White Center Now: The blog about White Center

On December 2nd Big Brothers Big Sisters of Puget Sound are hosting Big Night Out, a fundraiser for the orginization taking place at area retailers, restaurants, bars, and bowling alleys. Full Tilt will be hosting an event that night for Big Brothers Big Sisters, but in the meantime they are looking for some local help.

Lamonte’ needs a big brother. If you can help, please contact Big Brothers Big Sisters of Puget Sound today at 877-700-BIGS or www.bbbsps.org.

“I want a Big Brother to hang out with, have fun, and learn how to play sports with.”

– 7 year old Lamonté

Lamonté is an outgoing, energetic 7 year old who lives in White Center with his mom. Because he does not have any siblings or a father figure in his life, Lamonté’s mom is looking to find a good role model for her son through Big Brothers Big Sisters of Puget Sound. Lamonté loves sports, and he says that he is looking forward to learning how to play sports and going to sports games with his Big Brother. Lamonté is also interested in animals, computers, art, and music. When he signed up to become a Little Brother, Lamonté said, “I want to see how it feels to have a Big Brother.” Lamonté’s mom says that she knows it’s hard for her son to grow up without a dad or siblings, and she wants someone in his life that he can look up in addition to her. If you have a few hours on the weekends to hang out, play catch, or go to the zoo with a local child like Lamonté, please contact Big Brothers Big Sisters of Puget Sound today at 877-700-BIGS or www.bbbsps.org.

Cafe Rozella is participating in the food drive for the White Center Food Bank.  Given current economic conditions, the food bank is experiencing a great demand for its services.  So next time you come by Cafe Rozella, pack some cans of food and drop them in the donation barrel at the cafe.  For your kind donation the cafe will give you a free pastry with your coffee order.  So do the right thing and get a nice reward.  Cafe Rozella is located at 9434 Delridge Way SW (phone 206.763.5805 – web:  www.caferozella.com).

Click pic to play video

(video of potato-unloading, added 2:28 pm – more to come)
The truck was a bit late so it happened more like noon than the originally predicted 11 am. Even two and a half tons of potatoes will go fast – so your help for the White Center Food Bank is still needed – online donations are great; make ’em here. ADDED 4:50 PM: 11th District Rep. Bob Hasegawa was a big part of making this happen, and he was there for the arrival – he talked with us and the regional TV crews who were there:

Dick Thurnau with Friends of Hicks Lake reports that graffiti vandals hit various structures, including the picnic shelter and restroom, at Lakewood Park (home of Hicks Lake) on Tuesday – one day after a paintover of previous vandalism. “Even over the student-painted murals,” says Dick, who says something has got to be done about this recurring problem.

This just in from Grace Church (10323 28th SW):

“A huge thank you to our neighbors in West Seattle and White Center! Last Saturday, November 15, Food Drives were held at the Jefferson Square and Roxbury Safeway stores and generous Safeway shoppers donated more than 65 boxes of food, over $1200 in cash and gift cards, and 102 turkeys for both the White Center and West Seattle Food Banks. And many thanks to Dave and Curt, the Safeway managers who welcomed us and assisted in set-up of the Food Drives.

UPDATE: We got word from Grace that the turkey total actually turned out to be 189!

Tomorrow morning, the White Center Food Bank gets a very special delivery at a time when it’s desperately needed: More than two tons of potatoes from Hirai Farms in Moses Lake will be delivered directly to WCFB, before another 15 tons are trucked over to a Kent warehouse that serves many other food banks in the area. Here are more details from a news release sent out by local legislators and shared by WCFB’s Rick Jump:

“Those in our community who are struggling to feed themselves and their families will get a break thanks to this generous donation. While these are hard times for everybody, the fact that the potatoes will be delivered just a week before Thanksgiving, makes it even more special,” said Rep. Bob Hasegawa (D-Seattle, 11th Legislative District), who was the liaison between the farm on the eastside and the food bank in western Washington. “It all began this summer when I was part of a business tour and Blaine Hirai and I got to talking about doing something to help folks in need on this side of the mountains.”

Blaine Hirai, a Washington State farmer who is active in several charitable causes and organizations, has done significant work to address issues involving the educational, nutritional and housing needs of minority and disadvantaged communities in Washington State. He has become a strong advocate of helping to provide the necessary elements and opportunities to those who have been deprived or have been placed in unfortunate circumstances.

“In today’s economic climate, it is getting increasingly difficult for many people to feed their families. When Rep. Bob Hasegawa told me that the White Center Food Bank needed food, I felt that as a farmer it was important I do something to help. I am happy to work with our state legislators to make this critical donation of potatoes,” said Hirai, whose strong family tradition of giving back to local communities in the Pacific Northwest is made possible through Hirai Farms and their non-profit charitable organization, Annie’s Fun.

“During these challenging economic times, more and more families in my district are turning to food banks to make ends meet. Meanwhile, it is harder for working families to make the charitable contributions to worthy organizations like the White Center Food Bank and Northwest Harvest,” said Rep. Sharon Nelson (D-West Seattle, 34th Legislative District). “I am extremely pleased that Hirai Farms has chosen to help meet this huge need in our community.”

Rick Jump, White Center Food Bank Executive Director said that in just one year there has been a 70 percent increase in the number of families they serve, “so this will make a huge impact in the community; a donation of this magnitude makes a serious difference and we’re very grateful.”

The White Center Food Bank’s mission is to minimize hunger while nourishing community, nurturing self-reliance and embracing the area’s rich cultural diversity. It has been helping out people in need for over three decades and currently serves more than 1,200 hungry families each month. In 2007, it provided enough food for more than 53,000 individuals including 21,000 children under the age of 18.

Northwest Harvest is Washington’s own statewide hunger relief agency. It secures 18 million pounds of nutritious food each year for distribution to nearly 300 food programs across the state, serving 36 of Washington State’s 39 counties.

You can help the White Center Food Bank any time with an online donation – follow the links on its website at whitecenterfoodbank.org.

With Burien’s proposal to annex part of the North Highline area back on a somewhat fast track, the city has just set dates for two more annexation open houses: One in Shorewood in January, one in Boulevard Park in February.

Here are the details:

ANNEXATION OPEN HOUSE IN SHOREWOOD
6:30-8 pm January 6, 2009
Shorewood Elementary School (map)
More info

ANNEXATION OPEN HOUSE IN BOULEVARD PARK
6:30-8 pm February 12, 2009
Boulevard Park Library (map)

Burien’s annexation-info page is back online too after a recent city website redesign, though some of its information does not appear quite up to date yet.

Kim‘s excellent site Seattle Daily Photo actually ventures south of the city limits today for this whimsical architecture shot.

What you see above is just part of the haul that the West Seattle chapter of CoolMom.org has collected for its first-ever Toy Swap and Sale, happening Saturday at the Camp Long Lodge in WS (map) — proceeds benefit White Center-based WestSide Baby as well as the West Seattle Food Bank and CoolMom (whose organizers say, “We have gotten some great items – bikes, trikes, and push toys; puzzles & games; barbies; baby gear, music, art, and other developmental activities; lots of brand names and much much more!”). The “swap” aspect of this involves donations of toys made over the past few weeks (each donor got a $5 sale credit for each bag of toys); tomorrow, it’s all about the sale, 9 am-1 pm. (By the way, you can help WestSide Baby any time with an online $ donation — right from this page.) Here’s where you’re going, courtesy of Google Street View:

They’ve been planning it for months, and tonight’s the big night: The North Highline Unincorporated Area Council‘s fundraising dinner for the art project at Steve Cox Memorial Park. When we last checked in with NHUAC’s Heidi Johnson, just a few tickets are left, so we are hopeful the dinner will be a smash hit, and the project will be on its way to completion.

Check out the Waste Free Holidays participant list on the King County website, just revealed today – we’ve just started browsing WFH, and noticed this Evergreen Pool deal is among the offerings.

This tip comes from the busy forums at our partner site West Seattle Blog – White Center Now‘s own FullTilt gets a nod in Seattle Metropolitan Magazine‘s “Best Restaurants” feature, for the increasingly famous ice cream, which forum participants were busily praising. Way to go!

Reminder that Thursday night’s when Detective Joe Gagliardi is giving another one of his popular and thorough gang-awareness presentations – and you can get the full benefit by driving a few miles south — read on for details provided by the city of Burien: Read the rest of this entry »

We’re watching the approaching storm for White Center as well as West Seattle – one of the newest developments is a wind advisory that’ll take effect in the metro area at 10 pm tonight; read about it 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.

Want to know what’s new with Park Lake II? The King County Housing Authority has a meeting planned at 6 pm Thursday, community room of the Nia Apartments (that’s the building that filled within days of its recent opening; 9935 8th SW in Greenbridge). Topics: Update on the “revitalization plan” for Park Lake II, and a discussion of its environmental review. Here’s the Google Street View of where you’ll be going for the meeting:

(You can click inside the Google Street View image and drag the cursor around to pan the image, without leaving this page!)

WCN’s FullTilt broke the news here when Be’s opened in White Center a while back. First comprehensive review I’ve seen is this one just posted by Tara.

Tuesday is 11/11, Veterans Day – schools are closed, as are government offices. Library branches too.

Now that the Greenbridge library branch is open, its events calendar is online – looks like kids’ story time, Thursday nights at 7 pm, is the big plan for now. Meantime, there’s a video clip we didn’t get around adding to our original coverage of Wednesday’s ribboncutting: a wonderful speech by King County’s Poet Laureate, Dr. Mona Lake Jones. Here’s the entire six minutes:

Click pic to play video

The White Center Community Development Association and Trusted Advocates will host the 2008 Community Summit this Saturday, November 8th at Mount View Elementary School.  The event starts at 8:00 am and ends at 3:00 p.m.  Please come and offer your input on the future of your community.   Mount View is located at 10811 12th Avenue SW.

This year’s community summit will gather families, government agencies and local community-based/non-profit organizations in a fun family-friendly environment.  Live cultural performances, ethnic foods, door prizes and children’s activities are just a taste of what the summit has to offer!

Come learn about the issues affecting your community and how you can be involved in a positive way.  There will be info booths and workshops on health, education, jobs, housing, annexation, immigration and more.  Translation services will be provided in Cambodian, Vietnamese, Spanish, Tigrinya, Somali, Amharic, Samoan, Arabic and English (other languages upon request).  Childcare will be provided.

For more info:  Ebony Davis: (206) 694-1082 ext.  168 – ebony@wccda.org or Ian Dapiaoen:  (206) 694-1082 ext. 175 or ian@wccda.org.