Fall chill in the air – can you spare a coat for a foster child?
Even when the days are warm, the nights are now cool, and you’ve probably at least thought about bringing your sweaters and coats to the front of the closet. Maybe you can take it a step further – and get a coat to somebody who can’t afford one. At Sleep Country USA in Westwood Village, the annual Coat Drive for Foster Kids is under way now through November 1st. As the official announcement from Sleep Country puts it, “many foster kids arrive with only the clothes on their backs.” You can donate “new coats in every shape and size” at any Sleep Country USA store; the one at Westwood Village is in the section of the center anchored by Bed Bath Beyond. Or, you can donate through PayPal and Sleep Country will use the $ to buy coats (here’s the link). Want to know more? 888-88-SLEEP.
Community Harvest: 1 house, 306 pounds of donated grapes
You’ve no doubt heard by now about Community Harvest of Southwest Seattle, which has been harvesting local produce, particularly fruit, with volunteer help, for donation to local food banks. One homeowner made what turned out to be a really big donation, and shared this note she got from Aviva at Community Harvest after 11 volunteers stopped by to pick grapes two days ago:
“I just dropped off the grapes at the food bank. 306 pounds!! Can you believe it? I would have to say that it is the highest yield/house this season, not to mention that the tree owners (kids included!) were the most fun. This has been a great way to end (well, almost end) the season – and puts us at 6400 pounds – just 100 away from our goal.”
The homeowner/grape donor (who also shared these photos, including that one of a volunteer with a big box of the grapes) added:
So, if your yard has some fruit that you aren’t going to use, please contact Aviva so they can reach the 6500 pound goal! Speaking as the homeowner who donated grapes yesterday, I can personally attest that these people are wonderful– they come to your place, pick and bag the fruit, then take it away. That is about as easy (for the homeowner, lol) as it gets! No more wasted fruit, no nasty mush in the yard, and best of all, lots of good fruit for the food bank.
Contact info for Community Harvest of Southwest Seattle is online at gleanit.org.
West Seattle Crime Watch: Stadium scare
Thanks to Brenda for e-mailing to ask what we knew about an incident at West Seattle Stadium earlier today, reported to her by a witness; we just checked with the Seattle Police media unit and here’s what they found out: A man in the stands at noon today during a youth football game spotted a man “with whom he had an ongoing disagreement,” as Det. Mark Jamieson put it, and pointed a gun at that man. Others apparently tried to intervene. No shots were fired and nobody was hurt; police were called, but the two men were both gone before they arrived. Witnesses had a description of the car in which the man with the gun left; Det. Jamieson says a car matching that description was stopped in the 6900 block of Delridge (about 2 miles away; map), but the suspect wasn’t in it. Nobody arrested or hurt, and police didn’t find the gun, but Brenda says the witness told her game was stopped for a while as all this played out.
Happening now: Open house/1st anniversary at “Nickelsville”
Dozens of visitors – many also with cameras and notepads – are at the West Seattle homeless encampment that calls itself “Nickelsville” right now (Terminal 107 Park), for a “1st birthday” open house presented by its residents and sponsors, also intended as a fundraiser – a rep from the sponsoring organization Veterans For Peace told visitors it takes $1,000/month just for the portable toilets they rent. (We’ll add video later.) You can see them in the background of this photo we took today:
After a few speeches, including reminiscences about the past year since more than two dozen people were arrested at the encampment’s original site on city property at Highland Park Way/West Marginal Way, there was a slide show with photos and newspaper clippings telling the same story:
The encampment has been at T-107 Park, which is port property, for two months (here’s our story about their arrival). The port says time’s run out and they need to clear out by Wednesday; encampment organizers say they won’t go. Perhaps as a hint of what’s to come, we saw two port officers walking the periphery just as we arrived a few minutes after 3:
As far as we could see, they stayed outside the orange webbing that surrounds the encampment; we didn’t see them in the group that gathered to listen to speeches and watch the slide show. The event is expected to continue for the next few hours if you want to go see the encampment for yourself.
WSB Extra: A south-downtown project to watch
By Kathy Mulady
Reporting for West Seattle Blog
Any West Seattle resident who commutes past the baseball and football stadiums probably keeps track of home-game schedules to avoid sitting in the thick of a traffic jam.
So what’s the traffic going to be like when Nitze-Stagen adds nearly 1,000 apartments, condominiums and row houses, offices and shops on the north half of the parking lot at Qwest Field?
Where are you going to park when you go to a game?
And what happens to the tailgate parties?
Read More
Attention, artists: Last call to “Have a Seat at the Table”
With the White Center Food Bank‘s 
annual Harvest Dinner/Auction less than a month away, it’s “last call” time for artists who can decorate chairs to donate in the “Have a Seat at the Table” portion of the auction. Lynne Ingalls says, “There may still be some chairs available free for artists to decorate, otherwise, choose your own … they must be completed and submitted by October 10.” You can contact her at btrees@comcast.net or 206-933-2547 to get a chair (and more information). And regardless of whether you’re an artist, you are welcome to attend the October 17th event and support the food bank, which serves part of West Seattle as well as all of White Center: Call 206-762-2848 for tickets, or go to www.whitecenterfoodbank.org.
West Seattle CoolMom searches for gardenable spot for 350.org
That’s a simulation of what West Seattle CoolMom and other area environmental groups hope to muster enough people to create at Seattle Center in a month, as part of the 350.org Day of Action. And CoolMom’s Terri Glaberson says her group is looking for the perfect spot to do something smaller, closer to home, too:
In recognition and support of 350.org International Day of Action taking place on October 24th, West Seattle CoolMom is trying to locate a plot of land that could be home to 350 square feet of garden. The idea is to create a new garden space for a local business, school or church so that the community can benefit from an ongoing working garden. Instead of CoolMom trying to locate this land by searching ourselves, we thought of asking the community for help.
What we would like is to have the community raise their hand in offering this plot of land to CoolMom so that we may establish a garden, but with understanding that this land would be maintained after October 24th by the owners of the land.
If you can suggest a site for this garden, e-mail Terri at admin@coolmom.org. And she invites you to make plans to be part of the big “350” at Seattle Center, 2 pm October 24:
The event includes exhibitors, speakers, live feed of neighborhood action events, the cities new carbon calculator-created to be user friendly for families, and a large photo op of a “three”, “five” and “zero” near the fountain. We are going to need a lot of folks to come out to form these numbers, but more importantly we want people to get involved and learn about climate change and what each individual can do to make a difference in his or her community.
| 43 COMMENTS