August 2010

Bridge Park Dinner and Dance
Bridge Park is hosting a dinner and dance this Saturday, August 28, from 5:30 – 8pm. $5, Veterans get in free.
One lucky attendee will win a 26” Flat panel TV with DVD player!
There will be other fabulous door prizes!
Come find out how Bridge Park is helping our country’s Veterans.
Please call Melinda to RSVP as space is limited. 206.938.6394

Skate Church starts Roxhill Campus Youth Group
Roxhill Park across from Target
2850 SW Roxbury St.
206-890-8110 or theskatechurch.net
Every Wednesday in August at 6 p.m. Skate Church launches it’s second youth group in West Seattle. In August at Roxhill Park, then in September it moves across the street from the Park. The original West Seattle Junction campus of Skate Church will re-start again on Wednesday nights at 6 p.m. in September at the new Skate Church headquarters (4157 California Ave. SW). Yes! there are in-door skate-ramps at that location for Skate Church members.

Lunch With Our Neighbors
Seaview United Methodist Church
4620 SW Graham Street
932-7609

Vicki Sacco has been appointed principal for West Seattle Elementary School at 6760 34 Ave. SW.

The school, formerly High Point Elementary has been renamed too.

She has been an educator for 15 years in Brevard County Schools, an area of east-central Florida that includes the Kennedy Space Center. She taught intermediate grades at Croton Elementary School and became the assistant principal at Croton in 2000. In 2005, she was promoted to principal at Riverview Elementary School.

During her tenure at Riverview, the school earned Florida’s highest school rating of “A” for three consecutive years and consistently scores an “A” or “B”.

Ms. Sacco’s professional preparation includes a bachelor’s degree in elementary education from Florida Atlantic University and a master’s degree in educational leadership from Nova Southeastern University.

"I want to transform this school," Sacco said, "into a school excellence and the pride of the community, where student achievement is in the top ten percent of Title One Schools in the nation. We talked about that today and that's our vision we're creating as we come together as a school."

Seattle Public Schools has appointed Robert “R.J.” Sammons principal at North Beach Elementary.

Sammons comes to Seattle Public Schools from the Bellevue School District where he worked as an assistant principal/intern at Lake Hills Elementary School, as a program coordinator at Interlake High School and as a special education teacher. He also served as the dean of students at Leota Junior High School in the Northshore School District.

His professional preparation includes a Bachelor of Arts in global studies from the University of Washington and a master in teaching with a K-12 special education endorsement and P-12 principal certification from Seattle Pacific University.

He replaces principal Joanne Bowers, who has transferred to Green Lake Elementary.

Mary Alyce Miller, known as Alyce to generations of people in West Seattle for her many years at Husky Deli passed away Aug 22.

Born in Peru, Indiana in 1919, she came to Seattle with her family in the early 1930's. Her father, Herman Miller founded Husky Deli in 1932. It is now located at 4721 California Avenue Southwest.

She worked every day since 1936, aside from vacations, until Aug. 10. She died Sunday at approximately 5:30 pm.

Her oldest niece, Beth Miller said, "She was just a very, very dear person. She had twenty nieces and nephews, all of whom loved her dearly." When she took vacations she would sometimes travel with Beth. "We just had so much fun traveling together her and I, she was just the best traveling companion to have a lot fun with. She was just like a big sister for me because she didn't have a family of her own, so I could grab her as a big sister. She was my best friend too."

Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn is holding a press conference on Tuesday Aug. 24 to unveil a Seattle Jobs Plan.

Joining him at the conference will be John Burroughs, Chairman of the Board and Co-Founder, Cascade Designs, Inc., Dr. Jill Wakefield, Chancellor of Seattle Community College District, Students from Seattle Community College District, Teferi Gebretsadik, Rainier Valley business owner, and Dave Rolf, SEIU Local 775 (Service Employees International Union).

The Seattle Jobs Plan articulates a strategy for next generation economic development to help create a sustainable economy with shared prosperity. It is a framework of policies, programs and investments to create quality jobs, protect the environment and ensure that taxpayers get true value from the city of Seattle’s public investments.

The press conference will take place at Cascade Designs – Denali Building 3800 First Avenue South, Suite B at 10am.

On the hottest day of summer in a backyard filled with poodles, I thought longingly of the worst field trip experience that I ever had as the parent of a preschooler.

It was a lovely Ballard backyard, but there was no breeze, just full exposure to the sun.

For the poodles, there was a wading pool and treats called frosty paws. Although there were also beverages for the humans, the poodles assumed the coffee cake and bagels were also for them, crowding en masse beside anyone with a plate.

Crouching on a chair in an attempt to avoid the crush of poodle paws, I thought back to that visit to the pumpkin patch on a particularly miserable day in October.

Several children fell in the mud, which turned their fingers blue and brown. Driving south on I-5, it rained so hard that it was impossible to see the road. The wet children let off steam that obscured the windows, and then there was a sort of pillow fight involving doll clothes and Kleenex. I had to pull over and attempt a time-out threat. My daughter looked at me terrified between two girls waiting to resume textile tossing. I felt like I couldn’t control or protect them.

The Seattle Public Libraries will close form Aug. 30 to Sunday, Sept. 5 due to budget issues. Sept. 6 is Labor Day when the libraries would normally be closed so service will resume Tuesday. Sept. 7.

The SPL.org website has posted the following notice:

Services unavailable during the one-week closure
Most Library services will be unavailable during the one-week closure.
No materials will be due and no fines will be accrued.
The last day to check out Library items before the closure is Sunday, Aug. 29. The Central Library, 1000 Fourth Ave., and the Library's website (www.spl.org) will be open until 6 p.m. that day and another 10 branches will be open until 5 p.m. See Important Dates for more information on Library locations and hours.
No book drops will be open. Do not leave books and materials outside Library locations during the closure.

•Central Library book drops will close at 8 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 29 and reopen at 6 a.m. Tuesday, Sept. 7.

•Book drops at branches that are open on Sundays will close at 5 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 29 and reopen at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday, Sept. 7.

The Swedish crime novel, “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,” has become quite a sensation. That fact alone could doom any film adaptation—the comparison to the original being too big a hurdle to overcome—but, director Niels Oplev and his writers have stripped the book down to an exceptionally compelling tale.

Mikael Blomkvist (Michael Nyqvist) is a journalist who gets hired for an unusual assignment. A wealthy industrialist, Martin Vanger (Peter Haber), wants him to solve the mystery of his niece’s disappearance forty years ago. As he settles into the island compound of the industrialist and his clan, Blomkvist makes a series of unsettling discoveries, not the least of which is that he is being cyber-stalked. Someone has hacked into his computer and is feeding him clues in his investigation.

The hacker is the girl in the title of the film, Lisbeth Salander (Noomi Rapace), a researcher for a private security firm that did the background check on Blomqvist. Blomqvist brings Lisbeth on as his assistant and the two begin to unearth a series of brutal murders of young women all of which seem to tie back to the unpleasant crew Vanger regretfully calls family.

The Seattle Chinese Garden held a Welcoming Party for the 21 artisans here to complete the work on the Knowing the Spring Courtyard. The artisans were welcomed with a lion dance, kite flying, Tony Au's International School of Martial Arts demonstrations, Chinese Children's Dances by the Melody Institute, and Chinese arts demonstrations.

CLICK THE PHOTO ABOVE TO SEE MORE IMAGES FROM THE EVENT.

Julia Yang, eminent in the field of Chinese flower arranging, demonstrated her beautiful floral art during the welcome party. Julia is founder of the Hua Yuan School of Chinese Floral Art and author of a book by the same name published in 1995. She demonstrates her art at workshops for Seattle Asian Art Museum and the Bellevue Botanical Garden and plans to teach a flower-arranging class for SCG beginning in the winter of 2011. With Julia's advice, the SCG will create a garden of plants used in traditional Chinese floral arrangements. Students in her class will be able to harvest the garden for use in their flower arrangements. Julia was assisted by Lily Chang, another talented woman passionate about this beautiful traditional art.

Since West Seattle resident, fallen Sailor Jarod Newlove’s body was found July 29, 60 miles from his Kabul, Afghanistan base in a Taliban-controlled area, the community has embraced the tragedy of the death of the 25 year-old sailor by attending a candlelight vigil in his honor and by connecting to his wife, Kimberly, and other family members with hugs and words of support, and even financial help.

Jarod’s brother Will, 28, his only sibling, is also a sailor, stationed in Everett, recently detached from the USS Lincoln. He was a class of 2000 grad at Chief Sealth, three years ahead of Jarod. Will spoke to the West Seattle Herald at a fundraiser held for Jarod’s wife, Kimberly, and two young children at Alki Crab & Fish Saturday, Aug. 21.

“I was supposed to go to San Diego but with all this going on the Navy is being supportive, keeping me in this area to be around my family,” he said. He has bonded strongly with his niece and nephew, Jarod and Kimberly’s son and daughter.