Happening now: Arbor Heights Elementary holiday bazaar

That’s Kelsey, who’s selling her glass ornaments at the holiday bazaar that’s under way till 8 pm tonight at Arbor Heights Elementary – and modeling the new fashion statement that you’ve seen in our photos from meetings in the past few weeks, with AH fighting a district proposal to close its “program” and relocate Pathfinder K-8 to the AH building. But this bazaar has been in the works a long time, long before the closure proposal started drawing on the community’s time and energy, and it’s a biggie – this is just one of two jampacked rooms full of merchandise, activities, and treats:

Some of the merchandise is kid-made, like Kelsey’s very professional painted-glass ornaments, but there are adult vendors here too – we were especially enchanted by these “presents” that are really crystal-clear sculpted plastic with lights inside:

Some whimsy, too – at this table, the “fish soap” looks from a distance like those little plastic bags of goldfish in water that we all brought home from carnivals a hundred years ago:

Again, the bazaar’s on till 8 o’clock tonight; if you live in north West Seattle, you may not even have been to Arbor Heights before (we lived on Beach Drive our first 2 years in WS and hadn’t ventured south of California/Fauntleroy till we were house-shopping!), but it’s worth the trip (here’s a map) – check the view we got after parking our car before walking to the bazaar pre-sunset:

Other schools’ holiday events are on our Holiday Happenings calendar (tomorrow night, for example, Lafayette Elementary has a craft fair, and everyone’s invited!).

3 Replies to "Happening now: Arbor Heights Elementary holiday bazaar"

  • ToddinWestwood December 5, 2008 (12:48 am)

    I cant even tell you the amount of hours we spend at that play field riding bikes, scooters , or just playing on the equipment, getting our 5 y.o. ready to go to kindergarten there next year.
    A.H. was her and our first choice for next year.

    What can I do to help?

  • WSB December 5, 2008 (2:00 am)

    Be sure to keep an eye out on the Save Arbor Heights blog site:
    http://savearborheights.com

    Reminds me, I need to add it to the Blogs page for the duration.

  • Sally Crouch December 8, 2008 (11:30 am)

    As an Arbor Heights resident for most of my life (currently 35 yrs in the same house), I am vigorously opposed to closure of AH. Both my sons attended the school, then were captured in the busing/desegregation years: One son adopted the “white flight syndrome” and moved to Mercer Island to live with his father, the other graduated from Rainier Beach H.S. I was not opposed to the busing program, and worked as Project Assistant for four years in the SPS Grants office developing the proposals for federal funding.

    Enough of background. The result of the program was not good for our Arbor Heights Community. The long term friendships from Kindergarten became non-existent due to time and contact constraints. Friendships formed at my sons’ new neighborhood schools were tenuous, at best.

    During the last five+ years, my immediate neighborhood area is finally evolving to one that includes young families. There is no doubt that many of the homeowners’ decisions to move here have been governed by the excellent education available at Arbor Heights, as well as the low crime rate. During this time of instability in our country, it would be unnecessarily unfair to disrupt the parents’ chosen location(s) by exposing their kids to change. That same argument should also apply to the Pathfinder K-8 children.

    I reiterate: I am vigorously opposed to the school closure!

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