December 2010

Feet First the pedestrian advocacy group led a "walking audit" in the White Center Heights Elementary neighborhood Dec. 8. The purpose of the exercise was to identify areas to improve in order to increase the number of students walking and biking to school. The audit is part of the King County Food and Fitness Initiative program.

Lisa Quinn, Executive Director of Feet First said, "We came to identify some of the barriers and some of the assets in the area, some safety issues that revolve around walking to school. We're focused on the community and on getting kids to walk to school."

The organizers split those attending into two groups, gave them clipboards and digital cameras to get them to make note of things that either hinder or help those walking to the school. The two groups took different paths to analyze.

Press Release:
Local West Seattle-based actress/stunt woman Lisa Skvarla will be featured in the Discovery Health TV special "The Worst Thing That Ever Happened to Me”, airing Friday, December 10th http://health.discovery.com/

Skvarla portrays Debbie Puglisi, a real-life victim and survivor of a violent crime in which she was assaulted and kidnapped. Skvarla appears in this re-enactment of the brutal crime in which Puglisi’s husband was also killed. The incident occurred on April 20,1998. More details: http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20101123/LIFE/11230308

“I knew immediately the part was perfect for me,” Skvarla says, “I knew it would be a physical and emotionally demanding role. It was both challenging and meaningful to me.”

Co owner of Lee’s Martial Arts in West Seattle with her husband, Joe, Skvarla is active in teaching women’s self-defense and has coordinated anti-bullying projects locally. She holds a 3rd degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do.

The Hung Long Asian Market in White Center at 9988 15th Avenue s.w. which opened in mid November will hold its Grand Opening "Within the next ten days" according to owner Khinh Vong and his General Manager son Sky Vong. The family run business also plans on opening the adjacent Deli & Pho cafe the same day.

They have had some difficulty getting a chef for the cafe but Khinh Vong said he isn't concerned. "I worked for ten years as the general manager of the China Express for Safeway. I can do the cooking." Sky added, "My father's an amazing cook."

Many of the same foods available in the store as take out items will be "properly presented with other side dishes," said Sky Vong. The cafe will feature Vietnamese noodles, rice dishes, roast barbecue items and more but the menu is still being worked out.

"We all work together as a family and we're very very happy," said Vong who acknowledged that the process of getting the store built and running was difficult. "Everything is hard," he said, "but we're happy."

Des Moines Master Animal Control Officer Jan Magnuson is looking for someone to adopt a "Bear" for the holidays.
Actually, this "Bear," is a dog. He's a big dog-- about 90 pounds.

Magnuson guesses he's mostly Labrador retriever, mixed with a little German shepherd.

"Bear" was picked up as a stray and never claimed.

He's about 2 years old and has a very nice friendly personality. But Magnuson warns he's energetic so needs an owner with an active lifestyle. "Bear" does know how to sit and stay, though.

Magnuson reports he is very healthy and has had his veterinarian exam. But he needs to be vaccinated, neutered and have more obedience training. Luckily, the Des Moines Parks Department offers group obedience training at the field house, according to Magnuson.

Anybody interested in "Bear" should contact Magnuson at 206-870-6549 or 206-878-3301.

Photographer Steve Buck, who runs a photographer studio in Burien, has been named the Seattle Professional Photographers Association's (PPA) best photographer of 2010.
Buck has been making photos professionally for the past 10 years. He photographs high school senior portraits, weddings, child and family pictures as well as commercial photography.
He said photography was a childhood dream, and to now win best photographer in Seattle is an amazing experience.
The Seattle PPA hosts monthly photo contests, which are voted on by other PPA members. Every photographer who has a photo that places receives a certain amount of points for that photo. First place earns the most points, followed by second and third place. At the end of the year, the photographer with the most points becomes the PPA's photographer of the year.
After a couple of months of submitting and earning awards for photos, Buck said he began to take the contests more seriously, and strive for winning photographs each month.
After winning the PPA award he said he plans to enter more state and national photo contests.

From the Seattle Parks Department:

Seattle Parks and Recreation announced the winners of the 2010 Annual Denny Awards for Outstanding Volunteer Stewardship at a ceremony on December 7 in the Lake Union Park Armory. The winners are a cross-section of Seattle’s most tenacious, creative and hard-working volunteers who donate precious time and energy to improving Seattle’s parks and programs.

“It is always difficult for us to choose winners,” said Acting Superintendent Christopher Williams. “All of our volunteers make valuable contributions for which we are deeply grateful. Our intention is to single out those who whose work builds community, inspires others, and improves lives.”

The two West Seattle people included in the awards were:

Up and Coming Youth Award

Natalie “Wolfy” Whithan, Hiawatha Community Center Teen Council

Editor’s note: The following is the story of saving a man’s life with CPR, written by White Center Chamber of Commerce President Mark Ufkes. Ufkes, Imelda Morgado and Brian Daigneault took turns performing CPR on a heart attack victim who collapsed on a White Center street on Dec. 1. On Dec. 7, the Chamber celebrated their 2010 White Center Heroes, and Morgado and Daigneault received awards for their actions. The Herald story about these White Center heroes, along with others, can be found here.

Giving the Perfect Christmas Gift – CPR Training

By Mark L. Ufkes

For me, it took over 40 years for the Christmas gift to arrive. As a boy scout, I took my first CPR class in 1968 and have continued re-certification since. The gift from this CPR training finally arrived this December 1st; when three new friends met on a wet sidewalk in White Center, to use our CPR training to save a well dressed man who was dying of a heart attack.

Henning C. Boe, owner of the Western Viking, passed away on November 28, 2010 at age 95.

Born on April 27, 1915 in Oslo, Norway, he grew up in Tvedestrand and was trained as a master printer. He emigrated to the US in 1951, and worked for several US newspapers.

In 1954 he moved to Seattle to work for the Washington Posten. He bought the Washington Posten in 1959 from O.L. Eide, and changed the name to Western Viking.

The Western Viking started printing in Ballard in June of 1961.

In 1973 he bought several other US-based Norwegian papers as well as the Norrona of Vancouver, BC, making the Western Viking the largest weekly Norwegian-American newspaper at that time.

That same year he was honored by King Olav V of Norway with the St. Olav medal for promoting Norwegian culture and language.

“He was one of the most important Norwegian-Americans of the last 100 years in Seattle,” said Julie Pheasant Albright, author of “Early Ballard”.

A bit of history on Boe and the Western Viking is on display in The Nordic Heritage Museum in its Norwegian Room on the third floor.

Some holiday shows this year will feature Charles Dickens memorable curmudgeon-turned-caring-soul, and others will feature tales of quirky characters from bygone years, but one show will take you by the heart and not let go until a magical transformation has occurred, and its audience is left with a tickled funny bone and a different view of one English family's world.
Oh, and I should mention, this show also features a Chinese Elvis impersonator (Ken Wong, in a standing ovation-earning role), who helps the above mentioned family navigate successfully through a series of difficult emotional rapids.
Set in a small, English town in the late nineties, “Martha, Josie and The Chinese Elvis” (now on stage at the Burien Little Theatre until Dec. 19th) tells the story of Josie Botting (the delightfully powerful Alexandra Novotny), her 'younger than her years' daughter, Brenda Marie (a witty and funny Kelli Mohrbacher), and their attempts to reconcile the 'death' of Brenda's twin sister, Louise (spunky, plucky Angelica Duncan).

The Ballard High School basketball team put on an exciting game at Eastlake on Tuesday evening. The Beavers jumped on Eastlake from the start leading by as much as 18 points in the second quarter, said coach William Rodgers.

Eastlake battled back and managed to cut the Beavers' lead to two points in the fourth quarter.

"It was an exciting game throughout the 4th quarter," Rodgers said.

In the end the Beaver won 63 - 55. Senior Salim Gloyd finished with 28 points and was 15 out of 17 at the line. Sophomore Seth Berger scored 13. Ballard shot 39 freethrows and made 27 of them.