By Jason Grotelueschen
Reporting for West Seattle Blog

Serving the community and reaching out to neighbors were key topics at the monthly meeting of the North Delridge Neighborhood Council at the Delridge Library on Monday night.

Most of the meeting was devoted to a presentation and discussion with Brian Waid and Andy Horner from the  Rotary Club of West Seattle (see WSB’s archive of WS Rotary news). NDNC co-chair Jay Mirro said they’re hoping to invite more groups and speakers such as the Rotary Club to the monthly NDNC meetings, to build relationships and better serve the Delridge neighborhood.

Waid and Horner encouraged NDNC leaders (and members of the community at-large) to visit the WS Rotary website for information about the group’s activities, meetings, and mission.

Waid talked about the upcoming “Christmas Shopping Spree” for needy children, the first Saturday in December (for info, scroll down on the WS Rotary website’s “past events” page) in SODO. The event dates back to the 1960s, and now requires more than 200 volunteers to make it happen.

Horner mentioned an upcoming Rotary project (requiring more than 900 labor hours) involving the construction of a boat launch. For these and other community projects, he cited the benefits of the Rotary’s pre-screened volunteer labor force, compared to potentially more unpredictable (albeit equally dedicated) crews gathered by “social-networking service groups” such as One Brick.

Co-chair Mirro and other NDNC leaders agreed that future partnerships with the West Seattle Rotary Club could be a strong possibility, and agreed to keep in touch and promote Rotary to the Council’s members.

Following the Rotary discussion, attendees talked about the importance of “increasing exposure” in the neighborhood through communication and outreach, citing the group’s new website (reported by WSB here) at ndnc.org as a great starting point. NDNC leaders agreed that a “grass-roots” approach is the best way to get the word out – meeting neighbors and getting them involved. Attendees clarified that “the neighborhood” of North Delridge includes the area between Spokane Street to the north, Myrtle Street to the south, and “between the ridges” (35th Ave SW to the west, and near West Marginal Way to the east).

The group discussed and moved to nominate a new candidate for Co-Secretary (Kirsten Smith, not present), and will vote on the position at next month’s meeting. Several attendees agreed to communicate and “brainstorm ideas” in the next month regarding other council leadership positions and goals. Also, the group has openings for chairpeople on the following committees: Public Safety, Beautification, and Streets/Pedestrians.

Reminders of upcoming events in the North Delridge neighborhood:

• October 16^th: The final “Delridge Night Market” at the Super 24 Store at 5455 Delridge Way, featuring fresh local produce from Clean Greens from 3-7pm. There is also a “Silk-Screen Your Own Delridge Shirt” event from 3-5pm. (WSB coverage of September’s Night Market is here.)
• October 19^th: West Seattle’s quarterly Art Lending Library at Youngstown Cultural Arts Center once a quarter. One night only, 6-9 pm (WSB coverage here).
• November 6^th: Quarterly Delridge Way Adopt-A-Street, 10am-noon, meet at the Delridge Community Center parking lot to get supplies.

Co-chair Mirro noted that the monthly cleanup of the Brandon Natural Area (originally scheduled for this coming weekend) won’t happen in October after all because the group lent its support to last weekend’s Duwamish Alive! cleanup effort.

North Delridge Neighborhood Council meets the second Monday of the month, 6:30 pm, at Delridge Library.