October 2013

High schools

Football

Evergreen will be at Foster for a 7 p.m. game Friday as Highline entertains Lindbergh at Highline Memorial.

Kennedy, meanwhile, will be on the road at Renton and Mount Rainier will be visiting Thomas Jefferson at Federal Way Memorial.

Seattle Christian//Life Christian gets a 7 p.m. Saturday visit from Port Townsend at Harry Lang Stadium in Lakewood.

Girls soccer

Tyee gets a 7:30 p.m. visit from Highline at Highline Memorial Tuesday and Evergeen hosts Lindbergh for 3:30 p.m. action at Valley Ridge.

Kennedy entertains Foster in a 6 p.m. game at the Starfire complex in Tukwila and Mount Rainier visits Kentwood at 7:30 p.m.

Mount Rainier goes to Auburn-Riverside at 7:30 p.m. Thursday as Tyee visits Foster, Highline hosts Hazen, and Kennedy goes to Lindbergh.

Evergreen travels to Renton for 5:30 p.m. action.

Volleyball

Foster visits Tyee for a 7 p.m. match Tuesday, when Kennedy entertains Lindbergh, Evergreen hosts Renton and Highline visits Hazen.

Thursday's schedule has Evergreen going to Kennedy, Tyee to Lindbergh Hazen to Foster and Renton to Highline at 7 p.m.

One hundred years ago, in a sleepy hollow of a town in Scio, Oregon about 25 miles southeast of Salem, Verlin Clare Grimes was born to farming parents from Des Moines, Iowa. Parents whose own brethren made the trek across the Oregon Trail to Sacramento in the late 1860’s.

Verlin celebrated his 100th year last week in Burien with friends and family where he regaled them with his many stories.

One in particular about the night he was born. Mother to-be woke up near midnight to alert Verlin’s dad that baby Verlin was announcing his arrival. Wind and rain had knocked the only phone line out so George Grimes grabbed a kerosene lantern and hiked a mile and a half to a neighbor to phone Dr. Prill in Scio.

“In those days, there were no street lights outside of town,” Verlin said. “The road was muddy and dark but Dr. Prill hitched up his buggy to a fresh set of horses at the livery stable, trusting them to find their way in the dark to the Grimes farmhouse three hours away.”

Sunday was not just another sunny day at Ballard Commons Park.

Clustered together in one corner was a mass of people. Ballard residents. Social service workers. Church volunteers. Activists. And most importantly, those who were homeless, and who were mourning the loss of their friends.

As part of the Homeless Remembrance Project, 25 names were imprinted in 25 gold leaves, honoring the (at least) 25 people who passed away in the past 10 years in the Ballard area. It is the largest cluster of leaves so far out of the 12 remembrance locations throughout Seattle.

"These Leaves of Remembrance bear witness: The sorrows and struggles of people living without a home are not nothing. There is courage here, and community, and hope. And all too often, there is death at a young age, grief for family and friends who will never forget comrades they loved. Now these leaves say, 'Our city must not forget!'" said Marcia McLaughlin, who sits on the committee of the Homeless Remembrance Project.

A falling out between a woman and a housecleaner turns strange

Oct. 7, 12:19 p.m., 9200 Block of 20th Ave NW -- Fallouts happen. It’s as much part of human nature as liking apple pie. But sometimes, what would appear to be a normal falling out between a woman and her housecleaner, perhaps with a little bit of burglary sprinkled in, turns into something very, very strange.

The woman told police that over the past six weeks or so she’s noticed about 20 pieces of jewelry missing from her home. There were no signs of forced entry burglary during this time period, but she said she recently had a falling out with the aforementioned housecleaner.

She said that twice a month, since January of 2013, she paid the suspect to clean her house. She had found him through a cleaning company, but in May he was fired. She continued to pay for him anyway.

The man seemed fine, but he became increasingly strange, asking personal questions and making her feel uncomfortable.

The Little Red Hen Project, a new Seattle Tilth fiscally sponsored program located in the heart of the Delridge food desert at the Delridge Community Center is staging their first annual fall fundraiser after the Junction Harvest fest Oct. 27.

Organizer Jenn Dowell said, "We'll be just up the street at the West Seattle Nursery. Our event begins at 1, so there is just a one hour overlap. There will be a raffle of gifts from local businesses and we have some great classes scheduled. "

The West Seattle Nursery is located at 5275 California Ave. S.W.

The Little Red Hen Project will provide the underserved Delridge community with a way to grow, maintain, cook, and preserve sustainable back yard food the organizers said.

Update for Oct. 13
Seattle Police have released more details on the one-vehicle crash on Marginal Way that killed the driver and seriously injured a passenger.

From the SPD Blotter:

On 10/13/13, just shortly after midnight, a vehicle was S/B on W. Marginal Wy in the 4800 block, at (according to a witness) a very high rate of speed.
The driver lost control and struck a tree, causing the vehicle to roll over several times. The driver was pronounced dead at the scene. The passenger was taken to Harborview Medical Center by Seattle Fire Dept in critical condition.

The collision was witnessed by a tow truck driver, who stated the vehicle was going over 100 MPH.

Original Post
The Seattle Fire Department is reporting a car accident around midnight on Oct. 12 left one person dead and sent another to the hospital in serious condition.

The accident occurred at 4845 W. Marginal Way S.W.

Seattle Police are investigating and we'll update when more details are released.

The documentary that details West Seattle's Michael Stusser's experiment with 'digital gorging' and then detox will be shown during the Seattle Shorts Film Festival on Nov. 9th at 2:30pm at SIFF Center. The West Seattle Herald profiled the film and Stusser last spring. The film won an award in March at the Big Easy Internation Film and Music Festival in New Orleans.

Stusser and the film's director, Marty Riemer are doing a series of TechTimeouts this year at schools across the country, (also an aspect of the film that was shot in part at Chief Sealth High School) asking young people to give up their digital devices (for a little while) to see the pros and cons of technology, and "find balance in the multi-tasking madness."

If you have kids and would like information about the program, visit http://www.digitalblackout.org .

The Barton Street P-Patch gave its new community pizza oven (the first in Seattle) a workout on Oct. 12 when they celebrated their third Harvest Party. This year the event grew almost 1600 pounds of food for the White Center Food Banks. The community garden is located at the corner of 34th S.W. and S.W. Barton Street.

The event brought about 80 to 90 people to the garden to enjoy an array of pizzas all made fresh on site by Chris Luthi (who designed and helped build the oven) plus a variety of products of the P-Patch itself including green tomato tarts and pickles.

Kate Farley, one of the primary organizers of the P-Patch said, "This is celebrating, not only in terms of what we've given to the Food Bank, but the building of our oven and here we are making pizzas for the community."

Madness Blooms was on hand to provide the music for the event and a Queen size quilt was raffled off. The quilt was assembled of squares made by P-Patch gardeners around the city.

Though there are only a few in West Seattle proper you may have noticed on Holden Street or Monroe Street the appearance of what look like tiny houses on posts or fences. These are not for birds. They mark the West Seattle arrival of what is now an international project called Little Free Library. The idea is to extend literacy through the placement of a tiny free lending library of free books in neighborhoods everywhere.

More than twelve thousand Little Free Libraries now exist around the world, in every state and more than thirty countries and thousands more are being built.

The idea came from Todd Bol of Hudson, Wisconsin in 2009 as a tribute to his mother, a former teacher. Bol built one, put it up outside his home with a Free Books sign which led to him building more for neighbors and friends. Rick Brooks, who was promoting environmental issues became a colleague and began to promote the idea beyond their local area.

At the northern reach of Harbor Island on Oct. 11, Washington Governor Jay Inslee toured the Harbor Island Training Center to learn more about the collaborative program launched this summer by Vigor Industrial and South Seattle Community College to train the state’s next generation of shipbuilders.

Inslee spent the vast majority of his visit speaking directly with students and the program’s lead welding director, Ken Johnson, as they worked their way through the 8,000 square foot facility plush with welding booths, machining equipment, a computer lab and classroom.

The imperative skill behind building a ship is welding, and that is the focus of the six-month program with 19 students in its inaugural class. Of those students working towards a certificate after a second quarter starting this winter, roughly half are currently receiving unemployment or on food benefits, according to Vigor statistics.