WestSide Baby gets boost as ‘Guys Night Out’ crowd has a blast
(Added Sunday morning update – fundraising total at the end!)
WestSide Baby is all about families – so celebrating dads (and other XY-chromosome types) was a natural for tonight’s first-of-its-kind Guys’ Night Out. Above, that’s WestSide Baby’s Nancy Woodland with Kemp Garcia, who came up with the Guys’ Night Out WS Baby benefit idea, and Gerard Denommee.
Poker and pool were part of the plan for tonight’s event at the White Center Eagles‘ HQ. P.S. Mark your calendar for WestSide Baby’s biggest event of the summer – next month already – the legendary Stuff the Bus Diaper Drive (with WSB among the co-sponsors), coming up Sunday, July 25. SUNDAY MORNING UPDATE: Nancy sends word that Guys’ Night Out raised $7,000!
West Seattle scene: Underground birthday tour at Lowman Beach
Our full story on today’s daylong briefing/tour event regarding sewer-overflow control proposals at Lowman Beach is still in the works. But while we were waiting for our turn on the tour at Lowman’s Murray Pump Station – a surprise scene. These boys came over and asked if they could see – one of them was celebrating his birthday. Adult permission, and county permission, was secured, and down they went.
(Our tour photos, and the rest of the story from today’s “technical information session,” still to come; the tour went on to Alki for a look at the newly expanded 53rd Avenue Pump Station, too.)
Are students under too much pressure? West Seattleites discuss
Story and photo by Evan Miglorie
Reporting for West Seattle Blog
More than 200 people gathered in the West Seattle High School theater last night to watch – and talk about – “Race to Nowhere,” a documentary that sets out to examine what it warns is “the dark side of America’s achievement culture.”
The night began with an introduction delivered in person by the film’s director, Vicki Abeles. Her film interviews five several students on their experience with the intense pressures of our education system. Teachers were also interviewed, contending that modern educational systems place too much emphasis on memorization for tests, rather than actual learning. Another main concern voiced by parents, teachers, and psychologists was the unyielding pressure to perform. The impacts of this come at a high cost, they warn – drugs, cheating and even suicide can result from too much pressure put on young students.
So what do local students think? Some spoke out right after the film.Read More
Junction Plaza Park: Who’ll be at the June 29 dedication
<(From left, Sharon, Marcie, Marie, Jane, Kyle and Joan from West Seattle’s Endolyne Garden Club last Saturday)
One week after the sun-splashed planting party in which volunteers like the group above helped place 1,000 native plants at Junction Plaza Park, the city has sent out another reminder (see it here) that the park dedication (first announced last month) is coming up in 10 days – 5:30 pm June 29th, one week from Tuesday. Beyond the basics in the announcement, we asked the Parks Department if there’s word yet on who will join in the dedication event, along with the West Seattleites who have worked so hard (like the planting volunteers!) to make it reality. Here’s the plan so far, according to Parks’ Karen O’Connor: The city will be represented by Councilmember Sally Bagshaw, who chairs the Parks and Seattle Center Committee, and Deputy Parks Superintendent Eric Friedli; the music they’re promising will be provided by popular Seattle violinist Pasquale Santos. Friends of Junction Plaza Park hopes the weeknight evening scheduling means more people can come celebrate the long-awaited completion of the park (northwest corner of 42nd/Alaska).
(Photo credits: Top, courtesy Endolyne Garden Club; bottom, WSB photo taken last Sunday)
West Seattle Bookshelf: Reading for a rainy day, perhaps?
Lists courtesy of Square One Books
When we published last week’s WS Bookshelf, we were talking about hammock/lounge-chair reading … OK, today, it’s rainy-day reading! Every week, courtesy of Gretchen Montgomery @ Square One Books (WSB sponsor), we bring you her independent West Seattle bookstore’s 5 best-sellers in each of 4 key categories:
Hardcover:
1. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest by Stieg Larsson
2. Medium Raw by Anthony Bourdain
3. The Lonely Polygamist by Brady Udall
4. Priceless by Robert K. Wittman
5. Bike Snob by Bikesnobnyc
Paperback:
1. Angel’s Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
2. Manhood For Amateurs: The Pleasures and Regrets of a Husband, Father, and Son by Michael Chabon
3. The Last Child by John Hart
4. The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt by T.J. Stiles
5. Await Your Reply by Dan Chaon
Children/Young Adult:
1. City Dog, Country Dog by Mo Williams
2. Big Nate in a Class by Himself by Lincoln Pierce
3. The Red Pyramid Book 1 by Rick Riordan
4. Avalon Series/The Warlock Diaries by Rachel Roberts
5. Casper Babypants CDs by Chris Ballew
Teen:
1. Whisper by Phoebe Kitanidis
2. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
3. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
4. The Body Finder by Kimberly Derting
5. The Cirque du Freak Series by Darren Shan
And a reminder that Square One is presenting a reading with two authors this week – featured in the teen list this week! – Thursday 6/24 – Phoebe Kitanidis, author of “Whisper” and Kimberly Derting, author of “The Body Finder,” will be at the Southwest Branch Library, 6:30-7:45 pm, to read, answer questions, and autograph; Square One will be selling copies of both books at the reading.
School’s almost out: West Seattle students’ Friday fun (in the sun)
Tuesday is the final day of classes for Seattle Public Schools, and you can probably remember what it was like to try to get through those final few days till summer break – never mind the fact that, so far as we can remember, summer break used to arrive a lot earlier than it does now (at least where we grew up, elsewhere in the West). It’s a tradition for many schools to celebrate the year’s successes with special activities – and we received a few from two of the schools doing so yesterday – Top photo and next one are from Alki Elementary School‘s Razzle-Dazzle Day, courtesy of Nancy Woodland from WestSide Baby (which is sponsoring Guys’ Night Out 5 pm @ White Center Eagles tonight, don’t forget – sign up here!). Though we don’t have a photo, she says the principal even got dunked!
And at Lafayette Elementary School in the Admiral District, Friday was Field Day – Luckie shared the next two photos, explaining that the activities included hands-on sustainability adventures, like working with a worm bin:
Plus the more traditional goofy fun – water polo with spray bottles and a wading pool:
Here’s the calendar for next school year – note the early start date for West Seattle Elementary.
Also today: Murray/Lowman CSO info; School Board chat; more
Along with the Delridge alley cleanup noted earlier, lots more going on today. If you click here, you’ll jump directly to the Saturday section of the West Seattle Weekend Lineup. Lots of fun stuff as always, but also some serious business – For those interested in King County’s process of determining how to control “combined sewer overflows” (CSO) at Lowman Beach’s Murray Pump Station north of Lincoln Park, today is the all-day “technical information session” intended to get information to concerned neighbors who wanted more information on how the county chose the three options it’s looking at. The agenda and packed materials are linked here – note that the meeting starts at 9:30 am, later than the original announcement, at Gatewood Elementary. Also this morning, Seattle School Board rep Steve Sundquist’s final community chat before the school year ends, 11 am at High Point Library. Plus a late add to the calendar: Noon at High Point Neighborhood House, “Supper with Stories” – potluck to meet neighbors, tell your story, build community. Again – today’s full list is here.
In North Delridge today: Alley cleanup continues
You’ve probably heard of Adopt-A-Street; in North Delridge, a project under way could be dubbed Adopt-An-Alley. Neighbors have been working to clean up the alley behind Delridge Library, thinking that, among other potential benefits, if it doesn’t look like a dumping ground, it’ll stop being used as one. So they’re gathering again today, 11 am-1 pm, to remove more garbage and dig out blackberry stumps to keep them from growing back. They’ve procured bags and gloves from the Adopt-A-Street program and are planning to check out some tools from the new West Seattle Tool Library (which is open Saturdays 9 am-2 pm, more info here). Karrie Kohlhaas‘s announcement notes:
Last weekend some neighborhood kids came through on their bikes and helped out, learned about what we were doing…several people thanked us, one man said now it will be safe for his son to walk through the alley to the library, another person said they wanted to do this for so long but couldn’t do it alone…We can get it
done together. Join us!
The alley is between 25th SW and Delridge, between Brandon and Findlay (map). If you have your own gloves, shovel and/or dirt-loosening tool, bring it along.
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