West Seattle, Washington
29 Friday
We’ve chronicled the community dreaming, planning, and working that led to this point – now the Gatewood Elementary play structure (chosen just a couple months ago) is up and just a few finishing touches remain till it will be ready for kids to use. Next one happens tomorrow morning – see the pile of wood chips at the right side of the picture? Starting at 9 am tomorrow, show up and you’ll likely be handed a shovel to use to dig in. Next week, a little more work remains to be done before the school district can give it a final inspection and then hopefully thumbs-up for the fence to come down.
That’s Captain Joe Kessler and Sgt. Jeff Durden of the Southwest Precinct receiving the first batched of printed-out thank-you/get-well messages for Officer Jason McKissack, from the message-sending campaign organized by the West Seattle Crime Prevention Council. If you haven’t sent yours yet, today’s the last day – this is wrapping up at the end of the night. Go here to send a message and to see some of the ones already sent. (Officer McKissack, by the way, is doing OK and continuing to recover at home.)
Earlier this week, we brought you the first look at the program for West Seattle Summer Fest, the street festival in The Junction coming up July 11-13 (two weeks from Friday!). Of course, the program doesn’t reveal every little detail of the fun, or the food – part of which will be good chow for a good cause. Eric Radovich from BlueStar, a Summer Fest sponsor, tells us about a food booth that hopes to score enough cash to kick off their fundraising program to get new jerseys for the West Seattle High School football team. The ones they’ve been using are more than five years old, and “tired” to say the least. 70 jerseys will cost about $5,000. So football players and parent volunteers, possibly cheerleaders too, will staff a food booth at Summer Fest. The players, in fact, will be taking a course this Saturday at the West Seattle Eagles‘ HQ to qualify for food-handler cards (the course has been on our Events page for a while and is open to the public if you know anyone else who needs to take it). They’re hoping the food booth will bring in at least $1,000 in “seed money” to get the jersey drive — which Marc Patnode is heading up — rolling; they plan to serve chicken sandwiches on French bread, chicken Caesar salads, ice-cream novelties, and soft drinks at the booth, so look for them when you’re hungry/thirsty at Summer Fest.
The popularity of new Ercolini Park is a reminder of just what a playground, and park, can mean to a neighborhood. Neighbors in two areas of West Seattle are working now to make similar dreams come true, and we have updates on both: The first one’s a dream for this Admiral park that you might not even recognize as a park:
Just beyond the tree in the foreground, that triangle of land at California/Hill (map), immediately southeast of Admiral Congregational UCC Church, is indeed a park, called California Place (official city page here). Manuela Slye, who also happens to be opening the new Spanish-language preschool Cometa (as mentioned here), spoke to the Admiral Neighborhood Association at its last meeting about her dream of creating a playground there. She is in the very early stages of trying to figure out what that would involve, but already has a touching presentation (as read to the ANA) with children’s art and words about what it would mean to have “a place to play” there.
Second, in North Delridge, the “tot lot” project (previous WSB coverage here) for Cottage Grove Park is now seeking an architect. They are hoping to find a landscape architect that can donate her/his services for this small playground project, but there’s a possibility their grant-seeking could include some money for fees, so they want to hear from anyone interested. Read on for a full description of the work and who to contact:Read More
BERRY DELAY: This afternoon’s weather is picture-perfect typical June, but we all know what a weird year it’s been otherwise. As a result, the Rotary Club of West Seattle won’t get the first delivery for its berry sale — the strawberries — till next month, so the pickups originally set for this Friday and Saturday are postponed till July 11-12 – when raspberries will be available too. You can order berries through the Rotary Club’s website.
BOAT TRIP: If the forecast holds out, this is going to be spectacular: The Northwest Environmental Education Councill and Duwamish River Cleanup Coalition have a two-hour boat trip on the Duwamish this Saturday, 10 am-noon. It’s $20/person and you can sign up online here.
SHOE DRIVE: If you have any “gently used shoes” you’re thinking of getting rid of, save them for next month – Edie’s Shoes in The Junction sends word of a drive to benefit Soles 4 Souls – they’ll offer $10 discounts to customers who bring in “gently used shoes” to donate to the drive during July.
COFFEE TALK: Every Thursday night starting this week, 6-8 pm, special “coffee hours” are planned at Cafe Rozella as part of the King County Food and Fitness Initiative — looking for your thoughts about the availability of activity opportunities and healthy food in Delridge and White Center. Read on for more info:Read More
At center stage in that photo from a few summers ago is Kevin Wooley (with Jim Dever and then-Hi-Yu Court members). You may know Kevin and wife Tammy Wooley, who are Fauntlee Hills residents – among other things, he chairs the Fauntleroy Community Services Agency, currently working to save the Fauntleroy Schoolhouse, and she volunteers at local schools. This Friday night into Saturday morning, we know where you can find them, and hundreds of others – at West Seattle Stadium, during the Relay for Life of West Seattle. It’s different from some of the other “walkathon” type fundraisers that happen each summer (like last weekend’s Race for the Cure) – and there are a variety of ways you can be part of it, with or without becoming an official participant. Read on to hear how Kevin and Tammy – a 10-year cancer survivor – describe it:Read More
Six days after Southwest Precinct police officer Jason McKissack was attacked while trying to break up a fight in High Point, he is recovering at home, but probably won’t be back at work for a while. Meantime, as reported over the weekend, charges are filed against the three teenagers arrested that night. But there’s one other aspect to this story: Many people have been wondering how to send a message to Officer McKissack. The leadership committee of the newly renamed West Seattle Crime Prevention Council had the same thought, and asked if we would set up a special page here on West Seattle Blog that you could use to get a message to the officer. We did, and here it is. A short form on that page will send an e-mail to a special box, and the WSCPC leaders will make sure Officer McKissack gets your message — in addition, if you tell us on the form that it’s OK to publish your message, we’ll post it on that special page too. Click here to go to that page now.
As the West Seattle La Leche League breastfeeding-support group prepares for its monthly meeting tomorrow (10:30 am at Seaview Methodist Church, map here), leader Betsy Hoffmeister sends word of a group project that could use your help: They have posted a proposal online and are in the running for a $10,000 grant to write a children’s book “that would contain positive depictions of moms breastfeeding” – which, as you know if you are or have been a nursing mom, are not easy to find. Read on for Betsy’s explanation and how you can help:Read More
Maybe you saw them at Alki on Saturday afternoon – that’s Sam Orlin (11) and Ben Orlin (9), who raised $150 for Child Haven with their Pink Lemonade Brigade stand, one of several in West Seattle – part of a nationwide event in which Crayons signed up 1,000 kids nationwide to get free lemonade-stand setups (including the drinks and the cardboard stand itself) to raise $ for charity. (Crayons, by the way, is headquartered in Bellevue.)
The past 36 or so hours have been by far the “busiest” ever for the West Seattle Blog Pets page – SEVEN new reports of lost or found pets, including 2 birds. This link takes you right to the lost/found listings; maybe you can help reunite one of these pets with its people.
Within the past few hours, Walking on Logs (Fauntleroy end of The Bridge) was decorated in honor of the upcoming Relay for Life-West Seattle, an American Cancer Society fundraiser that involves walking/running around the track at West Seattle Stadium overnight next Friday-into-Saturday. This week, we interviewed a West Seattle couple who’ve been part of it since the event’s inception, and you’ll see their story here this weekend; meantime, go here to find out more about the event, including good times to drop by and support the participants – by cheering and or donating – even if you’re not in the event yourself.
We stopped to phonephoto the Relay for Life decorations this morning while on our way back from Seattle Race for the Cure; that photo shows the sea of people in front of Team WSB as the three of us engaged in our annual tradition of joining the thousands of people who walk on the temporarily carless Alaskan Way Viaduct during the breast-cancer fundraiser’s 5K Walk section. We take pretty much that same photo every year; it’s always an incredible sight. Here’s the view after we got to the Western Avenue end and started back south toward Qwest Field, with some participants still heading southbound to our right:
With all the projects in the pipeline for The Viaduct, we couldn’t help but wonder if this would be the last chance to take exactly this route; it was closed 7:45-11 am for the event and one WSB commenter in an earlier thread said the “Viaduct Closed” signs weren’t working on Admiral – did you see any of them in operation? Just wondering before we check with SDOT on Monday.
Just out of the WSB inbox, from Cheryl Phelps:
The reason for this message is that our volunteer group, puppy raisers for Guide Dogs for the Blind, needs more volunteers. We need puppy sitters and puppy raisers. Our next meeting is at the Hiawatha Community Center at 7 pm Monday evening the 23rd of June. We would love to talk to others about this rewarding service and how it has touched our lives and the lives of others.
That’s THIS Monday night. We’ve added it to the WSB West Seattle-wide Events calendar; if you need directions to Hiawatha, here’s a map.
Passing through Westwood Village on the way back from dropping in on Grand Opening Day for Full Tilt Ice Cream (an update on that is coming up shortly), we noticed the bloodmobile at WV, just east of Barnes and Noble. That reminded us we hadn’t passed along word of the “Give Twice” drive that the Puget Sound Blood Center recently launched to avoid a dangerous summertime blood shortage — even if you can’t get to WV today (sorry for the short notice, looks like it’s only there till about 3 pm), there’s a June 30th blood drive at Admiral Safeway, July 2nd at PCC, and then back at Westwood Village July 26th. Or make an online appointment here to donate some other time at one of the PSBC’s regional centers. Meantime, here are full details about “Give Twice” – with a freebie for participants:Read More
Feet First, which helps make our area more walkable, is close to kicking off The Cart Project – distributing carts like the one shown above, for a nominal price – and that means two things for people in West Seattle. First, the carts will be initially offered to Westwood-area residents. Second, volunteers are needed to help match carts with takers. Here’s what Ellie Taylor from Feet First sent us to share with you:
Meet new people, and give neighborhood residents a reason to get out and walk! This is a volunteer opportunity for Feet First’s new Cart Project, which aims to make it easier for people to do their everyday shopping on foot with personal hand-carts.
Location: The pilot project is in Westwood Village, West Seattle. Volunteers would help distribute carts to neighborhood residents who come through the QFC in Westwood Village.
Times: Throughout the day; evening availability (5-7) is especially appreciated.
Tasks: Volunteers will ask people if they are within the target area, describe the project, administer a short survey, and collect some money.
To find out more, e-mail Ellie at ellie@feetfirst.info
First, 2 garden notes, starting with Marguerite‘s search for partners:
I am a gardener and I live in the North Admiral area (44th/Hill). I have a very wide and long parking strip I was thinking of turning into an organic veggie garden. The space is too large for me, so I am looking to see if there is interest in a pea patch sort of thing. I am thinking of 5 – 6 people that would like to have a area to grow veggies and help get the area ready for planting. I will help with the know how , each person would need to tend their own plot and contribute to water bills.
Click here to e-mail Marguerite. Still in the garden mode: an ongoing plant sale:
More than 10 varieties of organically raised tomato plants, and other plants for your garden, are on sale at Hotwire Coffee (WSB sponsor) as an ongoing fundraiser for Furry Faces Foundation, whose ringleader Teri Ensley says, “As always, proceeds of our fundraisers fund spays/neuters and the animals whose humans are on fixed incomes.” Plants are being regularly replenished, so if there’s something you’re looking for, check with Teri, furryfaces@hotmail.com.
MOVIE & TV NOTES: While we were at Hotwire photographing the plants, we got two more bits of news to share – Hotwire proprietor Lora Lewis says the last Movies on the Wall offering has changed to “Galaxy Quest” (it was “My Dog Skip”); that’s on August 23 and we’ve made the change on our Cinema page. Lora also told us her barista Blayne has made it onto “Project Runway” and is out of town doing the show right now!
FINAL NOTE – BERRY TIME: The Rotary Club of West Seattle is taking orders now for its annual berry sale; Amy Lee Derenthal sends along this info:
By purchasing berries from the Rotary Club of West Seattle you are supporting our fundraising efforts for the programs we provide as a Service Club in our community:
– Shopping Spree where we take underprivileged children shopping at Sears on the first Saturday of December for the past 35 years.
– Community Support where money is donated to a local projects including the Senior Center & Neighborhood House “Heart of High Point†Campaign.
– Pencil Me In For Kids purchasing school supplies for grade school children.
Order your strawberries, raspberries and/or blueberries today! Berries are FRESH from beautiful Mount Vernon , WA — cleaned, hulled, & packed only in their own juices — no sugar added. Ready for pies, canning, jam or freezing for year-round enjoyment! Go to our website to download the order form: www.westseattlerotary.org
From Kay McMillan, who says kids are on the waiting list for the Summer Reading Program at High Point – you can help make that list shorter:
The Youth Tutoring Program is looking for tutors in West Seattle for our Summer Reading Program!
The Summer Reading Program is a seven-week literacy-intensive program for students in grades 1-6 who are below grade level in reading. Trainings for new tutors will be held the week of June 16th. Tutoring starts June 23rd and runs through July 31st.
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 reading and writing. 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 literacy help they need at home and depend on our tutors for academic support!
Tutoring starts June 23rd so apply today at www.ccsww.org/ytp or call 206-328-5659.
On Alki tonight, the first clear night since the big beach-fire briefing at the Parks Board meeting (WSB coverage here), things weren’t too crazy at dusk – that fire ringed by tiki torches was the biggest one on the beach; Seattle Police kept watch nearby:
Right across the street, hours earlier, a cloudy morning didn’t keep West Seattle Moms of Tots from carrying on with a bake sale to fight childhood hunger — with this sweet (in more ways than one) cake among the offerings:
Selling the treats, Amy Evans and Cynthia Tamlyn, on the north side of Aimonetto:
As reported earlier in the WSB Forums, they are more than halfway to their $750 fundraising goal after this morning’s bake sale, part of a nationwide effort; even if you missed the bake sale, you can donate online here (look for the “make a gift” link on the right side of the page). Meantime, they weren’t the only ones giving their time to a good cause this Saturday morning:
If you drove along Delridge at midday today, chances are you saw at least one yellow-bag-equipped volunteer taking part in the North Delridge Adopt-a-Street cleanup. North Delridge is one of several neighborhood/community groups that make Adopt-a-Street commitments to tidy up a certain area at least once a quarter. And finally – WSB Forum Community members, who have rallied around many a good cause, got together for a fun time late today at Beveridge Place Pub – here’s one tableful:
And of course the conversation continues, online anytime, in the Forums.
Remember this photo from three weeks ago, when that truck crashed into Jan’s Beauty Salon on California south of Morgan Junction? The salon reopened quickly, but its owner still has interior damage to take care of (and as we reported later that day, doesn’t have insurance for it), so neighboring Chill just announced a benefit this Sunday, 10 am-2 pm.
(2006 Admiral 4th of July Kids’ Parade photo courtesy of parade organizers)
Two parades are coming up in West Seattle next month – the big American Legion Grand Parade down California SW during Hi-Yu is July 19th, but before then, on a somewhat smaller scale – literally, in terms of participants’ size – there’s the 4th of July Kids’ Parade in Admiral. And its organizers say now’s the perfect time to jump in and help out. Here’s their announcement:
4th of JULY KIDS PARADE…sponsored by Admiral Junction Businesses and the Holy Rosary MOMs group!
Celebrate the 4th of July by bringing your family and friends to the 14th Annual 4th of JULY KIDS PARADE! Decorate wagons, bikes and trikes and join this old-fashioned parade. All are welcome – both spectators and participants. It’s not a parade without spectators! Bring your lawn chairs and cheer for our kids, there’s no shortage of great viewing spots along the parade route (look for the flags).
The Seattle Police and Fire Departments will lead the parade starting at 10:30 am at the 1100 block of Sunset Ave. SW (44th Ave. SW and Sunset) on the morning of July 4th. Following the parade, enjoy the fun and games in Hamilton Viewpoint Park. Bring a blanket and some lunch (leaving some room for treats from the Holy Rosary MOM’s group concession stand) and join the fun!
We need volunteers to help out at the parade! If you can help with general organization, set-up, children’s games, water balloons, or clean-up, please let us know. Our critical areas are children’s games and water balloons. If you are a fun, enthusiastic person who would like to lead the kids’ games at Hamilton Park, we need you! We also need game helpers to hand out 3-legged race ties, organize kids into age groups for races, answer questions, help out with the little ones, etc. Last year we had a heat wave on the 4th of July, and we ran out of water balloons in 5 minutes. This year a heat wave seems like a distant after-thought, but I’m sure the water balloon fight will still be a hit. We need water balloons!! If you can deliver 25-50 water balloons before the parade, please let us know. If you have a service group that is willing to donate their time to blowing up water balloons for a worthy cause, please let us know. We can only blow up so many before our fingers turn numb!
We also have need of a game-day photographer. Someone with photographic skills who can document our parade all-stars for future publicity.
Contact: Sherri Chun sherri.chun@att.net or Jodi Bennett jodiandwayne26@msn.com
Organizers also just confirmed that one of the Admiral District’s most famous residents will be on hand too – Mayor Nickels is scheduled to help kick off the parade at 10:30 4th of July morning.
That lovely cauliflower photo is courtesy of Aviva with Community Harvest of Southwest Seattle, which is now recruiting participants for its upcoming first-ever Edible Garden Tour. Here’s the official announcement:
Are you a gardener in West Seattle or White Center who is growing an abundant food garden?
Community Harvest of Southwest Seattle is having an Edible Garden Tour July 26th.Are you…..
Committed to growing food in an urban environment?
Interested in meeting other food gardeners?
Sharing information and inspiration?We are looking for a diversity of gardens both in size and driving principles. Please add your garden to the tour!
Call: Helen at 206- 932-9537 (before 8 pm please) or e-mail Aviva at: info@gleanit.org
In other “edible garden” news, we have an update on Longfellow Creek Garden:
That’s one of the photos sent to us by organizer Zach, as he announced that Cedar Grove has donated 30 cubic yards of compost. He’s also continuing to organize volunteers, and currently asking if there’s a regular day of the week/month they want to sign up for. His e-mail address is zach@growingwashington.org; you can also track LCG’s progress at their site, longfellowcreekgarden.blogspot.com.
That’s a quick video pan of the lively crowd tonight at South Seattle Community College‘s Brockey Center, where almost 300 people gathered for the annual ArtsWest Gala. We dropped by just in time to hear the big news – AW is “debt-free” for the first time since opening in fall 1999. And its newest capital campaign is already three-fourths of the way to its goal — “Full Speed Ahead” has received more than $460,000 from city/county/state government and foundations, and just needs $166K from the public – here’s the slide shown to the crowd:
The money will go toward capital improvements like new seats, infrastructure improvements like a full-time box office, and “artistry” endeavors — in particular, ArtsWest leaders said, “a living wage for artists.” If you want to help ArtsWest reach its goal, you can make a donation through this page on the AW website.
Till 3 pm today – those are some of the adoptable heart-stealers King County Animal Services has brought to the Furry Faces Foundation plant sale at 3809 46th SW (map). The sale’s continuing till 4 and is running again tomorrow, but the critters are only there today, and only till 3.
After we mentioned Wednesday night that the date has been set for the long-awaited cleanup along Fauntleroy from Walking on Logs to 35th, people started asking how to sign up. Nancy Driver, who announced the date at that night’s Southwest District Council meeting, has posted this followup comment, and we’re highlighting it here in case you didn’t check back on the original report:
The Fairmount Community Association, in conjunction with the West Seattle Neighborhood Service Center (Dept. of Neighborhoods) is organizing a major clean up of the green area from the Walking on Logs sculptures up to the intersection of Fauntleroy and 35th. The date for the clean up is SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 13th. The City of Seattle will be providing equipment, tools and assistance but this clean up is a substantial project and we will need lots of volunteers. Additional details will be posted on the WS Blog in the coming weeks. If you are interested in helping out with this project, please email your name, email address and phone number to ndriver@quidnunc.net. This will be a fun event and a chance to help beautify your community so get your name on the volunteer list and mark your calendar.
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