You have a choice this Saturday (August 17th) of two different activities.
The first is another Stop The Bleed first-aid course, to be done completely free on the 17th at the Meadowbrook Community Center, 10517 35th Avenue NE between 10 AM and 11:40 AM. “Bleeding is the leading cause of preventable death after injury. Emergency responders will arrive as quickly as possible, but bystanders are almost always there first. Learn how to “Stop the Bleed” – and maybe save a life!” Sponsored by the Lake City Emergency HUB. Click here to sign up.
The second event is Victory Height’s own 17th Annual Jokumfest Jazz Festival. This annual party is held in the backyard of Gary Schudie’s house, 2021 NE Northgate Way. Live music begins at 3 PM and goes until about 10 PM. There will be beer, food, and jazz, all they ask is bring a side dish to share.
Despite a soggier-than-normal July, the seventh annual Victory Heights potluck/ice cream social was held on Tuesday night with temperatures in the 70s and dry weather throughout. An estimated 150 people came by over two hours, which featured a visit from the Engine 40 fire truck, tons of food, free ice cream, and two bird-watching stations nearby.
It has never rained during a VH potluck, and 2019 was no exception (despite rain the day before and after this year). By 6 PM, the road next to Victory Heights Park had been blocked off, the tables had been set up, and dishes (mainly homemade) began arriving from every corner of the neighborhood, along with families and a few dogs.
While not eating or chatting with their neighbors, folks could look at the displays for the Ryther children’s home, talk with a District 5 city council candidate, write on a white board about what they enjoy about our neighborhood (see right), or walk down the street to observe nesting raptors.
On 17th Avenue NE, just north of NE 106th street, two telescopes were trained on a huge nest high up in the trees for a family of Cooper’s Hawks where it was feeding time for the young birds. After catching some food and then delivering it to the nest, the mother hawk flew over to another tree to perch and was then dive-bombed by a Merlin! That Merlin was from a nest on 20th Avenue NE just south of Northgate Way, where another set of telescopes was set up to watch their feeding frenzy going on. Apparently the Merlin just wanted to remind the Cooper’s Hawk that it was in the area and not to get any ideas.
A Merlin eats its dinner while observed through a telescope Tuesday night in Victory Heights
Thanks to everyone who came out and participated this year (and donated to our kitty which helps pay for the ice cream). Don’t forget to organize your own Neighborhood Night Out for your block on Tuesday, August 6th.
The Victory Heights potluck/ice cream social will be held this year on Tuesday, July 16th from 6 PM – 8 PM on NE 106th Street on the west side of Victory Heights Park. Bring a chair and a dish to share and we’ll provide ice cream treats, plates and utensils.
Bring your family to this traditional outdoor event. Frequently a fire truck will come by for tours. We will also have community displays and information about Victory Heights.
Lynnette Spear (creator of the first blog about Victory Heights) writes:
I am one of the forest stewards (through Green Seattle Partnership) for KNA on Thornton Creek. It’s been a while since we’ve had regular work parties in the park and I would like to start them up again. I’d like to establish a Saturday or Sunday regular 2 hour block with a goal of creating a group of dedicated volunteers over the long term.
Here is a list of Sundays 10-noon for work parties. I will be creating events for these and posting theme on NextDoor and the Green Seattle Partnership site. You can always text me for more information. 206-235-9781. Tomorrow is an informal work party at the entrance to Kingfisher at 17TH AVE NE and NE 104TH WORK PARTIES: 10 AM-noon, Sundays July 7 July 21 Aug 4 Rest of August off Sept 8 Sept 22 Oct 6 Oct 20 Nov 3
The Victory Heights Community Council has partnered with Ryther Children’s Center twice now to provide
gingerbread houses for the kids to decorate.
In discussion with the staff, we discovered the challenge they face
finding activities in summer, when
school is out, to keep the kids engaged.
We offered to help provide swimsuits for the kids that “live” at Ryther. We’ve compiled a “wish list” on Amazon to
meet the needs of the kids based on their size and color preferences. If you’d like to support summertime fun for
these kids, please move an item(s) to your cart and purchase.
** Please send the swim gear directly to Ryther’s. **
Ryther Attn: Isabella 2400 NE 95th St Seattle, WA 98115
At the June meeting of the Victory Heights Community Council, Vicki Stiles from the Shoreline Historical Museum gave a presentation about the history of Victory Heights.
Her slideshow included 19th Century survey maps which included dirt paths designated “Military Roads” (one ran along present-day Northgate Way), the original government platting maps, real estate ads, and historic buildings. Do you remember the LaVilla Dairy on Fischer Place (still there)? Or the Lockhart Inn (later French’s Inn)? Or the infamous Jolly Roger restaurant on Lake City Way (which, it turns out, was never a speakeasy–it opened in 1934 after the end of Prohibition!). It’s now a car dealership.
The Lake City Farmers Market is in full swing, every
Thursday afternoon from 3 PM – 7 PM in front of the library on NE 125th
Street. Some produce is a bit late this year because of the weather, but more
arrives each week. Plus, tons of activities for kids.
Next month we will host our annual pot luck/ice cream social, on Tuesday, July 16th starting at 6 PM on NE 106th Place next to the park. Be sure and mark your calendars and come on out, we usually have over 100 people show up each year.
Here are events in and around Victory Heights this month:
Sunday, June 9th: The Thornton Creek Alliance presents: Influence of the Confluence. Time to celebrate our watershed! There will be info booths with fun activities for the whole family, including hands-on learning, site tours, games, live music, and food. All in the setting of Meadowbrook Pond! Learn about Thornton Creek and the science work being done there. All are invited! 2:00 PM – 6 PM at Meadowbrook Pond, between 35th and 39th Avenues NE, and just south of NE 110th St.
Saturday, June 15th: Victory Heights Community Yard Sale. Your extra stuff may be someone else’s treasure! Please register HERE if you would like to participate in the Community-Wide Yard Sale on Saturday, June 15th, from 9am to 1pm. Plan to sell items from your home – we can’t gather on the street for this event. Maps of participating homes will be available exactly at 8:30 AM on the 15th here on the blog, or posted at the Victory Heights Preschool, 1747 NE 106th St.
Tuesday, June 18th: Victory Heights Community Council Meeting. Guest speaker: Vicki Stiles, historian, will share information about our little slice of Seattle. 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM at the co-op preschool building in Victory Heights Park.
Saturday, June 22nd. Site Walk and Input Session for the 11545 15th Avenue NE Project. Redevelopment is coming to Pinehurst on our north border. Here is your chance to find out about the demolition and building that will be going on. 11 AM – 2 PM at the site: 11545 15th Avenue NE.
Thursday, June 27th. Seattle City Council District 5 Candidate Forum. The primary is coming up in early August. Hear the contenders go head-to-head live and in person. 6:30 PM – 8 PM, North Seattle College, Room CC1161.
On an overcast June 1st before the marine layer burned away, a dozen Victory Heights residents gathered to participate in using our Emergency Communications HUB located in Victory Heights Park.
The locked storage box next to the tennis courts was opened at 8 AM (see this photo if you are curious what’s inside), tables were set up, signs posted, and metal plates were mounted to post messages using magnets.
The “greeter table” set up in the tennis court of Victory Heights Park.
By 9 AM everything was set up including an information area outside the court to let people know more about the HUB, emergency preparedness, and how to set up low-tech toilets without water.
Displays were set up to demonstrate emergency preparedness.
Away from the action (as it would be in an actual emergency) a team was set up with a ham radio so we could communicate with the HUB set up in Maple Leaf Park. They simulated a drill where lost children were trying to be reunited with their parents.
Community Council President Ann Forrest addresses the volunteers before the HUB opens.
An emergency communications HUB’s only resource is information. There are no supplies, food, or medical equipment. But it is a place for the community to gather and share needs and resources, using a message board system with different categories (e.g. lost pets, services, supplies that can be shared, etc). Matching needs is very much the goal of the HUB, but also a way to keep people informed and as Victory Heights Community Council President Ann Forrest likes to say, “We are social creatures, and during an emergency we seek others to be with.”
In the case of an actual emergency (most likely a huge earthquake), volunteers would set up the HUB and take on different roles like “Greeter” or “Information Officer.” For the drill on Saturday, scenarios were written out on paper for members of the public to use to see the HUB in action and help everyone practice.
At this month’s meeting of the Victory Heights Community Council, we previewed how our Emergency Communications HUB drill will be performed on Saturday, June 1st during a city-wide drill.
Beginning at 9 AM on the 1st, volunteers from around the community, including HAM radio operators, will convene near the tennis court in Victory Heights Park to take on roles in order to: 1) share information and 2) coordinate “neighbors helping neighbors.” There are no supplies per se in the HUB, just tools to help facilitate those two goals (i.e. clip boards, info books, white boards, pens, etc). Other volunteers can participate by using pre-scripted scenarios to simulate the kind of actions that the HUB might be called upon during an actual emergency (for example, a lost dog, reporting a gas leak, having a chain saw available for use) and then matching those to other “reports” which come in. It’s a great community-building exercise and absolutely essential to help one another in case of disaster of some sort where help from the city at large might be days, if not weeks, in the coming. Please come by and participate, it’s fun!
In other news, we learned about earthquake early warning systems, scheduled the next community yard sale (Saturday, June 15th), and heard the virtues of the Lake City Farmers Market which runs Thursday next to the library beginning June 6th.
The
next meeting of the community council will be Tuesday, June 18th
with guest speaker Vicki Stiles, a historian who can tell us what was in
Victory Heights before the houses!
