Nancy Gould-Hilliard
Around the Island
The following items crossed my desk this week, making me deeply grateful for our community. I’d also like to hear why you’re thankful for MI, to run next week. Send to nancybobhilliard@msn.com.
Kudos to the local candidates and their campaigning for more than nine months to air community issues. City Council candidates Steve Litzow, El Jahncke, Patti Darling, Bruce Bassett, Maureen Judge, Mike Cero and School Board candidates Pat Braman, Lisa Strauch Eggers, and Leslie Ferrell were committed right up to Nov. 6, waving placards at Island Crest Way and 40th in 44-degree fog. Thanks also for prompt removal of signs.
A race of another kind gears up to raise funds for local projects and colon cancer awareness. Runners will train earlier for MI Rotary Half Marathon Sunday, March 9. Headquarters move to the CCMV for the 36th annual event. Organizer Sam Sullivan said the course won’t wind through the city as before, but will begin at the CCMV, S.E. 24th and 84th Ave. S.E., and loop around East, West and North Mercer ways, providing a more scenic 13.1-mile route. Other shorter run-walks are planned as well. Sullivan expects more than 4,000 runners and walkers to come, breaking last year’s record of 3,700. Register online at www. mercerislandhalf.com.
Workers for Sound Transit’s two-level Park & Ride installed grates over drains and other landscape touches at the 8000 N. Mercer Way site last week, saying their punch lists near the end. However, Bruce Gray, Sound Transit media relations, said load tests on the beam that supports the top deck are still underway. Unless the tests show need for more work, Gray expects the lot to open in mid-December. Delays resulted from the cracked support beam, requiring more attention.
The Children’s Institute for Learning Differences and its director Trina Westerlund have given 30 years of caring and support for children with learning disabilities, anxiety and disconnects. They help youth and their families obtain order, self-respect, inclusion and functioning at the rate of about 50 children at a time, from ages 3 to 18. Westerlund says she cannot serve all 400-500 calls for such services each year, but the institute’s goal is to provide a model for others to replicate and hopefully become a training ground with internships so other centers can begin.
The Parent Ed group, a joint PTA of Lakeridge, West Mercer, Island Park, St. Monica, Islander Middle and MI High schools, sheds light on knotty issues. It offers a three-part series at IMS library from 7-9 p.m. on “Understanding the Paradox of AD/HD: Unique Wiring, Hidden Gifts” with-Jaymi Garvett, attention deficit coach, educator and mother of a uniquely wired child, Nov. 26; “Finding Resilience in ADDversity: Overcome Barriers to Attention,” Dec. 3; “Fire UpThe Focus Factor: How Interest Impacts Attention,” Dec. 10.
MI Youth and Family Services along with Crooked Trails will provide a service learning trip to Peru for high school students during spring break, April 1-12, 2008. Kids will travel and live in a community and build a soccer field in Peru. Contact: Michelle Morse, Youth Development Coordinator at MIYFS, (206) 236-7293, michelle.morse@mercergov.org or visit www.mercergov.org/peru
The City Council created a commission to address matters concerning senior citizens on Mercer Island. Its one-year analysis will be summarized Jan. 17. It strives to better meet the needs of our seniors. So let them know yours.
Twenty Mercer Island Presbyterian guys just returned from Tijuana, Mexico, to help build three houses there. Forty women from MIPC, Madrona Presbyterian and the First Taiwanese Church retreated early this month and launched an effort to send solar cookers to sisters in Darfur, Africa, in conjunction with Jewish World Watch. MIPC recently received the Urban Impact Church Partner of the Year award for serving lunch to the Rainier Valley Summer Academy and other world missions.
Twenty-two Rotarians and family members travel to Akola, India, in January to deliver 1,100 wheelchairs, learn how to improve rural education and create dams to improve the farming and water system.Vishal Himalaya Foundation’s Diwali — Festival of Lights — dinner auction, Nov. 16 at the CCMV, will raise money for teacher education in Akola, led by Eva and Yogi Agrawal.
Suzanne Philen, head of Mercer Island Thrift Shop, is in Uganda, East Africa, from Nov. 3-27 to work with the “Save the AIDS Orphans.”
Later this month, the Lions Club begins its sale of Christmas trees to benefit philanthropies; the Salvation Army bell-ringers garner donations around town for homeless families; church volunteers prepare Thanksgiving dinner for 100 people at Plymouth at Stewart low-income housing. MI Rotary, with a district matching grant, gave the city $8,800 to provide an electronic gate at Luther Burbank to assist people with disabilities access the property easier.
Hooray for all the service-learning teens and students of the month who inspire us to do more for others, including the Interact Club at the high school that will help about 100 needy kids in Seattle have a shopping spree at Sears, Dec. 1, for winter clothes.
How’s that for a caring community? Who’s on your MI thank-list?
To contact Nancy Hilliard, e-mail her at nancybobhilliard@msn.com.
