The March edition of the White Center Chamber of Commerce meeting introduced a new panel of board members for the coming year. They are Greg Jones, owner of Masters Automotive, Brittany Trujillo, owner Seattle Silkscreen, Mikel Davila, the new White Center CDA Business Development Specialist, and Leticia Martinez, owner of Cafe Rozella. They join existing Chamber board member Dennis Pflug. Also new to the Chamber board are, Vice President Mac McElroy, owner of Mac's Triangle Pub, Treasurer, Aileen Sison, of John L. Scott Realty, Secretary Dr. Chris Hill, owner of New Balance Chiropractic and Vera Johnson, Village Green Nursery.

Salute to Art Spencer
Following the introductions, Rich and Sharon Spencer, rose to remember and honor his father and her husband Art Spencer who passed away Feb. 8. They shared favorite stories and memories. Art purchased the service station at the corner of 15th s.w. and 108th s.w. in 1962, met Sharon at a local grocery store, owned by her father Oren Artlip. They were married for 48 years.

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Evergreen Merit Award
Ray Zombro of Evergreen High School spoke about the $500 Scholarship and White Center Chamber Merit Award. "To reward students who have been involved in school, family and their community," Zombro said. This marks the 13th year of the award they've had multiple winners in the past resulting over $20,000 to students.

Former award recipient Aaron Garcia (2005) who now works at Evergreen told a story about his wanting to "leave White Center and get a job and become rich" but he had a transformation saying, "Unless I come back and unless I help my community that's not going to help anybody." He's now part of the TRIO Talent Search program providing college access. "What we do is do field trips, and work one on one with students through the application process." He's also now the Assistant Wrestling Coach at the high school.

Chris Cody and Herban Legends
Chris Cody of White Center Herban Legends Medical Clinic providing medical marijuana spoke about what his business is and does. He's close to celebrating a year in business and said, "I've been really happy and everyone here has been really supportive. We've managed to help more than 1000 people get safe access to medical cannabis. We're helping people who have really tough conditions from cancer to MS and we're doing really good work."

Ron Angeles is now Evergreen HS Girls Softball Coach
Ron Angeles, who retired last year from the City of Seattle Dept. of Neighborhoods is now the coach for the Evergreen High School softball team. He rose to say," I'm a newbie but I'm jacked up about it!, We have a lot of talent this year and more coming up so my goal in the next four years is to beat Kennedy High School!" Angeles who grew up in this area, graduated from Sealth in 1968 and said he played in the Soutwest Little League at what is now Mel Olsen Field at Steve Cox Park. "That's where I learned to play," he said.

Cross Church is seeking food donations for the homeless
Robert Bednarczyk from the Cross Church spoke about the work the church is doing for the homeless in the area. As a former homeless person himself he said they work to support the homeless to escape that circumstance. They help 60 to 75 people daily so donations of food of any kind are very helpful. They are located at 1320 s.w. 120th Street.

Alcohol sales and the homeless in White Center
That segued into a discussion of the Homeless Summit meeting coming up for March 20 at 9:30 am. Part of this is the focus on alcohol consumption in the White Center area. They are working with the King County Sheriff's office and the Washington State Liquor Control Board. "For the state to be willing to allocate more resources to monitor alcohol consumption in the community and to maybe, possibly restrict certain alcohol products (because what you'll find is that the chronic alcohol consumers tends to use very inexpensive products. They pay $1.39 a can for something equivalent to 5 or 6 beers) The way to prove what's on the market is you have to do an inventory. We just finished our sixth inventory. We're packaging all that in the next week for the Liquor Control Board going out next week (...) We're asking them to do two things. One is working with BJ Myers we have 50 vendors selling alcohol in White Center. We've identified ten of them that tend to sell the products that are used by our chronic homeless, alcoholic population. We're asking the liquor control board to more closely monitor those ten businesses what they are doing. Two, we are asking to to do increased engagement with the entire business community, all of the vendors. The majority of the vendors are not the problem. Those ten know what they are doing and they are not helping these people get to a better place in their lives. problem. Those ten know what they are doing and they are not helping these people get to a better place in their lives."

"The ten vendors were selected by the King County Sheriff's office. BJ Myers mentioned at the last meeting that they are working with the distributors and asking them to go to these vendors and asking them to do the right thing." The chamber is distributing alcohol stickers promoting responsible sales and they are taking the Good Neighbor Agreement around for signatures from area businesses. "The idea is that we are not trying to limit freedom here. We're trying to get people to cooperate and help our community address this challenge."

Spring Clean and the White Center Murals Project
Mikel Davila, of the WCCDA spoke about the upcoming Spring Clean event, set for May 19. Currently more than 700 volunteers are scheduled to work on cleaning, painting, repairing, planting, and general community upkeep on that day. But Mark Ufkes has a special project he's been working on that he wants to see take shape before that date. He wants to find six open walls in White Center (he has three already) where murals can be painted representing the ethnic diversity in the community. He's been in contact with West Seattle muralist and painter Glenn Case and they are working on the plans now.

Announcements and reminders
The Cambodian Cultural Alliance New Year Festival is underway and you can learn more about the organization and the festival visit www.camculture.org. The festival will take place April 28 from 10:30 am to 5:30pm featuring music, dance, food and Cambodian cultural booths.

The White Center Jubilee Days Gala/Silent Auction fundraiser is coming up May 5th. Tickets to the event are available through Brown Paper Tickets.