Eight times around the sun

Betteline Brown marks "8 times around the sun"
at her birthday party on Friday
Photo by Janet Way

Well known Shoreline community volunteer Bettelinn Brown celebrated her 80th birthday on Friday, December 22, 2017, by inviting 300 of her closest friends for dinner.

The gymnasium / cafeteria at Brookside Elementary School was full of food and friends.

Name tags were arranged by segments of her life and the people she knew from each. Bastyr University. Briarcrest Neighborhood Association. Politics. Yoga. Family.

Bettelinn shares a special reading
Photo by Janet Way

She introduced a special few: a man who had been her yoga student forty-five years ago. A woman she had been giving reflexology treatments to for forty years. Joe Pizzorno, co-founder and first president of Bastyr University, where she taught yoga. "Bettelinn was one of the first people I hired," he said. State Sen. Maralyn Chase.

Food was provided by Patty Pan Neighborhood Kitchen "On the street where I live," said Bettelinn, and The Everest Kitchen in Lake Forest Park.

Bettelinn talked about her Briarcrest neighborhood. "When I realized that people on one side of the neighborhood didn't know the people on the other side, I created a newsletter. Then I recruited someone on every block to deliver the newsletter to their neighbors every month."

After people had eaten, Bettelinn did a ceremonial walk with a globe, eight times around a "sun" with each circuit representing ten years of her life.

Bettelinn is not retiring, simply marking a milestone. She still has plenty of things she wants to accomplish.

--Diane Hettrick