White Center Now: The blog about White Center

8:16 AM: An injury suffered during Friday night’s Evergreen-Highline football game in Burien has an Evergreen player in critical condition. That’s according to our regional news partner The Seattle Times, identifying the player as Kenney Bui and reporting that he is at Harborview Medical Center after emergency surgery. Bui is a senior at Evergreen; KING 5 quotes Highline Public Schools as saying counselors will be available on campus today for anyone who wants to talk about what happened.

2:58 AM: As also noted in comments, Highline superintendent Dr. Susan Enfield has announced Mr. Bui’s death:

It is with great sadness that School Board President Bernie Dorsey and I share with you that TEC High School senior Kenney Bui, who was critically injured in Friday night’s Evergreen v. Highline football game, died this morning at the hospital.

This is a devastating loss for all of us — Evergreen students, families, and staff, and our entire Highline community.

Our deepest condolences go out to Kenney’s family and all who knew him. Please join us in keeping them in your thoughts and prayers.

Their names are forever part of the art – the young Evergreen Campus artists who created the mural that’s now complete on the north wall of the Super Saver Foods store on 16th in White Center. They were there, with their teacher, as it was dedicated Tuesday afternoon:

Those on hand got to hear stories of how it was created – 200 hours of volunteer time, as the White Center Chamber of Commerce noted in a preview announcement – and see the mockups:

Their teacher explained the mural is a truly collaborative work:

It spans so much space, you have to go see it in person to really appreciate it! Super Saver Foods is the former Albertsons store (sold and converted last March) at 16th/107th.

Just received this – it’s coming up Saturday in Greenbridge:

The family of an Evergreen High School student lost everything in an apartment fire last month. A classmate decided to get involved and her Girl Scout Troop 1775 is sponsoring a Pancake Breakfast at the Southwest Boys & Girls Club in White Center from 8-11 am on Saturday, August 7th.

9800 8th Ave SW Suite 105
Adults: $5.00
Kids under 10: $2.50
8-11 am, Saturday August 7, 2010

All proceeds will go to help the family. The girls are also collecting sheets, blankets, dishes, pots and pans, utensils and other household items on behalf of the family. Cash donations are also being accepted.

You can contact Liz at 206.240.6994 if you have questions. Please spread the word and invite your friends!

From our partners at the Seattle Times: A convicted rapist who hadn’t registered as a sex offender, as the law requires, has been found volunteering with the Evergreen High School football team. The man is now in the King County Jail, the Times reports, and Highline Public Schools says it’s taken back a job offer to the prospective head football coach, who as acting coach should have made sure the volunteer passed a background check; they also say the volunteer had only been to the school twice before he was Full story here.

This is a somewhat tangled tale – a 36-year-old man who worked for Highline Public Schools providing first aid at sports events, and also had volunteered with Evergreen High School, is now suspended by the state Health Department because of allegations of sexual misconduct. Our partners at the Seattle Times explain the story. And there’s more information in this HPS news release, which says the man was let go as soon as the district learned about allegations against him: Read the rest of this entry »

Got this from Kent Horton, who’s hoping you can help::

Two host families are needed for foreigh exchange students who will attend Evergreen High School (HS3 and TEC) for the coming school year. (2010/2011) A potential host family can choose from the following students: a girl from Germany who likes dancing, gymnastics, and snowboarding, or a boy from Kuwait who loves playing soccer and plays on competative teams, or a girl from Brazil who enjoys bowling and participating in family activities like watching movies and playing board games; or a boy from Belgium who enjoys hiking, backpacking, and playing tennis.

New students are constantly added to my list of exchange students available for placement. If you have a particular country or student interest in mind – please give me a call.

Students come here with good English skills, their own insurance and spending money, and mainly a desire to be a member of an American family. Host families do not need to have teenagers of their own; young families as well as empty nesters are excellent ISE host famiolies this year.

For more information about the students and the program, contact Kent Horton at 206-242-4432 or sciman3@comcast.net

Thanks to Evergreen’s Alfred Johnson for the update:

It’s Homecoming Time!

This Saturday, 1:30pm @ Highline Stadium, Evergreen High School celebrates Homecoming 2009 with the Homecoming Football game against the Mt. Si Wildcats.

All Alumni and friends of Evergreen High School are encouraged to come on out to support the team and meet up with old friends and make new ones.

EHS Booster club members will be around to serve Hot Chocolate and man the Alumni Registry; there will be EHS paraphernalia available for sale also.

The team’s coming off a win over Tyee last week. Good luck, EHS!

Evergreen’s Alfred Johnson e-mailed to say:

The 2009 season starts for the Wolverines this Friday night against Mt Rainier High School (the Rams), 7:00 pm @ Highline Stadium and we want to get the community out to support and cheer the team on for our first game.

And he also sent word about a fundraiser tomorrow with Millennium Ford of Burien. Here’s the official flyer. He explains:

For each person who comes for a 5 min. test drive, Ford will donate $20 to Evergreen High School to use for the football team. There will be EHS players and Cheerleaders on hand to sign folks up for test drives. sell EHS Football Gear and Gold Cards and promote the fund raiser. Head Coach Lewis, his coaching staff and I will be there to help out and answer questions about the EHS Football Program.

Their website’s also up and running at ehswolverinefootball.com. Go Wolverines!

EARLY SATURDAY UPDATE: Final score, Mount Rainier 44, Evergreen 0. Get out to the fundraiser today! Next week they play Kennedy – 1:30 pm Saturday 9/19 at Highline.

Evergreen High School football director Alfred Johnson sends word of a fun fundraiser this Saturday night:

The coaches and players of the Evergreen High School Football team would like to thank you and the White Center/Boulevard Park Communities for coming out to support the team last football season.

With a new coaching staff and a young team, it really means a lot to the young men to know that the community is interested and encouraging the team to be better students and have a successful season.

This weekend, the EHS Football Team will be hosting a Pasta Dinner Fundraiser, Sat, June 27th, 2009, 7:00pm Start @ the Southwest Boys & Girls Club. This is the first major fundraiser of our new season; the young men of the EHS Football team will be there as food servers and host. The team is attempting to raise enough funds and solicit sponsorships to purchase new uniforms, provide partial funding of the “pay to play” requirement being passed down to the Highline School District and to build the Football Booster funds in order to tend to the needs of EHS football during the upcoming season and beyond.

There will be special guest speakers who be speaking through out the evening (Greg Lewis, former UW football player & Derek Sparks, former WSU football player among many) and the EHS football players will perform their game day “Hakka” as part of the evenings entertainment. Special thanks to Joe Salle of Bernie & Boys Market in White Center for providing the Pasta dinner and the Southwest Boys & Girls Club for letting us use their facilities. …

I think it will be a great time for all and that the EHS Football players will do all that they can to make the evening a success.

Each of three “small schools” from the Evergreen High School campus has its own separate graduation ceremony tomorrow – all listed here, all at the Highline Performing Arts Center.

Congratulations to the Evergreen High School soccer team, which is in the state tournament after beating the Capital Cougars in Olympia on Saturday. The Tacoma News-Tribune has details. First tournament game: Tuesday vs. Shorecrest.

The huge regional FIRST Robotics Competition is happening in Seattle next week – Thursday 3/26 through Saturday 3/28 at KeyArena – and Evergreen TEC will be there. Read all about its robotics achievements here.

Happened onto the Evergreen Key Club‘s blog, with an update on myriad projects they’re taking on this fall, including work this week on scarves for homeless people. Sounds like these teens are going to have a very busy season of giving; read about it here.

From Evergreen High School‘s football director Alfred Johnson (thanks so much to Alfred for keeping us updated on the team and the schedule, once we made contact around midseason):

This Friday, 11/07/08, The Wolverines will play their last Home game of the season.
They will be facing Bremerton High School, 7:30 pm @ Highline Stadium. This is called a “Pigtail Game.” Why? I dunno, but it gives the boys one more shot at a victory.

Get out and cheer them on tomorrow night.

EVERGREEN HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL: Tough year for the team, which lost Saturday night to Renton, 40-8. One more regular-season game to go, an away game against Lindbergh on Friday night, 7 pm.

VILLAGE GREEN PERENNIAL NURSERY: Today’s the last scheduled day for the nursery to be open. Proprietor Vera Johnson is having a sale on Vietnamese pottery for the grand finale (50% off). Vera also notes she’s offering consultation/design/installation services, $50/hour, and adds, “Just a heads-up, we will be reorganizing over the winter. I am planning some changes with the use of the land.” Next year, she’s planning the usual spring opening, but then a July closing of the retail operation, not sure about “regular” hours after that, but definitely “more design and consulting work, allowing our creative skills to be more useful in designing beautiful gardens for clients, plus garden maintenance.” She’s also planning to offer plants for real estate “staging,” as well as using the Village Green land to grow more food, with more “demonstration edible gardens” and more workshops on “edibles/herbals.” One final note – she’s planning on keeping goats, and might even rent them out for blackberry removal. Vera promises more details to come; meantime, Village Green‘s hours today are 10 am-4:30 pm, 10223 26th SW (map)

Coming off last week’s big win (White Center Now coverage here), Evergreen High plays at Mount Si tonight, 7 pm. Then next week, it’s the big “crosstown” (sort of) rivalry, Evergreen vs. Highline, 7 pm Thursday.