West Seattle, Washington
25 Thursday
(added 7:14 pm, photo by Tony Bradley, replacing our original iPhone photo)
ORIGINAL 6:16 PM REPORT: 9428 Delridge, commercial building. Here’s a map. Scanner says smoke from the second floor. Off to check it out.
6:31 PM UPDATE: (From TR at the scene) No visible flames, but smoke coming from roof of the Ty Ty Market building that is just to the north of the Cafe Rozella (etc.) building on the alley (which veers southeast from a driveway opening on Delridge). Flames were seen on the second floor, but seems to be out now. The fire engines have traffic blocked around the Delridge and Roxbury Triangle.
UPDATE 6:43 PM: No one was hurt and fire crews are mopping up.
UPDATE: 6:51 PM: Traffic is also blocked along 17th SW between Roxbury and Delridge as crews are still packing up.
7:02 PM UPDATE: The incident commander told us at the scene that fire investigators have just gone in to figure out what started the fire and how much damage was done. SFD spokesperson Dana Vander Houwen says nobody was inside when the fire started. Photographer Tony Bradley got to the scene shortly after firefighters and saw some flames behind a 2nd-story window; we’ll add his photo when we get it (7:13 pm, we subbed it out for the iPhone photo originally on top of this – and here’s a second one from Tony, beneath this update).
10:07 PM: Just in case you’re wondering, we’re still awaiting official word from SFD on the fire’s cause.
8:49 AM MONDAY: Our fellow White Center Now contributor Ricardo Guarnero at neighboring Cafe Rozella says the fire actually was in a Muslim prayer hall in this building. We are still awaiting word from Seattle Fire investigators regarding cause/damage. Ricardo adds that there’s a note on the door saying “MASJID is closed indefinitely,” and adds, “The sign is on the door where Muslims gathered to pray five times a day. Next door is the ‘Hope Academic Enrichment Center.’ Both were there for the Muslim community in White Center – mostly African immigrants from the horn of Africa.”
12:39 PM MONDAY: SFD tells WSB that “improperly discarded smoking materials … in a vinyl couch” were to blame for the fire, which has been ruled accidental. Damage is estimated at $25,000. A photo we took at the scene this morning shows a burned couch:
Sunday night, we brought you the story of Allison Dennis, a West Seattle mom whose son Jack (photo left) is autistic, campaigning to get a bill mandating insurance coverage of autism treatment — “Shayan’s Law“ — through the Legislature. Allison says the bill is on the brink of death unless action is taken today:
Senator Karen Keiser, chair of the Senate Health Care Committee, has today to call SB5203 up for a vote in an executive session or it dies.
Shayan’s Law (SB5203) offers protection against the prevalent insurance coverage denials of medically necessary treatments for children on the autism spectrum at an identical cost to Washington State as the Neuro-Developmental Therapies (NDT) bill [HB1412] that proposes to do the same, but falls short due to insurance coverage loopholes within the bill. The insurance industry has carefully crafted provisions that render the NDT bill utterly meaningless for all developmentally disabled individuals who need services, not just the ones on the Autism Spectrum. The influence of the insurance industry is allowing the NDT bill to gain traction on the House side.
Ultimately, states pay in cases of untreated or undertreated populations and SB5203 puts the cost of health care back where it belongs. Shayan’s Law will hold insurance companies accountable for covering diagnosis and medically necessary, evidence based treatment of autism. Under Shayan’s Law, insurers will not be able to get out of accepting their share of this devastating medical condition, as they have been for years here in Washington and around the nation.
It is unthinkable that our lawmakers would choose less protection for the same cost to the state (NDT bill), especially in the current economic crisis. Eight states have passed Autism Insurance Reform similar to Shayan’s Law and 32 more have taken it up this year. We want the same protection for our children. Now more than ever, our state needs relief from the societal costs when children don’t get the intervention they need. Now more than ever, our children need these benefits.
As a Washington voter, I expect fiscally responsible decision making that will yield significantly lower societal costs of autism. SB5203 is an opportunity that Washington State lawmakers cannot afford to pass up. I urge anyone similarly concerned to call Karen Keiser and ask that SB5203 be put to an executive session vote. The deadline for a vote is the 25th – today. Please take part in the legislative process. Grassroots efforts do work and voter participation does make a difference! Her number is 360-786-7664.
West Seattle’s 34th District State Senator Joe McDermott is a co-sponsor of SB5203, but this district’s two State Representatives, Eileen Cody and Sharon Nelson, are supporting the “NDT bill” (HB1412) that Dennis and other autism advocates say has too many loopholes.
Following our visit to West Seattle Girl Scouts’ cookie-case-sorting operation on Saturday, we found out a lot more about what the local Scouts are up to (including this). Now there’s one more event we wanted to share with you, because this one could use your help too: Tuesday night at Holy Rosary, more than two dozen Girl Scouts got together to put together AIDS- and malaria-fighting kits to send overseas, as part of the GS “World Thinking Day,” which had as its 2009 goal for “girls worldwide to say ‘we can stop the spread of AIDS, malaria, and other diseases’.” Fifth-grader Caroline Rouse worked to organize the project, as we learned when we met Caroline and her mom at the cookie loading dock; last night, she led her fellow Scouts in a game as part of the event:
The kits (which include items such as malaria-fighting mosquito netting) cost about $30 each to put together. Girl Scouts from all over West Seattle have been chipping in to buy them, but you can help too – some local businesses and other organizations already have — just e-mail kriskrop@msn.com to say you’d like to donate. Meantime, we’re glad to share what YOUR organization – kids OR adults – is up to, whether it’s an event listing or a heads-up about something like this; e-mail WSB at editor@westseattleblog.com any time (or if you’d prefer a different contact method, all of ours are listed here).
Thanks to Jules for e-mailing to say citywide media have been staking out the Beach Drive home of King County Assessor Scott Noble since word came out that he is under investigation for possible charges in connection with a head-on freeway crash last month (P-I report here; Times report here, which includes a statement from Noble’s lawyer saying he has been “recovering from injuries” since “an automobile accident in mid-January”). Noble is in his fifth term as county assessor; here’s his biography on the county website.
Meet the members of the West Seattle Junction Association Board of Directors who were elected/re-elected this morning at a breakfast meeting, and shown above as they posed for the WSB camera afterward with board president Dave Montoure (West 5) — from left, Brandon Nicholson (Nicholson Kovalchick Architects), Lora Lewis (Hotwire Coffee, WSB sponsor), Heather Leaman (Bakery Nouveau), Michael Hoffman (Liberty Bell Printing), Montoure, Doug Baldwin (Windermere Real Estate). The vote was part of an annual meeting that not only recapped the Junction Association’s 2008 successes, but also looked ahead to this year’s priorities — read on for details:Read More
(Members of Troop 2092 outside Rainier House, with some of what they donated)
Over the weekend, we showed you West Seattle Girl Scouts getting ready for their annual cookie sales, and some WSB’ers joked about the calories. Local Girl Scout mom Tracie Luthi e-mailed WSB to make sure everyone knows cookies are about a lot more than indulgence and calories – the sales are the main fundraiser for local troops, and they do some amazing things with the money, including this one that Tracie tells us about:
West Seattle Girl Scout Troop 2092 has been working on their Bronze Star award, which is the highest award a Junior troop can earn. These Fifth and Sixth graders chose furnishing an apartment at the new Rainier House as their project. The Rainier House is housing through the Downtown Emergency Service Center, which helps vulnerable mentally ill homeless people transition to apartment living.
The apartments are opening this week on Rainier Ave. I believe there is an opening ceremony (today) for the building as a whole, and on Tuesday 50 new residents move in. The troop set up the apartment (Sunday) afternoon with items they purchased with their proceeds from last year’s cookie sales. Cookies do good work!
You can read more about Rainier House in this Times article published today; as reported in our cookie-arrival story Saturday, cookie sales start this Friday (if you want to buy some and have trouble finding them, this webpage can help). Plus, you’ll hear a bit more about what local Girl Scouts are up to, after we cover a “World Thinking Day” event tomorrow night during which the Scouts will be taking action to help improve the health of people half a world away.
By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor
“Autism is treatable, and health insurance should cover that treatment.”
That’s how Allison Dennis summarizes her quest, which — on the night we spoke in her Upper Fauntleroy living room earlier this week — had just taken her to Olympia, to try to change a local legislator’s mind.
Allison’s preschooler son Jack is autistic, diagnosed with Pervasive Developmental Disorder-Not Otherwise Specified (PDD-NOS, in semi-short).
He is getting therapy – which can make a huge difference for those with autism – but it comes at a significant cost. Allison and other parents and advocates are trying to get the state to change the rules about which treatments insurance companies must cover and when, but they are facing an uphill fight.
Those West Seattle Girl Scouts (and some adult volunteers too) spent their Saturday morning working inside a big loading-dock building at Alaska Marine Lines on West Marginal Way, getting ready for their organization’s tastiest event of the year: Girl Scout Cookie sales! This morning, nearly 3,000 cases of cookies arrived, totaling about 60,000 boxes, approximately one for every person in West Seattle; they had to be sorted for troops to pick up, in stacks like this:
The cookies delivered and sold here are made by Little Brownie Bakers in Kentucky, one of only two GS Cookie bakeries in the nation. 25 West Seattle troops will be selling cookies, with the official kickoff date February 27th (next Friday), and sales continuing through March 15. What’s new this year, you ask? Dulce De Leche (think caramel; read about all 8 available cookie varieties here). Cookie prices? $4/box. If you don’t encounter a Girl Scout selling cookies outside your nearest store, or some other way, send a note here and they’ll have someone contact you. And you won’t be surprised to hear you can become a “fan” of Girl Scout Cookies on Facebook. P.S. Tomorrow is Girl Scouts'[ “World Thinking Day,” and while covering the cookie arrival this morning, we got word of a big project the West Seattle girls are working on – stay tuned for more on that.
Highlights for today/tonight from the WSB West Seattle Weekend Lineup (see this weekend’s edition here):
(photos from Alki Lodge #152 pancake breakfast added 9:25 am – above, Rick Dusatko refills the syrup; below, Geoff McNeely wielding the spatula)
PANCAKES: On the griddle right now, till 11 am, and you’re invited – Alki Lodge 152, 40th/Edmunds (map) in The Junction. (Donation $5, $4 for kids, includes eggs, sausage, coffee, juice, the full meal deal.)
GET OUT INTO THE GREENERY: Three work parties at midday today to help West Seattle’s greenspaces — Brandon Street Natural Area, West Duwamish Greenbelt, Me-Kwa-Mooks, all 10-2, hop to the Saturday section of WSWL for links with full details.
GET YOUR BUSINESS ON: Thinking of starting your own? Lora Lewis from Hotwire Coffee (WSB sponsor) is hosting a session on what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur. 7 tonight, e-mail to RSVP.
MEET “SIREN”: A successful businessperson – and TV personality! – is in West Seattle at 2 pm at Anytime Fitness (WSB sponsor): Meet Valerie Waugaman, known as “Siren” from TV’s “American Gladiators.” She’ll be putting on a fitness workshop and also talking about personal success. (More info in this earlier coverage.)
WHITE CENTER’S FIRST ART TOUR: 5-10 pm tonight, details at partner site White Center Now.
In the past few days, we’ve heard about two Leukemia and Lymphoma Society fundraisers that we want to share with you – organizers of both are looking for pledges to help West Seattleites succeed in two upcoming events: First, from MJ Benavente at Snap Fitness (WSB sponsor) in The Junction –
Snap Fitness is sponsoring a team for “The Big Climb” at the Columbia Tower on March 22nd. It’s a fundraiser for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and we are trying to raise pledge money for our team members. Anyone interested in supporting the Snap Fitness climbers can contact the club directly at 206.299.1597, or via e-mail at seattlewest@snapfitness.com
The Big Climb is the regional LLS chapter’s biggest fundraiser, according to this webpage. And as for what it’s like to climb all the way to the top of Seattle’s tallest building – this video from a stairclimb participant who posted his achievement on YouTube in 2007 gives a hint:
Now, the other LLS fundraiser – this note came in from Mandy:
I am doing the Seattle to Portland ride this year and am training with Team in Training. As a part of this team, I need to fundraise $2800 which goes to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. To raise part of this money, there will be a poker tournament at the Admiral Pub on Friday, March 13th. It is free to play, and thegame that night is Omaha Hold’em. People do not need to know how to play–it is just for fun! Starts at 7:00 pm. If people want to play poker, they need to call the pub at 933.9500 to sign up. There is already a list started.
I will also be selling raffle tickets and the prizes are generously donated from local businesses. People are encouraged to come to the pub that night (even if they don’t play poker) to join in on the raffle, have dinner, play darts, and I will also be making delicious baked goods to sell for the cause.
Also–I am still looking for gift certificates from local businesses to enter into the raffle. This is an excellent way for local businesses to get their names out there and gain new customers!
If people are interested in donating to this cause on my page, they can donate
securely at: pages.teamintraining.org/wa/stp09/mwilliaehoBusinesses can contact me at this e-mail address if they are interested in donating a gift certificate.
Thanks to the WSB’er who wrote to make sure everyone knew that the founder of a longtime West Seattle business — Mary North Travel in the Triangle, founded more than a half-century ago — has died. According to this obituary, Mary Margaret Finley North was just a few months shy of her 90th birthday. You can sign the online guestbook here.
An announcement from the Seattle Public Schools communications team says two Chief Sealth High School students, Michelle Tran and Mohamed Mohamed, are heading for New York City to attend the National Academy Foundation‘s annual gala, along with four other students from the district. Read on to see what it’s all about:Read More
(Chris Holm, Gwen Schwenzer, Georgie Kunkel, Elaine Russell and Anita Lusk)
By Christopher Boffoli
West Seattle Blog contributing journalist
There was a completely different version of West Seattle on display this afternoon: one in which people were happy to work for 59 cents an hour and bought their houses for $3,500 cash. A group of local “Rosie the Riveters” hosted a presentation, to a large group of residents of Providence Mount St. Vincent and their guests, based on their experiences as aircraft workers in Seattle during World War II.
Georgie Kunkel, Chris Holm, Anita Lusk and Gwen Schwenzer all worked in aircraft production in some capacity during the war years. Elaine Russell, and many other women like her, worked in a supporting role that freed up men to go off to the War to fight. They were trailblazers at a time when it was uncommon for women to even be employed outside of the home, let alone be dressed in coveralls and drilling holes through airplane wings.
“I was always adventurous, “ said Anita Lusk, a native of Wisconsin. “I’ve had a lifetime of mountaineering and sky diving and had that sense of adventure from early on. So the idea of moving to Seattle to take a job with Boeing was exciting to me.” Ms. Lusk and a friend, barely in their 20‘s, had been hired on the spot at a hotel in Milwaukee by a Boeing recruiter and took a train west for the first time in their lives. It apparently didn’t matter that they were young, single woman moving to a strange city on their own. “It was a different time. We were young, adventurous girls and Boeing seemed desperate to find employees. My friend and I lived in a boarding house and I worked at Boeing Plant 2 installing radio components in B-17’s.” She added, “Seattle was smaller then. Mercer Island was a forest of trees. If I knew what I know now I would have bought land out there.”
Chris Holm also answered the call for workers and moved to Seattle from St. Paul, Minnesota where she had previously worked in a factory processing meat. Her older sister had come to Seattle before her so she knew what to expect. “It wasn’t hard to get a job in the mid 1940’s. All of the young men were away fighting in the War so there was plenty of work. I worked for Puget Sound Sheet Metal works, adjacent to Boeing Plant 2, riveting bulkhead assemblies on B-29’s. It was important for the steel rivets to be very hard so they were kept on dry ice. We worked a lot. Usually 10-12 hours a day, seven days a week. I was delighted to be paid 59 cents an hour and I was able to save a lot of money.”
The War punctuated the end of the Great Depression, offering well-paid employment to people who had struggled with poverty for many years. Though they quickly became experts in airplane construction, few had ever flown in one and wouldn’t have an opportunity to travel by plane until decades after the War. Gwen Schwenzer explained, “A lot of people had been poor before that. I was very happy to be paid 69 cents an hour to work at a facility connected to Boeing at Lake Union.” Ms. Schwenzer worked on both B-29 and B-19 aircraft, riveting from the inside as a “bucker” would stand outside of the fuselage with a hardened piece of steel that would receive the end of the rivet and form it smoothly against the skin of the aircraft. “It was very important to rivet straight.” she said, “The worst part of it was getting used to eating our dinner with dirty hands as you get awfully dirty when you’re riveting. But I enjoyed the work and appreciated having money to put towards our house.”
“When we were working the money just piled up,” said Ms. Holm. “We were able to buy our house at 14th and SW Holden for $3,500 cash. It was small but we were able to add onto it as our family grew and we never went into debt. I still live there now.” Despite the long hours and seven day work schedule, there was still time for fun. “There were so many activities and events,” added Ms. Holm. “I loved going to the Trianon Ballroom, which on those days was at 3rd Avenue and Wall Street downtown. Harry James, Tommy Dorsey and lots of big bands came to town. Sometimes they would do radio broadcasts from there. And there were always lots of servicemen around to dance with.”
Georgie Kunkel played songs on the piano today before the start of the Rosie the Riveter program. And in between the stories, she led the audience in sing-a-longs of music that was popular in the 1940’s. “There was so much romance then,” said Ms. Kunkel. “All of the songs were about women who were waiting for their men to come home. We just don’t have that kind of romance now. In those days the women waited. I’m not so sure they’d wait now.” Ms. Kunkel met her husband only a month before he went overseas with the American Field Services. Shortly after he left he proposed to her by letter saying simply “consider yourself engaged.” When she and her husband were selected to appear on the Oprah Winfrey Show in 1989 for a show about letters from the War, Ms. Kunkel confessed that she had forgotten how exactly she had answered her husband’s surprising proposal. “Fortunately, he kept all of my letters in a coffee can during the two years that he drove an ambulance during the War. When I went back through and found my response to him I had written: “I haven’t known you long enough but I will wait.”
Ms. Kunkel worked at a Boeing factory in Chehalis, in Lewis County, drilling holes in wing panels on B-17’s. Like the others, she enjoyed her work immensely. Despite common stories of women being teased and mistreated by men at the factories who didn’t approve of having women on the line, all of the “Rosies” who worked at Boeing said that their work experiences were trouble-free with small exceptions. “I do recall that whenever something would go wrong, like if a rivet hole was not drilled squarely, the leadman would always come to me first and try to lay the blame on me. It was hard to drill straight holes. You had to eyeball it. But I knew my holes were straight.” The woman often faced greater gender challenges outside of their wartime work experiences. One of the women on the panel told a story of being asked to vacate an apartment as soon as the building manager learned she was pregnant as “they didn’t want any babies there.” And Ms. Kunkel related her experiences years later working as a teacher when she was repeatedly fired and re-hired after becoming pregnant and having her children. She would have to subsequently re-enter the school system at the lowest pay grade and work her way back up each time.
As essential as their work had been during the war effort, their departure from the factories was swift at the War’s conclusion. “We were all really surprised when the War ended,” said Ms. Kunkel. “They came over the loudspeaker and announced that the War was over. We were marched out of the factory that day and most of us never went back.” Ms. Holm returned to work for Boeing after the War as a file clerk, but at a fraction of her pay on the line. “I was happy to leave when the men came back,” said Ms. Schwenzer. “The men needed their jobs back.”
As the women transitioned to the roles of being wives and mothers, some of their paths wandered from Seattle. Ms. Lusk had been married in California during the War while her husband was on leave. “He was a wonderful artist. While he was overseas he would draw elaborate sketches on the correspondence he would send home.” Ms. Lusk had many of his impressively illustrated letters on display during the presentation. “After the War we moved to Colorado where my husband taught art. But he was eventually recruited by Boeing. We first went to live in Wichita, Kansas which wasn’t my favorite place. But I was delighted when they moved us back to Seattle because I loved it so much here.”
Most of the women would all ultimately return to Boeing in style when years later they were honored at a luncheon and when a permanent plaque was placed in their honor at the Boeing plant. Each was proud of the small but important part they played in the hugely successful effort of the “Greatest Generation” to save the world from Fascism. With their presentation today, illustrated with love letters from people separated by war, and photographs of working women that would become iconic images for the Feminist movement, the women are perhaps among the most humble heroes of West Seattle.
That’s how WSB’er “Westseattledood” headlined her e-mail, which included the following amazing tale, and the photo shown above:
My dog and I came back into West Seattle this afternoon after enjoying a hike through Seward Park. We stopped at the 35th & Avalon 7-11 for a can of pop just as rush hour traffic was beginning at this infamously busy intersection. The entire parking lot was completely full, except for one slot on the east side of the parking lot. I pulled in and decided after a brief cost/benefit analysis, to the leave the back window down so the Big Dog, the dood, could continue to hang his head out the window and watch all the comings and goings while I dashed in. I was quite mindful of the sketchy characters congregating around the car, but decided to take the chance and pop in and out.
I was in the store for about one minute, as there were no other customers. As I walked past all the cars to the end of the building, I cleared the last big truck adjacent to mine, I saw my car was not where I left it. My stomach dropped out of me. And, I was worried that someone would steal the dog! Someone had stolen the car! I did not leave the keys in! My god, they were unbelievably quick! I looked around the parking lot and just as quickly, I heard a woman directly across Avalon to the south (where the new building is going in), screaming and waving her arms. She was standing by my car, which was now angled parked into the cyclone fence of the construction site.
I flew across the parking lot, waited for traffic on Avalon to slow and crossed to my car. Somehow the truck rolled all the way from the top of the lot down through the narrow driveway of the parking lot, across four lanes of rush hour traffic to roll to a gentle stop across the street. The dog, oblivious to any harm, remained stationed at the rear window, as can be seen in the photograph attached.
My dog and I are clearly surrounded by angels. The angels, of course, are assigned to my good dog. I am merely the beneficiary by association.
PS. And, of course, I’ll be getting a new parking brake immediately.
Highlights from the WSB West Seattle Events calendar:
911: When to call it, and when not to? Not as easy an answer as you might think. The West Seattle Crime Prevention Council has been pursuing concerns about citizen confusion and dispatcher response, and has the Seattle Police 911 boss as a special guest at tonight’s meeting. 7 pm, Southwest Precinct meeting room (map), and as always, you’ll also get the chance to learn about the latest West Seattle crime concerns and trends, as well as asking police any questions you have about what’s going on where you live.
WWII: The Rosie the Riveters of West Seattle are presenting a program about their lives during World War II at 2 pm today, cafe dining room at Providence Mount St. Vincent.
ANTIQUE SHOPPING: The folks at the Discovery Shop in The Junction (4535 California SW), which raises money for the American Cancer Society, are having their “yearly antique event,” open 10 am-4:30 pm daily except Sundays.
TAX HELP: Trained volunteers will be at the High Point Library branch, 5-7 pm tonight, to help you prepare a personal tax return. More info here.
Earlier Monday, we mentioned the deadline to sign up for West Seattle Girls Softball; we’ve since heard from West Seattle Pee Wee Baseball president Eric Olson, saying their deadline’s fast approaching too:
Wednesday is the last chance to save money on registration with West Seattle Pee Wee Baseball. After Wednesday, registration for the Pinto and Mustang divisions closes when all the teams are full. We accept t-ball registrations for a few more weeks. West Seattle Pee Wee has been offering fun and competitive baseball for West Seattlites ages 5-10 years old for more than 50 years. We offer scholarships for those in need. All of our games are played at our own baseball complex located at the Lower Riverview
fields. You can register at www.westseattlepeewee.com.
(12/08 Alki photo by Cathy Woo)
Remember those long weeks of being barely able to get out of the house? Some speculated a baby boom might result … and in fact, two three FOUR *FIVE* people have announced their impending parenthood today this week in the WSB Forums. (Anyone else?)
(2008 TV feature on Mateo Messina and his work for “Juno”)
A news release from the The Symphony Guild calls our attention to the fact that the recently announced Grammy Awards included one for a West Seattle native son: Mateo Messina, who shared Best Compilation Soundtrack for the hit movie “Juno.” As the news release notes, Messina is now based in California but writes and produces a concert every year to raise money for “uncompensated care” at Children’s Hospital; the next one is November 6th of this year, with the theme “Symphony of the Superhero.”
We told you about this growing effort – last night was the first open meeting to discuss how to make it happen, and Galena White has posted a report on the co-op website – including:
We all agreed that a working mission statement could be, “Bring inexpensive organic produce to Delridge.” We’d like to see a storefront as soon as possible, but we know that we need lots more people to get involved to make that happen. Most of us liked the idea of a Mobile Market, with the exception of Jen, who has experience in that area and says that: while a Mobile Market could be useful, in the long term she thinks that a storefront would work better. We were all interested in the prospect of a cafe attached to a storefront that would use the fresh ingredients at their peak of ripeness, because Delridge lacks a healthy restaurant.
As Galena mentions in the full report, there’s still plenty of time to get involved – next meeting’s next week.
Just spotted this while searching Google News: Coming up at 2:50 pm – on the air at 94.9 FM or online at kuow.org – Darwin’s 200th “birthday” is commemorated in a chat with West Seattle author and birder Lyanda Lynn Haupt (mentioned here last year because of an honor for her book “Crow Planet“).
The final tally’s in for the WestSide Baby fundraising tea last weekend – a sellout crowd for the first time ever – and executive director Nancy Woodland sends along the official announcement:
WestSide Baby’s Annual Tea fundraiser generated a sell-out crowd of more than 460 attendees and raised nearly $70,000 to help South King County families in need.
The Annual Tea was held on Sunday, February 8, at the Brockey Center on South Seattle’s Community College campus. Each year, table captains provide their own tea service so their guests can enjoy afternoon refreshments and socializing. The event focused on the impact WestSide Baby has in supporting more than 12,000 local children in 2008 and guests made financial contributions to support programs. “The guests who gathered for the Tea recognized the obviously increasing importance of supporting children in need our community. This response is critical to our mission because 96% of our financial support comes from individuals and small businesses,” said Nancy Woodland, Executive Director.
This year, twenty-one local business Sponsors covered the costs of the event while an additional nine offered gifts for give-aways. “The generous spirit of local small businesses is astounding during economic times like these. Business support like this is critical to pulling off an event of this magnitude without directing other funds away from immediate community needs for items such as diapers and clothing.” Woodland said. Since opening in 2001, WestSide Baby has distributed over $6 million worth of clothing, toys, baby gear, and other items.
The sponsors are listed on this page of the WestSide Baby website; meantime, you can help WestSide Baby too – its website will show you how.
Today we’re welcoming the latest WSB sponsor, Roger Steiner. As always, we ask sponsors to share information you might like to know, and here’s more from Roger: 
He is a residential real estate agent with Coldwell Banker Danforth, and is dedicated to helping buyers in West Seattle have a great real estate experience. “We moved to West Seattle from the Central District in 2004, and I immediately fell in love. I grew up in Ketchum, Idaho, and I feel like West Seattle has this wonderful energy much like a little resort town. We’re surrounded by so much natural beauty, there’s a strong sense of community, and neighbors who truly care about one another- there’s so much to see and experience right here – and yet, if you want to do the big city thing, it’s literally right over there.” Prior to joining Coldwell Banker in 2008, Roger was an agent in the Belltown office of Windermere Wall Street. Although he has helped buyers and sellers all over Seattle, and does most of his business through friends and referrals, he hopes to expand his business by reaching out to folks who are considering buying in West Seattle. “I love working with buyers, especially first-time buyers, because it’s like solving a puzzle together- talking people through the process, helping them figure out what their priorities are, what is realistic for them, and then going on the big Treasure Hunt. And right now it’s great, because buyers get to be choosy, take their time, and negotiate. Combined with historically low interest rates, the market being tilted way in the buyer’s favor for a change, and the fact that the government is continuing to offer tax credit incentives to many buyers, for many folks it’s a perfect storm for buying, if you’re in a place to be considering it.” Contact Roger Steiner today if you’re considering a move, and let him know you saw his ad on WSB! (All our sponsors are listed here, where you can also find information on how to join them.)
Just posted at seattlepi.com, a report on today’s 80th birthday celebration for mountaineer twins Lou and Jim Whittaker, reminiscing about getting their start on West Seattle hills. (They’ve since moved away.)
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