Shoreline Area News: 2017 in review

The Shoreline Area News has a regular cartoonist - Whitney Potter

The Shoreline Area News has published over 3800 stories so far in 2017. Following is one story from each month of the year, typical of some of the topics we cover.

January - Schools
Echo Lake 5th graders sworn in as Presidents in Olympia
Teachers Karen Nicholson and Allan Rand taught their 5th graders a Social Studies Storypath on the election process, learning about our government, political parties, platforms, the electoral college and culminating with the election of a president in each of the two classrooms. The classes travelled to Olympia where their elected Presidents were sworn in by a State Supreme Court judge and chatted with the governor.

February - Parks and Gardeners
Volunteer Opportunity at Grace Cole Park
An announcement for volunteer gardeners to help remove invasive species at Grace Cole Park was one of many gardening events in parks all over Shoreline and Lake Forest Park. Our parks look better every year because of the hundreds of hours of work put in by volunteers. Groups are formed around specific parks, pathways, and trails. They are led by Master Gardeners, Rotary clubs, neighborhood associations, or individuals with a passion. Victoria Gilleland writes a regular gardening column.

March - Politics
Kagi emphasizes role of early learning in foster care in Democrats' budget
Evan Smith covered politics all year, checking in with city councils and state legislators.

April - Theater
Theater Review: The Drowsy Chaperone receives a well-deserved standing ovation
Doug Gochanour reviewed productions from Driftwood Players, Phoenix Theatre, Shoreline Community College Drama, and Aurora Theatre Company. Jim Anderson covered Seattle Musical Theatre.

May - Sports
Sasha Gaeth and Gunnar Thorstenson save their best tennis for State
High school sports are covered by volunteers associated with an individual team. In tennis, coaches Arnie Moreno at Shorewood and Rob Mann at Shorecrest have been stellar at consistently sending reports and photos of their teams. Other sports had parents who stepped up to provide information about their teams. 2017 had particularly good football coverage from both schools.

June - Photographers
Demo Day - Abandoned buildings at Fircrest come down
We have been blessed with wonderful photographers. Steve Robinson, Jerry Pickard, Wayne Pridemore, Lee Lageschulte, Marc Weinberg, Jan Hansen. Other regulars are Frank Kleyn, Shirley Sidell, Dan Short, Lien Titus, Janet Way, Martin de Grazia, Bruce Hill, Carl Dinse, Seattle Poppy, G M Wiegand, Geoff Vlcek, Mike Remarcke. Then the readers who see news happening, take a photo and send it in. And all the bird photographers who give Christine Southwick permission to use their photos in her popular For the Birds columns.

July - Weather
WeatherWatcher - Heat wave coming
Carl Dinse tracks the weather at his private Shoreline weather station.

August - Letters to the Editor
What NOT to do if you find a dead cat
We welcome letters to the editor, and receive them on a variety of topics.

September - Art
New show opens at the Gallery at Town Center
We also follow the openings of art exhibits sponsored by the Shoreline - Lake Forest Park Arts Council in Shoreline and Lake Forest Park, Galleria Essentia in Ballinger Terrace, Shoreline Community College art gallery. We ran a series on Public Art in Shoreline and are working on other art related stories.

October - Fire and police
Fire calls and Police blotter
Fire and police actions in Shoreline are a regular feature; articles on fires and police action in Lake Forest Park are also published.

November - Neighborhoods, PTA
Pumpkin Pie for Hillwood neighbors
Meetings, event, projects of local PTA units, neighborhood associations, clubs, and groups - and there are a lot in the area!

December - Veterans
Patton's soldier
VFW post events, Shoreline Veterans' Association, Memorial Day, Veterans' Day, Medal of Honor winners, ceremonies at local cemeteries are all part of what we do.

Apologies to those who have not been mentioned. We truly appreciate everyone's contributions.

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