If you need a little shade while browsing the West Seattle Farmers’ Market till 2 pm today, check out the Kiwanis Club of West Seattle tent over on the east side, where we found Patricia, Bob, and Karl. And if you have any no-longer-needed eyeglasses around the house – the Kiwanis booth has a dropbox. Another market sighting today: Don’t know if it’s their first week back, since this was our first visit in a few weeks, but Langley Fine Gardens from Vashon Island is back with a wide variety of plants, unusual flowers, and other ornamentals, as well as vegetable and herb plants. Before or after the market, wander over to Junction businesses (for food and drink, check out Junction-headquartered WSB sponsors Firefly Café and Creperie at California/Genesee – coupon! – plus Hotwire Online Coffeehouse on California a bit south of Genesee, and La Romanza Bistro Italiano – on California midblock south of Oregon)

The volunteer power helping with last night’s free Seattle Symphony concert at Chief Sealth International High School included members of the Key Club at Sealth. Second from right in the back row is Shari Sewell from the Kiwanis Club of West Seattle, which presented the concert; Key Club members’ responsibilities last night included assisting concert guests by distributing programs. They’re busy year-round with numerous service projects.

(Photo by Nick Adams for WSB, added 8:41 am: Brian Riggs, right, making pancakes)
ORIGINAL 7 AM REPORT: Don’t cook breakfast this morning – let the Kiwanis Club of West Seattle cook it for you! Their annual Community Pancake Breakfast is set to start right about now – 7 am till 11 am, at the Masonic Hall in The Junction (40th and Edmunds, plenty of parking). You’ll see Santa Claus there, as well as dozens of volunteers, and even West Seattle Hi-Yu Festival Junior Court royalty. In addition to the low, nonprofit-benefiting admission price ($7 adults, $3 kids, if you don’t already have an advance ticket), they’re also collecting new, unwrapped toys for Toys for Tots. More photos later!

ADDED 3:33 PM: The pancake breakfast drew a crowd – all morning long:

That’s Hi-Yu Junior Court Princess Emily Galvin talking with breakfasters about buying one of the Hi-Yu benefit blown-glass ornaments. As always, local Boy Scouts volunteered to help serve:

In a more serious moment, the Scouts gathered onstage for a big “thank you”:

Back to the pancakes:

5-year-old Everett Burdett particularly enjoyed his:

This morning also was a time to give:

Marine Cpl. Justin L. Knox, there for Toys for Tots, shook the hand of Andrew Archide, one of the breakfast attendees who brought a toy to donate. Speaking of toys … we haven’t yet mentioned the most famous toy giver of all:

Santa, of course, held court onstage – where, in our photo, he was joined by Karl de Jong from West Seattle Kiwanis, while the Hi-Yu Junior Court spoke. Kiwanis of Industrial Seattle was on hand too – Angelika Tam showed off a wreath:

This was the 66th annual Kiwanis Pancake Breakfast; its history is in this preview from last month.

(WSB photo: Stephanie Halcomb and Patricia Tempinski @ Kiwanis booth today)
Today and for the next two Sundays, while you’re buying fresh food at the West Seattle Farmers’ Market, you can buy something else that represents both a good deed and a good breakfast: The Kiwanis Club of West Seattle is boothing at the WSFM, selling tickets to their 66th annual Community Pancake Breakfast on December 1st (at the Masonic Hall, 40th/Edmunds). Only $6 adults, $3 kids – including a free photo with Santa! – and if you just can’t get to the Farmers’ Market, you can buy your tickets online at kiwaniswestseattle.org. Or call 206-938-8032. The adult price is a discount from what you’ll pay that morning at the door ($7). For the story behind the pancake breakfast – including what you get besides pancakes! – read on:Read More

(Photo courtesy Karl Sutter)
Kiwanis Club of West Seattle‘s Warren Lawless received a big honor from his club tonight – commemorating his half-century of involvement. The honor was bestowed tonight during the club’s installation banquet at the Duwamish Longhouse in West Seattle. Lawless, 94, has been a community and business leader for even longer; among his more recent awards is the West Seattle Chamber of Commerce‘s Community Service Award in 2008 (WSB coverage here).

Next year, Jack Menashe‘s Junction business, Menashe and Sons Jewelers (WSB sponsor), will mark 40 years in The Junction. Today, as he and his family accepted the “Everyday Hero” award from the Kiwanis Club of West Seattle, he said he’d learned a lot over the years, and that it’s been a remarkable experience. It hasn’t just been decades of business, but also decades of community support – his wife Linda Menashe described him as the most generous guy she’s ever known, with charity donations, youth-sports sponsorships, and gifts to schools (just last February, the Seattle Lutheran High School gym was formally christened the Menashe Family Gymnasium), as well as their legendary Christmas lights. Linda was there to join in today’s celebration, along with their daughter Joanna and visiting relative Paul from California:

The weekly Kiwanis lunch meeting at Be’s in The Junction, not far from the Menashes’ store, also heard a special presentation on salmon from 11-year-old Alex Lee:

Alex, photographed with the Kiwanis Club’s Dr. Steve Leifheit, is homeschooled but studied salmon through Roxhill Elementary School.

More big events ahead for the Kiwanis include their Charity Motorcycle Poker Run and Classic Car Show on June 23rd and participation in the Seafair Pirates’ Landing activities on July 7th; more info on their website at kiwaniswestseattle.org.

At the West Seattle Farmers’ Market today, the Kiwanis Club of West Seattle is back in its booth on the KeyBank side of the market site, getting the word out about two big things – first, the Eliminate Project:

With The Eliminate Project, Kiwanis International and UNICEF have joined forces to eliminate maternal and neonatal tetanus (MNT). This deadly disease steals the lives of nearly 60,000 innocent babies and a significant number of women each year. … To eliminate MNT from the Earth, more than 100 million mothers and their future babies must be immunized. This requires vaccines, syringes, safe storage, transportation, thousands of skilled staff and more. It will take $110 million – and the dedicated work of UNICEF and every member of the Kiwanis family.

Members of the West Seattle Kiwanis has pledged support for more than 600 vaccines and will be collecting contributions at the West Seattle Farmers Market to help get closer to the goal to eliminate maternal/neonatal tetanus.

And they’re also reminding you about their One-Day Food Drive next Saturday to benefit the West Seattle Food Bank – you’ll see Kiwanis and Key Club volunteers at grocery stores around the area 9 am-3 pm on April 21st, including WSB sponsors Metropolitan Market, PCC Natural Markets, and West Seattle Thriftway. Their announcement notes, “These activities are being held as part of Kiwanis ONE Day, a global volunteer action day uniting the entire Kiwanis family, including Kiwanis, Circle K, Key Club, Builder’s Club, Aktion Club, K-Kids and Kiwanis Junior.”

Not only was it a gorgeous day to wander neighborhoods and shop, it was a spectacular day for a ride – particularly if you were helping the Kiwanis Club of West Seattle raise money to benefit cancer research at Children’s Hospital. They gathered at midmorning at 40th/Alaska, to head out on a “poker run”:

The concept was explained in the preview we published – get a card at each checkpoint along the ride, then see what kind of hand you wound up with. The ride was followed by a barbecue, and as you know if you were out and about today, the sun shone all the way through!

Five West Seattle grocery stores, six hours, one day of service for the Kiwanis Club of West Seattle – tomorrow, 9 am-3 pm, Kiwanis and Key Club members will be collecting nonperishable food donations for the West Seattle Food Bank, outside Metropolitan Market and PCC West Seattle (both WSB sponsors) as well as West Seattle Thriftway, Junction QFC, and Jefferson Square Safeway. (And this is still that time of spring when donations to food banks count extra – as explained here.)

If you’re a home/property owner but haven’t looked your property up online lately – you might be surprised at some of the changes to the website overseen by the office of King County Assessor Lloyd Hara. That’s one of the things he brought up when he spoke to the Kiwanis Club of West Seattle during its breakfast meeting on Wednesday at Be’s Restaurant in The Junction.

When he took office after being elected in 2009, Hara said, he was the “fourth guy to hold the job in seven months.” He had two objectives – make the office more customer-friendly, and create more-efficient ways to get the job done. To tackle those tasks, he started by figuring out how to ensure people who called the Assessor’s Office could reach a live human rather than getting “lost in phone-mail hell,” which he said happened to him once. They still have a ways to go, he acknowledged, but his staff is under orders to make a callback within 24 hours to anyone who calls and leaves a message.

Back to the website – Hara says his office has expanded the amount of information it offers, such as a list of taxes paid on a given parcel over the past 10 years. As the online information expands, he said, the postcards sent in the mail with information each year will shrink, and that’ll save money.

Speaking of money – valuations are going up this year, he said, compared to last year, but the commercial real-estate market remains weak, so much of the tax burden remains on homeowners. (Here’s the office’s announcement from February.) Still not much of a condo market, either, he observed, as banks tightened up on home lending.

West Seattle Kiwanis meets three times a month – the schedule’s on their website. Coming up on April 2nd, you’ll find them (and Key Club members) at five local supermarkets in a one-day food drive.

More than 20 motorcycles hit the road for the Kiwanis Club of West Seattle‘s first-ever charity-fundraising Motorcycle Poker Run today. And when they got back to the ex-Huling site at 38th/Fauntleroy that served as headquarters for today’s event, it was Classic Car Show time:

This was West Seattleites’ first chance this spring/summer to get a closeup look at gorgeous old cars:

And the Kiwanians cooked up a tasty barbecue, too:

Money raised from today’s event goes toward their many charitable efforts – you can read about some of them online. And you can catch up with the Kiwanis at the West Seattle Farmers’ Market most Sundays, as well as at upcoming events including the Seafair Pirates’ Landing at Alki on July 10th.