History Lesson

Written by: Bobi Atlee, May 2009

Parrot Heads of Puget Sound (Web Foot Children in the Rain)

The Parrot Heads of Puget Sound (PHoPS) was founded in 1995 and we are a sanctioned chapter in good standing with Parrot Heads in Paradise. We have grown to over 200 members today! The board meets monthly and all members are invited to attend. We typically have 10-15 people in attendance. We have two biz meetings a year; one in February when we hold elections, and one in September.

Our club encompasses the Puget Sound region as far north as Everett, as far south as Olympia, and west to Bremerton. We also have some members as far east as Spokane.

All of our events and parties are held for the benefit of local and some national charities. We also support our friends in other states, soldiers fighting overseas, and we help other Parrot Head Clubs with their events such as Phins to the West, Stars Fell on Alabama, and PHiP’s Meeting of the Minds.

We have hosted many of the top trop rock musicians at our club events and house concerts. Including, but not limited to – Gene Mitchell, Jim Morris, Sunny Jim White, Eric Stone, Mark Mulligan, Gary Seiler, Jerry Gontang, Don Middlebrook, Joe Bennett, Larry Joe Taylor, Bob Karwin, Kelly McGuire, Rob Mehl, Scott Kirby, Brent Burns, Hugo Duarte, Fingers Taylor, John Reno, Scotty Bryan, and Jim Hoehn. We are very lucky to have some talented members who play around town – Dave Calhoun, Ian Dobson, and the Drunken Monkeys.

We also donated money towards a Trop Rock Artist Award hosted by the Margarita M.A.F.I.A for their first Annual Trop Rock awards.
We raised approximately $12,000 in 2008 and so far in this year (January – May), we have raised over $10, 000 for charities (some are described below).

Here are some of the things we’ve done recently and a few more things on the horizon for this year (2009).

At our 2008 Christmas party, we donated toys, blankets, bikes, and clothing for local needy families with kids. Our own Seattle Seafair Pirates arrived with great fanfare and gathered the booty for their Treasure Chest charity that provides meals and gifts for over 300 local families at Christmas.

Not to forget our furry friends – the club gathered blankets, towels, food, and toys for the animal shelter in Cabo San Lucas. Two of our lucky members hand-delivered the items on their vacation earlier this year. We have also supported our local PAWS center and Wolf Haven (provides a home for wolves and coyotes that can no longer live in the wild).

In February, we hosted a charity dinner for one of our own club members who was recently diagnosed with breast cancer. Gene Mitchell, Hugo Duarte, and several local trop-rock singer/songwriters, entertained us. We raised $8,000 for our phriend in need!

At our March Freaky Tiki Friday phlocking, we raised enough money to send 54 boxes of Girl Scout cookies to the troops in Iraq.

Also in March, we had a house concert featuring Stars on the Water and we collected a carload (trunk and back seat) of food plus $160 cash that we donated to City of SeaTac food bank.

One of our members is a horse lover so the club has been involved with several fundraisers benefiting the S.A.F.E. (Save a Forgotten Equine) program, which finds homes and owners for unwanted horses.

We had three teams bowl in the Sleep Country Foster Kids Pajama Bowling event on April 19 and donated over $800 to help local foster kids.

In June, we have a team of walkers for the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure and in September, we will have walkers for the 60 Mile 3-Day Breast Cancer Walk.  PHoPS sets up our portable Tiki Bar to serve “gatoritas” to the walkers on all three days and serves as an official cheering station. We have one member signed up to run in the marathon benefiting the Leukemia/Lymphoma Society on June 27.

We host two big summer events. One is our Tin Cup Chalice Golf Tournament on July 10. This year Jim Morris will be our entertainer and the charity is the Pediatric Interim Care Center (helps babies born to drug-addicted moms). Then on July 17, we have our 7th annual Laid Back Attack at the Kingston Yacht Club. Brent Burns and Jim Morris are our featured entertainers. The charities for that party are the Kiwanis International Scholarship Foundation of Greater Kingston and the Alzheimer’s Association of Western and Central Washington.

We also do our share of manual labor! In the last few years, we’ve planted trees, pulled weeds, and have done general park clean up in several Puget Sound parks. In January of this year, over 15 members helped prepare dinner for a men’s shelter in downtown Seattle. Later this summer we plan to paint a house for one of our neighbors in Tacoma.

Other charities that we’ve helped are: Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Helping Hands, Cocoon House, Tree House, and Fallen Police Officers.

All in all, we have a very active and generous club!

Thank you for the opportunity to share our story.

The Parrot Heads of Puget Sound is an IRS 501c3 charitable organization.

Northwest Latitudes, Laid-Back Attitudes