BABY BOTTLE GIVEAWAY: WashPIRG, the Washington Toxics Coalition, and Neighborhood House are giving away baby bottles made without BPA (bisphenol A) as part of an awareness campaign. They’re encouraging people to bring their old plastic baby bottles to swap out. All welcome, 11:30 am-1 pm at Neighborhood Center in High Point.

GREENDRINKS: Hours later, HP Neighborhood Center will be the scene of a citywide gathering of local sustainability advocates and other greenminded folks, the monthly Seattle Greendrinks, 5:30-9 pm.

NORTH DELRIDGE NEIGHBORHOOD COUNCIL: NDNC hasn’t said yet if this is its permanent new time/day/place, but after the library-schedule change forced them out of their previous routine, this is what’s up for February: 6:30 pm tonight, Youngstown Arts Center.

ADMIRAL NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATION: 7 pm, Admiral Church basement meeting room. The agenda was posted last night on the ANA Yahoo! group; you should be able to find it (along with last month’s minutes) by going here.

FAUNTLEROY NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATION: Monthly board meeting, all welcome, 7 pm at The Hall at Fauntleroy.

What else? Yes, there’s more – see the WSB Events calendar.

Highland Park Elementary students raised $1,091.35 in four days to aide the earthquake victims in Haiti. More than 80 percent of the students at Highland Park receive free and reduced-price lunch. The school’s head secretary, Margaret Young, helped organize the fund-raiser by asking teachers to share information about the devastation in Haiti . After adding up the collections each morning, Principal Ann Gray and head teacher Rhonda Moore read the total contribution amounts to the students.

“We praised the compassion, understanding and generous nature of our students and parents to give to such a worthy cause. Our students continued to donate their coins, which consisted of mostly pennies. The students were excited and proud … and so were we, as a school,” Moore said.

Congratulations!

No, not this morning’s robbery – no photos from that have been made available so far. These are from a holdup at the Harbor Avenue 7-11 early last Thursday. Seattle Police and CrimeStoppers have put these photos out with word of a $1,000 reward.

SPDBlotter says there were three robbers – one with a gun – and they punched the clerk in the face. They got away with cash and cigarettes. The three are described as follows:

Suspect #1 is possibly Samoan or black, 20’s, approximately 6″2″ tall, stocky build, black hair (tied up in the back), with a black jacket, jeans with a large red pattern on the back and black gloves.

Suspect #2 is possibly black, 18-20’s, approximately 5′8″ tall, medium build, dark hoody, jeans, white gloves and armed with a black handgun.

Suspect #3 is approximately 5′5″ tall, medium build, gloves, white and gray hoody with skull designs all over it and dark-colored shorts.

(added) Here’s a third photo, taken outside the store, from the SPDBlotter post:

Info? Call 911 or the Seattle Police Robbery Unit at (206) 684-5535. To be anonymous, call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477) or send a text to CRIMES (274637) – with a message including TIP486 so it’s routed to the right case.

In addition to Valentine’s Day shopping at West Seattle businesses … Valentine’s weekend dining at West Seattle restaurants (here’s our updated guide) … here’s one other uniquely local suggestion just out of the inbox:

There’s less than a week to go to Valentine’s Day! Why not give a Valentine that will endure through the coming years? The Alki Community Council still has engraved bricks for sale. You might want to include an appropriate symbol on your Valentine Brick. Symbols depicting a single heart or a pair of interlocking hearts are available. You can download an order form at www.sealady.org or from the ACC’s AlkiNews.com site at alkinews.wordpress.com.

All orders placed before the end of February will be installed this spring in the Alki Statue of Liberty Plaza by Seattle Parks & Recreation. Orders placed after that date will be installed in the fall. Please visit the listed websites for additional information. Funds raised through this sale will be turned over to Seattle Parks & Recreation and used to maintain the statue and plaza.

David Hutchinson
ACC Brick Sales
libertyplaza@msn.com

(P.S. We asked; the brick in the pic features the date David and wife Eilene Hutchinson wed.)

Take Your Family to School Week 2/9/10 & 2/10/10
Our PTSA won a grant for Take Your Family to School Week and we are celebrating it
on Feb 9th from 8:00 am – 12:35 pm (Break It) and Feb 10th from 6:30 pm – 8:00 pm
(Make It & Shake It). Our theme is Break It! Make It! and Shake It!

Madison is 1 of 32 schools in the United States to receive this National PTA award worth $1897 to help promote parent involvement and support student achievement!

Break It, Make It, & Shake It! is the theme for the week! Below is a description of what won Madison this award!

On Tuesday, February 9th from 8:00 am – 2:35 pm, we will celebrate the theme of Break It! At the start of school, parents/guardians follow their student to class to not only observe, but to participate in the class as well, following along & even answering questions! Later in that morning, workshops will be offered for parents/guardians to assist in furthering their skills to help their teenager with the middle school years, academically, emotionally & socially. These 50 minute workshops will be offered twice (10:00 – 10:50 & 10:55 – 11:50) & given in conjunction with teachers, staff, counselors & community resource groups. The workshops entitled “Breaking the Code Of ________” will include classes such as:

3rd period Workshops – 10:00 – 10:50
Teen’s Access to Health Care: Staying in the loop. Madison Middle school nurse, Samara Hoag. Your teen can access a variety of counseling and medical services without your consent. We will review the laws regarding access to health care and discuss strategies to help you stay connected to your teen. (Offered only once)

Talking with Kids About Sex and Sexuality. SPS Lisa Love, Training Specialist.
Come learn some practical tips for talking with your kids about sex and sexuality. We will laugh and have fun while tackling these sometimes challenging topics. We will explore ways to really listen to your kids and answer some of the difficult questions they may ask us!

College Bound & How to Plan for Your Child’s Future Now! – Madison counselors, Ms. Laura Dale, Ms. Kitty Burke, & Ms. Laura Divena. How do I begin preparing for college now? What should I do and how do I go about it? Come to this session to get these questions answered and have your student and yourself be on their way and college bound!

Computers, Technology & the Code of Silence. SPS Mike Donlin, Computer Technology.
If social networking is so “social”, how come kids never talk to us about what they are doing online? Let’s talk Facebook….texting…Twitter…YouTube…and more.

What’s Underneath all this Girl Drama?! Madison Assistant Principal, Jennifer Kniseley. Most studies focus on boys as aggressors, but girls can bully too but in an entire different way that is covert. Come to this session to discuss the signs of “relational aggression,” how to address these behaviors & create safer environments for girls & their friends!
.
KPC or not?! Keeping Parents Clueless. Madison students! Come past to see this special presentation done by your own Madison students, an on-going power point presentation on texting and what it all means as far as texts like LOL, OMG, and the number 6 so you can have a better understanding of what those texting initials means.

4th period Workshops – 10:55 – 11:50
Parental Stress & How to Handle It! – Madison Wellness staff, Auky van Beek, PA-C and Anne Lung LICMSW. As a parent/guardian, do you have the middle school blues? Between struggling with your child and their homework and overall teen drama, come and join us for this for this informative presentation, we’re you have a chance to discuss some tips on preventing trouble down the road, how to take a 5 minute stress break, and self care in stressful times! (Offered only once)

Talking with Kids About Sex and Sexuality. SPS Lisa Love, Training Specialist.

College Bound & How to Plan for Your Child’s Future Now! – Madison counselors.

Computers, Technology & the Code of Silence. SPS Mike Donlin, Computer Technology.

KPC or not?! Keeping Parents Clueless. Madison students!

And stay tuned . . . the Parent Pledge will be unveiled!!

On Wednesday night, from 6:30 pm – 8:00 pm, we will celebrate the themes of Make It and Shake It! With Make It! This is a chance to honor the rich diversity of the school, the students & their parents/guardians who now get a chance to attend various cooking classes where they have to make it! These classes will be repeated twice at 30 minute intervals and revolve around the theme of everyone bakes bread. Here they learn how to make the food & get a chance to eat it what they made! Cooking demonstrations thus far include:

Injera (Somali bread from Africa)
Bunuelos (Mexican) – fried flour tortillas eaten as dessert with cinnamon & sugar.
Cornbread (Southern cooking)
Challah – (Jewish bread)
Tortilla chips & Salsa (Mexico)

With Shake It! participants get to celebrate diversity that continues with various cultural dance workshops where they now have to shake it! Workshops will include a historical lesson about the origins of the dance & participants will have a chance to show what they have learned during class! These 30 minute classes will be offered twice. Traditional dance workshops thus far will include:

Brazil – South America. Featuring choreographer & dancer Dora D’Oliveria-Newman!

Afro-Cuban – Caribbean. Featuring drummer, dancer & singer, Mark Lilly!

Philippines – Southeast Asia. Featuring dancer, instructor, Stephanie Senon!

Hip-Hop – America. Featuring dancer & choreographer, Madison’s own Ms. Issakson!

The public is invited to offer feedback and help draft assessment criteria for Seattle’s next Police Chief during several upcoming public forums and through other means, including a dedicated telephone line and a new website launched today.

The first of three public hearings devoted to the Police Chief search is at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 10, at Northgate Community Center, 10510 5th Ave NE, Seattle.

The first two hours of the meeting will be dedicated to public comments, with another hour set aside for the Seattle Police Chief Search Committee to begin developing competitive selection process and assessment criteria.

Here are the questions Mayor Mike McGinn’s Police Chief Search Committee is asking
of interested parties:

* What qualities are you looking for in a new Police Chief?
* What is the most important public safety issue in Seattle?
* What does the Seattle Police Department do well?
* What changes would you like to see?

Additional public hearings are scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 17, at Franklin High School, 3013 Mount Baker S., Seattle; and 5:30 p.m.-8:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 26, at New Holly Gathering Center, 7054 32nd Ave. S., Seattle. At the New Holly meeting, language interpreters will be available in Tagalog, Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese, Laotian, Amharic, Oromiffa, Khmer (Cambodian), Somali, and Tigrinya.

In addition to the public meetings, residents are invited to find background material on the Police Chief search process, including links to online input, at a new website, www.seattle.gov/mayor/spdChiefSearch.

Residents also may call 206-684-CITY (206-684-2489) to offer answers to the Seattle Police Chief Search Committee’s four questions for the public, listed above.

Mayor McGinn will appoint a new chief in June to succeed former Chief Gil Kerlikowske, who is now the nation’s drug czar, subject to City Council approval. Kate Joncas and Charles Rolland are Co-Chairs of the mayor’s 26-member Seattle Police Chief Search Committee, which will recommend three finalists to the mayor in May.

The Southwest Precinct’s commander, Capt. Joe Kessler, is on the search committee.

Two adult male suspects entered the open back door of a restaurant located in the 4200 block of SW Admiral Way. Both suspects were wearing face masks and gloves and one of them was armed with a large silver revolver. The suspects ordered everyone to get down on the floor.

The suspects then took one female employee to a back room containing a safe and ordered the employee to open it. When she didn’t open it fast enough for them, the armed suspect struck her on the head with his gun. The victim employee opened the safe and the suspects fled the scene on foot with cash taken from the safe. The suspects remain at large.

Both suspects are described as adult black males, 5′8″ to 6′0″, with medium complexions. Both suspects were wearing hooded sweatshirts. One suspect was wearing all black clothing and the other all gray clothing.

The employee who was pistol whipped is a female in her 20’s. She was treated at the scene by Seattle Fire Department Medics and transported to an area hospital by ambulance for non-life-threatening head and facial injuries.

As promised when we dropped by for a sneak peek two weeks ago, Tony’s Produce at 35th/Barton (map) has opened for the season as of today. 8 am till 7 pm. When we talked to Tony last month, he mentioned stocking more organics; today’s specials include organic blueberries. They were still stocking the stand when we dropped by around noontime, so you’ll have to see for yourself what else they’ve set out. Just a few blocks east of Tony’s, Becky snapped and shared this:

That’s Justice the police horse, seen at Westwood Village. (If you didn’t know this already – SPD’s Mounted Patrol has its headquarters in Highland Park, adjacent to Westcrest Park.) Now, we head north, for a West Seattleite’s view of today’s high-flying milestone – Scott C shared this photo of the aviation milestone everyone’s watching today, the 747-8’s first flight:

Speaking of the sky, the skyline shot you’ve seen a thousand times nonetheless had a nice touch when we stopped by Seacrest early this afternoon, with the drifting clouds:

Tomorrow looks even better.

We thank META Architects LLC for sponsoring independent, community-collaborative 24/7 neighborhood news on WSB. Find our sponsor team, and info on joining, all here.

We have a followup from Kristina Surface today re: Alki Elementary School’s Friday night events to benefit Haiti earthquake relief:

The two Alki Elementary fundraisers for Haiti (penny drive and movie night) raised a grand total of $2717.17! We are incredibly grateful to PCC and Safeway for donating snacks and drinks to sell at our movie night, as this enabled us to donate 100% of the proceeds to The American Red Cross Haiti Relief and Development Fund. It’s amazing what we can do when we work as a community.

Kristina shared the photos, too – above, the cafeteria full of families awaiting the movie (“Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs”); below, from left, Alki parent Jill Rose and principal Clover Codd. Kristina adds, “Without Jill’s leadership and Clover’s support, we couldn’t have done it. We are so proud of our Alki families for coming together as a community and helping the people of Haiti.”

Speaking of Alki and Haiti – beach resident Angela Williams has announced more details of her Valentine’s Day event (we talked with her for a WSB story last week) – you can now get the full scoop here.

(Photos added at 1:58 pm)
Your help is requested in the search for a stolen car. WSB’ers have spotted some others recently, so perhaps the track record will continue here. From Clare and Dave:

Our black 1993 Honda Accord (license # 084–H) was stolen from its spot at the back of our apartment building on 42nd Ave SW and Admiral Way (between Admiral and Lander) last night. We filed a police report this morning. If anyone sees it, would you please dial 911 to report it? Thank you for your help.

(Editor’s note – we omit some digits from license plates in cases like this; otherwise, crime victims’ personal data may be publicly accessible, using that information.) With this morning’s restaurant robbery nearby as context, we asked them if they had any idea of the theft time frame – they last saw the car 11 am Sunday and noticed it missing 9 am today.

(Video shot as we arrived at Admiral Safeway while crews were checking out Sunday’s small fire)
With questions raised in discussion of the pre-Super Bowl Admiral Safeway deli fire, we wanted to follow up with Seattle Fire Department sooner rather than later, regarding what firefighting equipment was on hand and whether the store should have been evacuated. SFD spokesperson Dana Vander Houwen has talked with the crew that was on scene, and here’s what she just told us: The range at the store has an in-hood system that “did what it was supposed to do” – it’s got built-in chemicals that dropped down onto the grease fire and put it out, while also shutting off power. “The fire was out when firefighters got there,” she said, adding that they “checked for extension” – whether it had spread (that’s why you see firefighters on the roof in our video clip) – and it hadn’t. Regarding whether the store should have been evacuated, Vander Houwen said some smoke “vented” but the “smell of burning food” was the biggest consequence of the grease fire and it “wasn’t a life-safety concern.” (1:50 PM P.S. – The deli’s back open today.)

(P.S. Only related because it’s the same site, but we’re always looking for excuses to publish reminders – the next Design Review meeting for the Admiral Safeway redevelopment project is this Thursday, 6:30 pm, Youngstown Arts Center.)

Also from the land-use bulletin: The city has officially received the street-vacation petition for 46th Place SW (Google Street View map), as part of The Kenney‘s redevelopment. That means it’s time for public comments. The petition, and comment process, are explained here, on the notice.