West Seattle, Washington
25 Thursday
(Cheering capacity crowd just before the competition began)
“These are not the Hunger Games,” quipped Mary Palmer, emceeing tonight’s Global Reading Challenge citywide finals at the Seattle Public Library‘s Central Library downtown. “Nobody’s going to die tonight.” And, she added semi-sternly, if anyone came for the thrill of “winning,” they’re not in the right place either – as the kids repeated after her, they’re all already “WINNERS!”
(Arbor Heights team at top left, Alki in black in the middle, Roxhill is the far-right team in blue)
And that, they were – though in the end, only two of the ten competing teams scored high enough to move on to the final round of competition, a video-linked competition next month against Canadian students. And one is from West Seattle – George’s Magician’s Treasures, from Alki Elementary! (added – photo courtesy Kathleen)
GMT and the team from Adams both scored 120 points. (added) Here’s our video of the announcement of all teams’ scores (including WS’s other 2 contenders, from Roxhill and Arbor Heights) – in the last minute or so, you’ll see how Alki celebrated:
After finding out from this WSB Forums post that Comcast had issued a warning of an overnight internet-service outage tonight (actually early tomorrow), we checked to see how widespread it would be. Here’s the reply from Comcast’s Steve Kipp:
We will be doing maintenance on the vast majority of our service area in West Seattle. The work will take place between 2 a.m. and 5 a.m. We anticipate that service will be interrupted for about 5 minutes. The time of the interruption will vary depending on when we do the maintenance work on the equipment serving that neighborhood.
All of the work will take place at our headend facility in Burien and won’t involve construction crews working out in the individual neighborhoods.
Sometime in the next few days, wander past The Beer Junction‘s new location at 4511 California SW (first reported here last July), and you just might find the store in “soft open” mode. Proprietor Morgan Herzog will reopen with new features, not just a new storefront. Some are small – like the shopping carts on the left side of our top photo – some are large, like the added bar:
And then there are the familiar features, like Pliny the Oscar:
What about the beer, you ask? (And the other beverages?) 1,250 types of beer fill the refrigerated cases along the store’s walls – here’s the north side:
1,250 is not only double what Morgan opened his former location (across from Jefferson Square, on the site of <strong>Equity Residential‘s future mixed-use project), that’s also about 200 more than he had in stock when he closed that store earlier this month to finish the move. He’s also stocking 100 hard ciders, 50 meads, and 90 wines, plus assorted merchandise including T-shirts and mugs. Hours will be the same as the old location for starters, including Monday closures.
The West Seattle Eagles‘ Aerie is where a Celebration of Life will be held for member Diane Laxton this Sunday (April 1) at 3 pm. WSE Madam Vice President Amy McGrath shares this remembrance of Ms. Laxton:
Diane Amalea Laxton, born May 18, 1957 in West Seattle, Washington, passed away peacefully March 23, 2012, after a brief battle with pancreatic cancer.
Diane was born and raised in West Seattle, attending Gatewood Elementary, Madison Middle School and graduating from West Seattle High, class of 75. After graduation, Diane held numerous jobs, most notably at Pemco Insurance, where she spent thirty-two years. Recently, Diane was employed at Butter London.
Diane’s most challenging, yet rewarding role, was caring for others. Over the years, Diane cared for her grandfather, spent twelve years caring for her two nephews, and would be at a friend’s side in a moment’s notice. Compassionate, gracious, loving, warm hearted and generous are just a few adjectives that exemplified who Diane was.
Two days till a special meeting to help North Delridge residents find out about crime trends and how to mobilize to protect themselves and their families. We first reported on the meeting plan on March 7th, the night Southwest Precinct operations Lt. Pierre Davis announced it at the SW District Council meeting. We checked back with precinct leadership for more details; Capt. Steve Paulsen explains that the focus is on Delridge and its neighboring streets, from the West Seattle Bridge to reopening-this-fall Boren School. Capt. Paulsen and Lt. Davis will provide crime information, and will introduce community members to the Community Police Team Officer for their area, Jon Kiehn, and precinct Crime Prevention Coordinator Mark Solomon. Everyone in North Delridge is welcome at the meeting, 7 pm Thursday (March 29th) in the precinct’s community room, along SW Webster just west of Delridge Way SW.
During the 9 years that Jo Ann Yockey has been head of school at Westside School (WSB sponsor), enrollment has doubled, from 130 to 268, and a middle-school program has launched, among other achievements. Now, Yockey is moving on to a new challenge, with a new job starting in July at Abiqua in Salem, Oregon. Her successor, Kate Mulligan, chosen by Westside’s board earlier this year, was at the Sunrise Heights campus this morning, visiting from her current job at Hualalai Academy, a K-12 school in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii. We stopped by the school as Mulligan, at left in our top photo with Yockey, was finishing a school-community meet-and-greet. It’s a big week at Westside for other reasons – one of which you can glimpse toward the right side of the photo, a sign about the 23rd annual auction coming up Saturday. Even if you’re not going – you can bid in the online auction, continuing through Thursday night – the listing/bidding site is here.
Also happening at Westside, as we found out from communication/development director Jana Barber, who showed us around, new raised beds for an edible garden:
Barber says a grant from the Medina Foundation is helping fund the garden, where the students will grow food to donate to the West Seattle and White Center food banks, and they’re already raising seedlings in classrooms for short-season crops they hope to be able to harvest before this school year ends in June. Also growing inside the Westside building – this year’s baby salmon:
Westside second-graders raise salmon ever year, and these baby fish will be released into Fauntleroy Creek this spring.
Regina shares the photos, along with this message: “Thank you, West Seattle, for helping feed our neighbors – from Troop 282 and Pack 793.” Those are two of the local Scouting groups who collected food donations during Scouting for Food, door-to-door and at dropoff spots, last Saturday, and while we don’t have a poundage total, you can tell from the photos that people gave generously:
Remember that until the end of April, donations to the West Seattle Food Bank and White Center Food Bank, both of which serve WS, count for extra, because of the Feinstein Challenge – you can follow the links to their respective websites (click on their names in this story – all blue text in WSB stories leads to a weblink) to find out how to give, in multiple ways.
(Danny McMillin‘s ’10-shot combo’ of an eagle taking off from Alki; larger view on Flickr)
From the WSB West Seattle Events calendar:
CLOSURES AGAIN TONIGHT: As part of the ongoing Spokane Street Viaduct Widening Project, the 1st Avenue South offramp will be closed from the eastbound West Seattle Bridge, and the 1st/Spokane intersection will be closed too, both 9 pm tonight till 5 am Wednesday.
DELRIDGE SUPPORTIVE HOUSING ADVISORY COMMITTEE: The group reviewing issues related to the DESC Delridge Supportive Housing project meets again, 6:30 pm, Youngstown Cultural Arts Center (4408 Delridge Way SW)- the agenda (see it here) includes a presentation by the Delridge Produce Cooperative, a prospective tenant for the building’s commercial space, as well as time for public comment.
WEST SEATTLE BLOCKWATCH CAPTAINS NETWORK: The group’s agenda tonight – see it here – is centered on planning Block Watch Captains’ Appreciation Day. 6:30 pm, Southwest Precinct (Delridge/Webster).
WEST SEATTLE COMMUNITY ORCHESTRAS’ ANNUAL OUTREACH CONCERT: From the WSCO announcement:
The West Seattle Community Orchestras’ Debut and Intermediate Orchestras will perform at 6:30 pm at Highland Park Elementary thanks to a 4Culture grant from King County. … Highland Park’s own music teacher and WSCO Debut Orchestra conductor Daniel Hershmann -Rossi will lead his group through four pieces including Offenbach’s Can Can and Handel’s Sarabande. Toni Reineke, Ph.D., Intermediate Orchestra conductor, along with assistant conductor Anton Coleman, will lead their group through Smith’s Rites of Tamburo, Sousa’s Stars and Stripes Forever, along with several other pieces. Concert is free to all; donations gladly accepted at the door to support Highland Park’s music program; a bake sale sponsored by the Highland Park PTA also benefits school programs.
3 WEST SEATTLE TEAMS IN READING CHALLENGE FINALS: Tonight’s a huge night for Global Reading Challenge teams from Alki (George’s Magician’s Treasures), Arbor Heights (Da Peeps), and Roxhill (Stoehr’s Superstars) – citywide competition with seven other teams at the downtown Central Library, 7 pm. Good luck, all!
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