At the West Seattle Farmers’ Market today, the Kiwanis Club of West Seattle is back in its booth on the KeyBank side of the market site, getting the word out about two big things – first, the Eliminate Project:

With The Eliminate Project, Kiwanis International and UNICEF have joined forces to eliminate maternal and neonatal tetanus (MNT). This deadly disease steals the lives of nearly 60,000 innocent babies and a significant number of women each year. … To eliminate MNT from the Earth, more than 100 million mothers and their future babies must be immunized. This requires vaccines, syringes, safe storage, transportation, thousands of skilled staff and more. It will take $110 million – and the dedicated work of UNICEF and every member of the Kiwanis family.

Members of the West Seattle Kiwanis has pledged support for more than 600 vaccines and will be collecting contributions at the West Seattle Farmers Market to help get closer to the goal to eliminate maternal/neonatal tetanus.

And they’re also reminding you about their One-Day Food Drive next Saturday to benefit the West Seattle Food Bank – you’ll see Kiwanis and Key Club volunteers at grocery stores around the area 9 am-3 pm on April 21st, including WSB sponsors Metropolitan Market, PCC Natural Markets, and West Seattle Thriftway. Their announcement notes, “These activities are being held as part of Kiwanis ONE Day, a global volunteer action day uniting the entire Kiwanis family, including Kiwanis, Circle K, Key Club, Builder’s Club, Aktion Club, K-Kids and Kiwanis Junior.”

Not only was it a gorgeous day to wander neighborhoods and shop, it was a spectacular day for a ride – particularly if you were helping the Kiwanis Club of West Seattle raise money to benefit cancer research at Children’s Hospital. They gathered at midmorning at 40th/Alaska, to head out on a “poker run”:

The concept was explained in the preview we published – get a card at each checkpoint along the ride, then see what kind of hand you wound up with. The ride was followed by a barbecue, and as you know if you were out and about today, the sun shone all the way through!

Five West Seattle grocery stores, six hours, one day of service for the Kiwanis Club of West Seattle – tomorrow, 9 am-3 pm, Kiwanis and Key Club members will be collecting nonperishable food donations for the West Seattle Food Bank, outside Metropolitan Market and PCC West Seattle (both WSB sponsors) as well as West Seattle Thriftway, Junction QFC, and Jefferson Square Safeway. (And this is still that time of spring when donations to food banks count extra – as explained here.)

If you’re a home/property owner but haven’t looked your property up online lately – you might be surprised at some of the changes to the website overseen by the office of King County Assessor Lloyd Hara. That’s one of the things he brought up when he spoke to the Kiwanis Club of West Seattle during its breakfast meeting on Wednesday at Be’s Restaurant in The Junction.

When he took office after being elected in 2009, Hara said, he was the “fourth guy to hold the job in seven months.” He had two objectives – make the office more customer-friendly, and create more-efficient ways to get the job done. To tackle those tasks, he started by figuring out how to ensure people who called the Assessor’s Office could reach a live human rather than getting “lost in phone-mail hell,” which he said happened to him once. They still have a ways to go, he acknowledged, but his staff is under orders to make a callback within 24 hours to anyone who calls and leaves a message.

Back to the website – Hara says his office has expanded the amount of information it offers, such as a list of taxes paid on a given parcel over the past 10 years. As the online information expands, he said, the postcards sent in the mail with information each year will shrink, and that’ll save money.

Speaking of money – valuations are going up this year, he said, compared to last year, but the commercial real-estate market remains weak, so much of the tax burden remains on homeowners. (Here’s the office’s announcement from February.) Still not much of a condo market, either, he observed, as banks tightened up on home lending.

West Seattle Kiwanis meets three times a month – the schedule’s on their website. Coming up on April 2nd, you’ll find them (and Key Club members) at five local supermarkets in a one-day food drive.

More than 20 motorcycles hit the road for the Kiwanis Club of West Seattle‘s first-ever charity-fundraising Motorcycle Poker Run today. And when they got back to the ex-Huling site at 38th/Fauntleroy that served as headquarters for today’s event, it was Classic Car Show time:

This was West Seattleites’ first chance this spring/summer to get a closeup look at gorgeous old cars:

And the Kiwanians cooked up a tasty barbecue, too:

Money raised from today’s event goes toward their many charitable efforts – you can read about some of them online. And you can catch up with the Kiwanis at the West Seattle Farmers’ Market most Sundays, as well as at upcoming events including the Seafair Pirates’ Landing at Alki on July 10th.