West Seattle, Washington
19 Friday
That video is from tonight’s Family Fun Night Sock Hop (check the golden-oldies music!) at Fauntleroy Schoolhouse, presented by the Seattle Civic Concert Dancers. SCCD is based at Seattle Civic Dance Theater school, one of the tenants at the schoolhouse, the purchase of which (as we reported earlier today) is not yet a done deal. Seattle Civic Concert Dancers’ performance schedule — you can see them at Fauntleroy Fall Festival on October 19th! — can be found here.
MYSTERY HELICOPTER: Received more than a few notes about this earlier this evening (thank you!) but couldn’t find anything obvious via scanner or in person. Anybody who can solve the mystery of what a chopper was doing over eastern West Seattle – Triangle, Fairmount, possibly Pigeon Point – in the 7 pm hour, please share. (10:16 pm: Nancy e-mails to say that from past experience, it might have been a chopper covering sports at WS Stadium; not WSHS football since they were at Ingraham — 33 to 6 win for the Wildcats, by the way, congrats, and they’re in Game of the Week running for next week! – but schedules reveal Seattle Prep played O’Dea tonight at WS Stadium.)
DOOR-TO-DOOR ALERT: This quick note from Todd in the California/Charlestown (map) area:
Just a note to alert the area that those pushy magazine salespeople (who ignore or can’t read ‘no soliciting’ signs) are at work on the Admiral / Gen. Hill line.
ONE MORE NOTE: Just got word from Carol Viger that the West Seattle High School Grad Night fundraiser car wash planned for tomorrow is off. We’ll let you know when it’s rescheduled.
“COMMUNITY BUILDER” HONORED: He’s another one of West Seattle’s semi-unsung heroes — North Delridge Neighborhood Council co-chair Mike Dady, who works tirelessly on behalf of an area that’s been fighting its way to a better future. Now, we’ve got word the Seattle Neighborhood Group is honoring him with a “Community Builder Award” at an upcoming event; here’s the flyer. Congratulations, Mike!
CHIEF SEALTH HIGH SCHOOL TEACHER HONORED: The Seattle Public Schools “School Beat” e-mail newsletter brings word that CSHS teacher Gary Thomsen is the first Seattle teacher to win the “Service to Community Award” from the University of Puget Sound, given for his “tireless work in the local community” (read more here).
CONSERVATION “HERO” FINALIST – AND YOU CAN VOTE: Also today, we just got word that Fauntleroy’s Judy Pickens is one of the five finalists in the “Cox Conserves Heroes” program – you can watch her story (and that of the other four finalists) here. Among many other projects with which she is involved, Judy has worked long and hard to help restore and protect Fauntleroy Creek as a rare, urban salmon stream. Whoever wins gets $5,000 to donate to a charity – and Judy has chosen EarthCorps. Vote for Judy by going to this page and using the form in the left sidebar.
FROM THE “YOU HEARD IT HERE FIRST” FILE: It’s been a few days since we reported this, in response to this, so we’re mentioning it again today in case you read this. BlueStar told WSB back on Tuesday that the West Seattle Whole Foods store is “all systems go” despite the Interbay Whole Foods woes. WF itself hadn’t responded to inquiries all week till this e-mail received by Slog, which says the same thing.
SEX OFFENDER JAILED AGAIN: After seeing this story, we looked for the suspect’s West Seattle link. Finally turned one up in the sex-offender search engine which is linked from the “resources” list at the end of our Crime Watch page – he’s in jail now, but his last-reported address was on 16th SW.
West Seattle is home to a wide variety of spiritual communities from a diverse array of faith traditions – and many are growing fast. Today, we welcome one of them as our newest WSB sponsor: Westside Unitarian Universalist Congregation, an active, spiritually liberal West Seattle Church for more than four decades, led by the Rev. Peg Morgan. The tagline summing up WSUU: “Feeding your spirit, expanding your mind, working for justice.” Here are some of the ways its current, growing congregation of 150 adults and 80 children/youth say they’re doing that: “Examples of our current work in social justice include direct participation in Habitat for Humanity; caring for homeless families through the Family Promise Program; joining with the West Seattle Neighbors for Peace in opposing the tragic war in Iraq; and continuing to press for full equal rights for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered people.” Toward the latter end, WSUU is a certified Welcoming Congregation. If you haven’t attended a Unitarian Universalist service before and are wondering what UUs believe, here’s a little bit about that: “We believe there are many sources of wisdom from which to draw in order for one to develop a strong spiritual core and live a meaningful, ethical life. Those sources include the world’s religions, our natural environment, as well as science and reason.” And it’s for all ages; WSUU has a well-regarded, comprehensive religious-education program for youth, under the leadership of Director of Religious Education for Children and Youth, Kari Kopnick. Also offered is a stimulating and diverse program of adult education classes. The church meets at 10:30 Sunday mornings at the Alki Masonic Temple, with an after-service coffee hour “where newcomers are warmly welcomed” – and there’s an enthusiastic, growing Choir and Music program too:
Plus, there are other socializing/spiritual support opportunities such as Women’s Retreats and Circle Suppers. To find out more, explore the WSUU website at wsuu.org. Thanks to Westside Unitarian Universalist Congregation for joining the WSB sponsor team; our full list of sponsors — thanks to everyone for supporting them! — and info on how to join them, is on this page.
Faith-based activities abound this weekend – Seattle CROP Walk in the Alki area on Sunday (WSB 2007 photo above); two chances to have your pet(s) blessed; Holy Rosary‘s annual Alumni Sunday … Meantime, tonight and tomorrow are the final performances of “The Vertical Hour” at ArtsWest, and the weekend even offers a chance to press cider with neighbors. 41 events on our handy list ahead:Read More
Seattle Police just put out a citywide call for public help in identifying the man shown in the sketch at left. The news release says: “On September 25th 2008, at approximately 11:00 p.m., the below-described suspect sexually assaulted a 12-year-old girl in the yard of her home in the 2200 block of Northeast 143rd Street. The suspect is described as a white male, 55-60 years old, 5’07-5’10 very skinny build. Hair/beard possibly blondish/gray. Last seen wearing, a navy blue knit cap (recovered at scene). Gray hooded sweatshirt. Dark jeans. Alcohol on breath, dirty. Knife or sharp object in pocket of sweatshirt. ‘Holes’ on forehead/cheeks. (Possibly pock marks, large pores or bumps) Light scar below right eye. Anyone with information about this suspect is asked to call the Seattle Police Sexual Assault Unit at 206-684-5573.”
Not West Seattle-specific, but, especially on a slow news day, worth passing along. We found out about EcoMetro from Twitter,. They linked a tweet pointed to this post kicking off a “sustainability journal,” with tips for saving money and energy. (EcoMetro is apparently related to the Chinook Book; just so happens we mentioned in the Freebies, Deals, Sales forum last night that the West Seattle chapter of CoolMom.org is raising money through Chinook Book sales – find out more here.)
Two items this morning related to the Fauntleroy Schoolhouse: First – from the WSB Events page – a free Family Fun Night tonight, sponsored by civicdancers.org, a nonprofit part of Seattlecivicdance.com, one of the schoolhouse’s key tenants. Kim Dinsmoor says it’s free, 6-9 pm, on the north side of the schoolhouse’s lower floor: “There is a silent auction of items donated by more than 30 families and West Seattle merchants. You can buy tickets for food, drinks, face painting, cake walk with up to 100 cakes, and more. All profit from this goes to Seattle Civic Concert Dancers, a non profit group. This is a chance for West Seattleites to see one of the reasons why the old Fauntleroy school is so important to our community.” Speaking of which, we just checked on the status of the plan to purchase the schoolhouse, which Seattle Public Schools has designated “surplus” property, and there are a few new developments – read on:Read More
Tomorrow’s the last day you can register to vote in the general election (E-Day is November 4th but the state starts sending out mail-in ballots within a couple weeks). Various groups plan registration drives around West Seattle on Saturday, but you can also do the deed online right now by going here. If you vote by mail, by the way, you will have an in-person dropoff option in West Seattle starting October 17th (and continuing round-the-clock through 8 pm on Election Day, 11/4) at the Delridge Neighborhood Services Center (one of only two such dropoffs in the entire city!). And when it comes time to make your voting decisions – you can find lots of info links (voters’ guides, official websites for candidates and ballot measure supporter/opponents, debate schedules, more) on the WSB Election page.
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