Northwest Hope and Healing’s Alki Beach Run: Sign up now!
That’s a photo from last year’s Northwest Hope and Healing Foundation 5K run/walk – in ’07 it was at Lincoln Park, but this year it’s at West Seattle’s other big shoreline park – Alki – and it’s coming up later this month! Tonight we welcome Northwest Hope and Healing as a WSB sponsor, as they work to continue spreading the word about what they do and how your participation in this year’s Alki Beach Run 5K walk/run can help. NWHH has a unique role in the fight against breast cancer and the work to help those who are battling it: It’s a low-overhead nonprofit (one employee, who works part time), based in West Seattle, that reaches out to newly diagnosed patients all around the metro area. Last year alone, Northwest Hope and Healing helped 1,000 local women who each found themselves among the 1 in every 8 women diagnosed with breast cancer at some point in their lives. Director Shari Sewell explains that NWHH “provides financial assistance for non-medical needs like child care, counseling, transportation, meals & emergency rent to women receiving breast cancer treatment at Swedish Medical Center. In addition, our signature Healing Baskets are given free of charge to newly diagnosed breast cancer patients … over 3,000 of our Healing Baskets carried a message of love, life, and HOPE.” The money raised in the Alki Beach Run will help NWHH continue to spread that message; the 5K is set for Sunday, September 28, on a course between the Alki Statue of Liberty and Anchor (Luna) Park (here’s a route map on the NWHH website), with check-in on race day at 8 am at Alki Bathhouse, the run starting at 9. You can pre-register online right now by going here, or in person at Capers in The Junction. There are prizes for the 1st and 2nd-place finishers, too, provided by Salty’s on Alki (other prize categories include largest team and top fundraisers). Read more about Northwest Hope and Healing at its website, then go here to sign up for the Alki Beach Run (which is open to walkers, too), September 28 (two weeks from this Sunday).
Here again is the link where you can pre-register now; if you need to find it again later, just look for the Alki Beach Run logo ad in the right sidebar on all WSB pages.
Seal Sitters update: Training tomorrow; no pup proliferation yet
We mentioned this briefly earlier today, but wanted to give it a more prominent shoutout: West Seattle’s Seal Sitters, who keep watch to protect baby seals whose moms leave them on local beaches while off hunting, have another volunteer-training session tomorrow night; we noted a decent turnout for their first one last month, which happened on a weekend afternoon — this time, it’s at night, 7-9 pm tomorrow at Alki Community Center, all welcome. When Janette Wilson from the Seal Sitters called WSB this afternoon to remind us about this, we asked how seal-pup season was going so far, and she admitted they’re “a little worried” — they’ve only responded to one pup sighting, a dramatic difference from last year, when things started getting busy in August. But she also noted that the chum run is yet to arrive, and that may bring some pups, so they want to have a full volunteer corps ready. If you want to find out more before showing up for tomorrow’s session, there’s contact info on the Seal Sitters‘ site.
Fundraising apple: You buy the “fruit,” they get the food
The White Center Food Bank (which also serves part of southern West Seattle) is getting a boost from an artistic fundraiser under way now at Avalon Glassworks: Proprietor Shannon Felix explains, “We’ve made big, beautiful green glass apples with white stems which sell for $80, of which 50% goes directly to the White Center Food Bank. They are limited-edition, signed and numbered, six-inch apples. The $40 proceeds from each apple equate to approximately 200 pounds of food for the food bank.” Avalon Glassworks is on Avalon just south of The Bridge, by Luna Park Cafe (map) – and according to its website, if you visit 2-5 pm today, you can see glassblowing happening live (the site mentions other dates too)!
2 ways to show Camp Long you give a hoot
Luckie caught that owl on camera during a family overnight last month at a cabin at Camp Long; we’re sharing it along with two ways to help the park/environmental learning center considered one of the city’s semi-secret treasures. First, you can help take care of Camp Long by joining in a work party tomorrow morning, 9 am-noon (show up at the lodge and they’ll point you in the right direction). Second – Camp Long is looking for some people power on a longer-term basis: new members for the Camp Long Advisory Council. Many local Parks Department facilities rely on these volunteer groups for help; Sheila Brown from Camp Long explains what this one does, and how you can help:Read More
Gateway Cleanup countdown: 8 days away, prep work begins
One week from tomorrow, a huge volunteer cleanup effort will tackle the “West Seattle Gateway” stretch of Fauntleroy, from Walking on Logs to 35th. Nancy Driver from the Fairmount Community Association has been providing updates – here’s the latest:
The goats, as cute as they would have been, are out of the picture. Some of you may have noticed that blackberry removal started yesterday. We were very fortunate that Jim Thorburn, the Community Corrections Supervisor- Seattle WORKCREW Program, with the State Department of Corrections agreed to take out the blackberries that we would have had to pay to have the goats clear out. We are very grateful to Jim and DOC – they are doing more than what they would normally commit to. Jim has lived in West Seattle all his life. Much thanks to him and his crew for this service to the community.
As mentioned in our last update, volunteer help is still welcome but what’s needed most right now is financial donations to help pay for tree work — if you can help, please e-mail Nancy – ndriver@quidnunc.net – The cleanup is 9 am-3:30 pm Saturday 9/13 (and please note that the curbside lane of that area will be closed during that time, for volunteers’ safety).
District Councils, report #1: Park name, Gateway cleanup
The bulk of tonight’s joint meeting of the Delridge and Southwest District Councils was devoted to an intensive briefing on where the Alaskan Way Viaduct projects stand now; we’ll be writing that up in the morning, but there are a couple quick notes to pass along tonight: First, the councils’ members voted unanimously to ask the Parks Department to make an exception to its park-naming policy so that a future West Seattle park can be named in honor of the late West Seattle Herald reporter Tim St. Clair — possibly the new park in Morgan Junction, where Mr. St. Clair lived prior to his untimely death six months ago. (Official Parks policy currently says that can’t be done till someone’s been gone three years.) Second, Nancy Driver from Fairmount Community Association provided another update at meeting’s end on the West Seattle Gateway cleanup coming up a week from Saturday: Volunteer power is stacking up nicely (thanks to all the WSB’ers who have signed up); what’s most needed now is $ donation to help pay for some tree work. DNDA is serving as the “fiscal agent” for the cleanup effort (which will beautify the “gateway” area along the Fauntleroy end of The Bridge, Walking on Logs to 35th/Fauntleroy. To find out more about how to donate, e-mail Nancy at ndriver@quidnunc.net.
Gateway Cleanup countdown: The latest, with 11 days to go
We’re now 11 days away from West Seattle’s biggest community cleanup in a long time, after months of planning, and if you’re not already signed up, it’s not too late. If you’re just hearing about this now – the West Seattle Gateway Cleanup on Saturday 9/13 is targeting the “gateway” area at the Fauntleroy end of The Bridge, from Walking on Logs to 35th/Fauntleroy — since the date was set in early June; today, we have another update from organizer Nancy Driver of the Fairmount Community Association, who says the cleanup now will extend to 3:30 pm:
The day of the event all volunteers should meet at the parking lot at the former Huling showroom at 4545 Fauntleroy (the location of the future Gateway Center). BlueStar Management has graciously allowed us to use the lot as our staging area. One section will be reserved for parking, however, we are strongly encouraging participants to arrive by foot, bus, bike or to carpool with other volunteers – remember this is a “green” event. We will have tents set up in another area with tables for checking in volunteers, handing out safety vests, dispensing water, coffee and light snacks. The mayor will be speaking under one of the tents.
Another important piece of information is that we have extended the project by a half hour to accommodate the mayor’s schedule. He is due to arrive at 9:00 and we understand he will speak for about 10 minutes around 9:30. Tom Rasmussen, City Councilmember, will also be on hand and may want to say a few words. We will actually start moving the volunteers in the first crew down to the site just before 9:30 – people in the 9:30 crew still need to arrive at least by 9:10 to get checked in. Volunteers in the second crew should arrive by 11:10 so we can be down at the site by 11:30; third crew should arrive at 1:10 in order to get to the cleanup site by 1:30. Volunteers must check in at the staging area first and get a safety vest. Volunteers who appear down at the site without a safety vest will not be allowed on to the cleanup site.
More updates to come! If you have questions or haven’t signed up yet to help but want to, e-mail Nancy at ndriver@quidnunc.net.
Happening this morning: Bake sale for pets’ sake
That’s Westcrest Park Off-Leash Area (map) — West Seattle’s only off-leash park (featured in this West Seattle 101 chapter) — and in the north parking lot adjacent to it, you’ll find some “Westcresters” having a dog-cookie bake sale this morning, 9:30-noon, raising money for the upcoming PAWSwalk. (If you can’t go buy treats, but would like to find out about supporting them in the walk, here’s their page; the walk is a week from today in Magnuson Park.)
An “anniversary” thanks — and a heads-up
FIRST, THANKS: One year ago today was our first (and last) West Seattle Blog Pledge Day – we already knew thousands of people found value in visiting WSB each day, but we rather brazenly asked that day whether anybody cared enough to chip in a few $ so we could turn this into a business and cover more news for you. 
We are so grateful that many people did – it was the morning of the lunar eclipse (blurry photo at left is the only one we got), and while we were up watching it in the wee hours, the first pledges came in … the ensuing proceeds paid for the costs of setting up a business, plus a video camera to expand our coverage (we have 2 now), and most important of all, gave us more confidence that this just might fly as Seattle’s first true full-time all-online community-news business. A few months later, we started offering ad space. So we don’t need to ask you for $ — but PLEASE support our sponsors, all listed here (and in the right sidebar), PLUS if you are in a giving mood, PLEASE give some $ to your favorite West Seattle nonprofit (we don’t have a comprehensive list – gotta work on that – but you can use this site to search with terms such as “West Seattle” or “White Center”) – they all need extra help in these tougher times.
NOW THE HEADS-UP: As part of WSB’s continuing growth – this will be the third consecutive month with more than half a million pageviews – the site has outgrown another hosting service, and needs to make a change this weekend to increase capacity. Most of this process is invisible to you BUT last time we did it, last December, some readers’ providers (like a certain large aerospace company) did not pick up the change immediately because of “DNS caching,” and WSB updates didn’t go through on those systems for a while. We expect to make the change during the holiday weekend so that any glitches affect the fewest people possible. But if at any point around Labor Day you notice that you’re not getting updated WSB content any more – from early morning till late night, we seldom go more than a few hours without something new – please e-mail us; also note that we have a backup site at westseattleblog.wordpress.com (nothing there now – it’s just an emergency backup) in case this ever goes completely down
SIDE NOTE: Thanks to the folks from Cupcake Royale for letting a local magazine crew take over a corner of their Junction shop for a while this morning to photograph your editor here:Read More
Pencil Me in For Kids volunteers get ready to deliver
The storm lifted just in time to make sure this group didn’t need boats to navigate West Seattle streets on their way to a get-together tonight in Westwood where they sorted school supplies as part of Pencil Me in For Kids, for delivery later this week – with the start of school just days away! Left to right: In front, Jeanne Arvidson, and Sue Lindblom from Illusions Hair Design [WSB sponsor]; second row, Cathy Rouyer, Josh Sutton from West Seattle Family YMCA [WSB sponsor], Al Rouyer, Guthrie Sutton, Chris Rouyer; according to the PMiFK website, Sue brought the program to the Rotary Club of West Seattle eight years ago, and now it’s one of their major annual beneficiaries.
Share the wealth (of knowledge): Be a tutor!
Kay from the Youth Tutoring Program in High Point says some WSB’ers stepped forward to help when we last mentioned one of their open calls for help – and it’s time for another one, as the new school year gets closer. Here’s her announcement; hope you can spare a little time to make a huge difference in local kids’ lives:
Tutor Great Kids!
The Youth Tutoring Program is looking for tutors in West Seattle!
YTP is a non-profit tutoring program that provides one-on-one academic support to students living in low-income housing. We operate five tutoring centers throughout the city. We are in great need of volunteer tutors at our High Point tutoring center located on 35th Ave. SW in West Seattle.
Tutors commit to one evening per week for two hours and work with one student at a time on homework, math and language arts skills. Available sessions are Monday through Thursday from 5:30-7:30 pm and Tuesdays and Thursdays from 4-5 pm.
Many of our students cannot get the homework help they need at home and depend on our tutors for academic support!
Our School Year Tutoring Program will be starting the week of September 22nd and we need hundreds of dedicated tutors! New tutor trainings will be held the week of September 8th!
Make a difference in the life of a child in your neighborhood. Apply today at www.ccsww.org/ytp or call 206-328-5659.
West Seattle Gateway Cleanup Countdown: 3 weeks away!
West Seattle’s biggest community cleanup in a long time is exactly three weeks from today, and if you’re not already signed up, there’s still room for you to prepare to pitch in. We’ve been telling you about this — targeting the “gateway” area at the Fauntleroy end of The Bridge, from Walking on Logs to 35th/Fauntleroy — since the date was set in early June; today, we have the latest information from organizer Nancy Driver of the Fairmount Community Association:
First of all, thanks to the many volunteers who e-mailed since the last update and signed up for the cleanup – the community response has been great so far. Mars Hill Church (West Seattle campus) has joined us as a co-sponsor – they will be recruiting more volunteers, distributing flyers and assisting with other organizational tasks – we are glad to have their help. Dixie Dokken, a former Executive Director of the West Seattle Chamber of Commerce, is now helping us with fundraising, as are Catherine Barker (also recruiting volunteers) and Sharonn Meeks (Fairmount Community Association). We are very glad to have their help because we have a long way to go to pull together all the money to cover the tree work that needs to be done.
We’ve been asked about who will make the decisions on the tree work and who decides which shrubbery might be removed. The cleanup area is a public right-of-way and SDOT (Urban Forestry) has the say so on whether any trees or shrubs are removed. SDOT requires that the tree company be a licensed, certified arborist and will supervise the company that does the tree work.
We are looking for four to five groups and/or businesses that are willing to “adopt†a portion of the clean up area so that it can be maintained in the future. It would be similar to commitment under the “Adopt-A-Street†program. If you are a member of a group or work for a business that might be interested in making this commitment to the community, please contact me at ndriver@quidnunc.net or Stan Lock at Stan.Lock@Seattle.gov
We’ll have another update for everyone next Saturday with all the details about where to meet for the cleanup and details on when and how to check in. Thanks again to everyone in the community who is supporting this effort.
Nancy/Fairmount Community Association
To see the latest version of the official flyer for the September 13th cleanup, click here.
Two more West Seattle ways to make a difference
Since we’ve covered more than the usual share of disheartening news this week – although with the heartening flip side of people reaching out to share information and help – we thought we’d call attention to a few ways you can do good this weekend. First, please note there are many MORE ways to do something good, listed in the West Seattle Weekend Lineup, including work parties in West Seattle green spaces, the North Delridge Adopt-a-Street cleanup we mentioned here on the main page a few days ago, etc., so please check out the WSWL too. But right now, two more that aren’t on that list – one of which involves a yard sale:Read More
Tonight: “Skiffle” at Youngstown, “Nemo” by Hotwire
What a deal – awesome entertainment rolled up with the chance to help keep after-school arts programs FREE at Youngstown Arts Center. “Skiffle” is happening tonight, and we found a few more details on the big-name musicians who’ll be part of the show: the blog Bring the Noise quotes an e-mail from Pearl Jam‘s publicist as saying Bison, which is part of the “Skiffle” lineup, includes PJ’s lead guitarist Mike McCready, Dave Dederer from Presidents of the United States of America, Duff McKagan from Guns N’ Roses and Velvet Revolver, and members of the Dusty 45’s. More details in our previous mentions; tickets are available at the door for a suggested donation of $25, doors open 6 pm, show at 7. And don’t forget the auction that’s also part of the fun(draising) – original works to be created at Youngstown this afternoon by performers, youth program participants, and community members.
Also tonight – providing the weather clears (National Weather Service says the showers should stop) – it’s the rescheduled West Seattle Movies on the Wall presentation of “Finding Nemo” in the courtyard by Hotwire, with cooler-than-ever raffle prizes and free treats (get the full scoop on the raffle offerings, and more, here). If the weather still looks iffy later in the day, check back here because we’ll post up-to-the-minute info on whether the movie’s a go. 1:27 PM UPDATE: Lora at Hotwire says the movie’s still a go since the forecast continues to look promising. But we’ll have another update late in the day.
Anybody have room for a guest teacher?
Just e-mailed by Delridge District neighborhood coordinator Ron Angeles, this note from Chief Sealth High School:
Chief Sealth High School is seeking a family to host our Chinese guest teacher. Zhu Dan teaches Mandarin Chinese at Denny Middle School and Chief Sealth. She would need to have her own bedroom. The guest teacher is responsible for her own food. Zhu Dan has taught Mandarin at Denny and Sealth for a year and a half and she will need housing through the end of the 2008-2009 school year. She is a pleasure to host. If you are interested in hosting, please contact Principal John Boyd.
His number is (206) 252-8550.
Also happening tonight: Admiral “play area” update
We last checked in July 24 on the volunteers organizing to create some type of “play area” at or near the North Admiral mini-park shown at left, California Place (northwest corner of California/Hill, just east of Admiral Congregational Church; here’s a map). One of the organizers, Manolita Slye, just wrote to say they’re meeting again tonight (as we mentioned in last month’s story, they’re meeting twice monthly as the effort gets off the ground) — 7 pm at West Seattle (Admiral) Library. She mentioned something we’d also been told in a recent note from someone else — apparently opponents are starting to organize — so she is hoping that more of the families who have expressed support for the potential play area will show up tonight.
“Rent party” reminder: Stars @ Youngstown on Thursday
We brought you first word of this event two weeks ago, and now it’s just two days away: Artists and musicians will create one-of-a-kind works all day Thursday, to be auctioned off – in tandem with special performances – at a big party Thursday night, raising money for All-Access Youth Arts Programs at Youngstown Cultural Arts Center. (“Skiffle” is oldtime slang for “rent party” as well as a type of music [here’s one of many examples on YouTube].) Here’s the official explanation of how the Youngstown event will play out:
During the day, eight teams comprised of community members, local artists and bands will create a work of art out of a blank canvas (some of these include guitars and basses). These masterpieces will be auctioned off the same night and accompany performances from The Boogilistics, Camille Bloom & The Recovery, Scribes, and special guests Bison (featuring members from Pearl Jam, The Presidents of the United States of America, Guns N’ Roses, and The Dusty 45s), as well as artists and students from Arts Corps, Rock School and the Service Board.
Doors open Thursday night at 6, show starts at 7; tickets are available at the door for $25 suggested donation. The All-Access after-school programs are offered free to participants — music, spoken-word poetry, dance, and more — and enjoying this fundraiser is one way to make sure that can continue. Haven’t been to Youngstown before? Here’s a map.
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