The Ballard Building at the corner of Market and 22nd has many doors, and many facets. The Ballard Health Club is on the bottom, the penthouse on the top, with a variety of businesses and offices on different floors. Then there are the present day merchants with their own entrances on Market Street, the Starbuck's, Annie's Art & Frame, Lombardi's.

I tend to enter and exit the building through the back, down the yellow-walled ramp to the health club, but one morning I decided to climb the stairs and exit onto Market. It was raining, which strangely surprised me. I took a moment sheltered by the overhang. That's when I finally noticed the display in the side window at Annie's Art & Frame, attracted by bright colors and oversized scrawls. Suspended on a line across the width, and propped on the base, were oversized postcards identified as the Postcard Project in honor of National Foster Care Month.

There were only 8, 10 images but I studied each one, messages and art created by foster children or alumni about their experiences. On one vivid image a snapshot of a little girl with a juicy strawberry stuck on each finger. It read: "Foster Care - I kept it a secret so people wouldn't judge me." Along the longer Market Street window, the display featured dark-gray T-shirts and swirls of take-out soup containers. Gone are the days of mere framed artworks in the windows; gone are the early days of then Annie's Affordable Art & Frame with posters in bins.

Fittingly there are postcards at the counter with information about this Postcard Project on display: a community art project exploring the culture of foster care. According to the postcards this national exhibit is currently on display in two locations in Seattle, the Gallery Level of the University of Washington School of Social Work and the 2100 Building (a nonprofit center) in Rainier Valley. The third and smallest location isn't even listed; nonetheless it is incredibly visible once you pause at the front entrance to the Ballard Building.

When I spoke to one of the owners at Annie's Art & Frame, she referred me to longtime employee Sara Mahlin. Sara has been at Annie's since 1994, the long ago days at the rear of Ballard Square, across from what ended as Backstage Music & Video. She studied photography and anthropology; Sara had imagined that by now she'd be traveling the world for National Geographic. Instead the world visits her on Market Street, as did Ballard resident Susan Weisberg with a request.

Susan Weisberg has lived in Seattle for 18 years, in Ballard since 2003. She's a Master's student at the University of Washington School of Social Work with a passion for the foster care system. She and fellow student Chereese Phillips started planning last January for events to coordinate with National Foster Care month, including mounting an exhibit of the Postcard Project. Weisberg had been a customer at Annie's and decided to approach them for their support.

Although Annie's Art & Frame had previously featured the work of local students they had never done a display in conjunction with a nonprofit cause. Sara Mahlin and the husband and wife owners at Annie's were compelled by the project and excited by the opportunity to do something so meaningful with their windows. They work with a visual merchandiser who creates their Market Street displays.

Since the exhibit went on display in time for May's art walk Sara Mahlin says not a day has passed without a customer commenting on how moving they find the display, often wanting to take a postcard with more information. What Mahlin didn't mention was that Annie's also donated their services by foam-mounting the 40 pieces on display at the 2100 Building in Rainier Valley. There were also other events, such as a Speaker's Forum on May 7, and many individuals and businesses have offered generous support through donations.

For Ballard's Susan Weisberg, organizing the local exhibit has been "a labor of love, but now I have to wrap up school for the quarter." She hopes that even as the three displays come down at the end of the month people who viewed them will have come to think about children and alumni of foster care a little differently, and will be interested in learning even more. Thousands of visitors will have flooded along Market Street for the Syttende Mai parade; if even a few notice the foster care exhibit it will be a good thing. As for those of us still in Ballard after the parade watchers leave Market Street, there's still time to look at the entrance to the Ballard Building with fresh eyes.

Peggy can be reached atlargeinballard@yahoo.com. She writes additional pieces at http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/ballard.