Submitted by Stacee Sledge for Hartley Jewelers
Hartley Jewelers regularly donates stunning jewelry pieces to nonprofit organizations to help raise money for causes that are important to the store’s owners and employees.
“The community has supported this business for 50 years,” says Hartley Jewelers co-owner Linda Hartley. “And donating to several local groups every year is one of the ways we like to give back.”
The hard part for Hartley is being unable to say yes to every request. “I have a real soft spot for children, seniors, veterans and the disabled,” she says. “I wish I could contribute to all of them every time, but we can only do a certain amount every year. We do what we can.”
The store regularly contributes to the Providence St. Peter Foundation Christmas Forest, Zonta Club of Olympia and United Way of Thurston County.
This year, as they’ve done in the past, Hartley Jewelers is donating a beautiful pendant to be auctioned off at the Hand’s On Children’s Museum annual Summer Splash! Gala.
The sterling silver pendant depicts waves of Larimar stone below clouds of white sapphires. Larimar – an extremely rare blue variety of pectolite – is mined in only one place on earth: a relatively inaccessible, rain forest-protected mountainside in the Dominican Republic, near the city of Barahona, overlooking the Caribbean Sea.
This piece comes from MarahLago, a company with the nicest quality Larimar work Hartley Jewelers has seen.
“When you look into the piece, it’s very much like looking into a nice, bright blue sea,” says Hartley. “It’s very nautical-feeling.”
The $1,500 pendant will be auctioned off at the Summer Splash! Gala, set for August 25th at the Hand’s On Children’s Museum, the last in a series of summer-long events that are part of the Hands On Summer Splash! Summer Festival of Fun.
All auction proceeds will benefit the museum’s Free and Reduced-Fee Admissions Program, including award-winning educational programs for families.
“Hartley Jewelers regularly donates a piece that we feature in our silent auction as part of our Summer Gala,” says Amy Brockman of the Hands On Children’s Museum. “We’re very appreciative of their ongoing support.”
The museum serves just over 300,000 people annually, though Brockman notes that they’re projecting as many as 25,000 additional visitors this year.
“Last year, we served 303,000 visitors, and over 100,000 of those were somehow subsidized through our Free and Reduced-Fee Admissions Program,” says Brockman.
This year marks the second annual Summer Splash Summer Festival of Fun, which replaced the long-running Sand in the City event – a popular street fair that ran for 15 years.
“The street fair was a great success story, but it was taking us away from the mission of the museum,” says Brockman, “so we transitioned to Summer Splash, which creates more in-depth, quality experiences for families using our new space and our half-acre Discovery Center.”
Indoor and outdoor stages at the museum are home to special headliners throughout the summer, aligned with different themes. June saw the Fire Rescue Spectacular, in partnership with the Olympia Fire Department, while July has Super Heroes and Stunts. August’s theme is Stars, S’mores and the Great Campout.
“There’s learning happening every day in the museum and that certainly helps mitigate the learning loss that can occur over summer breaks from school,” says Brockman.
Linda Hartley knows first-hand the benefits of the Hands On Children’s Museum to its many visitors.
“When my granddaughters come back to visit, I get them an annual membership for the one month they’re here,” she says. “It’s the best children’s museum I’ve ever seen, by far, and it’s very near and dear to our hearts.”
Hartley has been to the museum and seen groups of disabled youngsters enjoying their time in the spectacular space. “It was amazing to watch how much fun those groups were having. It felt really good to see our donation at work.”
