August 2012

By Kyra-lin Hom

This week I've been blessed enough to host a friend I haven't seen in over a year. We were room mates in college for nearly all four years and have never quite seen eye to eye, but one of the great things about friendship is that you don't have to.

She and I first met while touring our potential college as part of the incoming Honors Program freshman tour. We sat next to each other only once, during a half-hour bus ride, and decided in that time 'uh-uh, anybody but this girl.' I was a pure city girl still in the height of my fishnet and heavy make up phase. She was a small town Texan right down to her freckles and cowgirl boots. Of course, lo' and behold we ended up as randomly assigned room mates once the school year started. The rest is history. We might have come from very different places, but we were both bold women with an aversion to keeping our mouths shut (still are). Turns out that bold and upfront are great traits for roomies to have.

The Northwest Hope & Healing Foundation is staging their 10th annual Alki Beach 5k Walk/Run on Sunday, Aug. 26 along Alki Beach.

Tami Hyldahl-Haan, a breast cancer survivor from Seattle, will share her personal story and kick off the event. In 2011, Hyldahl-Hann became a widow and a breast cancer survivor as well as a single mother without a source of income. She was able to access the Northwest Hope & Healing Patient Assistance Fund to help pay her bills and get through a couple of rough months. Participants and others will be able to meet her at the event.

The 3.1 mile walk and run starts and finishes at the Alki Beach Bathhouse (2700 Alki Ave S.W., Seattle). Day-of event check in and registration opens at 8am and the race begins at 9am.

Preregistration fee is $35, $40 the day of the event. Those not participating can still take part in what the organizers are calling the Virtual 5k. Check their website for more information.

The Salvation Army Northwest Division has announced the appointment of Captains Raymond and Jennifer Erickson-King, to the Seattle White Center Corps located at 9050 16th Avenue SW. Prior to this appointment, the Captains managed the Youth & Young Adult Programs at The Salvation Army Intermountain Division (Denver, CO). In White Center, they replace Majors Maynard and Kathy Sargent, who retired.

The Seattle White Center location is among the largest and most active Corps in The Salvation Army Northwest Division. It serves more than 6,000 individuals per month. Among the variety of programs and services offered to the community are community lunch for seniors; food pantry; rent/utility assistance; after-school tutoring, athletic leagues, and music lessons for kids and teens; summer overnight camp; summer day camp for kids, and holiday assistance.

Johnny Pesky (who died last week) was not only a great baseball player at Lincoln High in Portland but he was also a whiz on the ice rink near Vaughn street park
where the Portland Beavers played in the 30's.

I know because I skated with him when I had an extra dime.

He never knew I was skating behind him during open rink time though, as I fell down a lot and he sometimes whizzed past me going a hundred miles an hour and turning circles and skating backwards and other stuff. He never knew I was not able to let go of the rail but for a minute or two, when he came whizzing by, I would launch my skinny body away from the wall and try to catch him before he did figure 8's and other fancy moves.

He was the same age as I and played for Lincoln High as shortstop on the baseball team. Of course he was an all star athlete just like Donny Kirsch who was in my graduation class at Woodlawn grammar school. Don went on to the University of Oregon and later became the famous coach of the Ducks baseball team.

Pesky, of course, later played shortstop for the Red Sox, for like a hunnert years.

In 2011, the King County Council approved $1.4 million in grants to help law enforcement agencies battle gang-related violence, illegal trafficking and property crime with a majority of concern focused on South Seattle and South King County, where gang numbers have increased over the years.

The move to free up funds from the county’s criminal justice reserve came quickly after a gang shootout at a car show along the Kent/Tukwila boundary where 12 people were shot and, remarkably, every victim survived.

“Without additional resources soon, the gang violence in King County could spiral out of control,” the City of Kent proclaimed at the time.

The King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office (PAO) received $456,000 of that money, and according to a recent press release, used it to expand their Gang Unit and “prosecute the growing number of gang cases with a well-staffed and creative team.”

The Gang Unit is comprised of deputy prosecutors and supporting staff “with specialized knowledge of gangs and complex prosecution techniques,” according to the PAO statement looking back on accomplishments of the unit since Sept. 1, 2011.

By Georgie Bright Kunkel

How well I remember my birthday just before school started each year.

More likely than not my present was school shoes. In those days there weren’t any shoes in my size—long and narrow. So there I was clomping along with blisters on my heels until my oxfords softened up enough to be only mildly uncomfortable. You would never have thought that this skinny sniffly nosed kid, me, would end up without any life threatening illnesses. I rarely missed a day of school and in my stash of memorabilia is a pile of perfect attendance cards. My oldest brother bragged that he never missed a day of school all the way through college at WWU in Bellingham. One summer he and I attended school there at the same time. Since he was twenty-one years older than I, some of my friends at first thought he must be my father.

Craigslist sale goes bad
On August 9th a man selling four concert tickets worth $85 each on Craigslist agreed to meet with his “buyers” at a parking lot on the 6400 block of California Ave S.W. He approached the two men in their car and walked up to the passenger side where one man was holding cash in hand. As the victim pulled out the tickets, the suspect sitting shotgun grabbed his arm and the tickets as the driver took off. The victim was “unable to disengage” from the vehicle and was dragged through the parking lot before releasing himself where Beveridge Pl. S.W. and California intersect. The victim only suffered a bruise to his right arm and gave police the phone number he called to contact the suspects.

Looking for a known harasser

By Alysa Hullett, UW News Lab

Last Thursday evening, the Wedgewood Elementary playground was not filled with children, but adults eager to learn how to use their own backyards to mitigate the sewage and toxins that are regularly pumped directly into Puget Sound and Lake Washington.

This is caused by stormwater overflows, an issue which has become an enormous problem, according to Steve Appleyard of Seattle Rain Garden. “It’s almost unbelievable actually.”

That’s why the city recently started offering a "RainWise" rebate program for 80 to 100 percent of rain garden construction — that is, vegetated depressions which absorb extra water. Cisterns can also be installed, or what Seattle Public Utilities’ RainWise manager Bob Spencer refers to as the “Arnold Schwarzenegger" of rain barrels.

Three-thousand Ballardites living in the area bordered by NW 65th St, NW 85th St, 15th Ave NW and 33rd Ave NW could qualify for the rebate, along with residents in North Union Bay, Delridge and parts of Wedgewood.

By Christy Wolyniak, contributor

UPDATE 7:05 p.m., Aug. 20: So far the fundraiser has raised $1160.35 in cash donations, which doesn't include credit card, check and direct deposit donations, according to Ryan Barber. The autographed Seahawks jersey is expected to match the cash donations in auction. Ryan Barber said that Girls & Boys Club and COPS will be "extremely grateful."

So far we raised $1160.35 in cash donations. We still have credit card, check and direct deposits to account for. Plus the Seahawks donation of autographed jersey and football will most likely equal the cash donations in auction.

Friends and family members handed out soft, fluffy chocolate and maple bars on Saturday at Ballard Top Pot Doughnuts in memory of SPD officer Joselito Barber, who lost his life at age 26 six years ago.