No games with league powers
By Dean Wong
The 2007 Ballard Beavers are eager to kick off their football season on August 31 against Juanita.
On August 20, the team began their regular two-week training camp on Loyal Heights playfield's new artificial turf.
Although the team has shorter practices to accommodate Ballard junior football each day last week, Head Coach Alex Barashkoff was more than pleased to be playing on a new field.
Beaver girls now have the depth
By Dean Wong
In cross-country, the Ballard Beavers may have the depth to finally make it to state after narrowly falling short the past two seasons.
While both the boys and girls teams lost runners to graduation, there is plenty of young talent with the potential to accumulate team points at meets.
A key factor in the Beaver's chances is that other top KingCo schools have graduated many athletes in cross-country and Ballard hopes to take advantage of that.
Head Coach Bruce Drager said other teams have lost t
At Large in Ballard by Peggy Sturdivant
I'm not usually in Ballard on the last Friday in August so until last year I wasn't aware that I was missing a party at the end of my block. On the last Friday afternoon in August the Ballard Community Center hosts a neighborhood barbeque. Last summer I heard jazz music and followed it to the source at 6020 28th NW. Free hotdogs and ice cream, a chance for the summer camp counselors to "dunk" their counselors, an inflated jumping booth for little kids, and live jazz.
I shouldn't have been surprised.
I will be there to cheer my daughter on
By Lauri Hennessey
My mother-in-law is fond of saying that if she can teach her kids one thing, it is how to think for themselves. Her philosophy always spoke to me. But as I continue along this crazy parenting road, I am finally figuring out what the one thing is for me.
If I can teach my kids one thing, it is how to bounce back.
Really, what skill is going to matter more in life? How many of us reach high and grab the first thing we really want?
Ballard resident Kristin Hoelting is now studying salmon restoration efforts at the University of Bergen in Norway as part of a Fulbright scholarship.
"The biology department is working on fishing issues, salmon restoration the aquaculture and impacts on the environment," she said.
She grew up in Petersburg, Alaska, a fishing town of 3,000 people.
"It's known as 'Alaska's Little Norway.' People moved there from Ballard in 1898," said Hoelting.
Ballard resident Barbara Scott completed the 202-mile Seattle to Portland 2007 bicycle race in July while educating the public about a rare disease called cadasil.
Scott decided entered the race to raise awareness for the relatively unknown disease, affecting only 635 people in the world. Cadasil is a brain disease that has been mistaken for multiple sclerosis or early stages of alzheimers. Blood vessels to the brain collapse and bleed into the brain.
There was a surprise guest at the Health and Rehabilitation Center of North Seattle when the Seattle Mariner's Moose mascot made an appearance recently for "Gayle Miller Day Mr. Umpire." Moose spent several minutes honoring the 80-year-old resident and gave him autographed pictures along with other Mariner souvenirs. Miller was a star baseball player at Garfield High School in the 1940s. After taking a break from school to serve in the U.S. Navy during World War II, Miller returned the school where he also played football and basketball.
The fishing boat Enterprise cruises towards the Ballard Locks after a trip at sea. The view is from the Ballard Elks Lodge on Shilshole Avenue.
Rain on Market Street last week prompts drivers to turn on their headlights to improve visibility. Some asked if August was really October this year.
Saving rain water makes sense
By Don Brunell
Look around your neighborhood, and you'll see more rain-collection barrels popping up in yards as people find ways to conserve water. The 55-gallon drums collect rain from downspouts and homeowners use it to water their lawns and gardens.
Because the rainwater is recycled to grow plants that absorb carbon dioxide - a key greenhouse gas tied to global warming - it seems like an environmental win-win.
In fact, many local governments are encouraging citizens to capture rain for non-potable uses.
