RAFFLE TO HELP VAL KLEITZ:Aaron’s Bicycle Repair proprietor Aaron Goss shares that photo with word that its subject, longtime shop worker and friend Val Kleitz, is fighting cancer, and, “While his prognosis is good, his medical bills are adding up” – so a fundraising raffle’s been arranged. A new turquoise 2010 Redline 925 donated by Seattle Bike Supply and assembled by Aaron’s will be raffled off at 1 pm Dec. 20. Till then, anyone 18+ can buy $5 tickets to get in on it – all proceeds to help with Val’s medical bills. They’re on sale at the shop (6527 California SW), or you can simply make a medical-bills-fund donation from the raffle-info page on Aaron’s site.
SUCCESSFUL CELL-PHONE DRIVE CONCLUDES:Megan Wilson Tutty sends word via Facebook that the cell-phone collection drive at Easy Street Records (to help domestic-violence victims, as first reported here in October) is over, so please don’t take any more phones there. She says the drive to help the Victim Support Team, with which she volunteers, collected 138 phones!
MERRILL GARDENS’ FUNDRAISING TOTAL FOR OFFICERS’ FAMILIES: After last Wednesday night’s fundraising pasta dinners at both West Seattle locations of Merrill Gardens (WSB sponsor), we reported their $1,500 total – but those were only two of 21 MG locations participating. Now we know that the fundraiser’s grand total is $25,000, including an MG corporate donation of $5,000. They expect to make a presentation to the officers’ guild soon. If you missed this fundraiser and the $126,000 Papa John’s two-day event, you can still donate directly to the Lakewood fund by going here.
Bainbridge Island-based SoundWave caroled it from the Christmas Ship – “Let It Snow.” Didn’t happen during the Spirit of Seattle‘s final visit of the season to West Seattle shores, though, at Don Armeni Boat Ramp tonight – just a little mist – latest “forecast discussion” isn’t very snow-hopeful, either. The night also saw the weekend’s only Christmas Ship bonfire, since the now-ended burn ban was still in effect last night:
The Parks Department also set up the traditional tent with cookies and beverages (they apologize that the hot water was a little late) – and added extra decorations, including some luminarias along the shore, and the inflatables you see alongside Gayle, Rebecca, Mulryan and Jim from Parks:
(photo courtesy Rebecca Hall – substituted 12:41 am for our original photo which just had 1 Parks person)
One other sight from tonight – in addition to the lighted boats accompanying the Christmas Ship, two kayakers paddled out to watch (also seen in the top video clip):
While that’s it for the West Seattle stops this year, the Christmas Ship continues nightly trips to various Puget Sound/Lake Washington/Lake Union beaches through Dec. 23 – the schedule’s here; you can buy tickets to ride along, with part of the proceeds going to theSeattle Times (WSB partner) Fund for the Needy (donations welcome here). We also covered the Christmas Ship’s Seacrest (here) and Lowman Beach (here) stops last night (it also visited Alki) – thanks to everyone who contributed photos to enhance the coverage (don’t miss these).
With 12 days to go till Christmas, it’s prime time to expand your giving to the nonprofit donation drives and Giving Trees around West Seattle/White Center. Many are listed on our West Seattle Holidays page. And here’s an update just in from Nancy Woodland at WestSide Baby, along with the accompanying photos:
To try to fill our shelves before Christmas, WestSide Baby will hold special Holiday Donation hours of Mon-Friday 9-4pm and Thursday evening 7pm-9pm now through December 22. WestSide Baby will also host an After Hours volunteer sorting event on Thursday December 17, 7-9pm at our facility in White Center. Volunteers ages 14+ will gather to sort through donations of gently used clothes and enjoy a festive “holiday” evening. If you can attend, please email our Volunteer Coordinator at sarah@westsidebaby.org.
Many families and businesses in the area are benefitting WestSide Baby as they gather together to celebrate the holidays. THANK YOU!! Friday evening, kids and parents carrying diapers and bags of warm clothes filed into the new West Seattle Little Gym [WSB sponsor] for a party hosted by two local families. 2500 diapers were collected and 6 bags of winter clothes for children 0 to size 12 appeared to fill the very scarce shelves at WestSide Baby! The Little Gym generously donated space while their staff and owner, Birgit, donated time (and smiles) as they successfully corralled, somersaulted and flipped more than 50 children while parents mingled in the lobby. Local efforts at businesses, schools and private gatherings have resulted in 50 winter coats and thousands of diapers for little ones in King County just this month. See WestSide Baby Donation Drives for details of places where you can drop off your items out in the community if our location or open hours are not convenient.
Also note that WestSide Baby has set the date for its annual tea – February 6 – tickets are on sale now here, and tomorrow’s the deadline to sign up if you’d like to be a Table Captain.
One big difference between this winter and last – Metro has added more ways to get the word out about bus trouble, if and when necessary. With the possibility snow might affect the morning commute in some areas of the county, Metro’s Linda Thielke has just sent out a reminder about its new alert systems – read on:Read More
Thanks to Nathan for the tip about a water-main problem at 35th/106th (map) in Arbor Heights. 106th west of 35th is closed at that spot, where a backhoe-equipped crew is working, but 35th traffic is not affected – except for one thing to keep in mind later: Southbound lanes are wet for a few blocks south of 106th, and that could be trouble as temperatures drop, though we also spotted an SDOT truck nearby, so the situation should be on their radar.
* Short Term – to be installed in the first quarter of 2010:
o Both the east and west crosswalks at the intersection of 26th Ave SW and SW Barton St will be repainted and widened to improve crosswalk visibility for drivers and pedestrians and align the crosswalk markings with the existing curb ramps
o The signal at 26th Ave SW and SW Barton St will be equipped with new “Stop for Pedestrians When Turning” overhead signs
o The signage for the mid-block crosswalk at the Longfellow Creek Trail (just west of 26th Ave SW and SW Barton St) will be upgraded to our new standard fluorescent yellow-green signs
o “Stop for Me – It’s the Law” signs will be installed on SW Barton St on the eastbound and westbound approaches to Westwood Village
o SDOT will review speed limit signage to ensure that SW Barton St is properly signed
o SDOT will enroll the neighborhood in the Arterial Traffic Calming program for SW Barton St – this will start the data collection process to evaluate speeds on SW Barton St
o Westwood Village will paint stop bars at the shopping center exit to provide additional guidance for drivers by designating the location where they should stop
Read on for the “long term” list as well as other improvements recently decided, including those for walk routes to Roxhill:Read More
Puget Sound Clean Air Agency just announced it’s lifted the burn ban because “The current weather pattern has brought improved mixing and dispersion of fine particle pollution. As a result, air quality has improved sufficiently to allow lifting our Stage 2 burn ban.” Maybe that’ll mean a bonfire for the Don Armeni Christmas Ship stop at 7:10 tonight, as originally scheduled? Meantime, here’s the newest forecast from the National Weather Service, as of less than an hour ago:
REST OF TODAY…MOSTLY CLOUDY WITH SCATTERED SNOW SHOWERS. HIGHS IN THE 30S. SOUTH WIND 5 TO 10 MPH.
TONIGHT…MOSTLY CLOUDY WITH SCATTERED SNOW SHOWERS. LOWS IN THE MID 20S TO LOWER 30S. SOUTHWEST WIND 5 TO 15 MPH.
MONDAY…MOSTLY CLOUDY. A CHANCE OF RAIN OR SNOW…MAINLY IN THE AFTERNOON. HIGHS NEAR 40. SOUTHWEST WIND TO 10 MPH BECOMING NORTHEAST IN THE AFTERNOON.
2:15 PM UPDATE: As commenters are noted, a few flakes have been seen – extremely light flurry where we are, with sunshine to boot. One more note – via Facebook, we’re told there WILL be a bonfire at the 7:10 pm Christmas Ship stop at Don Armeni tonight.
Santa Claus is managing that amazing trick again this afternoon … multiple places at once … here in West Seattle. Above, the 4218 SW Alaska storefront (east of Cupcake Royale) transformed into Hometown Holidays Headquarters, where you will find him noon-4 pm (suggested $10 donation for photos, goes to West Seattle Helpline, WestSide Babyand West Seattle Food Bank), along with gift wrapping (if you buy $50+ from participating Junction merchants, it’s free), and Pathfinder K-8 wreath sales in the HH booth at California/Alaska. Santa’s also at Westwood Village noon-4 pm — photo’s free with nonperishable food donation for food banks (also bring diapers for the WestSide Baby diaper drive). Or for an Italian Christmas experience, go meet Babbo Natale:
Lunch at Cafe Revo (WSB sponsor) 1-3 pm includes Babbo Natale (aka Nonno) telling Italian Christmas stories and taking photos — scooter included!
Other holiday highlights today include the Admiral Sings Christmas singalong at 4:30 pm, Admiral UCC church (California/Hill) and a holiday open house atBridge Park in High Point (3204 SW Morgan), with 11-year-old piano prodigy Val Wold playing, 2-4:30 pm.
Thanks to Michelle Edwards for that photo of the Christmas Ship sailing toward West Seattle at dusk Saturday, before its first stop (at Seacrest – here’s our report on that). After three Saturday stops, it’s back tonight for one more West Seattle stop, Don Armeni Boat Ramp at 7:15 pm. Its second Saturday stop, at Lowman Beach, drew a crowd that stretched out onto the rocky low-tide-exposed shore. Linda Ann Cox, whose snow-dusted photo from last year graced our previews this year, photographed the Lowman visit again last night:
As Linda Ann noted in her e-mail – and as we saw for ourselves – the Lowman Beach visit ended with fireworks (not an official part of the program, but fired in notable quantity from both the north side of the crowd and what looked to be somewhere in the residential area to the south). Even better, though, astro-expert Alice Enevoldsen says there was a meteor show too; she wrote about it on her Alice’s Astro Info website, and included photos – click here to see the tiny dots in the sky, captured by Jason Gift Enevoldsen, and then click here to see a labeled version of the photo. And one more look at the ship itself, which the rest of the year is the Spirit of Seattle, run by Argosy Cruises:
That photo was taken by Ian McKay, who has a few others in a Flickr gallery you can see here. From Lowman, the Christmas Ship and seven accompanying vessels moved on to Alki before returning downtown. Again, it’s at Don Armeni at 7:10 tonight; here’s a map. (Many more holiday events today/tonight – all on the West Seattle Holidays page – we’ll preview some of them later this morning, too.)
That’s most of the group that turned out Saturday afternoon to continue helping Super 24 (Delridge/Findlay) transform into a Delridge Fresh Food Spot. (3rd from left is the store’s owner, Bhim Singh.) That included placing placards with that phrase alongside various healthy items on sale around the store:
Outside, during the morning-afternoon event, volunteers offered samples of healthier food:
This doesn’t mean everything is produce and granola inside the Super 24 – right next to the fruit basket shown above, fried chicken waited under warming lights. But adding the healthier foods as options is another major step in the store’s evolution, the first of many if the King County Food and Fitness Initiative organizers’ hopes (including reps of Delridge Neighborhoods Development Association, come through. They also worked today to remove old alcohol and cigarette advertising from the storefront, steps away from where volunteers painted the eye-catching mural in late summer. And they’ll be back, they said, to keep helping the Super 24 evolve.
We promised more high-school sports coverage this year, and brought you fairly comprehensive coverage of the high-school football season. Now it’s basketball time, and we’ll be covering many of the games West Seattle’s three high schools play, starting with Seattle Lutheran High School‘s doubleheader in West Seattle Saturday night – read on for the story and video:Read More
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