West Seattle, Washington
13 Thursday
(WSB photo from 2010 Kiwanis Pancake Breakfast)
One more reminder – tomorrow morning the Kiwanis Club of West Seattle cooks for you, Santa’s on hand for photos, and lots of other holiday fun will be served up at the Masonic Hall (40th/Edmunds on the east side of The Junction), 7-11 am. Bring new unwrapped toys for the Toys for Tots drive – they would love to present a big stack of future gifts when it’s all said, done, and donated. The breakfast itself costs $6 at the door for adults, $3 for kids 12 and under (that includes a Santa photo), with proceeds benefiting Kiwanis community programs including children’s-cancer research. It’s a huge day of holiday happening (as listed here) around West Seattle, so get it started right with a good breakfast and a good time. More info here!
Though it’s not out of the 30s yet, it’s sunny, and it’s a lively morning at the West Seattle Farmers’ Market. Above, City Councilmembers Sally Clark and Sally Bagshaw, making another stop on their citywide conversation tour as “The Sallys.” They’ll pour you a free cup of Rockridge Orchards cider (while supplies last!). As for topics, you don’t have to stick to these, but – Clark chairs the Committee on the Built Environment, which tackles issues like zoning and development, and Bagshaw chairs the Parks Committee. Meantime, you’ll also find the Kiwanis Club of West Seattle at the market today, promoting their upcoming holiday Pancake Breakfast:
It’s 7-11 am Saturday, December 3rd, at the Masonic Hall (40th/Edmunds) and you can buy your tickets at their booth today for the discount price of $5 adults, $3 kids (adults will be $6 at the door). Santa photos are included in the price – and you’re asked to bring new, unwrapped Toys for Tots donations.
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!
Two followups tonight on weekend collection efforts in West Seattle that both proved highly successful:
(WSB photo from Saturday)
On Saturday, we reported on the Kiwanis Club of West Seattle food drive “as it happened.” It was part of the global volunteer-action Kiwanis ONE Day. Tonight, the Kiwanians report that they collected more than 7,000 pounds of food and almost $1,000 in cash at five West Seattle grocery stores Saturday – all going to the West Seattle Food Bank (and remember, this is the time of year when food-bank donations count extra). The club says, “Special thanks goes out to all the members of the community who generously donated to support this worthy cause.” They’re also glad to have had Key Club members join them (note the teens in our photo). West Seattle Kiwanis also wants to remind you that they meet 1st, 3rd, 4th Wednesdays for breakfast, 7 am, and lunch (noon) on the 3rd Wednesday at Be’s Restaurant in The Junction (4509 California SW)
Another event we covered “as it happened” – on Sunday, the Fauntleroy Church Green Committee invited the community to another Recycle Roundup:
(WSB photo from Sunday)
Judy Pickens reports that 1 Green Planet filled its trucks with “an estimated 12 to 14 tons of just about everything for free recycling.” The church did accept donations from anyone interested in showing their appreciation – and took in almost $1,000. She says the company’s crew chief Michael Szanyi told them that the “strong support has made Fauntleroy Church one of 1 Green Planet’s favorite places to go!”
Till 3 pm, there are five places you can donate nonperishable food to the West Seattle Food Bank via the Kiwanis Club of West Seattle’s one-day food drive. We caught up with West Seattle Kiwanians and Key Club members outside PCC Natural Markets‘ West Seattle store (WSB sponsor) above, and fellow Kiwanians from Rainier Valley (with help from WSHS Key Club) at Jefferson Square Safeway below:
More information about the food drive, including the full list of stores, is here.
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.
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