August 2010

By Sara Reardon

On July 30, the Ballard Library looked more like the battle deck of a sci-fi spaceship than a library. Little barrel-shaped robots blooped and bleeped and whizzed their way about on the carpet as teams of children and their parents programmed instructions. The Robot Challenge was underway. 

This summer, the Pacific Science Center’s Science on Wheels program has partnered with Seattle Public Library’s Summer Reading Program to put on a number of free Robot Challenge events at different library branches.

“This is the first year we’ve focused on summer programming,” said Emily Wojcik, an instructor with Science on Wheels who directed the event.  

During the school year, the Science on Wheels program drives a brightly painted van to classrooms around the state, presenting workshops and hands-on science classes on a variety of topics from rock n’ roll to the human body.

Usually they take the summer off, but a recent grant from JP Morgan Chase has allowed them to provide free science programs at community centers like libraries and Boys & Girls Clubs.  

Petty Officer 3rd Class Jarod Newlove, a 2003 Sealth graduate killed in Afghanistan last week, was remembered in a candlelight vigil Tuesday night Aug. 3 on the baseball field near Chief Sealth High School at Trenton Street near 29th Avenue S.W.

In an event that was officially closed to the media at the request of the family, there were still satellite trucks for various television stations and photographers on the perimeter of the field, though an official photographer was on site.

Friends, family, teammates and classmates were asked to come before the crowd of approximately 200 people to remember Newlove who played baseball on the very field the memorial service was held.

See our previous coverage on Newlove here.

A fund has been started to aid the Newlove family on a personal blog site where you donate.
The site states:

The sun was out but hazy Sunday August 1, and it gave the normally yellow orb a distinctive orange tinge. The cause? Smoke from wildfires burning in inland British Columbia. Winds aloft pushed the smoke over Washington State and gave everything a particularly colorful look.

These people took the opportunity of a warm day and some happy dogs to throw some sticks for them to retrieve down at the beach at Lincoln Park. Yes, dogs should always be on a leash at Lincoln Park. But we're not in the business of interrupting happy dogs and their owners.

The organization, Heroes for the Homeless, a non-profit with a volunteer crew that distributes food, clothes, and blankets to those they find in need living without shelter, held its annual fundraiser Sunday, Aug. 1, at the Century Ballroom on Capitol Hill. The event, "A Hero's Ice Cream Social" included a raffle, magician, and buckets of ice cream, bananas, and toppings. Left-overs would go to a homeless shelter.

The magician, "William the Amazing," is William Darkow, who starred in the Seattle Gilbert & Sullivan Society's HMS Pinafore in July at Seattle covered by the West Seattle Herald.

"The fundraiser was great and we had a lot of fun," said Heroes for the Homeless founder, Tricia Lapitan . "We raised enough funds to get us through the winter. Monthly we serve nearly 650 people. Some of our regular clients live near the West Seattle Bridge, White Center, and just south of SODO. I think human services in general is going to be really tenuous to budget for in this year and I'm hoping the City Council and mayor really pay attention to what's happening.

April 28 was the scariest day of Jayme Miller's life. The White Center resident suddenly realized she was paralyzed from her waist down and did not know why. She called 911 and medics transported her to Swedish Hospital First Hill. Three months later, after transferring for rehab to Providence Mount St. Vincent and Swedish Cherry Hill she was back in her second-floor apartment, sitting in a wheel chair with some feeling, mostly tingling sensations, returning to her feet and legs. When energetic she uses a walker.