Rich McCabe of White Center has been appointed as a Business Representative for Machinists Union District Lodge 751, based in Everett.

In his new role, he represents the interests of roughly 2,500 Machinists Union members working for the Boeing Co., particularly those working in the Everett wire shop and Interiors Responsibility Center.

Before becoming a business rep, McCabe was an IAM Work Transfer Representative in Renton, charged with proposing alternatives to convince Boeing to keep work in-house instead of outsourcing it.

Former Evergreen High School football standout Senio Kelemete was selected in the fifth round of the 2012 NFL draft this week, going to the Arizona Cardinals as the 151st pick overall.

Kelemete led Evergreen to a 9-2 record during his senior season in 2007, helping the Wolverines make the state playoffs for the first time since 2001. He was also honored as the Seamount League’s Lineman of the Year on both offense and defense.

As a University of Washington Husky, Kelemete started all 13 games at left tackle this past season and was named a team captain for the second straight year. He earned All-Pac-12 honors for the second time in his career and was awarded the Fred Jacoby Sportsmanship Award at the Valero Alamo Bowl in December.

Here’s his page on the Huskies’ website; his UW career concluded in the 2011-2012 season (here’s a December 2011 profile from our partners at the Seattle Times).

If you don’t know them already, that’s outgoing White Center Community Development Association executive director Aileen Balahadia at left, with her successor Sili Savusa at right, photographed during the Friday reception/celebration at Greenbridge. Savusa started work at WCCDA a few days after her new role was announced March 15th; she had previously worked at West Seattle-based Southwest Youth and Family Services, whose executive director Steve Daschle was among the reception’s attendees (at right in the next photo with White Center Storefront Deputy BJ Myers):

Balahadia announced her departure back in December, and leaves after eight years of WCCDA growth described in the announcement we published then.

Outside Jimenez Signs in White Center, a new sign this afternoon – asking for help in protecting WC, following this morning’s deadly shooting across the street at Seattle Roll Bakery. Carlos Jimenez, a longtime community leader and entrepreneur, has campaigned against violence before, and says it is time to make a stand again.

Story and visuals by Joe Heisler
Special to White Center Now

There was no mention of the White Center Food Bank in The Seattle Times‘ recent report on hardships and headwinds facing small nonprofits though they lost $50K in government funding this year, a perfect case-in-point for the newly released Nonprofit Research Collaborative findings.

The cuts come as community needs increase, but the volunteer-driven organization is responding to challenges with extended hours and expanded services. The Baby Pantry is just one example and one recent day, a dozen children were among those lined up outside, braving the cold and waiting for doors to open at 1 p.m. Volunteers readied provisions and took stations inside. With only two paid staffers, the WCFB coordinates 20,000 volunteer-hours to serve more than 60,000 people a year.

“You have to understand,” said Executive Director Rick Jump, “Our average donation is $25, maybe $50, and we do have generous donors who give $50 every month. So when Irish came in (one recent) morning with $4,100, we were just blown away.”

That’s Irish McKinney, a charismatic barrel-chested mountain of a man, full white beard prominent, with a commanding voice and easy smile –– his better-half’s patch says “my old man is one bad apple.”

Marjorie and Irish keep four motorcycles, including the vintage ‘59 Panhead Harley he bought fresh out of the Army in Minneapolis (1974), and “rode back to Seattle by way of Dallas.” He knew the biker clubs of the time, but took a detour for school and a year as a VISTA volunteer. Irish earned his degree from the University of Puget Sound in 1980 as a business major.

As a pro sound tech, Irish found a path that led to work with Arlo Guthrie, Leo Kottke, David Crosby, Ann and Nancy Wilson, Jerry Miller of Moby Grape, Mudhoney, Alice in Chains, and The Presidents of the United States of America, among others.

Of his time at the bygone Backstage in Ballard, Irish recalled, “It was a third-line venue that booked a lot of acts either on their way up or on their way down.”

There were many great encounters, but after ten years the crowd seemed to be getting younger, so Irish shifted gears again, and as a top-producing Enrolled Agent for a regional H&R Block office, stayed for thirteen years before opening his own successful practice, Top Hat Taxes. “They took a chance on me,” he said, reflecting with a smile, “I’ve looked like this for a long time.”

Along the way, the Apple Dumpling Gang (ADG), a regional motorcycle club, proved to be a great fit for Irish. Predominantly veterans with a strong sense of community and belonging like a lot of other clubs, but “they put work and family first,” he said. “And that made the difference.”

Meeting friends at The Barrel Tavern on Friday evenings (fried chicken special) became a tradition for Irish and Marjorie through the years, and one that continues today –– pulling tables together to accommodate all, and making a night of it. In 2008 they made a wonderful Christmas party of it for legions of friends.

Sensing an opportunity to leverage the good feeling, they decided to underwrite a holiday party to help feed people in need. So with Top Hat Taxes as sponsor, and partners in The Barrel Tavern and Rat City ABATE (national motorcycle legislative awareness/activist organization A Brotherhood Against Totalitarian Enactments) to host and post the event respectively, Chicken Friday Christmas was born.

Marjorie reports that the first ‘official’ Chicken Friday Christmas in 2009 brought in $1,300 for charity. The net reached $2,000 in 2010. But this year was extraordinary.

On party night The Barrel sparkled. Vincente’s team tended the gorgeous buffet throughout the night and the food was incredible. Diners filled long, elegant banquet tables and volunteers sold raffle tickets in the aisles. It was standing-room-only before long. From a festooned head table facing the room, Irish gestured or said something that hushed the boisterous crowd at once.

He introduced a ‘brother,’ as bikers tend to regard and call each other, who delivered a heartfelt benediction to bowed heads nodding in agreement, followed by polite applause.

Taking the microphone, Irish continued with recognition for troops returning from Iraq and gratitude for their service punctuated by long moments of silence and reflection for the fallen. This was the weekend troops were coming home en masse –– and the gravity of sentiment of Vietnam-era veterans who faced a much different homecoming was lost on no one.

“Let’s feed some people!,” Irish’s booming baritone filled the room, without the mic this time, and to greater effect. “What are we doing?,” he bellowed, and the crowd responded in unison, “Feeding People!”

Next up was the amazing Orville Johnson to play a few sets of acoustic blues freeing Irish to work the room –– he was on all night and the crowd was with him all the way, even when he doubled-down and took to reciting holiday poems. It was an amazing production, lots going on and no lulls in the action.

And as the Third Annual Chicken Friday Christmas gave way to Saturday morning, all left happy and entertained, feeling good for doing good.

“Please just say how grateful we are, how truly grateful.” The food bank director’s refrain hung in the air as he searched for words –– he was speaking for a lot of great volunteers who work very hard every day. And for those in need, on their urgent behalf, he was speaking for them.

But Irish never was in it for recognition. He agreed to talk, but largely to thank a lot of people for the hard work and support that made it successful. “Dana and Deanna (sisters, proprietors of The Barrel) are incredible. They sold ribbons all month and exceeded all expectations. They were not passive, they made it happen.”

When he stopped by The Barrel early Saturday morning it wasn’t for congratulations, just some help to deliver two truck loads of brand-new toys to Childhaven in Burien. “And it took everything I had to get there.” But that’s another story.

He’s not a proud man, but a lot of people are very proud of him. And so it goes –– sometimes the good guys wear black…

Joe first sent this to us in a creatively laid-out PDF. We couldn’t reproduce that on a web page, but you can click here to download and see his original creation.

Lois Elaine Baldwin, former English teacher and guidance counselor at Evergreen High School from 1955-1976, died peacefully on December 11, 2011 in West Seattle.

Miss Baldwin was born on Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 25, 1920 in Winlock, WA to Lee Ernest Baldwin and Yola Barrett Baldwin, both from pioneer families. (She claimed to love pumpkin pie because her mother had been eating pie on the day she was born.) The Baldwins moved to Oregon. where their father owned timber and operated a sawmill and their mother was a career public-school teacher, and they raised 4 children.

Miss Baldwin graduated high school in Cottage Grove, OR; she received her BA in Education from the University of Oregon, Eugene, OR (1944); and her MA in Education (English Literature) from the Colorado State College of Education at Greeley, CO (1955). She was a published poet and a student and teacher of Shakespeare. Her published poem in Poems of the Beaver State 1948, A Thanksgiving Prayer follows:

God
Grant that there be
Quietness
Within my soul,
I pray –
Calm, cool strength that
Lends a peace
To this – Thanksgiving Day.

And – then – dear Lord,
Let there be
Love
And with it
Faith to know
That by this quality we live
And by this Truth
We grow.

She was invited into the Kappa Chapter of Pi Lambda Theta in 1943, and later served as president of the UW Pi Lambda Theta, Honorary National Association for Women in Education. She wrote this tongue-in-cheek poem for the induction dinner ceremony in 1943:

“I thought that I would never rata
An honor like Pi Lambda Theta.
And when they stuck before my eyes
Reams and reams to memorize
And ask us for a little poem
I turned and blindly rushed for home.
And in I went and down I sata
And gradually removed my hata
I said a little prayer to Ala
That I had been the lucky gala
For never did I dream I’d rata
Chance in our Pi Lambda Theta.
And after this big sumptuous meal
Which certainly was no pointless deal
I thank the stars for all I ata
And make my bid Pi Lambda Theta”.

Her first teaching contract appears to have been in Albany, OR in 1943 and was renewed for 1944 at the pay rate of $147.50 per month for 9 ½ months. In 1952 Ms Baldwin met her life’s companion, Beatrice Barclay, and in 1955 they both accepted teaching positions in the Seattle area.(Miss Barclay – Chief Sealth Math) Miss Baldwin was dedicated to her English composition and literature students at Evergreen, and as a Guidance Counselor, assisted many of them in obtaining scholarships to continue their education at the college level. The following is a note she saved from one of her students written in 1972:

“Miss Baldwin,
Of all the teachers I’ve ever had I think I’ve learned more from you. Your one of my very favorite teachers and I will always remember you as a warm, kind, and thoughtful person as well as the best teacher I ever had. Your really not the easiest teacher but that’s what I like, someone who makes you work for what you get. Love Always, Chrystal xxxx “1974”.”

Miss Baldwin and Miss Barclay made their home in West Seattle and shared life-long adventures, traveling the world several times always with a goal of continuous learning. They were both members of Tibbetts Methodist Church in West Seattle. Miss Baldwin was awarded a fellowship for a 1964 Shakespeare Educational Tour in Europe and travelled by Pan American Clipper (“where they served martinis and a chicken dinner in the middle of the night”) from New York to Europe to study and attend many Shakespeare Plays. She also studied in Oslo, Norway and had two 13- week study trips as a non-matriculated student aboard the USS Universe from Univ. of Pittsburgh.

In 1976, they bought an Airstream and retired to Eugene, OR and Florence, AZ. Many trips ensued and they made many friends from all over the US. They explored the Southwest, swam in the warm pools, played golf, walked miles, planted flowers and provided security for their retirement communities. It seemed as though they were just ahead of, or just after, important International events: the death of Anwar al- Sadat in 1981 (while traveling in Egypt and north Africa); the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 (while traveling in West Germany and Eastern Europe). There are hundreds of slides and written narratives that go with their many trips.

Miss Baldwin was also a student of genealogy and travelled with the purpose of gathering details of the Baldwin and Barrett families’ ancestors and children, too! This included travels to Scotland, England, Whidbey Island, Missouri, Kansas, Pennsylvania, New York, Curtin, OR and Winlock, WA. She used to say she did not contribute more children to the family but rather contributed her research of the family for us to celebrate and have pride. She loved her family.

In 2007 Miss Baldwin returned to West Seattle at the invitation of her niece after the death of Miss Barclay. For the past four years she lived at Merrill Gardens at Admiral Heights where she was lovingly supported by the great staff and had many good friends. While at Merrill Gardens she followed the world news closely, took computer lessons so she could continue her research, went on every “mystery ride” she was allowed to join, recently had a 155 game in Wii Bowling, and took tea on Sundays. Every day, Miss Baldwin either walked to the viewpoint to look at the beautiful city, or, when the weather didn’t allow for this, walked the halls of her home.

Miss Baldwin is survived by her sister, Patricia Chellin of Normandy Park; her sister-in-law, Helen Baldwin of Grants Pass, OR, nieces and nephews: Vicki Burr-Chellin of West Seattle (Judy); Nikki Squire of Bend, OR (Dell); Pamela Jones, Vancouver, WA; Diane Sanders of Scappoose, OR (Mike); Lisa Baldwin of Grants Pass, OR; Rebel Jones of Milwaukie, OR; Marc Baldwin of Corvallis, OR (Susan); Ernie Baldwin of Grants Pass, OR (Susie); Jeff Jones, of Portland, OR; Lane Jones Layton (deceased); Jere Chellin of Tacoma, WA (Cindy); and Greg Chellin of Auburn, WA (Debbie); and several grand-nieces and nephews. She was pre-deceased by her brother, Lee Ernest Baldwin and her sister, Joyce Baldwin Jones.

Miss Baldwin will be inurned in Eugene, OR where family and friends will gather next Spring to celebrate her life. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to University Of Oregon School of Education, Eugene.

(We publish obituaries at no charge; send text and photo to whitecenternow@gmail.com. This one is cross-posted from our partner site West Seattle Blog.)