered them to homeless people in Seattle. A pair of local QFC managers helped them with funding for their cause then, and they did so again with Geri’s recent Operation Nightwatch deed.

Geri looks back at when she first began volunteering for YFS and knew it was something she had to do.

“I needed to feel like I was doing something important for somebody other than my family. The passion just grew more and more when I volunteered at YFS,” she said. “It got to my heart.”