Madison Park Times 2-1-2023

The stories behind the names

MP’s Mary Henry releases

By Jessica Keller Madison Park

editor

When Madison Park resident Mary Henry wrote her first book more than 20 years ago, “Tribute: Seattle Public Places Named for Black People,” it featured 22 sites and the people for whom they were named.

Her latest book, “Tributes: Black People Whose Names Grace Seattle Sites,” released in January by HistoryLink, has more than double that number — more than 50.

As someone who has experienced racism and has done her own work to combat it in Seattle, that pleases her for many reasons.

“Maybe the city and the parks department are beginning to recognize that Black people do contribute to this community in many different ways,” Henry said.

Henry, a retired librarian, said she was inspired to write her first book because of her work at South Shore Middle School. At the time, she used to quiz students, specifically Black students, about places named for Black historical figures. She would have them match the identity of a person with the site, she said, but more often than not, they couldn’t do it, she said.

“I’ve always been fascinated by the fact these bridges, these streets, these buildings and these parks, they had all these names, and you don’t know who they are,” she said.

After she retired, she put that knowledge into print, focusing on Seattle locations. More than 20 years later, she was compelled to update her book to reflect the growing number of Black people and places being recognized. She is just as determined that these people are not remembered only for the places named after them.

“When you pass by these buildings, do you know who these people are? No,” Henry said.

CHANGE IN EMPHASIS

Henry said while her first book mostly focused on the places named for the people, this book

HISTORY Page 3Æ

Times

Photo by Jessica Keller Madison Park resident and author Mary Henry, left, and her daughter-in-law and illustrator Marilyn Hasson Henry stand with Mary Henry’s recently released book, ‘Tributes: Black People Whose Names Grace Seattle Sites,’ which is the follow up to ‘Tribute: Seattle Public Places Named for Black People.’ The book can be purchased at local book stores and from Amazon.

New canoe-carving center celebrating Native heritage planned

By Jessica Keller QA & Mag News editor

City and county government leaders, as well as leaders and representatives of the coastal Native American tribes, celebrated a new project to honor and recognize the Native culture and history in the city with a blessing ceremony of the future Northwest Native Canoe Center on the west side of South Lake Union.

The United Indians of all Tribes Foundation, whose home is at Daybreak Star in Magnolia’s Discover Park, has pursued the project to honor and reconnect coastal Native American tribes’ heritage, history and culture of canoe-carving in the region and share that history and their stories with the public once complete.

The ceremony Jan. 6 included Native drumming by Willard Bill Jr. of the Muckleshoot tribe, comments by Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell, King County executive Dow Constantine and District 4 County Councilmember Jeanne KohlWelles, whose district includes Queen Anne, Magnolia and South Lake Union. U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal, who had to be in Washington D.C., sent a video expressing her enthusiasm for the canoecarving house.

At the blessing ceremony, United Indians of all Tribes Foundation Executive Director Mike Tulee, and member of the Yakama Nation, said UIATF members have wanted to celebrate the tribe’s ties to canoe carving for some time, but only recently did all the funding come together. That includes $700,000 in federal funding and $1.1 million from King County that pushed the project over the finish line.

“This project is long past due,” Tulee said.

Canoes have a place of significance to coastal tribes. They were the main source of transportation for the coastal tribes. The carvings not only were used to identify the tribe

from which it came to other tribes, they also told stories of the tribe’s past.

“The canoe center is a step forward in ensuring our story, our people and our ways of life are sustainable for generations to come — we’re still here and we will continue to stand strong in culture and community,” Tulee said. “This project brings a significant addition of Native culture, power and technology to the heart of downtown Seattle.”

Kohl-Welles said she has been a long-time admirer of Tulee and the UIATF that when he approached her about possible funding, she was happy to request that funds be allocated in the county budget.

“I pleaded, I lobbied, I tried to do everything I could,” she said at the ceremony.

She said, even after she made her case to the budget committee, she was pleasantly surprised the entire $1.1 million made it into the budget.

“It was absolutely thrilling that it was our money that could push [the project] over the finish line,” Kohl-Welles said after the ceremony.

Kohl-Welles said she thinks the project is a “perfect example of how we as community leaders can put our money where our mouth is.”

“While the past is tragic and the present still problematic, I’m looking forward to the future,” she said.

Constantine said the canoecarving center not only honors the coastal tribe’s history, it also “makes a statement of our determination for the future.” He said the coastal tribes’ ties to the water and canoes is thousand of years old, whereas the discrimination and injustice the tribes faced from colonizers is still quite recent. He said the burning of a longhouse by white settlers in Seattle took place in some of their grandparents’ lifetimes. The canoe-carving center and future welcome house not only helps atone for the past, Constantine said it helps the city and region find

Editor: Jessica Keller, 206-461-1300 or MPTimes@pacificpublishingcompany.com

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its way back to creating a better future.

“This will be a special place for everyone in King County,” he said.

Harrell said this project moves beyond “token acknowledgement” and puts “real dollars to work.”

“If you think advocacy doesn’t matter, think again,” Harrell

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When completed, the building will be 1,200 square feet with an overhang for outdoor carving that increases the square footage to about 1,600 square feet, said architect Bruce Arnold from Jones & Jones Architects. The company is currently getting permits filed with the city, Arnold said,

STAFF

with the project likely to break ground this fall. He said it will take 10 to 12 months before it is complete. The canoe carving center is phase 1 of the UIATF’s plan at the cite. Phase 2 includes a welcoming house for cultural events, a catering kitchen and gift shop. The cost for Phase 1 is estimated to be $4.7 million, Arnold said.

Editor: Jessica Keller, 206-461-1300 ext. 3 or MPTimes@pacificpublishingcompany.com

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Photo by Jessica Keller Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell, from left, District 4 County Councilmember Jeanne Kohl-Welles and King County Executive Dow Constantine wear the ceremonial blankets presented to them at the blessing for the future United Indians of all Tribe Foundation’s Native Northwest Canoe Carving House Jan. 6 at the Center for Wooden Boats next to South Lake Union.

Graphic by Jones & Jones Architects

This rendering shows the future site of the United Indians of all Tribe Foundation’s Native Northwest Canoe Carving House at South Lake Union, near the Center for Wooden Boats. City, county and tribal leaders celebrated future plans for the canoe-carving center with a blessing ceremony Jan. 6.

Free tax help o ered at Seattle Public Library through April

5 p.m.

Sundays from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.

The Seattle Public Library, United Way of King County and AARP are collaborating to offer free, in-person tax preparation service through April 18 at eight library locations. United Way and AARP also offer free virtual Tax Help. Find out more at spl.org/ TaxHelp.

Trained volunteers will answer questions and help prepare personal tax returns. The service is not available for business tax returns. See the list of eligibility requirements and required documents needed to get tax help at spl.org/ TaxHelp.

Tax Help at the Central Library (1000 Fourth Ave., Level 5)

No appointment is necessary, and help is available on a first-come, first-served basis. The last client will be taken 30-45 minutes before the end of Tax Help hours.

Mondays through Thursdays from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Saturdays from 11 a.m. to

Through Tuesday, April 18

Tax Help at seven neighborhood branches

Two types of tax help will be offered:

Drop-in assistance –available on a first-come, first-served basis. No appointment necessary.

Appointment-based assistance – tax preparation by pre-arranged appointment. Dropin accepted if space is available.

Ballard Branch, 5614 22nd Ave. N.W.

Drop-in assistance.

Tuesdays from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Starting Tuesday, Feb. 7 through Tuesday, April 11

Broadview Branch, 12755 Greenwood Ave. N.

Drop-in assistance

Mondays from noon to 4 p.m.

Wednesdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Starting Wednesday, Feb. 1 through Monday, April 17

Greenwood Branch, 8016 Greenwood Ave. N. Drop-in assistance

Thursdays from noon to 4 p.m.

Starting Thursday, Feb. 23 through Thursday, April 13

Northeast Branch, 6801 35th Ave. N.E. Appointment-based assistance. Visit spl.org/ TaxHelp to make an appointment. Saturdays from 11:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Starting Saturday, Feb. 4 through Saturday, April 15

Q ueen Anne Branch, 400 W. Garfield St.

Drop-in assistance

Saturdays from 11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

Starting Saturday, Feb. 4 to Saturday, April 15

South Park Branch, 8604 Eighth Ave. S. Drop-in assistance

Mondays from 4 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.

Through Monday, April 17

Southwest Branch, 9010 35th Ave. S.W. Appointment-based assistance. Visit spl.org/ TaxHelp to make an appointment.

Wednesdays from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Starting Wednesday, Feb. 1 to Wednesday, April 12

Residents invited to Pioneer Museum presentations

e Pioneer Association of the State of Washington invites residents to

attend two presentations beginning at 1 p.m. March 18 at Pioneer Hall (1642 43rd Ave. East in Madison Park).

Local historian and Pioneer member Junius Rochester will give

HISTORY from Page 1 places more emphasis on the people whose names grace buildings, bridges, pools, streets and more in Seattle.

Some of the people with eponymous Seattle landmarks are nationally known, such as late civil rights activist and Congressman John Lewis, for whom the John Lewis Memorial Bridge in Northgate is named. Many, however, were or are from Seattle, such as former King County Councilman and civil rights activist Larry Gosset, who helped establish the Black Student Union at the University of Washington and formed the local chapter of the Black Panthers. He now has Gosset Place, a housing complex that provides shelter for formerly unsheltered people, named after him.

The subjects in the book came with diverse backgrounds, from civil rights activists, to literature, to medicine, to academia, to athletics.

Her favorite subject she wrote about in her

the rst presentation: e Plants and Animals of Lewis and Clark. at will be followed by e Sagar Saga Retold, presented by Sally Irvine on behalf of Marian Spath, great-granddaughter

of Catherine Sagar, a survivor of the Whitman massacre in 1847. Visit wapioneers.com for more information.

book was Alice Ball, who has a park named after her. Ball was the daughter of Seattle’s first Black photographers and was the first woman to graduate from the College of Hawaii with a master’s degree. As a chemist, she isolated an oil that gave relief to leprosy patients. It was the only medication for leprosy until 1940, Henry said.

PUSH TO PUBLISH

While Henry said her first book took her about 10 years to complete, she felt pressure to get her latest book done sooner rather than later because of her age. She almost met her goal of getting the book published before her 99th birthday, but not quite.

“I wanted to get this book done before I died because I just think people should know about these people because they’ve don’t some really special things,” Henry said.

Henry said the creation of both books was a family effort. While she wrote the books, her sons helped edit them, and she enlisted

her daughter-in-law Marilyn Hasson Henry to illustrate.

Hasson Henry said she doesn’t have formal training in illustration or drawing, other than a few art classes she took in the past, but she wanted to help her mother-in-law accomplish her goals with the books.

“It was more my tribute for my mother-in-law and my love for her love,” Hasson Henry said.

Since Henry’s new book was finished and sent to the publisher, more places in Seattle have been named after Black residents, but Henry doesn’t mind. She said she is pleased with the continued effort in Seattle to recognize notable Black figures in Seattle and to have played her own part with her books.

“To me, it was my contribution to literature of notable Black people in history in Seattle,” Henry said.

“Tributes: Black People Whose Names Grace Seattle Sites” can be purchased in local bookstores and on Amazon.

Courtesy Seattle Public Library

There’s hope for us yet (or I miss tanning and eating!)

Revisiting the Park

By Richard Carl Lehman

In 1944, we were not allowed to hang out at the beach unless we applied sun protection. We ate well then despite the shortages: healthy picnic lunches like egg salad sandwiches, veg sticks and a cookie. Sitting in the sun, we waited the prescribed hour before even thinking of getting in the water as that would cause cramping and drowning.

Our parents did many things to keep us healthy, like roll a window down a smidge to let the Salem cigarette smoke escape. Even though doctors prescribed the better “Kool” cigarette, lung cancers shot up.

By 1996, smoking on airplanes stopped, and a few friends made statements about cutting back while hoisting a double gin on the rocks. Too much meat was bad so during a time in the ’70s, it was popular to substitute nuts, grains and salads. Several of us took this on, and while driving on Broadway one day, a wonderful aroma wafted into the car. We in unison shouted, “Screw it!” and turned right into Dick’s Drive-In.

Diet and supplements were a huge craze. Nutra-Bio was like SlimFast with meal replacement drinks. A coworker friend declined to eat lunch with us and when we returned we saw three empty bottles of it in the waste basket.

Cabbage soup diet, or the grapefruit diet, intermittent fasting, the one-day diet, the Atkins, the MIND diet, the Russian Air Force diet, going Paleo, detox diets, the magic-bullet diets, keto, the 5:2 diet, and many other flawed, quick-fix dietary protocols.

In 1087, William the Conqueror partook of the first recorded liquid diet by taking to his bed and consuming nothing but alcohol; 860 years later, we have the Drinking Man’s Diet.

A tall gal friend from the “410” Health Club (Rossellini’s) worked in marketing, fashion and runway modeling. She was on the grapefruit, which entailed eating a whole grapefruit before, during and after a meal of protein and limited carbs. She was thin all right; we saw her wave to us when she went by in an ambulance. Later, she said she was light-headed and had almost passed out.

A doctor friend who worked out at our gym downtown (Schmidt’s) was on some weird fad diet. He decided to eat only plain canned tuna fish and lettuce and stuck to it for a few weeks. When he showed up at the gym the other members suggested he add a third item: Double-Mint chewing gum. When this gym closed, we found a new one further away from the office but it meant extending our lunch by 30 minutes.

When we presented it to the art director he said he’d consider it and then eventually joined with us. It was called “Harry’s Gym,” across from the Paramount theater. Harry Swetnum gave us a lot of good advice. We asked

how to lose fat and gain muscle and after relating to him what a typical meal might be he said, “Cut it in half!” He also got us on many supplements like brewer’s yeast and 10 to 15 capsules of other products.

Nowadays, it’s Denali Fitness for us where we try to keep in shape and socialize at the same time. Luckily our health has cooperated, and we are also happy to walk the neighborhood for extra oomph.

Those early years basking in the sun, we applied Glacier Cream invented by a chemistry student. It was the first product to include a sun protection factor, though the SPF was only 2. Another product we applied was developed by the Army Air Force and was basically a dark red veterinary petroleum to which cocoa butter and coconut oil were added. It was the precursor to Coppertone suntan lotion. It actually worked, as three days later we were tanned, not burned. Those who wished a faster tan applied baby oil, which tended to burn, especially in water.

Since everyone seemed consumed with getting those medically inadvisable tans, they turned to sunless tanning products like ManTan, Sudden Tan and Coppertone’s Quick Tan (aka QT). Mystic Tan was a spray tan with the resulting colors not always complementary, and the odors were strange with all of them. A friend at work had a girlfriend who was a stewardess and spent a good deal of time in Southern California. She and her roommates hit the roof for topless sunbathing, but the traffic helicopters buzzing overhead was annoying.

The friend was anxious to try this Man-Tan, which guaranteed a tan in just hours. He generously applied it from a man-sized tube, and the next morning it was all we could do not to laugh. The skin around his eyes, ears and other areas like his hands were dark orange, which made him look like a raccoon. He couldn’t get rid of the color even after showering several times.

Karen and I were certainly addicted to sunbathing our first 30 years of married life and spent many vacations

in sunny spots like Hawaii. Since the sun has ravaged our bodies with various skin cancers and liver spots, we have gotten out of the habit of laying out. It seems weird to go there with long sleeve 50 UPF shirts, medical grade sunscreens, hats and sunglasses. Umbrellas and shade would surely ignite the Aloha spirit of music, food and breezes while soothing the souls. Instead, we shall fully appreciate our Northwest air and be soothed by the upcoming spring.

The Winter Garden for lovers …

Tree Talk

By Steve Lorton

Chocolates are expensive and fattening. Flowers are expensive and wilt. Consider giving your Valentine a free experience: calorie free, wilt free, money free. Visit the Washington Park Arboretum and stroll the Winter Garden this month for Valentine’s Day. A multifaceted gift, the beauty is romance inducing, the garden lessons edifying, and it will showcase your outside-the-box creativity. A small pocket tucked into the 230 acres of the Washington Park Arboretum, the Winter Garden is easy to reach. From the Graham Visitors Center, cross the road, then

follow the main trail to the south and west for a short distance. There it is!

Filled with broad-leafed evergreens, plants with vividly colored bark and winter-flowering trees, shrubs and perennials, the garden assembles, coordinates and amplifies the most beautiful aspects of what is often (and erroneously) referred to as the dreary season. After absorbing it all as a whole, each component merits close inspection: leaf, blossom, bark and structure. Many of the four appear on the same plant at the same time.

The dark green, slightly crinkly leaves of Garrya elliptica will form a background for the

abundant clusters of flower tassels that can dangle down as much as 8 inches.

The glossy and prickly foliage of mahonia “Arthur Menzies” will be crowned with bouquets of vibrant yellow flower spikes. The varieties of witch hazel (members of the Hamamelis genus) will likely still be in bloom, sporting their intoxicatingly spicy fragrance.

These survivors know what they are doing. It takes that kind of perfume to coax an insect into braving the cold, often wet weather to pollinate.

Down at ground level, look closely for the handsomely patterned leaves of hardy clematis or the emerging blooms of the

hellebores. Don’t miss the carpet of black mondo grass on the western side of the garden. This sight would be arresting on its own, but with the brilliantly colored tracery of yellow twig dogwood branches crawling above it, the planting dazzles.

Take time to look at tree trunks and limbs. You’ll spot the large flakes of exfoliating bark on the cinnamon-hued branches of paperbark maple (Acer griseum). The pink-barked, sculptural trunks of Chinese birch (Betula albo-sinensis) soar nearby. Throughout the garden our palette of indigenous mosses will catch the winter moisture and specks of sunlight to sparkle like emeralds. Take

your camera. You’ll want to snap pictures.

Time and energy permitting, you may want to hike on in the arboretum. The 3.8-mile Loop Trail is gentle and takes about an hour and 20 minutes to walk.

Stop in the gift shop in the Graham Visitors Center. It is filled with beautiful objects, all related to nature and horticulture. The selection of books for sale is chosen for education and inspiration. There’s hardly a thing in that little shop that would not thrill your Valentine. Give some thought to signing up as an arboretum volunteer. Working side-by-side with someone, being tandem philanthropists with your time, is highly bonding, love inducing, relationship building … think about that!

Visit complete, you may want to take your sweetheart to dinner or, given one of our surprisingly warm sunny February days, lay out a picnic. You might also want to throw in the chocolates and flowers (totally optional, but why not?). Be prepared with some erudite and passionate language. Nothing says devotion and love quite like a poem, earnestly recited. The whole idea is to propel your lover into a stupor of romantic euphoria.

At a loss for words?

Look up Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s “Sonnet #43 — How Do I l Love Thee?”

Paraphrase it to suit the moment and the object of your affection. “How Do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I love thee like a winter garden. I love thy leaves, thy blossoms, thy bark and thy structure.”

Photo by Mary Henry

In the Washington Park Arboretum’s Winter Garden, hellebores like these are among the many plants in bloom.

WHO NEEDS TO KNOW?

If you’re a person with disaster-news fatigue, you’re not alone. Sometimes I want to cover my eyes and ears — who needs to know all this: active shooters, racial or gender violence, political coups, tornados, fires, floods, earthquakes?

Unfortunately, tuning out isn’t really helpful, nor does it immunize you against a possible disaster in your own life that others will want to know about. Deep breath, steady on, get yourself ready!

MP Emergency Prep

By Margie Carter

One of the first steps you can take in preparing for an emergency is to consider who will need to know and how you will reach them. Here’s what your Seattle Emergency Communication Hub network suggests about developing a plan to communicate with loved ones after a disaster.

If Seattle experiences a strong earthquake or other significant event,

everyone will be on their phones trying to communicate. Circuits will be overloaded, and very likely cell phone service will be damaged, and power will go down. Reaching loved ones could be very difficult.

Communicating after a disaster

Communication tech specialists tell us that when service is compromised, a text is more likely to get through than a phone call. And it is sometimes easier to get a text out of the city than across the city. They suggest you:

Designate a trusted person who lives east of Spokane to be your out-of-area contact. Avoid those along the West Coast as they might be likely involved in the same disaster.

Make a list of the cell phone numbers and email addresses of each person in your household and the other loved

ones you would want notified after a disaster – including your OOCA. Distribute this list to everyone who has been included.

Set up a group text to practice communicating among this collection of loved ones before there is a disaster.

If, during a disaster, it looks like your household or in-area members aren’t receiving texts, your OOAC can forward your text to these folks in the disaster zone from their location east of Spokane.

Those receiving your messages can also contact loved ones directly after they’ve heard from you, possibly posting your status on social media. Write down the contact information for each group member, and keep that with your other emergency supplies. Should your phone be damaged, you might be able to borrow a neighbor’s phone to contact your OOAC.

Visit your neighborhood emergency hub

Most Seattle neighborhoods are setting up emergency communication hubs where people can share and

get information during a disaster. These hubs often include Ham radio operators who might be able to help email your loved ones using their amateur radio frequencies.

Besides letting loved ones know you’re OK, you will need other information to help you survive until help comes. The hub can help here, too. White boards and other posting setups at these hubs will help neighbors request tools, expertise and assistance, as well as offer things to others in need. An area will be designated for lost and found and for posting information coming from the city and other neighborhood hubs with updates on road conditions, ongoing precautions and available services.

In Madison Park, our emergency communication hub is in the park by the tennis court.

A group of volunteers is steadily organizing communication supplies and operating systems with periodic practice drills. We welcome and could benefit from others joining in with us. Let us hear from you!

Email Madparkhub@gmail.com.

Volunteers needed for Prospect Street

Nature Preserve work parties

Staff Report

Coordinators for the Prospect Street Nature Preserve in Madison Park are seeking volunteers for four work parties scheduled for this year.

The nature preserve, at 41st Avenue East and Prospect Street, next to the tennis club, was spearheaded by former Madison Park resident and Friends of Street Ends member Gene Brandzell, who led the effort to clean up the street end and create a nature area, which has access to Lake Washington, for the community members to enjoy. The effort to maintain and care for the nature preserve is volunteer-driven and the co-coordinators of the preserve, Dan Clancy and Doug Berry, are enlisting the help of community members at each of the work parties.

Each work party is from 9 a.m. to noon, rain or shine, at the nature preserve. Volunteers should bring their favorite pruners and sheers.

The first is March 4

Prospect Nature Preserve Update

Volunteers are needed for Saturday 9 – 12 work parties at 41st Avenue East and Prospect Street, next to the Seattle Tennis Club in Madison Park

Bring your favorite pruners & tools rain or shine!

March 4 – Prepare (rake leaves etc.) and plant 100 starts from the King County Conservation Plant Sale. Contact Doug Berry (206) 898-6922

May 6 – Plant donated trees. Contact Dan Clancy (206) 601-5571

July 8 – Maintenance. Contact Dan Clancy

September 9 – Maintenance. Contact Doug Berry

and will entail raking and preparing the preserve for the spring and summer and planting 100 starts from the King County Conservation

Plant Sale. Contact Doug Berry, 206-898-6922, for more information.

At the second work party, May 6, volunteers will plant

donated trees. Contact cocoordinator Dan Clancy, 206-601-5571, for more information.

The third and fourth

work parties, July 8 and Sept. 9, will entail maintenance. Contact Clancy and Berry for more information.

Graphic courtesy Dan Clancy

McGilvra PTA raising money for important programs with Annual Fund

By Jessica Keller Madison Park

editor

e McGilvra Elementary Parent Teacher Association is seeking community support through donations for its biggest fundraiser of the year, the Annual Fund.

rough February, people can donate to help support critical programs funded by the PTA for the next school year.

Lynne Morris, McGilvra PTA fundraising chair, said people can donate throughout the year, but the Annual Fund campaign wraps up Feb. 28, which gives the PTA members time to determine how much money is available for di erent programs.

“Public schools are not fully funded, so the private support that the PTA is able to raise and give back to the school does make a signi cant di erence in the education that the children of McGilvra do receive,” Morris said.

e PTA gives the money raised from the Annual Fund to the school to supplement or fund programs and services children otherwise wouldn’t receive, she added.

is year, the PTA wants to raise $140,000 through the

Annual Fund, with $200,000 the goal for the entire year to maintain current funding and account for 5 percent in ation for next school year, Morris said. Currently, the Annual Fund has raised about $67,000 in donations, about $78,000 including matches.

She said the money raised goes toward several important programs and positions.

e PTA helps support the school’s art program and art teacher so all the children have access to art. It also funds the reading and math specialist for children who need extra help, as well as an academic intervention specialist.

“ e academic support I think is critical in making sure kids don’t get lost and that they get the help they need to excel now and into the future,” Morris said.

is year, the PTA helped bring back an a er-school enrichment program, which provides a variety of di erent classes for parents to enroll their children. e classes have a fee, but the PTA organized all of them. Morris said the PTA budget also supports a sta member who helps children get to where they need to go a er school.

“ ese funds are critical funds that are used for the school, so if the time came that we were not able to meet our goal it would likely

mean we would have to cut our services and some of the other things we support at the school,” Morris said.

She said people shouldn’t worry about the amount they donate and encourages people to be as generous as they can.

“It doesn’t have to be a big donation,” Morris said. “Small donations do make a di erence, as well.”

is is the third fundraiser the PTA hosts every year. Members host a move-a-thon in the fall and an auction in the spring.

Morris said, to show that the McGilvra Elementary’s 219 students are good neighbors, the PTA frequently organizes neighborhood cleanups. In January, a group of them went to Washington Park Arboretum and cleaned

up a substantial amount of garbage that people had le . Cleanup e orts also take place at Madison Park and the athletic eld next to McGilvra, which hosts neighborhood club soccer practices and games.

To donate to the McGilvra Elementary Annual Fund, go to www.tinyurl.com/ McGilvra2022-23.

Times

Photo courtesy McGilvra PTA

McGilvra Elementary students participate in the annual move-a-thon fundraiser the school’s PTA hosts in the fall. e PTA raises the bulk of its money to support school services for the following year with its Annual Fund, which is going on through Feb. 28.

Madison Park Times

New construction is moving faster than latest data

Lately, when I read real estate stories, hear them on the radio, or see them on television, it feels like a lot of doom and gloom. Yes, mortgage rates trended up, very quickly. Yes, the market cooled. And the price growth we saw happening in real estate over the past few years has flattened out. But I believe that’s old news, and, at least anecdotally, 2023 is already promising to be different.

As a real estate broker, investor and local expert who specializes in new construction, I have my eye not only on the new construction listings for Tim Sunny & Co, but also on the pace of new construction moving across the city. In conversations with builders and other investors, we have insight into how this submarket is doing across the area, and by the

time the data is released, we already have a grip on how the tides are changing.

And in January, the market picked up. It’s good news for us and great news for buyers and sellers on their real estate journey. Traditionally, you’ll hear that the fourth quarter is the slowest for real estate — the motivation to add buying a home to your to-do list during the holidays? It’s not big. But compared with last year and the year before, this fourth quarter was particularly slow. In the entirety of the fourth quarter, we sold six houses. Eighteen days into January of 2023, we’ve already sold six houses. e demand is here.

Interest rates have nally leveled o . While the Fed has indicated they might raise them again in the next year, it still feels like the right time for many buyers who had to readjust their budgets and expectations, when rates suddenly started climbing in mid-2022.

Plus, after the slow market period of the last few months, prices have bottomed for many listings, including our projects. Amid more interest and multiple-o er situations arising once again, we’re anticipating those prices to start ticking back up.

Is now the right time to buy new construction? Absolutely. We do continue to experience some hang-ups in this sub-

market. Slowdowns from builders, most often related to the ongoing supply-chain issues, have put a few of our projects behind schedule, meaning they won’t be available to buyers for another month or two.

A delay in concrete has prevented one of our new developments from hitting the market — the homes are complete and beautiful! e only thing missing is the concrete steps to literally get buyers through the front door.

So, what does this mean for you? A strong showing in early January can mean a lot, so if you’re like me and listing home(s) on the market, the buyers are out there, and I believe they’ll continue to be in 2023. If you’re a buyer, it sure seems like prices have bottomed out, and waiting for them to lower more, or again, could cost you more than it would save.

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2023 garden trend highlights: Robots and witches

It’s that time of year — that’s right, when we get to future-cast our gardens. Here is a roundup of predicted garden trends worldwide for 2023. ese are not based on formal polls, but a bird’s-eye view of them can help track where gardeners are today and maybe where we are going. e trends may look wildly disparate at rst glance, but repeated themes emerge taken together.

Back to Eden, by way of “Bridgerton”

For example, Veranda magazine’s six 2023 garden trends via Monrovia plant distributors have Scandinavian minimalism and new Victorian side by side as numbers four and ve. Despite the name Scandinavian minimalism, it’s described as a painterly, dreamy look with neat evergreens paired with airy owers, with low contrast in colors. I’m reading that as Piet Oudolf’s gardens in fall, picturing the owers of grasses, Verbena bonarensis and umbellifers like dill.

As for New Victorian, it o ers my new favorite quote: “Blame it on “Bridgerton,” from Monrovia’s chief marketing o cer. is trend is calling for a romantic palette of white, pink and purple lilac and roses with heady fragrance corralled by historic arbors and tuteurs. No mention was made of the faux wisteria that blooms 365 days a year on the “Bridgerton” set, however.

Monrovia’s No. 1 trend was Garden of Eden, a catch-all incorporating food for humans and pollinators, building on the

edible/ornamental gardening trend that got a huge foodchain-powered boost from the pandemic. e nal trend is waterwise plants because water conservation will be a forever issue for every garden from here on — even in the Paci c Northwest.

RHS: planet-focused planting

Houseplants that have been a juggernaut for the last couple of years, top the UK’s Royal Horticultural Society’s list. According to HouseBeautiful.com, the RHS theorizes exotics that thrive in cooler temperatures will be on the rise as heat waves have people turning down their thermostats.

Environmentally friendly practices make up the bulk of the RHS’ list, including regenerative gardening, climate-ready landscaping, pollinator lawns and choosing plants over costly hardscape.

Regenerative Gardening, speci cally in composts and mulch alternatives to peatbased products pending a UK ban in 2024. Harvesting peat is extremely disruptive to the environment, and we use it for sowing seedlings, as a growing medium for nursery plants, and in compost. e United States has no such ban, but you may want to consider nding alternatives using elements like coco coir and leaf mold.

RHS also notes that technology will be ever-more useful to gardeners, as they design and tend their gardens with planting calendars,

hydroponic gardening and watering reminders.

Garden Media Group: Robots, WitchTok Garden Media Group’s 2023 Trend Report highlights both the rise of technology and sustainable gardening practices. GMG asserts that the green industry has been faster to make the switch from gas-fueled to electric or battery-powered in lawn mowers and leaf blowers than any other industry. at’s pretty cool.

Technology will assist gardeners with apps, plant monitors, QR-code shopping and more. In addition, we may nally have reached the age of the robot in gardening. e makers of Roomba have created Tertill, a solar-powered weeding robot that moves in a similar way. Tertill requires beds have a 4-inch barrier and both plants and rows to be spaced a foot apart. So, while it may work for at, traditional vegetable beds, Tertill wouldn’t last long in my hilly, cram-scaped mixed garden.

On the other hand, TikTok is showing us plant hacks galore, of varying validity, but GMG spotlights several trending uber-retro hashtags from #Moon Garden (labyrinths, planting by the moon, white gardens), and #Gnomecore” (impish, colorful accents and colors ready for a party), to #WitchTok (ancestral knowledge, ethnobotany and magic).

Garden Design Magazine

Garden Design’s roundup — I assume from trends in its coverage, though the story doesn’t specify — echoes many of the notes struck in the other lists. It includes cutting gardens; cottage gardens, which often historically would include edible/herbal and cutting owers; Mediterranean-style gardens, which are typically waterwise; swapping lawns for meadows; focusing on foliage texture; and

Sea holly is a water-wise plant that attracts butter ies and bees to gardens. Waterwise plants and those that support pollinators are gardening trends for 2023.

vertical gardening.

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In writing this roundup over several years, some of the more sweeping garden trend themes I’ve noticed are manifestations of larger societal ones. Climate-friendly gardening, from lawn alternatives to pollinator pathways, is a response to climate pressure concerns and species decline. Edible gardening was already gaining before the pandemic surge, I believe, because of increased knowledge about pesticide dangers in our produce. Dwarf cultivars, container gardening and vertical gardening re ect an increasingly dense population in urban centers.

If I had to sum it up, I’d say we’re getting a little closer to the earth again as gardeners – we may use apps or robots to do it, but more are growing the plants they need in the space they have while keeping an eye on their impacts on wildlife.

Erica Browne Grivas Get Growing

Photo by Erica Browne Grivas

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Our trusted global advisors curate a life better lived

This is the first time in nearly a month that I’ve sat to write anything but a list. One in the kitchen that had to remember to find its way into my bag before I left the house, and one that was never allowed to leave my bag in the first place. I never keep lists on my phone. God forbid, I should lose my phone.

I don’t understand why lists comfort me the way they do psychologically. But if I should misplace one in December, my language can turn a little more Christina Applegate in “Dead to Me” than I like.

I began the month by telling myself that I was too busy to entertain, that it’s too timeconsuming and expensive. But by Dec. 3, the scent of basil and garlic filled my home. I’m no great cook; it’s not Renee Erickson’s kitchen over here, believe me. People don’t come to my table to ooh and aah over the food. They ooh and aah over the fact that I have made the food. And so do I.

I think what happens is once the lights are strung, the golden hue that says, “It’s December, have some fun, your desk will still be there in January,” that the best part of the season really does come to light: laughing and eating with people I enjoy.

I started my shift-of-attitude by pre-washing the handpainted plates from Italy that I found at an estate sale on a day when I was feeling unsettled and homesick because we’d moved to a new neighborhood. Oddly, standing in front of a departed woman’s dishes, I came to life. Those dishes put images in my head of a housewarming party happening clearly in my new home, of saying goodbye to wistfulness and hello to more friends and less lostness. I slid my arm around my husband’s back and said, “We are buying these dishes.” And he, being him, said, “We don’t need more dishes, do we?” and so I looked at him with my I mean it stare, and he bent over to pick up the box.

Needless to say, there were a lot of trips to the market in December.

On one, I stood in line behind a woman wearing six-inch heels. I can’t say that I’ve ever

known what it’s like to be that elevated, but it stirred a strong memory: my mother in her black suede kitten heel slingbacks clicking up and down the aisles of the Stop & Shop, click, click, click, a look of mastery coming over her whenever she shopped for food. The sound slid over me like a silk dress in a place warm enough to wear it, reminding me our bodies are stewards of muscle memory. They hold their own stories.

On another, after leaving the store, I needed to repack the weight of my bag. Watching me from the next table was a family from India: a young man who spoke English with a Mumbaiker accent that was, to my ears, nothing short of melodious. His father also spoke English but not as well, and his mother and grandmother (each line etched deep) didn’t speak English at all. I gathered the three older adults were visiting their successful Amazon-employed son/ grandson. The men talked about “the Dow being down three points,” or maybe they said 300. I have never understood a thing about what this means. But the women kept smiling and nodding at me.

A smile and a nod mean the same thing everywhere in the world.

No longer able to contain themselves, they rushed over to help me, or, not to help, really, but to inspect my food. Who was it that said they were old enough to be “In the years of unselfconsciousness?” Both wore colorful saris under their coats. So few women bother to wear anything but leggings nowadays, so the saris touched me, gave me a lift. As did the older woman who admired my heirloom tomato, reaching into my bag to pull out another. Openly, food is what the women knew, what they could relate to. Most people are usually too reserved or cellphone-distracted to give into childlike curiosity about the world around us. It’s moving when you get to see someone be so present and interested and human.

If there is one thing I know

about, it’s the magnitude of culture. If the women are here to stay, it might take years for them to find even a shard of a real sense of belonging. For people relocating, it’s a grueling task of what to give up and what to keep.

But we always keep our food. Food is culture.

I have no proof of any of this of course, other than I know longing for connection when I see it. And I know two women in search of something they are not exactly sure of, I know this, too.

By appreciating my food, the women were looking for so much more, a feeling of belonging to a country and its people and the foods we eat. I wanted to talk to them, too, and I did, the son translating my questions (I was right about Mumbai/ Amazon/their son/their visiting), but when he asked, “Do you have children?” and I said “no,” they all looked so sad for me.

They do, always.

And it’s hard to say, “no, wait, I chose my life” to people from such a customary background. So I excused myself, wished them well. I still had to walk home and make dinner. A friend was coming over.

She wore a gray sweater. And leggings.

Mary Lou Sanelli, author, speaker and master dance teacher, is the author of Every Little Thing, a collection of essays that was nominated for a Pacific Northwest Book Award and a 2022 Washington State Book Award. Her first novel, The Star Struck Dance Studio of Yucca Springs, was released in 2020, and her first children’s book, Bella Likes To Try, was recently released. For more information about her and her work, visit www.marylousanelli.com.

Mary Lou Sanelli Falling Awake

Contemporary dance studio opening in former Queen Anne church

By Jessica Keller Madison Park Times editor

With 2023 less than a week in, things are already shaping up to be an exciting year for Whim W’Him, a contemporary dance company in Seattle.

A er years of renting spaces for administrative o ces and practices throughout Seattle, a $3.5 million loan from a longtime supporter has allowed Whim W’him Seattle Contemporary Dance to purchase its own building, 1715 Second Ave. N., in Queen Anne.

“It really provides a solid foundation for the future of the company,” Wevers said. e building, which was previously All Saints Church, is approximately 14,000 square feet was sold to the dance company by the church’s pastor, who converted services to online during the pandemic, and is moving to Arizona.

Wevers said the sale closed Dec. 15 and he received the keys to the building Dec. 20. While sta have begun moving boxes in, before Whim W’Him o cially opens for business, the rest of the building will be renovated and converted into dance space thanks to nancial support by the Jolene McCaw Family Foundation.

“I’m hoping it’s going to be fast because we’re not a big corporation, so sitting on a property like this for a long time is expensive,” he said, adding if all goes well, the building will open in spring or summer of this year.

When renovations are complete, Whim W’Him will have two dance studios, a larger one that is 50 by 40 feet, and a

smaller one half that size upstairs. e rest of the space will be used for administrative o ces, a conference room, a lounge and workspace.

Wevers said the building will be an asset and help sustain the dance company, currently in its 13th season.

Opening its own dance space is not only good news a er the last few years have been so di cult for arts organizations, especially smaller companies, it will also allow the company to introduce contemporary dance to the broader community.

“What I’m really excited about is creating a sense of community by having our own space and sharing what we’ll do,” Wevers said.

Wevers said, o en when many people think of dance they think of ballet, and contemporary dance companies get overshadowed by organizations like Paci c Northwest Ballet.

“I think it’s a culture of this country to think that ballet is more elevated than contemporary dance,” Wevers said.

Because smaller dance companies don’t have the larger fan or nancial base as larger ones, they infrequently have their own dance spaces, let alone a “state-of-theart dance space,” Wevers said.

“It is an incredible feat for any mid-size dance company to own our own space, quite a rarity in this country, and especially at this time with the cost of real estate in Seattle,” Wevers said.

Having a central facility will make it easier for the company’s professional dancers, he said. It will also allow the

company to expand its o erings, including workshops and opening a small school with classes taught by the Whim W’Him dancers.

“We plan on creating classes that don’t exist in Seattle yet,” Wevers said.

He said, for example, one class could have an acrobatic focus taught by a dancer with that skill set.

“But we also want to listen to the community and what they want,” Wevers said. “We don’t want to make it a professional school.”

at comes back to the dance company’s primary mission for its school.

“It’s really making contemporary dance accessible and making it accessible for everyone to participate in and enjoy the element of dance,” Wevers said.

He said his dream is for the dance company to have its very own studios and for them to be used and enjoyed by all dancers.

“ at’s what we really want to create for the community, is for people to come in at any time and to just dance and participate,” Wevers said.

In addition to starting a small school o ering dance classes, Wevers said plans include subsidizing space for artists to come in and use the facilities and create opportunities for BIPC dancers to access the classes, studios, school programs and workshops, Wevers said.

He said every day, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., the second dance studio will be open for the community members, and a er the dance company dancers are done for the day, both will be open.

“We’re really inviting people into our space and showing them what we do,” he said.

According to its website, Whim W’Him was founded in 2009 and is an awardwinning Seattle-based contemporary dance company that showcases innovative dance in collaboration with global artists. e dance studio employs seven professional dancer who receive full bene ts and presents about 30 performances a year, with pop-up free performances during the summer throughout the city.

Visit whimwhim.org for more information about Whim W’Him Seattle Dance Company.

Chris Sudore President/Founder

Megan Bassetti Marketing

Whim W’Him Seattle Contemporary Dance Executive Manager Melody O’Neill, left, and Artistic Director Olivier Wevers help move boxes into the dance company’s new location. With a signi cant contribution from a longtime donor and a grant, the company purchased a former church in Queen Anne.

Photo courtesy Olivier Wevers