Did you know Mighty-O Donuts donates boxes of goodies to Seattle Children’s Hospital for patients and their families every Wednesday? Well they do, and they rely on community volunteers to make the deliveries. I’m guessing the deliveries are normally done by car-driving volunteers (the instructions mention driving and parking lots), but both Mighty-O (member of Bicycle Benefits) and Children’s (partner of Seattle Neighborhood Greenways with their own Livable Streets page and $500K grant to soon-to-be Puget Sound Bike Share for helmet vending machines) love bikes.
Here are the goods when we picked them up:
But it was raining so I had to hide them in a big blue Ikea bag:
The only bummer was the boxes were so big, I had to break down our new 12th MAN flags to make room. Next time I’ll bring a firm box-footprint-sized platform and hopefully find a slightly bigger cargo net so the bottom box doesn’t bend (it just bent a little bit). Behold our 12th MAN flags in all their glory as we checked out the custom Rodriguez Seahawks bike at R+E Cycles on Tuesday:
We’ve never biked to Children’s Hospital, but the green directional sign from the Burke-Gilman Trail is easy to spot. Unfortunately, my Bike Maps app hasn’t been finding addresses lately, but I figured I’d be able to follow signs the rest of the way there–plus it’s only 0.3 miles off the trail.
I was surprised that the route wasn’t marked. Fine when delivering doughnuts, but it would have been a bit stressful if we were there for anything more dire than doughnut drop-off. Once we made it to campus (after an unprotected crossing of a fast moving street and a little jog along the sidewalk to reach a stoplight) there was a nice green bike lane:
Fortunately we got to make the first right turn and didn’t have to go up the hill. Or would have, had I memorized the directions. So we explored up the hill and then back down the hill before heading to the River Entrance.
There were so many bikes at the racks!
We arrived at 8:30ish and several bikes rolled in while we were there. It must get completely packed by 9:00.
Our next doughnut delivery will probably not be on a school day. The kids weren’t so excited about having to take their complimentary deliverer donuts to go and the rush from home to doughnuts to hospital to preschool to elementary school. We don’t generally ride 14 miles first thing in the morning. With a midday meeting for me and after-school events for all of us, that made for a 31-mile day; 10 of those miles weren’t kidmiles, but all of them were rainy miles. Come to think of it, the rain didn’t start until I removed my rain jacket and Rainlegs on the way to Mighty-O so I’m directly responsible for the day’s horrid weather.
If you’re interested in taking part in the Seattle Children’s Family Resource Center Mighty-O Donuts delivery, see the Mighty-O Donuts Facebook page for signup information.
Family Ride 
Mmmm, donuts! I have to start scheduling our appointments for Wednesdays not fridays!
And you need to give me some route advice!
I was gonna type that you should have asked me for directions, but I didn’t want to make that nasty smidge of a hill an even more bitter experience for you!
I am impressed. at 8:30 I am still trying to get people to the breakfast table. Yesterday I used the lure of croissants to inspire dressing and hard pedaling, and we made it to Presse and to school on time, but that is an expensive way to motivate… (and then I broke the monkey light, so it was definitely an expensive trip to school, sigh).
We’re not usually so early and it’ll be even harder in the summer! Bummer about the MonkeyLectric :( I can totally see myself having the same result with one of those.
Very cool! Very generous of you to do this. Note that Children’s is actually helping facilitate a connection from Burke Gilman to their campus. Read more here: http://construction.seattlechildrens.org/livablestreets/
Thanks Brian. I linked to the Livable Streets page, but should have read it more closely and called out the great stuff happening soon! It’s already very impressive. I’d like to explore the surrounding areas on a sunny day. We’re fortunate to have the trail so close. We went to visit a friend at Harborview a while ago and it was such a long and uphill haul (yet also tons of bike racks and bikes!).
Maybe we can do a dual run in July, that would be fun! but then I’m pedaling to a donut place with a fasting kid… eh, on second thought…
Yes, donuts after! Or something at lower elevation after. Plus the donuts get picked up before 8am. Feel free to share route advice! Do you leave the Burke-Gilman Trail before the green directional sign?
We are usually required to be there before 8 am, so that part is easy, but its probably best for me and Ms. M to meet the donut delivery crew shortly before 9am, when she can eat. We’ll try to pull a shift before then and before my “frequent flyer parent” badge wears out in June (no security line, small favors of the status).
When we have biked, we followed the sign, and then went straight across 40th, switched to sidewalk at Sand Point, used the light/crosswalk, and then used a crosswalk to switch sides once on campus. Bike parking at the-building-formerly-known-as-Giraffe (River) was even nuttier before construction was done. All the racks were squished then – looks better now. Parking up by Ocean is pretty wide open, bike wise. Car wise, I always call it “Parents Parking poorly”, though maybe it should be “Stressed Parents Parking Poorly” to be fair!
Also, looks like if you need the ER, you should go down 40th until you reach SPWy, then use the new intersection improvements to get across there. Whew.
Very admirable work!
Thank you :)
I am signing up as a volunteer. I live very close to MO and am so glad to be able to do this. Thanks for sharing about it!
Great! I hope it doesn’t rain on your delivery day :)