Lisa Foslien's fifth-grade class of Mill Creek Elementary recently coordinated a garage and bake sale to raise over $2,500 for Colton's Army, a volunteer group dedicated to help in Colton Matter's battle with cancer.

Colton's Army is a community of more than a thousand people (and growing every day) in support of a local hero, Colton Matter. Colton was diagnosed with a form of high-risk leukemia on his third day of fourth–grade and has since battled this same cancer three times over the past four years.

Friends of the Mill Creek Library held their annual Spring book sale on Saturday, May 18th, 2013.

The sale raised $2,096.28. This was the third year in a row the sale has raised over $2,000.

Proceeds from this sale are used to support library programs for children, teens and adults.

Friends of the Library Treasurer, Carol Spate said, “The funds are used to provide programs the library would not be able to offer without our help. Seventy five percent of our $11,200 budget last year was used for children and teen programming. We partner with the city to sponsor the 4 children's summer concerts in library park. We provide the prizes for the summer reading children and teen programs, pizza and game night for the teens as well as crafts and storytelling and entertainment for children. We sponsor the books discussion groups for adults.”

All of the four Mill Creek City Council seats up for election in 2013 will be contested. In two of these contests three candidates have filed for the same position, which means there will be a Primary Election for these City Council positions.

The State of Washington has a Top 2 Primary system. This allows voters to choose among all candidates running for each office regardless of their party preference. The two candidates who receive the most votes in the August 6th Primary Election qualify for the November 5th General Election.

May 29, 2013 update

We have been informed by Paul Clampitt, President of the Mill Creek Country Club’s Board of Directors, that the country club’s financial problems have eased.

Clampitt said via email, “The members overwhelmingly rejected the idea of selling the club and since then we have been able to restructure our debt in such a way as to give us at least 5 more years to build membership.”

Original May 20, 2013 article

In a May 15, 2013 email to country club members the Mill Creek Country Club Board of Trustees announced that the decision of whether or not to sell the club has been postponed to give members a chance to reflect on their situation and to develop options.

The Mill Creek Country Club Board of Trustees received many comments and suggestions from members regarding the club’s financial situation in the past three weeks. The overwhelming response has been that members would like to keep the club member-owned if at all possible.

The YWCA celebrated the 25th year of their Inspire Luncheons this year with events in Seattle, Bellevue and Everett. These luncheons are an opportunity for guests to connect with others and celebrate the achievements of the YWCA in supporting and empowering women and families.

The first YWCA Inspire Luncheon held in Snohomish County was in 1999 and raised $52,120. This year's Snohomish County Luncheon raised a total of $122,500.

More than 40 members of the Mill Creek Women's Club attended this year's luncheon at Comcast Arena in Everett on May 9th. The Women's Club was given special recognition for supporting the YWCA with generous cash donations and by volunteering many hours of their time each and every week to support Pathways for Women.

In 2012 the women's club raised over $17,000 at their annual auction to support the YWCA Pathways for Women. This program reaches over 1,000 women each year in Snohomish County, helping them to help themselves and their families become independent. It provides emergency shelter as a safe haven for women and their children and helps families that have become homeless to rebuild their lives.

The Creekside housing development located east of the intersection of 35th Avenue SE and 134th Street SE will begin construction next week according to Tom Rogers, Mill Creek Community Development Director.

At the May 7th, 2013 Mill Creek City Council meeting Rogers reported that Creekside would hold 26 single-family houses on 4,000 to 5,000 square foot lots.

Rogers later said that the home and lot sizes would be comparable to the Winslow or Vineyard housing developments.

The Mariners and the Seahawks: For some reason, professional football seems to have taken the place of professional baseball in defining part of who a city is. Growing up in New York City, it was the Brooklyn Dodgers (when they were still playing at the old Ebbits Field in Brooklyn, or the New York Yankees who defined the essence of being from New York. Kids lived or died on the daily batting averages of their heroes. Mickey Mantle was one of my childhood heroes.

In the movie “A Bronx Tale” (written by Chazz Palminteri – who also plays Sonny, the lead mobster character) Sonny is talking to the young kid he takes under his wing. The kid, nicknamed “C” by Sonny, is talking about how great Mickey Mantle is.

Sonny told C, “What’s so great about Mickey Mantle. He doesn’t care about you or your family. If your father lost his job, see if Mickey Mantle will write a check to your family.”

Poor C, you could see the idolatry drain out of his face as he realized that sports heroes were just well paid people who wouldn’t or couldn’t really help the ordinary working folk. But let your team get into the Super Bowl or the World Series and suddenly the entire city comes together and becomes one with the team.