White Center Now: The blog about White Center

Evergreen Pool is “on the brink” of closure and needs community help, according to this announcement of a new fundraising drive:

A “Parents’ Night Off” swimming fundraiser the day after Thanksgiving is kicking off a major fundraising drive to keep the non-profit Evergreen Pool in White Center open.

For a $30 donation parents can drop off kids this Friday, Nov. 29, from 6 to 9 p.m., and then go shopping or on a date.

More than 3,800 children – and adults – have learned to swim at the Evergreen Community Aquatics Center pool since it reopened under new management three years ago.

“That includes a good number of kids who are served by a good swimming program in a community with limited youth recreation opportunities,” notes General Manager Joel Schweiger.

This 44-year-old facility, long managed by King County, has been operated “pretty close to breaking even for three years” by the WhiteWater Aquatics Management, Schweiger says.

But “pretty close” doesn’t balance the ledger – especially those utility and related costs necessary for operating the aquatics center that were unavoidably higher from the time the pool reopened until energy improvements could be made.

These improvements are making a significant positive difference. Energy costs have been reduced by 40 percent with the grant-funded purchase of a new boiler and a pool blanket to cover to cover the water and maintain temperature when the facility is closed.

In addition, new filters paid for with another grant and recently installed are reducing chemical purchases by 15 percent.

Still, $15,000 in outstanding utility billings and related expenses, most incurred before these upgrades were made, and have put the Evergreen pool on the brink again.

And if funds are not raised to pay these debts by mid-January the aquatic center will have to close – despite the fact it is busy almost all the time. Schweiger says the pool is filled to capacity when kids are out of school.

“The reality is that the pool’s costs of operating exceed revenue due to capacity, he adds. For example, kids who get free or reduced lunches at school also get swimming lessons free or at reduced cost.

“It’s important to find both immediate and long-term income to keep this pool open “because there’s not a lot of positive youth activities in White Center that are safe and fun.”

The non-profit group is continuing to work with King County, the City of Burien and the Highline School District to find resources as well as launching a corporate and personal giving campaign.

We’re continuing to collect holiday information – e-mail us at whitecenternow@gmail.com! – for reporting here as well as inclusion in the Holiday Guide published through our partner site West Seattle Blog (with WS, WC, and South Park info, updated daily as new additions come in). The latest announcement from White Center is from Holy Family Bilingual School, where Christmas trees will be sold again this year to benefit the school. First scheduled day is November 30th – the Saturday after Thanksgiving, starting at 10 am – and sales will continue through Christmas Eve, December 24th. Holy Family is at 18th/Roxbury.

Two great reasons to get down to downtown White Center right now – and they’re just a few doors apart from each other:

You’ll find Lonjina and Nina inside the Center Studio space at 9611 16th SW, it’s the first edition of their monthly pop-up stuff-for-children shop Cattywampus Kids, with clothing, toys, and more, until 7 pm.

We first told you about Cattywampus here a week and a half ago. A few doors down at Full Tilt Ice Cream, until 10 pm tonight, you’re invited to bring a donation for local families in need – formula or baby food, in particular – and you’ll get a coupon for a free scoop of FT’s fabled ice cream. Ashley (left) and FT co-proprietor Ann are spearheading the “Save the Babies” one-day collection drive:

Take the kids and go meet cool people doing cool things!

Coming up in a week and a half, right after Halloween, it’s a treat with no trick – you donate something for families in need, you get the treat:

Save the Babies (and we don’t mean congress)
Formula/Baby Food Drive to support local families!

The government shutdown may be over, but the impacts of the hissy-fit our adult leaders threw this autumn continue to ripple through the nation.

Foremost on the minds of a group of local mothers: the impact of the shutdown on federal subsidies that enable women in poverty to buy infant formula and baby food. Help us make sure the shelves of our local food banks are fully stocked for the coming winter to ensure that the most vulnerable among us have access to basic nutrition! November 2 from 12-10 pm, bring unopened cans of formula, baby food, or diapers to the White Center Full Tilt Ice Cream and receive a coupon for a free scoop of ice cream. In addition, Full Tilt will donate 10% of the day’s proceeds to local food banks.

Full Tilt Ice Cream makes all natural ice cream and frozen desserts with as much creativity and local ingredients as possible. Enjoy their new and vintage arcade and pinball machines, an eclectic mix of sodas, an amazing mix of music on the stereos, and some of the finest beers the Northwest has to offer — all while helping to support the neediest among us!

Save the Babies (and we don’t mean congress)
Saturday, November 2, 2013

12 pm-10 pm

Full Tilt Ice Cream
9629 16th Ave SW‎

As part of the annual regional Mayors’ Day of Concern for the Hungry, White Center Food Bank ‘s Audrey Zemke tells us that Key Club members from the Evergreen Campus will collect food, money, and gift-card donations 10 am-2 pm today at Roxbury Safeway and North Burien Albertson’s on SW 128th. Drop by and give!

Two volunteer opportunities coming up, according to Kari Kopnick from White Center-headquartered WestSide Baby:

*Volunteer at WS Baby on Thursday, September 19th, 7-9 pm

*Volunteer at WS Baby on Thursday, October 3rd, 5:30-7:30 pm

Spaces are limited so please RSVP to kari@westsidebaby.org.

Can you share some time to help the White Center Food Bank fight hunger? Here’s what we were asked to share:

We are in desperate need of a driver on Thursdays from 9 am-noonish for our grocery recovery program. Must have a clean driving record.

We are still also very short on regular volunteers during the week.

Contact Audrey Zemke at 206-762-2848 or audrey@whitecenterfoodbank.org

The longest of the routes involved in the inaugural Obliteride fundraising bicycle rides is going through White Center and West Seattle this morning, as riders make their way to the finish line. They rode all day Saturday, stopped in Tacoma for the night, and are finishing the ride this morning. Here’s the turn-by-turn description of the route; note that they will be in White Center around mile 36, then heading through West Seattle. They’re starting from Tacoma at 7:30 am – and the finish-line festivities at Magnuson Park in North Seattle start around 10 am – so keep an eye out for riders somewhere after 8:15, we would guesstimate.

Ride your bike over to dine tonight at White Center’s Proletariat Pizza, and you’ll benefit a bicycling nonprofit – PP is the local participant in this year’s Spoke and Food. Here’s the full flyer for everybody participating around the metro area:

Beneficiary is Bike Works.

Just announced!

White Center Kiwanis Pancake Breakfast

Holy Family School
9615 20th Ave SW

SUNDAY, July 21 (8 am to 12 noon)

Come eat pancakes and support kids! $5 per person. Kids under 5 eat free. Tickets available at the door. Buy tickets for a chance at one of the great gift baskets on display. White Center Kiwanis is raising money for scholarships and to help local nonprofits like Salvation Army, Southwest Boys & Girls Club, WestSide Baby, and the White Center Food Bank. Please note, this event is really on Sunday this year, not Saturday, as reported and as previously held. Eat your pancakes, then go down to Jubilee Days. Come early for better parking.

From Mark Ufkes:

Union Gospel Mission is assisting in coordinating Tacos in the Park for our White Center homeless population this summer, to continue their important outreach work to the White Center homeless population who they have been serving on Saturday evenings for over two years.

Tacos are scheduled for every second Friday of the month at noon. In June, tacos are planned for Friday, June 14 (Flag Day), again on Friday July 12, and again on Friday August, 9, 2013. Taco Time Northwest continues to support our lunch effort as we reach out to homeless folks and let them know that we care for them and want them to be healthy.

A second church group from a Burien church has expanded its lunch outreach to our homeless population on two Saturdays each month, and Holy Family (from Seattle) continues their outreach and free lunch on one Saturday each month. Our Second Friday of the Month effort continues to average over 40 participants, and we serve over 100 tacos during the 90 minute event. White Center business owners are encouraged to send the homeless from their block to the free lunch next Friday.

As they say, “There but by the grace of God, go I”

Big sale tomorrow at Greenbridge! The official announcement:

White Center Kiwanis Rummage Sale (or garage sale whichever you prefer)

Saturday, May 18

Greenbridge Plaza (near DubSea Coffee)

9800 8th Avenue SW

9:00 am to 4:00 pm

You will be assisting our efforts in supporting local non-profits who focus on families & youth; West Side Baby, White Center Food Bank and the Southwest Boys & Girls Club.

–

Again this year, local nonprofits are participating in today’s GiveBIG one-day donation drive coordinated by the Seattle Foundation. The money you give to any or all of the participating nonprofits helps them be eligible for a “stretch pool” of partial matching funds, to be distributed proportionately depending on how much each participating nonprofit raises during GiveBIG, by 11:59 pm tonight. The BIG catch: You **must** donate through the special pages that participants have on the foundation’s website, NOT via theirs own websites. So again this year, we made a list of all those special pages for participating West Seattle, White Center, and South Park-based or -founded nonprofits (and a couple parent organizations) – see that list here; below, we’ve broken it down further to a White Center-relevant list. The special links take you to pages on the Seattle Foundation website with background information and links to the organizations’ own sites, as well as the donation links to use for this one-day event. (P.S. Please let us know if we missed a WC-based organization – thanks!)

HIGHLINE SCHOOLS FOUNDATION FOR EXCELLENCE – go here

KING COUNTY LIBRARY SYSTEM FOUNDATION – go here

SOUTHWEST YOUTH AND FAMILY SERVICES – go here

TECHNOLOGY ACCESS FOUNDATION – go here

THE SALVATION ARMY – KING COUNTY – go here

WESTSIDE BABY – go here

WHITE CENTER COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT ASSOCIATION – go here

WHITE CENTER FOOD BANK – go here **Note, again this year, WCFB has added events on GiveBIG day, including a portion of proceeds donated this morning if you have breakfast at Meander’s Kitchen, and tonight if you dine at Proletariat Pizza, Zippy’s Giant Burgers, or Company in WC. Caffé Delia (WSB sponsor) and Dubsea Coffee also will have “donation stations” set up in the morning.**

YES FOUNDATION OF WHITE CENTER – go here

YWCA OF SEATTLE-KING COUNTY – go here

Announced by Mark Ufkes:

Alex Campbell (Evergreen High School senior) and other community volunteers will be serving free Taco Time tacos in Steve Cox Park tomorrow at noon to our homeless community. We can always use more volunteers. They should arrive around 11:45 at Steve Cox Park near the White Center Chamber of Commerce office.

Last weekend, all over the metro area, Rebuilding Together Seattle brought help to dozens of homeowners who needed it – for cleanup, repairs, and renovations enabling them to stay in their homes. One of those homes was in White Center, where Jessica and her son got help from a volunteer group led by workers from Booz Allen Hamilton Consulting. Know someone who might need this kind of helping hand? Check out RTS by going here.

This Sunday, you can rollerskate at Southgate Rink for a special reason: West Seattle resident Kathy Himes has organized a skating benefit to help her friend Pauline Hunt, a former professional mountain biker who now is living with ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease. They’re raising money for a Habitat for Humanity renovation for the home where Pauline and her family, including her two young daughters, live, so that it will be wheelchair-accessible. It’s an international effort – Pauline is in Canada and is getting help from friends around the world, including Kathy. So come skate 5-7 pm on Sunday, April 28, for $12, which covers skate rental and a suggested donation. Kathy says there’ll be raffles too, thanks to donations from generous businesses including White Center’s own Zippy’s Giant Burgers, Full Tilt Ice Cream, and Meander’s Kitchen. (See the event flyer here.)

Two White Center restaurants are signed on for this year’s Dining Out for Life fundraiser for Lifelong AIDS Alliance: Company and Proletariat Pizza. The event is this Thursday (April 25th), and both are participating at dinnertime, donating 30 percent of their proceeds.

P.S. If you’re reading this in neighboring West Seattle – four participants there (also for dinner); they are Buddha Ruksa, Eats Market Café, Skylark Café and Club, and Talarico’s;

If you have a child in Highline Public Schools and can donate money and/or food to local food banks – the district-wide food drive’s second and final week starts tomorrow (Monday, April 22nd). As is pointed out in the official announcement, beneficiaries include White Center Food Bank – and one dollar donated to a food bank can have the spending power of up to four! Plus, donations before the end of April count for more at food banks such as WC that are participating in the Feinstein Challenge.

(WCN photo of mural-painting during 2012 Spring Clean)
With more than 20 murals – “tour” them here! – White Center just might be the mural capital of King County – or at least well on its way there. But more artists are needed, according to this announcement sent by Mark Ufkes:

The White Center Chamber of Commerce, working in close partnership with the White Center Community Development Association, has been coordinating the installation of murals at graffiti locations throughout White Center over the past several years. What we have learned is that murals add color to our community and reduce graffiti at the sites where murals are installed. White Center now has more than 20 murals.

Last year, for example, we took two of the dumpiest buildings in White Center and turned them into public art (The Lions Mural and the Rainbow Mural on 17th Ave. SW) Six more mural sites have been identified for this year’s CDA White Center Spring Clean. Three mural sites still need artists.

White Center needs mural artists who are willing to work for free to bring their art and color to White Center. Here are the details of identified mural sites that still need artists.

The Live Butcher (Tom Salle)
9432 16th Ave. SW (South wall – 36 feet long)
(206) 354-2692
Marquise from the CDA (206) 708-8762 will arrange for paint and Tom The Live Butcher will provide artists with extraordinary snacks from his butcher shop while they install their art. Tom would like a farm scene with rolling hills. It should include a steer, chicken and pork. Artists with an idea will need to sketch it out and go visit Tom (as nice a man as you will ever meet in life) and see what he says. Once you both agree on the design, call Marquise to arrange the paint colors you will need, and you can get started. This location is a very visible southern wall on a White Center arterial.

La Mexicana (Bill Fry) (two sections of the front wall facing 16th SW)
10020 16th Ave. SW
(206) 763-1488
Section 1: North portion 90 feet long
Section 2: South portion 65 feet long

La Mexicana is a high quality Mexican foods manufacturer located in White Center. Scenes of life in Mexico could work for the mural, and images emphasizing Mexican foods could work too. Lots of color and lots of culture would be great, Potential artists would need to sketch out their ideas, call Bill and go visit him. He is a very nice fellow. See what he says. If you both come to an agreement about a design, you will then need to call Marquise at the CDA (206) 708-8762 and ask for the paint and brushes. Marquise will set you up. Cover as much of the walls and doors as you can at both sites up to eight feet above the side walk. This will help reduce graffiti at the location.

Tam Industries (9420 16th Ave. SW) and the SW 107th wall cut away at 16th Ave. SW will also get murals this spring. If potential mural artists have questions, please call Marquise at the CDA. White Center needs your talents!!

White Center Spring Clean stretches over multiple months this year – details are on the WCCDA website.

(WCN photo from March’s lunch event)
Just announced by Mark Ufkes:

White Center
Free Tacos in the Park
This Friday

Friday, April 12, 2013 at Noon (Steve Cox Park)

This outreach to our homeless community is supported by the White Center Homeless Summit community group, a group of local churches, ministries, businesses, Evergreen High School senior Alex Campbell (his senior project) and the White Center Chamber of Commerce. Free lunch will be provided at the White Center Chamber office (1327 SW 102nd) in Steve Cox Park behind McLendons, across from Cross Church, at 14th Ave. SW and SW 102nd. (look for the blue canopy) Our partners have a goal of expanding this to a weekly free meal every Friday to members of our street community.