West Seattle, Washington
07 Saturday
Last year, then-Seattle Lutheran High School senior Emily Meyer organized the “Remember This Benefit“ to raise money to fight Alzheimer’s – which killed her mom Betsy Meyer (shown with Emily at left, in a photo shared with us last year) way too early (the journey was chronicled by our partners at the Seattle Times). This week, Emily has another fundraiser in the works, to benefit the Alzheimer’s Association in memory of her mom, gone now for a year and a half: Tuesday night at Comedy Underground (109 S. Washington), hosted by Emily’s brother Alex Meyer. Here’s the lineup:
Dartanion London
Cory Michaelis
JR Berard
Jen Seaman
Andy Palmer
Barbara Holm
The show starts at 8:30 pm Tuesday (July 20), and tickets are just $10.
Tonight, we’re announcing the latest list of twice-yearly West Seattle Volunteer Recognition Award winners! The awards are sponsored by the Southwest and Delridge District Councils (representatives of community groups and organizations from all over the peninsula) and WSB; you do the nominating, reps from the two district councils do the judging. Drum roll …
Community award – Dennis Ross, longtime activist/advocate in the Admiral neighborhood
Youth award – Arthea and Ronda Barber, volunteers at Highland Park Elementary School
Environment award – Scott Blackstock, volunteer caretaker for Roxhill Bog/Park
Group award – Furry Faces Foundation, animal advocates and providers of compassionate assistance for animals’ human companions
Come give these hardworking volunteers a hearty cheer and much-deserved applause next Tuesday, as they are introduced and honored during the West Seattle Hi-Yu Festival Concert in the Park (7 pm on the Hiawatha East Lawn, free, starring the fabulous West Seattle Big Band).
Another notable farewell: Co-workers and other well-wishers gathered at South Seattle Community College this afternoon to say farewell to Mike Munson (photographed with wife Marsha), the longtime SSCC public-information director who’s about to retire. He’s not only worked to get the message out about West Seattle’s only college, but has also been SSCC’s rep on local groups such as district councils. His going-away gift: An autographed apron:
Co-workers say the apron is appropriate, because cooking is one thing he’s hoping to do more of!
Last time the Junction Neighborhood Organization met, two months ago, the group got a wide-ranging and candid briefing from a Seattle Police officer whose focus is on The Junction. He had harsh words for Real Change and its vendors (part of this WSB story on that meeting). The organization took exception to the characterization. So last night, when JuNO met again, Real Change staffers took their turn to address community concerns about people selling the paper (who may or may not be actual vendors). Read on:Read More
That’s 4-year-old leukemia patient Hannah Grage and mom Carrie, in a photo shared by Kathy Henderson, the West Seattleite who had originally e-mailed WSB about last Saturday’s bake sale/yard sale/lemonade stand to help Hannah (WSB coverage here and here). Tonight, Kathy e-mailed again, asking if we could publish a big thank you to everyone for the heartwarming response on Saturday:
It was a huge success and far surpassed our expectations of what we would raise to help this family. … We were just astounded by the generosity of this community in helping this little girl and her family. … we really do want to send out a heartfelt thanks to everyone who made this event a big success. …
I also wanted to mention that the fundraiser would not have been possible without the help of an amazing group of women: West Seattle Moms of Tots (WSMOT – meetup.com). This group collected, sorted and priced all the items for the sale and also baked lots of goodies in some crazy hot weather. The sale would not have happened without the help of these moms, most of whom don’t know Hannah directly.
The baked goods even included an adorable cake – here’s a photo we took Saturday but had only previously shared via Twitter:
Kathy also points out that Hannah’s mom published a thank-you note on the website they are keeping about their journey; you can read it here (scroll down past the photos). We also found a link you can use to make donations any time.
Seemed like a lot more people IN the water, waiting to greet the Seafair Pirates as they landed on Alki today, than in years past. We waded right in with them (our video was in an earlier WSB update, but if you missed it, click here to see it). Meantime, thanks to Gary Jones for sharing his perspective from a bit further away:
Our partners at the Seattle Times talked to some of the pirates and spectators, as you’ll see in their clip here:
Remember 13-year-old Joseph, the Make-A-Wish kid who became an honorary Seafair Pirate in that amazing pre-landing event on Alki Friday night (WSB coverage here)? Today, he became Captain Kidd Jr. He’s the fifth photo in the Times’ gallery – click here to go there directly. Two more photos to share – these are “pirate portraits” from today by Dave Estep from Estepworks Photography:
You will of course see the Pirates at many Seafair-sanctioned events in the next month or so – here’s the Seafair events list; among them, the West Seattle American Legion Post 160 Grand Parade coming up two weeks from today – Saturday, July 24th, 11 am, from California/Lander in the Admiral District to California/Edmunds in The Junction.
(Our Friday night report on this is here)
More on the event that captivated Alki on Friday night: Phase 1 of the Seafair Pirates‘ Make-A-Wish treat for Joseph, a 13-year-old Ellensburg boy with a life-threatening heart problem – Phase 2 happens during today’s Seafair Pirates Landing at Alki (noonish). Last night, WSB was allowed onboard the Pirates’ landlubbing Moby Duck for Joseph’s journey to Alki, as they picked him up at his downtown hotel, explaining they needed his help to fend off soldiers trying to take the beach. Upon arrival at Alki – strategy, then battle:
A search for beach-buried treasure ensued:
Joseph subsequently was named an honorary Seafair Pirate, “Happy Joe Rackham.” Proclamations from the city and county were read in his honor. Then, check out his smile as he and his fellow Pirates take a break for general bluster:
What you don’t see in our clips are the dozens of Make-A-Wish volunteers and supporters who were at the beach long before, waiting to greet Joseph and the Seafair Pirates. We caught up with them about half-an-hour in advance outside Alki Tully’s, and our photographer stuck with them as they headed to the beach, then caught even more closeup scenes as Joseph battled the soldiers (you get a better look at them in our photos, too). Here’s our Flickr slideshow:
One photo you might have missed in there if you didn’t know who you were looking for:
That’s Lou Cutler, P-E teacher at Pathfinder K-8 in West Seattle. Without people like Lou, kids like Joseph wouldn’t be able to have their wish come true … as you saw here a month ago, Lou has an annual “birthday run” around the Pathfinder field, raising money for Make-A-Wish. Lou told us the final fundraising total from this year’s run is $5,700. You can of course donate to Make-A-Wish any time – just go here. (And go to Alki at noontime to see what adventures are in store next for “Happy Joe” as he comes ashore with the Pirates today!)
ORIGINAL 6:42 PM REPORT: Just an advance FYI – their official “landing” isn’t until noontime tomorrow, but the Seafair Pirates are scheduled to make a landing-eve appearance at Alki within the next hour or so. It’s part of the Make-A-Wish aspect of this year’s Seafair Pirates’ Landing, as mentioned when we first reported on the event’s sponsorship challenges (since resolved) last month. The media advisory that we received with details last night said it was supposed to be a surprise to the teenage Make-A-Wish recipient, an Ellensburg boy, so even though it appears at least one media organization published details today, we’re staying mum, except to let you know you may see pirate activity (and Make-A-Wish volunteers) at the beach tonight. We’ll be there too. 9:20 PM UPDATE: Quite the amazing event. We even had someone onboard Moby Duck as it carried the young now-honorary-Seafair Pirate from downtown to Alki. Will be processing video/photos for separate story too (plus we made a side trip for some headliner rock music at Summer Fest.) In the meantime, we are adding to this with two great photos shared by Alki photographer extraordinaire David Hutchinson. That’s 13-year-old Joseph – now christened honorary Seafair Pirate “Happy Joe Rackham” – with his new compatriots.
Stand by for our next story with a close-up perspective – and a reminder, the official Seafair Pirates’ Landing – in which “Happy Joe” will again be a participant – is tomorrow at Alki, with the Pirates scheduled to come ashore (we hear there’s something new this year!) around 12:30 pm. 10:19 PM: Adding two more photos, shared with us by another of the many photographers who managed to capture this not-too-widely-announced event, Josh Daniels from JayLee Productions:
(In that last photo, after Happy Joe vanquished the soldiers who were on the beach when he and the Pirates arrived, he went onto the sand, lured by the promise of treasure – which he found!)
Popping in some other news before we start a late-afternoon edition of Summer Fest coverage after 3 pm … Remember that tonight’s the night we find out how a West Seattle girl did on “Jeopardy!” – 7:30 pm on Channel 4, Washington Middle School student Vivian Lappenbusch competes, after making it to the TV show from among a field of 10,000 contenders! Though the show was taped months ago, Vivian’s mom Brittany, who just sent the photo of her daughter with the show’s legendary host Alex Trebek, reiterates that their lips are sealed – so we won’t know how she did till we watch the show tonight! (Here’s our original report from last month about Vivian’s big achievement. The family lives in North Delridge.)
“He read ‘Kon-Tiki‘ as a kid.” That’s one explanation Beach Drive resident Peter Goldman gave for the solo outrigger journey his 27-year-old nephew Alex Kongsgaard launched this morning from the rocky shore below Emma Schmitz Memorial Overlook on Beach Drive – West Seattle to Glacier Bay, planning on about 30 miles a day over the next eight weeks or so. Kongsgaard is actually from Napa, California, sixth-generation Napan who works at the family winery:
His West Seattle aunt Martha Kongsgaard, Peter’s wife, provided that photo – she says Alex and his dad “just finished bottling the Kongsgaard 2008 vintage of Chardonnay, Cabernet, VioRous, and the famous ‘The Judge'” – as well as sharing this next photo, with a closer look at Alex:
Martha says her nephew has paddled long distances before – in 2007, he and a friend kayaked to Port Hardy, on the north tip of Vancouver Island. The 33-pound outrigger he’s paddling this trip is based on a Kevlar racing kayak, she adds. This morning, she had to catch a ferry to Bainbridge, so we were on the beach with Peter – the solo sendoff party for the solo paddler – and rolled video on his first minute and a half at sea:
Alex called out “See you in two months!” to Peter, who had to head off to work before the sun even finished rising above the Me-Kwa-Mooks hillside (note that Alex isn’t in sunshine till about half a minute into our clip); Peter yelled back, “May the Force be with you!” (Earlier, Alex had joked that he blamed his adventurousness partly on Peter, who’s climbed in the Himalayas, among other places.) Once Alex had paddled away, we drove over to Alki Point to watch until he was out of West Seattle waters, Canada- and Alaska-bound (Peter says his nephew plans to sleep in a hammock each night). We’ll let you know how he’s doing if the family shares any updates they get along the way.
Nine days ago, we brought you the nautical tale of woe – Seafair Pirates facing the possibility of having to personally bankroll their popular July 10th Alki landing, because sponsors had pulled out. Duke’s Chowder House boss Duke Moscrip put out a call for donations. And now, the Pirates announce, they’ve found a sponsor – TOP Food and Drug. Read on:Read More
From left, that’s Geoff Rowe and Greg Chelgren from Junction TrueValue, Pam Carter on behalf of the West Seattle High School cheer team, Jim Sansburn from John L. Scott,
Terry Gangon and Quang from State Farm Insurance, and Rich Bianchi from Keller Williams Realty. They visited the West Seattle Food Bank headquarters this morning to present the food bank’s share of proceeds from last Friday’s West Seattle Community Car Wash fundraiser – $2,020, a slight upward revision from the preliminary total reported back on Monday. Fran Yeatts from the Food Bank was on hand to greet them. Organizers also want to thank Michael Hoffman at Liberty Bell Printing for donating tickets and flyers, as well as Jack Miller from Husky Deli and community-group volunteers from Mars Hill Church, who showed up to help wash cars. The event also raised $577 for World Vision‘s Haiti-relief work.
It wasn’t quite “it was a dark and stormy night” – we’d say it was even better. West Seattle author Molly Ringle came up with a real doozy (involving a kiss, a water bottle and a gerbil) to win this year’s nationwide contest for bad writing, the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest. The Seattle Times (WSB partner) writes about it here; you might recall having read about Molly here on WSB before – in April of last year, when her paperback novel “The Ghost Downstairs” went on sale. Molly’s website reveals she’s publishing another novel this year, “Summer Term.” And you can read her entire Bulwer-Lytton-winning passage here.
If you are a longtime WSB’er, you may remember West Seattle Art Attack – the whimsical late-night forays of a glass artist (and accomplices) to leave surprises here and there – here’s our first report from fall 2007. As far as we know, WSAA has been dormant for two years (here’s the last spree) – but we just got a communique:
We are targeting 6 houses in the Admiral neighborhood tonight. We scoped them out in an afternoon drive-by and it was hard to pick but based on our whims and an appreciation for the care they have put into their yards we have selected some recipients for a midnight (perhaps sooner) surprise. As long as everyone knows that this is yard art and often has cracks or chips (but is not dangerously sharp) and is not a piece of studio quality glass we’ll all be good. It’s great to be back attacking again!
WSAA tells us they’re actually already back from the covert operation … so if you find an artsy surprise in your yard, let us all know!
The World Harmony Run — which “seeks to promote international friendship and understanding” — is in West Seattle this afternoon, and its journey along the peninsula began with a stop at Providence Mount St. Vincent, where King County Executive Dow Constantine presented a Torch-Bearer Award to Providence Senior and Community Services executive Charlene Boyd, a former administrator at The Mount. (They’re shown with Daulot Fountain.) On hand for the event – more than 100 residents and preschoolers – the kids are from the intergenerational education program at The Mount. They all were invited to walk/run/roll a relay around the building, and then the official torch runners are scheduled to run on to the Alki Statue of Liberty Plaza, starting around 3:30 pm.
ADDED 8:05 PM: Here’s video from the lap around The Mount:
Then, from photographer David Hutchinson, the official World Harmony runners arriving at the Alki Statue of Liberty:
(Photo by Aaron Last)
As Pride Weekend arrives in Seattle, the rainbow flag is flying over the Space Needle for the first time. And as you see in the photo above, two West Seattleites helped raise it. The photo is courtesy of one of them, State Sen. (and King County Council candidate) Joe McDermott (right) – that’s West Seattle resident and Seattle Storm owner (among many other high-profile roles) Anne Levinson just left of Sen. McDermott, with City Councilmember Sally Clark and State Rep. Jamie Pedersen. Sen. McDermott adds, “People are welcome to email me at Joe@JoeMcDermott.org if they want to walk with me in the Pride Parade at 11 am Sunday morning in Downtown Seattle!”
(WSB video of last year’s Seafair Pirates Landing at Alki)
Our timbers were shivered when Shell forwarded us the latest e-mail newsletter from Duke’s Chowder House, saying the Seafair Pirates Landing at Alki (scheduled for July 10) was in jeopardy – at risk of cancellation, or of costing the pirates a pretty penny from their own coffers – because of a shortage of sponsors. Duke’s even set up an online donation link. We have just checked with the Pirates themselves – and while they say no, the landing event is NOT in danger of cancellation, they do need $ help – stand by for the rest of the briny tale as fast as we can type it.
ADDED 1:35 PM: Just got off the phone with Mark Jensen, to whom we’ll refer with his Seafair Pirates nickname, “Keelhaul.” He says the event had “two nice sponsors arranged and contracted” – and within the span of three days, they both canceled. The price tag for the Pirates Landing is about $20,000 – including thousands just for the permits – which may sound like a lot, but isn’t really, for an event drawing that many people. If they don’t get sponsorship money, “Keelhaul” says, the Pirates’ constitution requires the cost be split among them – that means up to $500 apiece for this, and anyone who can’t pay it can’t be a Pirate any more – that’s just the way their rules work. (The Pirates are an independent organization, not bankrolled by Seafair itself, and they make 240 appearances a year, often to assist charity fundraisers.) “We don’t want to lose any pirates over this,” he says – and canceling this Alki Landing is NOT an option: A central part of the event will be granting the wish of a 13-year-old Ellensburg boy, through Make-A-Wish Foundation. As the culmination of what Keelhaul explains is a three-part wish, young Joseph Johnson will become Captain Kidd, the morning of the landing – which means he’s in charge. So how did Duke get involved with all this? They were talking to him about a sponsorship, and while that didn’t work for this year, he came up with the idea of putting out a call to his massive mailing list, asking for people to chip in. So if you want to keep one (or more) Seafair Pirates from walking the plank, here’s how to help.
At left, that’s Washington Middle School student Vivian Lappenbusch, who lives with her family in North Delridge and is about to gain nationwide fame – when she appears on the legendary game show “Jeopardy!” during its upcoming “Kids’ Week.” Vivian’s proud mom Brittany Abbott Von Spreecken e-mailed to let us know about Vivian’s achievement – 10,000 kids took the test this year, according to Brittany, and Vivian was one of just 15 to make it onto the show – and to ask publicly if any local establishment might be interested in hosting a viewing party! Vivian’s episode has already been recorded, of course, though the family is sworn to secrecy; it will air at 7:30 pm Friday, July 9th. You’ll be able to watch it on Channel 4 that night any place that has a TV, but if you’ve got a viewing-party venue (all-ages, obviously), let us know and we’ll put you in touch with Brittany.
Tomorrow night’s the deadline for nominating someone in the next round of West Seattle Volunteer Recognition Awards. WSB co-sponsors these awards with the Southwest and Delridge District Councils; reps from those two groups then review the nominees and choose the winners. This is the third round since spring of last year, and the winners will be honored one month from tonight at the West Seattle Hi-Yu Concert in the Park. Click ahead for the form you can use to nominate someone – thanks!Read More
Our full story on today’s daylong briefing/tour event regarding sewer-overflow control proposals at Lowman Beach is still in the works. But while we were waiting for our turn on the tour at Lowman’s Murray Pump Station – a surprise scene. These boys came over and asked if they could see – one of them was celebrating his birthday. Adult permission, and county permission, was secured, and down they went.
(Our tour photos, and the rest of the story from today’s “technical information session,” still to come; the tour went on to Alki for a look at the newly expanded 53rd Avenue Pump Station, too.)
Three weeks ago, we pointed to a Seattle Times (WSB partner) story about a newly published collection of former ST humor columnist Steve Johnston‘s essays. Today we get the news that Mr. Johnston lost his fight with throat cancer – which he’d been battling along with multiple sclerosis – yesterday, at age 63. He had been living in West Seattle, at Park West Skilled Nursing Center. The Times’ obituary says Mr. Johnston’s memorial will be private. (Thanks to Diane for pointing out today’s story.)
They put the “fun” in “fundraising,” as the saying goes. Which is the case for the photo above, shared by Sarah Airhart of the Community School of West Seattle, who reports that their Saturday night auction …
… was a huge success and we raised over $22,000 for our new floors.
I have attached a picture-because our auction, like our school, is always a little different! This is Jenna Lutton, one of our preschool teachers, doing her ‘other job’ at our event. In the background is the Village we built with last year’s Fund A Need money rasied at the auction. This year our Fund A Need was for an interactive wall mural outside that the children and families will work on throughout the year. A huge thank you to all the incredible volunteers who out on this event-and just a heads up that next year, June 2011, we will be having an Olympic Special….with lodging AND tickets to at least ONE event. London 2012…….
Next photo was shared by Lisa Myers from CAPERS, after Elise and Claire set up shop outside her Junction store:
According to Lisa, the girls were raising money for the upcoming Relay for Life of West Seattle – this Friday night/Saturday morning at West Seattle Stadium – because they have a teenage cousin who’s surviving bone cancer. We didn’t get word of their efforts soon enough to go see them to find out more, and Lisa didn’t have contact info, but if anybody does – or at least knows which R4LoWS team they’re affiliated with – please post a comment or e-mail us!
P.S. Quick update on a fundraiser we covered last week – Pathfinder K-8 teacher Lou Cutler‘s Make-A-Wish fundraising birthday run (here’s our report, with video as he and young helpers crossed the finish line) set a new record – $4,244 as of Friday – well above his $3,000 goal – and you can still chip in, to make sick kids’ wishes come true – here’s the link.
National attention for another West Seattle entrepreneur: The Washington Post takes a look at websites that match travelers with private homes/apartments in which they can stay, and part of the focus 
is on Casa Casa, founded by Gatewood resident Lauren Braden. (She’s got a membership deal going right now – $20/year, half the usual rate.) Lauren also writes about budget lodging in our region at Northwest Cheapsleeps – and in fact we “know” her from Twitter as @cheapsleeps. (Thanks to another Gatewood writer, Tom of Bikejuju.com, for the tip!)
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