It is important to note that this statement is the result of cooperative work of many individuals. I would like to thank the following individuals for their input and most importantly perseverance: Richard Gelb, Peter Hayes, Jessica Nelson, Juniper Garver-Hume, Melissa Frysztacki, Janet Charnley, Hans Landel, Tracey Furutani, Chris Owen, Judy Lightfoot, Mary Manous, as well as anyone else who provided energy to the efforts (with apologies to anyone I may have left out).

The Steerers’ Group approved this new mission statement and it was accepted by the Stewards’ Council in December 1998. Please feel free to contact TCP if you have further questions about the process or meaning behind the words finally chosen. --Peter Lortz

In This Issue

Business Support Helps Complete Funding:

Generous support from local businesses put the final pieces in place to complete the Project’s funding for the current school year. The Project is particularly grateful to Alley Chevrolet for their $6,000 contribution toward supporting the Project’s basic operations. A contribution from Northgate Mall was also an important part of reaching the funding goals. Throughout its six year history, the Project’s success has benefited from the active involvement of the local business community.

Cross-Community Leadership Provides Essential Advice and Support

The Project’s Stewards Council, led by Dick Harris and Susan Handley, enjoyed their second annual meeting December 3rd. The representative group of leaders from business, education, government, local community, and non-profits reviewed the success of their group and the Project in the past year, discussed questions of the Project’s future, and approved the proposed budget for the 1999 – 2000 school year. It is pleasing, but not surprising, that they are succeeding in their goal of equitably sharing responsibility for making sure that basic support for the Project is in place.

HELP WANTED!

The Thornton Creek Project is seeking organized, self-motivated individuals interested in volunteering or interning with our watershed-based education Project between 2 and 10 hours per week. We have a number of specific projects already on our priority list, but the possibilities are almost limitless. Call 206-526-0187 if interested.

• TCP Website Maintenance Intern

Task: Help with organizing the structure of the site, creating pages within the site, and keeping all site pages up to date.

Time: 3-5 hours a week (depending on individual)

Necessary Skills: Basic web site design, html, or willing to take free two-hour UW Web Basics class.

You Learn: How to design, create, and maintain a web site. You will be collaborating with other interns and participate in the exchange of web know-how.

Supported By: Melissa, Technology Coordinator

• Oral History of Thornton Creek

Task: Research previous landowners of North Seattle Community College campus, or other TC Watershed area, with the goal of finding living members of the families who owned the lands in an effort to collect stories about the way people interacted with the land in previous decades in this piece of the watershed.

Time: 1-2 hours a week

Necessary Skills: Organization, record keeping, filing, ability to work independently and self start.

You Learn: Research skills and how land ownership records are kept.

Supported By: Juniper Garver-Hume, Project Manager and Michael Brokaw, NSCC Grounds Supervisor.

• Confluence Facilitators

Task: The Confluence is a day long gathering of 5th-8th grade classes who participate in a dialog about the watershed arranged in a role-playing format. We need people interested in facilitating small groups of students in a role playing discussion and possibly in preparing students with background information through classroom visits before the actual Confluence. We will provide training.

Time: 10 hours on March 1^st, 1999, plus one of two training sessions the week prior.

Necessary Skills: Commitment, ability to learn quickly, facilitate groups, and experience working with middle school students.

Supported by: Juniper Garver-Hume, Project Manager, and the Confluence Team.

• Thornton Creek PROJECT MANAGER Internship - September 1999 to June 2000
The months are rolling by quickly and it is already time to seek an organized, responsible person, with a commitment to the mission and goals of the Thornton Creek Project, to serve as the Project Manager for the 1999 - 2000 school year. This is a nine month, full-time internship in field-based education.

The goals of this position are primarily to accomplish the designated tasks of managing all basic operations of the Thornton Creek Project and secondarily to provide a valuable educational experience for the intern. The responsibilities of this position involve assisting with and taking selected leadership in management of the Thornton Creek Project including, but not limited to, maintaining communication and cooperation; creation, production, and distribution of materials; and coordination of events. Perhaps the most challenging aspect of this position is managing multiple tasks of varying levels of importance simultaneously. Basic computer skills are essential and a sense of humor keeps us all laughing.

If you are interested and have questions about the details of the job or how to apply contact:

Peter Hayes at 440-2754 or <peter_hayes@lakeside.sea.wa.us>
• Rudy Placement Development
• Fishy Studies
• Watershed Plants - Native and Nonnative
• WHAT are YOU INTERESTED in doing?

How About a Long Walk? - YOU are Invited!

In the interest of exploration, conversation, connection, digestion, reflection, and exhaustion (only partial!), we set out on a LONG WALK. A group of all interested will explore the watershed by foot, from the headwaters, of the North Fork of Thornton Creek, at Ronald Bog – roughly six miles - to the mouth at Matthew’s Beach. The only agenda is getting to know the place, its inhabitants, and fellow walkers better.

Walks are planned for Saturday, March 27th, 1999 and Friday, October 8th, 1999 (teacher in-service day). We will meet at the main parking lot at Matthew’s Beach Park at 8:30 AM or at the NE corner of Ronald Bog at 9AM. We plan to finish by 3:00 or 4:00 PM. All are welcomed and encouraged to come. Walkers under the age of 21 are asked to hook up with an adult sponsor on the walk.

If you plan to come, please contact Juniper at 526-0187. What to bring: comfortable walking shoes, shoes you can wade in, good rain gear, delicious sack lunch, binoculars, notepad…

TCP 1999 Calendar of Events

See the "Upcoming Activities Descriptions" insert for more details and contact Juniper at 206-526-0187 or <tcp@nsccux.sccd.ctc.edu> to sign up.

THANK YOU!!!

We would like to take a moment to thank our hard working volunteer interns. They have dedicated long hours working with us on various projects. The Thornton Creek Project seeks to connect interns with projects that are both beneficial to the intern and to TCP. Fall Quarter 1998 Interns and Volunteers include Deven Murti (website links), Victor Lundquist (TCP website maintenance), Jamie Rhodes (IBI data compilation), Herkeerat Kang (GIS), Peter Ordal (monitoring data graphs), John Coleman (GIS), Rebecca Cordingly (restored stream table), Mark Stamey (stream monitoring), and Jackie Wolfstone (address database update).

"Thank you" to all that attended our fall 1998 workshops and activities. We are always excited to see familiar, as well as, new faces at these events. Thank you for wanting to learn and teach more about TCP, the Thornton Creek Watershed, and your community!

North Seattle Community College does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status or disability.