West Seattle, Washington
10 Tuesday
Thanks to David Hutchinson for that photo from the Seafair Pirates‘ Landing on Alki a few hours ago, and for the next four – avast, er, vastly better than ours, so we’re showing you his first, with ours tacked on at the end. We also shot video and will have that up in a separate post a little later.
Despite the mostly cloudy weather, the event felt more festive than last year, or perhaps our perception came from standing on the beach instead of up on the promenade – who knows. More of David’s photos – pirates up close and personal! – and ours, ahead:Read More
Now that the 4th is past, we’ll talk more about other events coming up – the big one next weekend is West Seattle Summer Fest Friday-Sunday in The Junction, but next weekend has more to offer too, including an event at the site shown above: Along Orchard west of Delridge, across from Home Depot, by Tug Tavern, that small house with the big statue out back is inviting you to a Vietnamese Cultural Festival a week from today, including a closer look at the statue; we first found out about it after dispatching a student-journalism team to go find out more about the statue, something we’ve meant to do for a long time, as we often get questions from passersby – read on to learn about it, and about next Saturday’s event:Read More
Out of the WSB inbox, from Sherry:
I just wanted to tell you about a couple of incidents in West Seattle where good people have saved me from great difficulty caused by my own carelessness.
A few weeks ago, I set my computer bag down at the rear of my vanpool van while waiting for another rider to arrive with a key for the van. When he arrived, we jumped in the van and drove all the way to Redmond for work. When I opened the back of the van, I realized that I had left my laptop bag on the street (with my employer’s laptop in it, of course!). I sped back to West Seattle and found a message on my answering machine from my dentist: the kind young man who found my bag had found an appointment reminder in the bag, and called the dentist’s office to ask them to contact me and give me his phone number so I could retrieve my computer bag.
My office mate, who is from India, remarked that that is what he loves about the United States: If you lose something, people will always return it. Weeeelll, not necessarily, I said. I was very lucky that an honest person found my bag.
Then, apparently [Tuesday] night my wallet, containing my debit card and a credit card, fell out of my purse, either in the parking lot at the Jefferson Square Safeway, or on the street outside my house. I noticed that it was missing, but thought it must have fallen out in my car. [Wednesday] morning when I opened my front door to go and retrieve my wallet from the car, I found the wallet in my mailbox.
I was able to thank the young man who returned my computer bag in person. Whoever the kind person is who returned my wallet, THANK YOU!!
We have some wonderful people in West Seattle.
WSB contributing photojournalist Matt Durham has filed several updates in the past two-plus months about homeless encampments he has been finding, and investigating, while exploring West Seattle parks. Tonight, he writes about two encounters with people linked to them:Read More
That’s part of the scene on the South Seattle Community College campus as “Field Day” for local amateur-radio operators (part of a nationwide drill) is more like “Field Weekend” — you can check it out tomorrow, too (southeast corner of the campus). Next, from the final hour of another longrunning West Seattle event this weekend:
That’s the “kids’ lap” in the final hour of Relay for Life of West Seattle, the American Cancer Society fundraiser that ran continuously from 6 pm Friday to noon today at West Seattle Stadium (we showed you the event-opening “survivors’ lap” here). Finally, more playground progress:
By the time we got to Gatewood Elementary at late morning, the wood-chip-shoveling work party was already over – and the area around the newly installed play structure is looking better all the time – we’ll let you know when inspectors give the all-clear and it’s ready to open (parent volunteers HOPE that might be in time for next weekend).
Three weeks from today, on July 19, thousands of West Seattleites will line California Avenue SW, from Admiral to The Junction, to enjoy the West Seattle Grand Parade presented by American Legion Post 160 during the West Seattle Hi-Yu Festival, with sights and sounds like those provided by the All-City Band (above, that’s a 2007 WSB photo of its tuba players). If this is your second or third summer reading WSB, you know we are absolutely crazy in love with parades, particularly this one. And we are thrilled to be able to help facilitate a group for this year’s parade — and to extend to you the invitation to be part of it, provided you meet just one criteria: You do, or have done, volunteer work for something. It can be something small and simple – you help out at your kids’ school – or something big (you’re part of a community group with meetings and events and everything else that keeps you busy week in and week out) – or something you’ve done just a time or two (painted out graffiti? picked up trash?). While discussing the idea of a parade unit with Morgan Junction volunteer extraordinaire Cindi Barker, the idea hatched: Volunteers of West Seattle Grand Parade Marching Unit. Don’t worry, no rehearsals, no choreographed moves, just show up on parade day and show off the “volunteer power” that keeps West Seattle running (though we’d like you to RSVP – e-mail volunteermarchers@gmail.com). Here’s part of the notice that Cindi has started to distribute on local mailing lists:
We’re not organized, scheduled or in any way coherent for this event, just like your average volunteer activity. The one thing that is firm:
If you show up decorated in anything that remotely resembles your volunteer activity, we will buy you a beer or soda at West 5 after the parade. Silliness and giant leaps of imagination are encouraged, have fun with your topic. Afterwards, you’ll be trying to explain yourself – networking at its finest, eh?No need to RSVP or pre-register, though we’d like to hear from you, so if you think you might be interested drop us a line at volunteermarchers@gmail.com
If you decide at the last minute you can come along, just show up and join the Volunteers in West Seattle Grand Parade Marching Unit for the recognition you so greatly deserve. No meetings will be held along the parade route, in case you were wondering.
Note that freebie – if you really get into the spirit. WSB will be joining the group too, and you can watch this site for details as the parade gets closer, as well as morganjunction.org, where Cindi will have info posted too. If you’re not already in the parade, and you’re part of West Seattle’s amazing volunteer power, please consider joining us! (Your kids can march with the group too; nothing motorized – Cindi has arranged for a cool Mini Cooper to lead the unit, with “snappy music” as she puts it.)
If you’re near a radio or computer at 9 am Monday, your editor here will be one of several guests during the live interview show “Weekday” on KUOW (94.9 FM, or listen online here) — here’s their description of what we’ll be talking about (not on KUOW’s website yet so we’re excerpting from e-mail the booking producer sent us):
Neighborhood blogs
A townhouse is going up next door, someone got mugged around the corner, and a new coffee shop opened down the street. That’s the kind of thing you want to know when it happens near you. But it’s probably not going to make it into the city newspaper. Hyper local bloggers have sprung up to fill you in on your neighborhood news. Some bloggers are reporters. Some are software developers. Some are just curious citizens. One only writes haikus. Are local blogs how all of us will get more information in the future? Is it a sustainable business? Do you read a local blog? E-mail weekday@kuow.org.
Other scheduled guests are from Central District News, Rainier Valley Post, OlyBlog, and Hillku (whose writer also contributes to Capitol Hill Seattle). P.S. Our “Rain City Radio” online/phone chat from earlier this week is now archived here as an audio file (and linked from our “About” page, where we have a list of WSB-related coverage links below our bios).
Sounds like Eugene Morgan of West Seattle had an amazing life, even after surviving the USS Indianapolis attack in 1945. The P-I had several stories about him in recent years (this one from 10 years ago is particularly fascinating)- and now, it reports he has died at the age of 87. His memorial service is set for tomorrow, 1 pm, Bonney-Watson in Burien (scroll down this funeral-home page for the obit he wrote himself).
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.)
Tonight at Fauntleroy Church (WSB sponsor), West Seattle Hi-Yu Festival queens and princesses present, past, and potentially future (the current “candidates”) gathered for the annual White Rose Reception, a ladies-only event. As exciting as it was for the gowned young women you see above, it was also a big night for camera-wielding moms and mentors:
Before the cake break that led to the photo-op shown above, memories were shared as women and girls from past Hi-Yu courts stood up and introduced themselves – here are a few:
The five candidates vying to be the next Miss West Seattle Hi-Yu introduced themselves tonight; all five with a long list of accomplishments, as you can see here. (We shot video tonight for a future feature, as the candidates get ready for a variety of events leading up to the Miss West Seattle Hi-Yu coronation and reception on July 21.)
Thanks to the many people who have sent messages of support to Officer Jason McKissack, recovering at home after being attacked last week while trying to break up a fight. We have now added some of them to the page where you can send your own message if you haven’t already (or just revisit the same page to read some of the messages) and will be adding more through the afternoon – provided the senders gave permission for us to publish them (you can also send a private message and tell us not to publish it). The West Seattle Crime Prevention Council’s leadership committee came up with the idea and is working with the Southwest Precinct to be sure Officer McKissack sees your messages; we’ll keep this going till at least the end of the week. Thanks again!
Per this TV story, West Seattleite Tom Milne kayaks to work – 13 miles each way. Sounds like he saw the same humpback JoB reported in the WSB Forums the other day. P.S. Kayakers and would-be kayakers may want to check out the annual Eddyline Demo Day this Saturday at Alki Kayak Tours at Seacrest (9 am-3 pm)
Josh Sutton from the West Seattle Family YMCA (WSB sponsor) sends that photo with a big thanks to Nucor — it’s from the company’s annual golf tournament for about 150 staff, vendors and customers, over the weekend at Washington National in Auburn. “This year, they decided to make it a fundraiser, and chose the YMCA as their charity,” Josh explains — with more than $30,000 raised. “We’ll be using funding to support our various youth programs like child care, day camp, academic support, and teen programs.” The photo shows the winning foursome: Weylin Thompson from Mulvanny G2 Architects, Nucor summer Metallurgical Engineering intern Anthony Perugini, and Nucor’s Craig Anderson (who organized the tournament) and CJ Shin. The foursome had a 9-under-par 63, and there’s a P.S. from Josh: “2 Y execs won the longest drives – Sue Camou Arrant and Marcia Isenberger. Must be the power of a good workout.”
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
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.)
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.
From the WSB Forums – Hopey is getting married in two weeks and suddenly scrambling to find a classic car. If you can help, check out her post here.
We mentioned this earlier in the middle of a multi-topic post – and clearly we erred in not making it banner news: Blayne the barista, who’s worked at Hotwire Coffee (WSB sponsor) for 2 1/2 years, made it to the popular cable-TV reality show “Project Runway” and is taping now for the season that starts next month. Now, courtesy of Hotwire boss Lora Lewis, we have pix of Blayne and his art:Read More
That’s longtime West Seattle businessman Verne Valentine with (left to right in front) Janet Ives, Tina McLauchlan, and Linda Bagocki. They’re smiling but it’s not an entirely cheery time – Verne e-mailed WSB to ask that we share the news that the U.S. Postal Station that’s been at the same location as his Farmers’ Insurance office at 2237 California SW (north of Admiral) is closing next month after 25 1/2 years. He explains, “The U.S. Postal Service has drastically changed the operation parameters to the extent that Farmers Insurance Agency personnel have been forced to discontinue the association.” He says the postal annex will be ending operations July 12th but his Farmers’ Insurance office is not affected and, in fact, is expanding into the space that won’t be needed for postal operations any more.
At left, that’s Eric Thomas of Solar Epiphany, one of two solar-power entrepreneurs who are making presentations at tonight’s meeting of Sustainable West Seattle – whose president Bill Reiswig is at right in the photo; we popped over to get a pic before the meeting starts (7:30-9 pm, Camp Long). Perfect synergy with the weather!
Checked your doorstep this morning? Your home might be among those randomly chosen by a group of “art attackers” who got together late last night to create and distribute whimsical homemade recycled-items art, like what’s shown above, and to the left. If this sounds familiar – they took inspiration from “West Seattle Art Attack,” whose secret surprise missions were chronicled here last year, but it’s a whole different group of people – read on for more pix and info:Read More
If you haven’t already seen it today, there’s a happy ending to the “Don’t hate us because we love your town, help us move here” thread in the WSB Forums (first mentioned here 10 days ago). Now there’s word these would-be West Seattleites have found a place. Welcome to West Seattle!
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