White Center Now: The blog about White Center

(Photos by Deanie Schwarz for WCN, unless otherwise credited)
By Deanie Schwarz
Reporting for White Center Now

Saturday’s annual White Center Spring Clean brought in nearly 600 volunteers to spruce up the White Center area with over 21 projects on the hit list for the day.

Teams of 30-60 people spread out in well-coordinated projects to put the shine on White Center under cooperative blue skies. Organized by the White Center Community Development Association, the annual event brings together folks from near and far who pitch in, build community and meet new neighbors.

In thanks, they are fed breakfast and lunch and receive the traditional I Heart White Center t-shirt – green this year!

King County Sheriff’s Office‘s new CSO Peter Truong worked with his team to add new flowers to all of the planter boxes on 16th SW in the main business district. Peter said, “I love the chance to work with our kids.”

New Angkor Market on 98th Ave SW at 16th now sports a fresh new mural on its wall, thanks to that team of participants.

With the croaks of native tree frogs audible from the White Center Pond in the background, this team worked on the hillside pulling weeds and picking up litter.

Over on 9th Ave SW and 108th Ave SW, the White Center Food Bank’s Volunteer Coordinator Audrey Zemke pulled weeds in the berm with her team of hard workers.

Looking up at his team, Mark Ufkes, president of the White Center Chamber of Commerce, evaluates the landscaping, painting, pruning and weed-whacking around the newly installed
“Welcome to White Center” sign at 10th and Roxbury.

Active WC resident Gill Loring led the way at North Shorewood Park, a somewhat hidden gem of a park with a swing set and gently sloping hillside trail under a canopy of native trees. Working with a King County Parks employee, the group planted about 100 native trees and plants in an area of former blackberries.

(Gill shared this photo of some of the other helpers at that site:)

One of the larger projects for the day was the breaking ground for a new P-Patch. Removal of brush and trees from the lot at 15th Ave SW and 107th prepare was the first step.

That’s Blair Johnson, former Highland Park Action Committee president, working alongside a church group from Wenatchee to reveal the lovely landscaping and bushes at the Delridge/18th triangle.

Working on Hicks Lake at Lakewood Park was Friends of Hicks Lake leader Dick Thurnau, who paused to pose with some of his team from West Seattle.

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