Willy Wonka Wonder

A note from the Fuerza Family Association...

On behalf of all LWGMS families, the FFA wishes to give a standing ovation to Jenny Zavatsky for directing another awesome musical! And to all the teachers and staff who helped make the show happen, we remain on our feet, gratefully applauding all of you!

We also want to give a hearty thanks to all of you who toiled "behind-the-scenes" designing sets, wrangling, baking, sewing, selling tickets, logo-wear and concessions, coordinating and selling flowers, unloading and getting all the sets, props, and costumes put away. Your tireless efforts, along with the magical costume designs and wonderful Wonka music really helped Ms. Jenny and actresses bring the play to life!

We also thank you for helping us host such a "funtastic" cast party for our Wonka girls!  It was such a treat to watch our girls celebrate their dedication, hard work, and best of all, each other! Your generous contributions toward the party more than enough covered the costs. Everything extra will go directly toward benefiting our amazing Drama Department.

All your incredibly support just reinforces for our girls what true community can do.  

GO FUERZA!

–Your FFA

The entire Wonka gallery can be found on our Smugmug account. Please email us if you've forgotten the password.

Science Fair

The Class of 2013 did a great job presenting and defending their Science Fair projects to our panel of judges, their families, and our guests. Thank you to all of those who supported the 8th graders through their project preparation!

We love loved ones day

It was such a pleasure to welcome our girls' Loved Ones to the school on February 12. We enjoyed the company of so many kind, interesting, curious, and caring people, each one in some way responsible for the molding of the strong and intelligent young women we love to teach. Thank you for coming...and thank you for caring!

If you'd like access to more photos from the day, please email us and we'll send you the gallery password.

Spirit Week Superstars

Spirit Week was such good fun. From 1920s day to SciFi and Fantasy, our girls came up with some great themes this year...and even better costumes!

Here are a few of the many photos. The rest can be found on our SmugMug account. Click through to access them.

Photos: St. Clouds Cooking Project

Thank you to our friend John Platt of St. Clouds for welcoming our girls and families into his kitchen last week, and to the YWCA Angeline's Women's Center in Belltown for allowing us to cook for their guests. 

Cooking for a cause

Photo Source: Seattle Times

Photo Source: Seattle Times

This Thursday, on their days off during conference days, 36 LWMGS students and 15 parents/guardians will join John Platt, co-owner of St. Clouds restaurant in Madrona, in his kitchen for a special cooking project for the homeless. Mr. Platt, a former high school principal, is dedicated to “providing an hour of dignity and good food to people who find too little of both in their lives,” and created the Neighborhood Cooking Foundation to do just that. Each third Wednesday of the month he invites neighbors, friends, and a generous community of volunteers to come together and cook dinner for over 450 people utilizing the services of organizations such as the YWCA Women and Children’s Shelter, The Men’s Inn, the Cherry Street YWCA, Peace for the Streets, Tent City, and Jubilee Women’s Center. Our group will be cooking on a special Thursday L-Dub session for 150 women at the YWCA Angeline's Women's Center in Belltown.

YWCA Angeline's Women's Center is a safe, welcoming, supportive, and supervised drop-in center for homeless and low-income women 18 years and older. It serves as many as 300 women each day and more than 2,300 each year. Women who visit Angeline's can enjoy meals in the dining room, leave their belongings in large lockers, care for their personal hygiene in showers and bathrooms, and clean their clothes in the laundry rooms. They can take refuge from the cold, talk to counselors, get medical treatment, or simply sit and rest. On Friday, our students will serve the Angeline's women a hot meal that they've made, and sit down to eat with them as well.

Our students and families will be contributing food donations and ideas to Mr. Platt on Thursday, and together, based on the ingredients and skills in the room, the group will come up with the menu...and get to work!

Thank you to Mr. Platt and St. Clouds for inviting our school to support this good work, participate in this important lesson of giving back to the community, and to stand with (and hopefully lift the spirits of) other women.

The King County Civil Rights Commission 14th Annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Writing Essay Award Celebration

This year's essay contest theme was: "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." On November 20, 2012, every member of the Lake Washington Girls Middle School Class of 2013 submitted essays to the commission, and on December 28, 2012, three of our students received word that they had won the top three awards for their work. Quinn '13 won first place, Chloe '13 won second place, and Ada '13, third.

Make your day off a day of service.

The Seattle area is host to some of the country’s biggest celebrations of the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Plan to give back and do something good for your community, attend a celebration service, or take part in the MLK Jr. Day march and rally.

Here are some of our favorite observances.

Martin Luther King Jr. Prayer Breakfast 2013
Monday, January 21
7:00am – 8:30am
Seattle First Presbyterian Church
1013 8th Avenue
Seattle, WA 98104
206.624.0644

Presented by: Allen A. Belton, Senior Partner, Reconciliation Ministries with Breakthrough Partners and The Beloved Community of the Puget Sound Area in cooperation with the Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Committee. Cost: $15/person.

MLK Day of Service
Monday, January 21
8:00am
University of Washington Husky Union Building (HUB)
4001 East Stevens Way NE
Seattle, WA 98195
http://www.depts.washington.edu/leader/mlkday/

Martin Luther King, Jr. sought to forge the common ground on which people from all walks of life could join together to address important community issues. Join in this MLK Day of Service by gathering together at the Kick-Off in the University of Washington Husky Union Building from 8:00am – 9:00am before heading off to serve at one of the many service projects available throughout the community. The United Way of King County and University of Washington have partnered to coordinate MLK Day of Service projects with local nonprofit organizations that directly address needs all over King County. 

Join with volunteers from University of Puget Sound and University of Washington in habitat restoration at two Tacoma parks, Titlow Park and Franklin Park (1201 S. Puget Sound Avenue). Give back to the community through a day of service!

Martin Luther King, Jr Day
Monday, January 21
10:00am – 5:00pm
Seattle Children’s Museum
305 Harrison Street
Seattle, WA 98109
206.441.1768
http://www.thechildrensmuseum.org

“I have a dream….” Head to the museum today and learn about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr and the heart of his “I have dream” speech.

Annual Rally & March
Monday, January 21, 2013
11:00am – 2:00pm
Garfield High School
400 23rd Avenue
Seattle, WA 98122
206.296.1002
http://www.mlkseattle.org

All the MLK Jr Day events are free and open to the public. 9:30am-11:00am, workshops in Garfield High’s classrooms; 11:00am-12:30pm, rally in Garfield’s gym; 12:30pm, there will be a march from Garfield High to the Federal Building on 2nd Avenue. Once at the Federal Building there is a another brief rally. Buses will be availabe to transport people back to the Garfield. A free lunch will be provided in Garfield’s lunchroom. Call for details.

History in the Making: The 57th Presidential Inauguration Viewing at NAAM
Monday, January 21
Northwest African American Museum
2300 South Massachusetts Street
Seattle, WA 98144
206.518.6000
http://www.naamnw.org

Join NAAM on Martin Luther King Jr. Day to watch the 2013 inauguration of President Barack Obama NAAM is pleased to host this community gathering to celebrate the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and usher in the second term of our first 

MLK Jr Day of Service
Monday, January 21
http://www.volunteermatch.org

Lake Washington Girls Middle School Students Sweep The King County Civil Rights Commission 
14th Annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Writing Essay Contest

The King County Civil Rights Commission 14th Annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Writing Essay Contest, open to all eighth grade students attending public and private schools in King County, has been swept by Lake Washington Girls Middle School students– LWGMS students won first, second, and third places.The purpose of the essay contest is to encourage middle and junior high school students to think critically about Dr. King's legacy of peace and justice.

This year's essay contest theme was: "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." On November 20, 2012, every member of the Lake Washington Girls Middle School Class of 2013 submitted essays to the commission, and on December 28, 2012, three of our students received word that they had won the top three awards for their work.

Since Lake Washington Girls Middle School’s opening in 1998, the topics of social justice and diversity have been intentional, welcomed, and fostered in the classroom. With a humanities curriculum molded around human rights, social movements, and activism among different minority groups, our girls are taught not to shy away from difficult topics and conversations. Instead, with the help of our faculty, they engage in these dialogs with compassion, intelligence, and open minds. 

Patricia Hearn, first teacher and founding Head of School at Lake Washington Girls Middle School, has had the eighth grade students draw from their experiences in life and studies in the classroom and participate in the essay contest since 2005. "This contest is unique in that it doesn't ask the usual questions about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and his legacy," she said. "Rather, the CRC contest asks our students to reflect on encounters with diversity and injustice in their own lives, and this, we find, is much more challenging work. The writing that emerges from this work is grounded in the girls' life experiences, truth, and emotion.” In these nine years of entries, Lake Washington Girls Middle School students have won one, two, and now three of the awards in seven cycles. 2013 is the first year the contest has been swept by Lake Washington Girls Middle School eighth graders. Quinn won first place, Chloe won second place, and Ada, third.

The King County Civil Rights Commission Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Writing Essay Contest Awards will be formally presented at the 26th Annual King County Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration ceremony on Thursday, January 17, 2013, 12:00 to 1:00 p.m. at The 5th Avenue Theater, 1308 5th Avenue, in downtown Seattle. This event is free and open to the public. Speakers at the celebration include keynote speaker King County Executive Dow Constantine and County Council Chair Larry Gossett. The celebration will include musical performances by The Sound of the Northwest, and opera soloist Cheryse McLeod Lewis, and the MLK Employee Singers. The Lake Washington Girls Middle School community will be there to cheer on Quinn, Chloe, and Ada. We are so proud of them.

Lake Washington Girls Middle School’s Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Writing Essay Contest winners:

2013
Theme: Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere
First prize winner: Quinn
Second prize winner: Chloe
Third prize winner: Ada 

2012
Theme: Life’s most persistent and urgent question: ‘What are you doing for others?’
Third prize winner: Maggie

2011
Theme: We Are The Ones We've Been Waiting For
Second prize winner: Elly 

2010
Theme: The Dream Marches On
First prize winner: Sofia 

2009
Theme: Breaking Barriers   
First prize winner: Jaida 

2008
Theme: The Beloved Community
Second prize winner: Patricia 
Third prize winner: Audre

2005
Theme: United for the Common Good
First prize winner: Lena 
Second prize winner: Maya