It started in 1999 on Thanksgiving Day in the Eastlake neighborhood of Seattle. Patti Dunn and Michael Grabham were new to Seattle and realized they had made a bit too much food for themselves. Patti had the idea to package up the…

For the next several years, from  2000-2006, Survive the Streets became a tradition for their families and friends. They would raise money, make extra turkey dinners, and purchase gear such as sleeping bags, hats, gloves, coats, backpacks, and…

In 2007, they had filled two vans full of gear and it was then they realized they had to make this project a bigger event!

They contacted Tim Harris, the executive director at Real Change,  in 2008 and asked him if he would like to help make Survive the Streets a bigger and more successful event. Partnering with Real Change was a great fit because Michael…

Here is our first news article in 2009 by the Seattle Times

In 2010, they came up with an idea to actually change the Real Change offices into a “Survival Gear Store” on Thanksgiving Day. They set up racks for coats, a boot/shoe room, a sleeping bag department, bins for hats,…

See the story about the 2011 event by KOMO 4 News

Survive the Streets became even more of a community event in 2012. Local schools and businesses hopped on board and organized “Gear Drives” to collect goods to be distributed on Thanksgiving Day. Thanks to Trident Seafood, it was the…

2013 you can go to see our latest video and support our mission of building our giving platform

2014 we continue to grow our user base and now that we are finally an approved 501(c)3 we can partner with corporations to help more people.

2017 we continue to expand and have added an annual FUNdraiser each year during the first few weeks of November.