Sweetheart Potluck at Evans Pool

Kerrie Stoops, Assistant Aquatic Center Coordinator at Evans Pool (7201 E Green Lake Dr N), asked us to share news about two upcoming events at the pool:

Neighborhood Appreciation and Sweetheart Potluck at Evans Pool
Saturday February 11^th noon-2:30pm
Bring a dish to share at this free event!  Live music, family fun, friends, and food!  Everyone welcome.

Date Night at Evans Pool
Tuesday February 14^th 6-10pm
Children 6-13 years old are invited to join us for activities, playing SKWIM, watching a movie, and enjoying a snack while parents have a night out.
$25/child – registration can be done online, over the phone (206-684-4961) or in person.
Note:  Please pack suit and towel.  We are only serving snacks during this program.  Child should eat dinner prior to being dropped off.

©Amy Duncan for My Green Lake | Seattle's Green Lake Blog, 2012.

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Post tags: bargain alert, building community, kids, parks and rec, swimming, valentine's day

Seattle’s 18th annual Neighbor Appreciation Day, “a special day to reach out to neighbors and express thanks to all who make your neighborhood a great place,” will be Saturday, Feb. 11, 2012.

Community organizations and residents across Seattle are hosting work parties, special events and potlucks during the week leading up the day. Ideas to help celebrate can be found here.

There will also be several public events, including an open house at Green Lake’s newly-renovated Fire Station 16.

For more information about Neighbor Appreciation Day, contact Wendy Watson of the Seattle Department of Neighborhoods at wendy.watson [at] seattle.gov.

©Amy Duncan for My Green Lake | Seattle's Green Lake Blog, 2012.

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Post tags: building community

• King County Metro route changes
• Green Lake’s Emergency Preparedness Team
• The Green Lake Library
• New light towers at Bishop Blanchet High School
• Neighbor Appreciation Day
• The Seattle Public Theater at the Green Lake Bathhouse
• Friends of Green Lake
• Membership on the Green Lake Community Council Board

©Amy Duncan for My Green Lake | Seattle's Green Lake Blog, 2012.

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Post tags: building community, green lake community council

The group meets at the bakery on Wednesdays at noon for an event called “Cupcakes, Coffee and Consciousness.” The weekly meeting is loosely based on Christian D. Larson’s Optimist Creed:

Promise yourself,

To be strong that nothing can disturb your peace of Mind
To talk health, happiness and prosperity to everyone you meet.
To make all your friends feel there is something in them.
To look at the sunny side of everything and make your optimism come true.
To think only the best, to work only for the best and to expect only the best.
To be just s enthusiastic about the success of others as you are about your own.
To forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future.
To wear a cheerful continence at all times and give every living creature you meet a smile.
To give so much time to improving yourself that you have no time to criticize others.
To large to worry, to noble for anger, too strong for fear, and too happy to permit the presence of trouble.

Christian D. Larson, 1912

Colin would like to see the idea spread to other communities, and he has been invited to speak about concept on The Dr. Pat Show, a syndicated talk radio show hosted by Dr. Pat Baccili.

“I envision a possibility of other folks, in any community, adopting local establishments, and doing so consciously,” Colin says. “Making a commitment to a gas station, restaurant, coffee shop or other locally owned business, and then just supporting them with your patronage.”

Colin explains that the three C’s he used to name the event were inspired by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), a public work relief program that operated during the Great Depression.

“That was a time when the economy was boosted by the government’s circulation of money from the bottom up,” he says. “Although ‘We the People’ can’t seem to count on the government to demonstrate that kind of wisdom now, we don’t have to wait for them either.”

“We all drink coffee, eat out, buy gas,” Colin says. “Let’s just do it with a little bit of conscious awareness, and with a commitment to each other.”

©Amy Duncan for My Green Lake | Seattle's Green Lake Blog, 2011.

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Post tags: building community, local businesses

Please join us and other Seattle online media at a benefit for Northwest Harvest on Saturday, Nov. 19, 2011, 4:00 – 7:00 p.m. at Pies and Pints (1215 NE 65th St).

The event, organized by The SunBreak, is the fourth annual Blogsgiving. It is hosted by Roosiehood, Ravenna Blog, Wallyhood, My Green Lake and The SunBreak.

A suggested minimum donation of $5 to Northwest Harvest and/or two non-perishable food items will earn you one specialty drink, such as a Guinness with cider float.

Non-alcoholic beverages will also be available, as well as markers and paper for kids of all ages to make hand turkeys.

“All bloggers, readers, friends, enemies, and even frenemies are invited to attend,” Audrey Hendrickson of The SunBreak writes. “Blogsgiving is not just for hyperlocal newsies, but for anyone who might want to share a warm, social evening with people they know mainly through handles like @dawgs4ev. Come one, come all!”

©Amy Duncan for My Green Lake | Seattle's Green Lake Blog, 2011.

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Post tags: building community, fundraiser, MyGreenLake.com, neighborhood blogging, roosevelt, thanksgiving

Kristy is a student in the University of Washington Department of Communication News Laboratory, an advanced reporting class in which students produce news stories and packages for local neighborhood and ethnic newspapers and online sites.

Michael Sanders, Grand Master Mason of Washington

With more than 5 million members, the Freemasons are one of the world’s oldest fraternities. Their origins are unknown, their rituals secret, and their lavish lodges are in almost every major city. For centuries they have raised eyebrows and inspired conspiracy theories for their clandestine meetings.

Now members of the Green Lake brotherhood want to modernize, open their doors and discuss their Masonic spiritual teachings. Instead of the secret society of the past, the Masons want to become a contemporary society with secrets. So who are they and what do they do?

It is believed freemasonry harkens back to 1717 at the Goose and Gridiron in London, where men from four lodges gathered to form the Grand Lodge of England. Their order grew and their influence spread from England to Europe to America.

Today in Washington state there are 170 Masonic lodges. The earliest, St. John’s Lodge, dates to 1858, only a few years after the first Seattle settlement. In Green Lake, if you walk under the Lodge No. 149 archway and through the oak doors at 307 NE Maple Leaf Pl, you will find men who band together as brothers, bonded by a common fraternity.

While the brotherhood is steeped in history, some of the members are decidedly modern, one pulling out a smart phone to check the news prior to a dinner of grilled steak, green beans and salad soaked in dressing. There is boisterous laughter and the ting of knives sawing through meat and hitting plate. At the moment, the atmosphere feels more like a fraternity gathering than a secret society. Only when the Grand Master Mason of Washington enters the room, and some of the men stand for him, does the recognition that this is an organized society snap back into place.

The current Master Mason is a small, almost elfish man, who holds a lot of power within the Washington Masonry.

“I am the ultimate authority,” says Michael Sanders, the Grand Master Mason of Washington, sitting down at the table. “Everybody in the lodge can say they want to go right, but if the Master says no, then they are going to go left.”

The elected title holds a lot of responsibility, but one that lasts for only a year. Sanders officially joined the Masonry brotherhood 30 years ago, inspired in part by his grandfather and uncles who were Masons. He then spent 12 years in various lodge positions before reaching his current title of Master Mason.

Over the years, he has seen the popularity of the fraternity diminish, their secrecy eroding public awareness of who they are and what they stand for.

“We have had 50 years of Masons holding everything really close and not telling anybody who we are,” says Sanders. “We’ve got to break that cycle. I would like to see every good man out there join the fraternity.”

So far, the Green Lake Lodge has about 150 members, with 40 who actively participate. The majority of them have white hair, which is one of the reasons they are seeking a younger generation of Masons to uphold their traditions.

“That’s always the goal, to attract younger members,” says Michael Cuadra, the Treasurer. “We’re only starting to get more knowledge out there about what masonry really is.”

To join, you must be a man of at least 18 years old, able to read and write, and believe in a Supreme Being. Apart from that, Masons vary in age, culture and beliefs: there are doctors and plumbers, young men and old, Catholics and Jews. They all, however, believe in tolerance, liberty, charity, knowledge and moral uprightness without arrogance or condescension.

“We are taking their good qualities and expanding them by constantly reinforcing time-proven principles of morality they hear in our ritual,” says Sanders. “They become better members of their community. Better husbands. Fathers. Employees. Employers. And citizens.”

As Freemasons like to say, they are taught through “a system of morality veiled in allegory and illustrated by symbols.”

The most common of symbols is the letter G in the middle of a square and compass. Each member wears a golden ring carved with the emblem as a reminder of their brotherhood code: the G for Geometry and God (any of your choosing), the square for virtue, and the compass for the strength to “circumscribe desires and keep passions within due bounds.”

“We are also a charity organization,” says Glenn Bailey, Worshipful Master of Green Lake Lodge. They are open to being approached by organizations asking for volunteers as long as “people come up to us in the proper way. Then we would be more than happy to review it.”

The Worshipful Master sits on the East side of the ceremonial room, directs all the business for his lodge, and presides over the rituals and ceremonies. The office is an elected position, although the previous year’s Senior Warden is usually the next in line to occupy the title. The designation “Worshipful” does not mean the Masons worship him; rather it is a title out of respect similar to calling a judge “Your Honor” or a mayor “Honorable.”

Worshipful Master Bailey is particularly proud of the charitable works the Green Lake Masons participate in.  Currently, the lodge is helping sponsor the 35th Pathway of Lights, the annual lighting of the path around Green Lake. Other volunteer work includes raising funds for college scholarships, painting basketball courts, and funding the  “Bikes for Books” reading program at the Green Lake Branch Library.

“The kids get really excited about reading the books,” says Bailey. “They know if they do well and read a lot of them, they have a chance of getting a bike. If they read 10 books, they get 10 tickets. If they read three books, they put in three tickets for the lottery.”

“And that’s only our lodge,” says Cuadra. “Greenwood Lodge does a lot of stuff for the Greenwood district. Eureka Lodge does science and education for Seattle schools, so they sponsor science fairs.” Each lodge engages with the community in a different way, depending on their focus or community location.

“We could literally change the world if we could just get out and bring people through these doors,” says Sanders, walking into the ceremonial room. “I think that with all my heart.”

The wood doors close and with them the ritual secrets.

©UW News Lab for My Green Lake | Seattle's Green Lake Blog, 2011.

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Post tags: building community, Green Lake masons, volunteer

Creative Alliance for Growth, a local BNI Chapter that meets weekly in Green Lake, is looking for new members.

The business networking group meets on Wednesdays, 12:30 p.m. – 2 p.m., at The Hearthstone (6720 East Green Lake Way N). Members share information and referrals.

Only one person from each professional specialty is accepted into each BNI chapter. Once a representative of a profession has joined, his or her competition is locked out from joining as well.

Creative Alliance for Growth is currently looking for members from several professions. While guests are welcome at any meeting, specific days have been set aside for guests from the following professions:

January 11, 2012: Florists, photographers and event planners

February 15, 2012: Commercial real estate agents

March 14, 2012: Attorneys

April 18, 2012: Travel agents

May 16, 2012: CPAs/Tax preparers

June 13, 2012: Videographers

July 18, 2012: House cleaners

September 12, 2012: Handymen/handywomen

October 17, 2012: Dentists

Business owners do not need to live or work in Green Lake.

For more information or to schedule a visit to a meeting, please contact Albert Israel at aisrael [at] financialguide.com and Chapter President Annie Jacobsen at annie [at] assistedtransitions.net. Please include a line or two about your business and/or a link to your business website.

Disclosure note: Amy Duncan, the author of this post, is a member of BNI – CAG.

©Amy Duncan for My Green Lake | Seattle's Green Lake Blog, 2011.

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Post tags: building community, local businesses, the hearthstone

Bruce Lorig and Meredith Messmer, Lorig Associaties Project Manager, will be at the meeting.

Lorig Associaties is managing the development of Green Lake Village, a large mixed-use project that is slated for construction at the former Vitamilk Dairy site, a three-acre empty lot of land often referred to by locals as “The Big Hole.”

The property, located between Woodlawn Ave NE, NE 71st St, 5th Ave NE and NE 72nd St, has been a vacant pit for more than three years. (You can read more about the history of the project here.)

Green Lake Village will include approximately 300 studio, one-bedroom and two-bedroom apartments in five stories. There will also be 50,000sf of retail space, anchored by a 25,000sf PCC Natural Markets. (You can read more about the PCC here.)

Wednesday’s meeting will also include updates from the Woodland Park Zoo, the Lifetime Learning Center, the Friends of Green Lake, the Northwest District Council, the Seattle Public Theater, and the Community Council’s liaison to the Seattle Police Department’s North Precinct.

In addition, a representative from the Green Lake Community Center will provide information about this year’s Pathway of Lights and information about lifeguard and wading pool scheduling at Green Lake Park.

The Green Lake Community Council meets on the second Wednesdays of odd-numbered months.

There are upcoming opportunities to join the Community Council Board. The elections process will be reviewed at Wednesday’s meeting.

©Amy Duncan for My Green Lake | Seattle's Green Lake Blog, 2011.

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Post tags: building community, construction, green lake community council, green lake village

The Freeway Estates Community Orchard is a strip of public land on the west side of I-5, on 6th Ave NE between NE 60th St and NE 63rd St. A group of volunteers has been transforming the space into an orchard and garden for the community since last winter.

Saturday’s event featured free cider and family activities. A design board was set up so that the community could submit ideas and suggestions for the future of the space.

Many thanks to Benjamin Lukoff for sharing the following photos with us:

You can learn more about the Freeway Estates Community Orchard via Ruth Callard (rooth [at] zipcon.net) or by joining the orchard’s Google group.

©Amy Duncan for My Green Lake | Seattle's Green Lake Blog, 2011.

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Post tags: building community, gardening, I-5

There’s a lot going on this Halloween in the Green Lake neighborhood.

There will be a free Fall Pumpkin Swim at Evans Pool tomorrow evening (Friday, October 28, 2011), 7 p.m. – 8 p.m. The event features games, prizes and pumpkins in the pool.

The Green Lake Tacos Guaymas is hosting their annual Halloween Costume Party tomorrow night (October 28).

A Halloween Midnight Mystery Ride is planned for late tomorrow night (October 28). The costumed bike ride begins at 11:30 p.m. at the southwest corner of Green Lake, near the Aqua Theater.

On Saturday (October 29), 12 p.m. – 2:30 p.m., there will be a free all-ages harvest potluck on the deck of Evans Pool. Community members are invited to bring a dish to share with their neighbors and pool staff.

The First Annual Cider Fest at Freeway Estates Community Orchard is planned for Saturday (October 29), 2:00 p.m. – ­ 5:00 p.m.

Saturday night (October 29) brings a Halloween costume party to Little Red Hen (7115 Woodlawn Ave NE). Prizes will be awarded at midnight.

Meerkats, hippos, elephants, bears and more will do the annual smashing and chomping of pumpkins and scurrying through jack-o’lanterns at Woodland Park Zoo’s Pumpkin Bash on Saturday and Sunday (October 29 and 30).

Meerkats enjoy the zoo's Pumpkin Bash. Photo credit: Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo

On Sunday (October 30), the annual Corgi Halloween Costume Parade Around Green Lake is planned for 11 a.m. Look for dozens of corgi dogs in costume.

The Green Lake Irwin’s Neighborhood Bakery and Cafe (301 NE 65th St) will be hosting a costume contest for children of all ages on Halloween (Monday, October 31), 3:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. Contest winners will receive $10 and $25 gift certificates to Irwin’s.

Bethany Lutheran Church is hosting a “Trunk or Treat” in the church parking lot (7400 Woodlawn Ave NE) on Halloween evening, 5:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. Treats and hot cider will be available. For more information, call (206) 523-4454 or email secretary[at]bethanyluth.org.

Many homes around the neighborhood are welcoming trick-or-treaters (here’s our map). Of special note is the annual haunted house at 315 NE 60th St. The theme this year is Zombie Dodgeball, and the doors are open 6:30-8:30 p.m.

Also be sure to check out the decorations at the Tavis Residence, near the corner of Corliss Ave N and N 64th St:

Don’t forget that the North Helpline Food Bank is asking volunteers to collect food and personal care items while they trick-or-treat.

The annual Naked Pumpkin Run is scheduled for 9:21 p.m. on Halloween night.

On Tuesday, the day after Halloween (November 1), Greenlake Kids Dentistry is hosting their annual Halloween Candy Buy-Back program, 3:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.

Dr. Troy Hull at the 2010 Halloween Candy Buy-Back event at Greenlake Kids Dentistry

Seattle Police Department Crime Prevention Coordinator Terrie Johnston shares the following Halloween safety tips:

Know your trail: What route will you take? Don’t take short cuts through alleyways, back yards or parks.
Whose homes will you visit? Advise your parents of your plans.
Is there an adult going along? If not, tell parents with whom you’ll be. Stay together w/your group and have a plan should someone get lost.
Only trick or treat at homes with front porch lights on.
NEVER enter the house or car of a stranger.
When will you be home? Carry a cell.phone & call if you will be late .
Carry a flashlight or light sticks. It makes it easier to see and shows you where you are going. Reflective tape/material is a good idea to add to your costume.
Make up is safer than a mask, which can make seeing difficult.
Drivers have a hard time seeing you at night, so cross the road carefully and stay on main streets/sidewalks. Use crosswalks, and wait for a walk signal. Never cross from between parked cars.
Be careful of open flames from pumpkins and candles, as they can catch your costume and long wigs on fire.
Are your shoes safe and comfortable for walking?
Have your parents check out your candy when you get home before you eat any.

For the Ghosts who stay at home
Greet treaters at the door.
Remove obstacles from sidewalk, porch and steps.
Keep a light on, so treaters can see where they are walking.
Use your peep hole and look outside before opening the door.
Don’t leave your pet out in the yard on Halloween.
Be mindful of pets around lit pumpkins.
Chocolate is poisonous to animals, as is tin foil or candy wrappers.

Remember you can call 9-1-1 to report suspicious or criminal activity, 24 hours a day.

And, a reminder that extra law enforcement will be out this weekend and on Halloween looking for impaired drivers. Patrols will begin Friday evening. According to Public Health – Seattle & King County, nearly half of all national highway fatalities on Halloween night in 2009 involved a driver or a motorcycle rider with a blood alcohol content of .08 or higher.

Thanks for the tips, Kristen, Martin, Carl and Tracy. Have a great weekend and a wonderful Halloween, everyone!

©Amy Duncan for My Green Lake | Seattle's Green Lake Blog, 2011.

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Post tags: building community, cycling, dogs, halloween, kids, local businesses, party, safety, swimming, zoo