(WSB photo from 2008 trick-or-treating in The Junction)
One more special event has been announced for Saturday, October 30th, in The Junction – Before, during, and after trick-or-treating at local businesses (1-3 pm), you’ll be able to get a professional photo of your little goblin if you go to Hotwire Online Coffeehouse (WSB sponsor) noon-4 pm. As a fundraiser forWestSide Baby and theWest Seattle Food Bank, Stephanie Cristalli Photography will be set up at Hotwire. You’ll be able to go online later to view the photos, choose what you want, and pay online too. In addition to proceeds benefiting WS Baby and WS Food Bank, diapers and food donations will be collected during the photo shoots too.
West Seattle High School is looking for a host family for Mr. Jinan Jia for the 2010/2011 school year. Mr. Jia is a teacher from China who is teaching Chinese this year at West Seattle High School. This is an exciting opportunity for the host family to learn of the Chinese culture and the Mandarin Chinese language. A home in West Seattle is preferred as the teacher will use Metro to get to work and will be networking with his colleagues at Denny, Madison, Sealth and West Seattle High School. Please call West Seattle High School Principal Ruth Medsker or her secretary Carol Wakefield at 206 252-8800 if you are interested. Thank you!
It’s been a while since we’ve talked about the West Seattle Emergency Communication Hubs (above) – neighborhood-designated sites around the peninsula where you would be able to go in case of disaster/major emergency, to get information and help (here’s where to find the one that’s closest to you). This morning, we have a request for you to help the Hubs during an upcoming “fake quake.” From Cindi Barker:
On Saturday, October 16, there will be a citywide drill of volunteer Emergency Preparedness organizations. In West Seattle, the Emergency Communications Hubs will set up 3 of their Hubs and conduct a live drill of an earthquake scenario, complete with aftershocks. To make this as realistic as possible, we would like to have citizen “actors” come to the Admiral, Fauntleroy or Highland Park Hubs to report damage, request assistance or offer resources (we’ll provide the script ideas). We would especially like to invite SNAP groups or Block Watch members to help, so you can see how the Hubs could interact with your neighborhood group. The drill will run from 9:00 am to noon on the 16th and you can participate for part or all of the drill. If you can help, please contact us at info@bepreparedseattle.info.
Five days after the fire that ravaged its engine compartment, the Seafair Pirates‘ Moby Duck made a trip to the Pirates’ top-secret North Seattle HQ tonight – thanks to the donated services of Skyway Towing. The occasion: Pirate leadership – in red blazers rather than the standard pirate regalia – talking about what they need to get the World War II-vintage craft back on the road again before Seafair 2011, and what happened to do so much damage:
That’s spokespirate Mark “Keelhaul” Jensen, who explained that they’re hoping to raise $25,000 in donations, since that’s the original estimate. But they don’t just need money: The engine that caught fire is an old Chrysler, and the Pirates are currently debating gas vs. diesel — they are in dire need of someone who is an automotive electrical expert to go through the Duck. They are also in need of a place to work on The Duck – if anyone has warehouse or other open space, please contact them. They really need to get The Duck out of the elements, as the fire caused damage that’s already risking serious rust.
You can send money to Seafair Pirates Moby Duck Fund
PO Box 27638
Seattle, WA 98165
or go toseafairpirates.org and click the PayPal link. Seafair Pirates president Rusty Harper – who lives in West Seattle – says if you can help, it’s part of saving a tradition, and they are grateful to have long had so much community support:
If you have questions or want to talk about helping out, call 206-365-1590.
(Car seats turned in for recycling during 2009 event, photo courtesy WestSide Baby) WestSide Baby is getting the word out tonight about its car-seat-collection drive, about to be kicked off with the help of Waste Management – with two events, one on the north side of the city and one at WS Baby’s White Center headquarters. That car-seat-collection event is set for 10 am-2 pm on Saturday, October 16th (10027 14th SW – map); or if you just can’t wait to get the car seat off your hands, 10 am-4 pm at the Ballard branch of Viking Bank (2237 NW 57th – map). IMPORTANT: Check out the criteria for whether your car seat qualifies to be recycled for reuse – details here.
(YouTube photo montage of Bacon Kevin Bacon – substituted for previous video clip, which seems to be broken)
In recent months, you might have seen the What Do Bacon Do? folks around West Seattle — at the WS Art Walk last April, street festivals, etc., with their festive felt Bacon People. Right now, they’re gaining new attention for their role in a fundraiser – and they’ll even be on KING 5‘s “New Day Northwest” at 11 this morning, we just found out. The photo above is the reason why – they were part of the making of a bust of actor Kevin Bacon, crafted from, what else, bacon. West Seattleite Wendy Watkins is on the WDBD team and explains it’s being auctioned on eBay – three days to go, and the bidding’s past $4,000! – to raise money for Ashley’s Team, a foundation to help families dealing with childhood cancer (Ashley is a leukemia patient who is also the daughter of the owner of J&D Foods, a partner in the BKB endeavor and best known for Bacon Salt). Sorry, though, BKB is not edible – as the eBay description notes, it’s been “well-lacquered.” (Bid here!)
Out of the WSB inbox tonight, two events for this weekend:
TWELFTH NIGHT PRODUCTIONS CABARET AND AUCTION: It’s the event that yields much of the funding for community-theater troupe Twelth Night Productions, and it starts at 6 this Friday night at South Seattle Community College‘s Brockey Center – dinner, drinks, appetizers, silent/live auction (items including a Leavenworth getaway and “instant wine cellar”), and entertainment, $55/person, tickets available online through Thursday.
AT COVE PARK, HELP OUT, AND LOOK AHEAD: A work party this Saturday at the mini-beach park north of the Fauntleroy ferry dock will be followed up by a chance to talk about what’s ahead for the park, according to this note from Mardi:
Saturday, October 9th, Tom Jay, lead artist, and Kirk Hackler, lead landscape architect, will be at Cove Park to talk to any interested community members about ideas for the restoration of the space after the Barton Street Pump Station is expanded and restored. All are welcome to help maintain the park from 10 to 1, and then meet with Tom and Kirk at 1 pm.
Every year, AAA offices around the state collect toiletries – shampoo, soap, toothpaste, etc., especially in “hotel sizes” – in the “Soap for Hope” drive. Alison from AAA in The Junction e-mailed to say that the West Seattle residential facility to which her office had been giving their donations isn’t around any more, so they are trying to figure out who the beneficiary for this year’s drive can be. Got a suggestion? Post a comment – or if you’d rather make the suggestion offline, AAA’s office number is 206-937-8222. (P.S. Once again this year, we will have a running list of holiday-time donation and fundraising drives on the forthcoming WSB Holidays page, so please let us know about anything you’re working on.)
Schmitz Park forest steward Dylan shares that photo along with an invitation for you to come help plant trees in one of West Seattle’s green gems. They’re having a tree-planting event this Sunday, as part of the 350.org10-10-10 “global work party.” If you can spare three hours 9 am-noon, you can help plant Sitka Spruce and Western Hemlock in the park; RSVP here (and find out more).
Before we get to Sunday – a separate regional event gives you the chance to join in one of several West Seattle events on Saturday:
It’s a regional Duwamish Alive! work party day, 10 am-2 pm on Saturday – all cleanup and restoration events in the Duwamish River watershed, some even on the river itself (there’s a waterborne work party too) – go here to see where you can help out.
As the Total Experience Gospel Choirrocked the rafters in the Alki UCC sanctuary, you could hear them from a block away – we did, as we got out of the car to catch the end of their concert kicking off the fundraising West Seattle CROP Hunger Walk this afternoon. With Pastor Pat Wright leading the nationally renowned group as always, they concluded with the song excerpted in our video clip above – “Reach Out and Touch Somebody’s Hand.” Then it was time for the walkers to head out onto a 5K route, into what was at the time a sunny afternoon on Alki:
In previous years, Alki was the only Seattle site for the CROP Hunger Walk, but this year, it expanded to two, adding one at Green Lake (also held this afternoon). The money raised is split three-fourths to nationwide/world hunger, one-fourth to local food banks (as explained here).
Larry and Gini – “half of The Johnson Team” – are just two of many Prudential NW team members volunteering today in a multi-location food drive, all over the area. We found them at Metropolitan Market(WSB sponsor) just as the drive was getting under way at 10 am; other collection sites include West Seattle Thriftway, PCC West Seattle (WSB sponsor), Jefferson Square Safeway, and the White Center (16th SW) Albertson’s. You can drop off nonperishable food donations at any of those sites till 2 this afternoon. They’re collecting diapers for WestSide Baby, too. 1:53 PM UPDATE: We checked in with the volunteers at PCC around noon – Jeni Desmond, Tanya Edwards, Lisa O’Farrell – and they already had shopping carts full of donated food:
Also at PCC, we found another donation-drive effort – not related to the Prudential food drive, but just steps away – you can donate to the Northwest Burn Foundation for “Give Burns the Boot”:
2nd from left, by the way, is former North Highline Fire Chief Scott LaVielle (that district handles White Center and the rest of the unincorporated area south of West Seattle). The Burn Foundation fundraiser, they told us, will continue outside PCC West Seattle till 4 pm.
#2 – SoundYoga (WSB sponsor) is having its 2nd annual FUNdraiser walk for West Seattle Food Bank 1-4 pm tomorrow, from Jack Block Park to Alki Lighthouse and back, about 3 miles each way per SY’s announcement. $10 suggested donation (plus bring baby food, pet food, or condiments), kids and dogs welcome. info@soundyoga.com if you want to pre-register.
#3 – The annual Seattle CROP Hunger Walk is this Sunday, leaving from Alki UCC (6112 SW Hinds), register at 1 pm, walk starts at 1:30 pm. It’s a flat route, 3 miles round trip.
Thank you all for your kind words and compassion. The family is thankful and appreciative for all the support we’ve received from the community at large.
The family is in need of financial assistance for medical, funeral and other various expenses associated with the memorial services and ceremonies. If you are able and willing to contribute to the benevolent fund, please see the information below.
“The Thy Luellen Benevolent Account”
BECU Acct #: 3586082948
Please include both Account Name and Number when making out a check. Deposits can be made at any BECU location with a deposit box, or by mail (address below). BECU members can deposit funds electronically by calling (800) 233-2328.
BECU
PO BOX 34044
SEATTLE, WA 98124-1044
At this point, any amount helps.
As noted here earlier today, the Seattle Times (WSB partner) has spoken with the only family member who survived being shot (she’s out of the hospital); memorial services are set for this weekend.
Thanks to Eric for sharing information about one more event happening tonight in West Seattle, raising money for families of law-enforcement officers killed in the line of duty:
Frank Kempten, Washington State Law Enforcement Memorial Foundation, and Ted Nicoloudakis, owner of Bamboo Bar and Grill along with the Bamboo Family, are proud to partner up with the Behind the Badge Foundation to help the families of fallen heroes. Please join us (tonight) at Bamboo Bar and Grill for Entrees and Appetizers, with all proceeds going to the Behind the Badge Foundation. Bamboo Bar and Grill is located at 2806 Alki Ave SW.
A donation box will also be provided for additional donations. Please make checks payable to:
Behind the Badge Foundation
PO Box 2047
Issaquah, WA 98027-0091
The folks working to create the Community Orchard of West Seattle are hoping that stack of cardboard along the southwestern fence of the South Seattle Community College campus will grow a lot bigger with donations – got some? It’s on the south edge of the blackberry-covered acre that will soon be cleared to make way for the orchard – we chatted there this morning with orchard volunteer Bruce Falzarano and Community Harvest of Southwest Seattle‘s Aviva Furman:
They were at the site because of a different project reaching a milestone this morning – an experimental corn patch using biochar (we’ll have that as a separate story). In the meantime, if you have cardboard to donate to help mulch the orchard site, Aviva says, just take it there (it’s alongside the southernmost edge of the SSCC parking lot, 6000 16th SW – you have to walk past a small outbuilding and you’ll see it along the orchard-to-be site) and drop it off! (They’ve been getting coffee grounds donated by Starbucks, too, and hope to ring the site with it – coffee grounds can be a great soil amendment.)
Great day to get your car washed – and to help out the West Seattle High School volleyball team, which is having a fundraiser at West Seattle Produce (on Fauntleroy south of Alaska) – go shop, and get your car scrubbed. They’re scheduled to be there till 3 pm.
Two unique fundraisers coming up in West Seattle before the end of the month – first one this Sunday, “Wine in the Woods,” benefiting forest-restoring Nature Consortium, whose Lisa Corbin shares the invite:
Nature Consortium, in partnership with 12th and Olive Wine Company, is hosting a wine tasting fundraiser in the West Duwamish Greenbelt on Sunday, September 26th from 3-6 pm. Enjoy performances from local musicians while you sample fine wines and take in the surrounding beauty of Seattle’s largest urban forest. Take home your commemorative wine glass as a reminder of your support of Nature Consortium!
See firsthand the amazing results of the hardworking volunteers who have transformed our vital urban forest from an impassable Himalayan Blackberry bramble to a lush area of native trees and understory plants. Suggested donation is $30 per person. You must be 21 to attend this event, and rsvp is required: Lisa@naturec.org or 206.923.0853
Location: West Duwamish Greenbelt, near the restoration site at 14th Ave SW and SW Holly Streets
(specific location details and parking directions upon RSVP)
We will move indoors in case of rain
Then on September 30th – one week from Thursday – you can see fashion from West Seattle boutiques rock the runway, in a fundraiser for the Gulf Restoration Network. Linda Walsh from Clementine in The Junction explains what they’re planning:
Erin Dolan (owner of Edie’s) has pulled together a great event to raise funds to help support The Gulf Restoration Network. Edie’s, Sweetie, Carmilia’s, Coastal and Clementine will all be showcasing items from our fall fashion lineup at Shadowland on September 30th from 6 to 8. We won’t be selling tickets, but people will be encouraged to make donations for the cause! After the fashion show at Shadowland, we’ll host a late-night shopping party (well until 10:00 :-) at Carmilia’s, Sweetie (also featuring items from Edie’s), and Clementine (also featuring items from Coastal.)
The Jade West Café north of Morgan Junction has remained closed since the drunk-driving crash last December that left longtime proprietor Wah Wong and his son Jason Wong seriously injured. (The drunk driver who hit them pleaded guilty and was sentenced last February.) We’ve been trying to reach the family for a while for a followup – but today, something new arrived in the inbox, with a fast-approaching deadline: The ongoing Pepsi Refresh “vote for a project Pepsi will fund” promotion has partnered with Major League Soccer, and each team proposed a project. The Seattle Sounders‘ project seeks to get the $50,000 Pepsi grant to renovate the Wongs’ Beacon Hill home, to help with the mobility issues they’ve suffered because of the crash injuries – Jason lost a leg. WSB’er Ben forwarded us a Sounders e-mail about this – the first he, and we, had heard of it – but take note, THE VOTING DEADLINE IS 8:59 PM OUR TIME TONIGHT. You can vote here.
Two years ago, we caught the start of “Walk ‘n’ Roll for Ataxia” on Alki; this morning, we have the announcement that it’s happening again in a few weeks, to benefit the National Ataxia Foundation in its fight against the not-so-well-known nervous-system disease (explained here). It’s at 10 am Saturday, October 2nd, starting from Alki Beach shelter #1 (across from Pegasus Pizza). Registration form here – or e-mail ataxiaseattle@comcast.net or call 425-823-6239. The very next day, there’s another awareness-and-money-raising walk in the Alki area:
(WSB photo from 2008 CROP Walk)
Sunday, October 3rd, is the day for this year’s CROP Walk, leaving from Alki UCCat 1:30 pm, raising money to fight hunger. More info here about how to participate and/or pledge.
Before those two walks in West Seattle, there is another walk happening outside our area but with West Seattle participants. Lisa from Arbor Heights e-mailed to let us know about Light the Night Walk, a cancer-fighting event for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, coming up next Saturday. Lisa is planning to walk with her friend April Fennell Robinson(photo left), whom Lisa says is fighting non-Hodgkins Follicular Lymphoma (and has already survived breast cancer). The walk is at Green Lake Park, starting at 7 pm September 25th, more info here.
If you don’t recognize him right away, that’s Chef Hajime Sato, proprietor of Mashiko in The Junction, speaking at last year’s Eat Local Now! dinner celebrating sustainable locally grown/raised food. He’s part of this year’s event too – coming up Thursday, September 30th – along with others including Chef Dalis Chea from Fresh Bistro, whose parent company Herban Feastruns this year’s Eat Local Now! venue – SODO Park, just a bit east of West Seattle – plus West Seattle-residing Chef Traci Knight, pastry chef for Westwood-headquartered On Safari Foods. Guest speakers will talk about green jobs – a focus this year, along with learning about and supporting local food systems. And the night’s entertainment is by Ali Marcus. Co-presenters for Eat Local Now! include Sustainable West Seattle and CoolMom, and WSB is proud to again be among the co-sponsors; you can buy tickets online right now – adults are $35, kids $10 – just go here.
Shana from WestSide Baby says they’ve got a problem they’re very grateful to have – so many clothing donations, they need to find volunteers for a “Sorting Frenzy” work party 7-9 pm Thursday night at their White Center HQ. If you can spare the time to help make sure local families get much-needed help, RSVP to Sarah Grubbs at sarah@westsidebaby.org.
Some people just walk into a place and take right over. That’s Seattle funnyman Pat Cashman making himself comfortable in Southwest Youth and Family Services executive director Steve Daschle‘s office this morning. Daschle wasn’t around but truth is, SWYFS really didn’t mind Cashman getting comfortable – he’s the guy who’s going to keep things lively during their biggest fundraiser of the year, the XAFLAD! (Somali for “party”) auction/entertainment gala coming up September 24th (a week from Friday) at the Columbia Tower Club downtown. He was at SWYFS HQ in North Delridge this morning for a briefing – even as volunteers like Nancy continued to toil on the auction items – some of which have been grouped into theme baskets (this one’s easy to figure out):
SWYFS has more than 150 donated items going up for live and silent auction, according to Nanette Westerman, who along with Shayla Simoes stopped to chat while Cashman and SWYFS’s Cara Kroenke strategized for the big night. Most are in storage, awaiting the auction…
…but some items just aren’t shelf material, like a stay in Barcelona, Spain, or two tickets to a fancy dinner and show, and even a sneak peek inside the fabled women’s restroom atop the Columbia Tower (yes, females can go inside for free – but the successful bidder will get a tour even with XY chromosomes, Westerman says). Whatever the auction brings in, SWYFS is going to need it, she notes – she says she’s already getting phone calls inquiring what kind of help the agency will be offering at Christmastime: “Things are fairly dire out there.” (SWYFS wears many hats – public-school classes on site, violence-prevention programs, family-assistance programs, and more – and has a service area that also stretches outside West Seattle.) A few $60 tickets to XAFLAD! are left, and you can buy them online here.
Nature Consortium, in partnership with 12th and Olive Wine Company, is hosting a wine tasting fundraiser in the West Duwamish Greenbelt on Sunday, September 26th from 3-6 pm. Enjoy performances from local musicians while you sample fine wines and take in the surrounding beauty of Seattle’s largest urban forest. Take home your commemorative wine glass as a reminder of your support of Nature Consortium!
Erin Dolan (owner of Edie’s) has pulled together a great event to raise funds to help support The Gulf Restoration Network. Edie’s, Sweetie, Carmilia’s, Coastal and Clementine will all be showcasing items from our fall fashion lineup at Shadowland on September 30th from 6 to 8. We won’t be selling tickets, but people will be encouraged to make donations for the cause! After the fashion show at Shadowland, we’ll host a late-night shopping party (well until 10:00 :-) at Carmilia’s, Sweetie (also featuring items from Edie’s), and Clementine (also featuring items from Coastal.) 
Before those two walks in West Seattle, there is another walk happening outside our area but with West Seattle participants. Lisa from Arbor Heights 
If you don’t recognize him right away, that’s Chef Hajime Sato, proprietor of Mashiko in The Junction, speaking at last year’s 
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