“Mark’s experience in working with entrepreneurs along with his dedication to meeting client needs makes him a valued asset to our team,” said Jim Farmer, regional brokerage manager.  “Mark will maintain our high standards of service for our clients.”

Murphy has 16 years of experience in financial services.  He received a degree in economics from Seattle University.

The Strawberry Festival is a family-oriented, historic community event, featuring fresh strawberry shortcake, historical and agricultural exhibits, food and vendor booths, entertainment, a Classic Auto Show and a Family Fun Area with games, inflatable bouncers, strawberry shortcake eating contests and much more.  In 2009, more than 40,000 people attended the two-day event, consuming 6,000 lbs of strawberries!

Through the Strawberry Festival, the Eastside Heritage Center endeavors to create public awareness for the organization and to promote community involvement in and appreciation of Eastside history.

Booth Spaces range from $60 to $310:

Non-profit information only

Non-profit merchandise sales

Profit hand-crafted Merchandise

Profit Import and Manufactured Merchandise.

Main Stage Entertainers:

Saturday and Sunday
30-50 Minute Sets

Ethnic, Dance and Community Entertainers Encouraged

The Festival is a revival of the original Lake Washington Strawberry Festival begun in 1925 to attract business and residents to Bellevue.  Cancelled in 1942 due to WWII, the Festival was revived in 1987 by the Bellevue Historical Society (now the Eastside Heritage Center) as a single-evening celebration in June, honoring Bellevue’s agricultural heritage.  Since that time, it has grown to a large two-day event, attracting not only visitors from the greater Eastside, but the entire Puget Sound area.

Eastside Heritage Center is a 501 (c) (3) not-for-profit organization committed to preserving the past as it builds community and connects people with their heritage. In addition to maintaining and preserving the largest collection of artifacts, photos and archival material related to East King County, Washington, the EHC focuses on sharing this collection with the community through exhibits, books, presentations and a wide variety of educational programming. For more information on the Eastside Heritage Center, visit www.eastsideheritagecenter.org.

To become a Strawberry Festival Vendor or Entertainer, contact the Eastside Heritage Center at (425) 450-1049 or email Jennifer@bellevuestrawberryfestival.org. For complete Festival details, applications and forms, visit www.bellevuestrawberryfestival.org.

The Community Shield concept comes from football clubs in Europe which annual hold matches with all proceeds benefitting local community organizations.  Proceeds from this match will benefit the team’s four community partners:  Boys and Girls Club of Washington State, Save the Children, Seattle SCORES and Washington Youth Soccer.

Are you a Sounders FC fan?  Will you be at the match?

I have helped both the PR company and the marketing association many times over the past 5 years, but am unable to recall one time that either of them did anything nice for me – or even invited me to an event without a price tag.

Still the same, I kept an open mind and asked if they would be willing to give me a media pass to the event so that I could report on it.  The person said she’d have to check with her boss and then the next day said that would not be giving media passes, but that they could offer me their ’special’ student rate of $99.

Evidently, they don’t place much value on the work they continue ask me to do to help them – and don’t realize that most of media types do not make much money – especially considering the huge number of hours committed each week.  I usually alternate between the emotions of anger and amusement when someone asks to pay so I can help them out.

What was my reaction to this situation?  I asked to be immediately removed from all their media lists and stated that I would never be helping them or their client ever again.  What would you have done?

I love to help people, businesses and organizations, but eventually, as in every successful long term relationship, it eventually has to come back around.  All parties must be willing to help each other.  My suggestions for engaging the media:

1) Invite them to the events you ask them to promote.  They might even give you post event publicity too.

2) Don’t attach a price tag (you probably don’t like to pay to work and the media doesn’t either).

3) If the event includes a meal or food for attendees, don’t withhold it from your media guests – we are people too.  If your budget does not allow for cost of having media attend, simply don’t ask them to – or to promote it.

4) You might want to consider ‘the media” as your partner – and treating them as you’d treat a partner.

5) Go out of your way to connect and develop relationships with media. Do something nice for them – introduce them to someone who can help them, invite them to special events.  Don’t just use them – nobody likes to be used.

Feedback?  I’d love to hear it.

This is the fourth year in which the Bellevue 5K Run/Walk has been supported and we are expecting a turnout of over 1500 participants this year to build on the prior three years successes.  The Bellevue 5K benefits Kindering and other youth projects. Kindering provides individualized family-centered early intervention services for children who are disabled, medically fragile, or vulnerable because of abuse or neglect.

We are pleased that many local companies have stepped in to support the Bellevue 5K Run/Walk and these include: Brooks Running, Microsoft Corporation, the City of Bellevue, Lingenbrink and others.  David Bohan, COO of Brooks Sports said “we are very pleased to be supporting the Bellevue 5K on its fourth anniversary, particularly as it helps encourage a healthy lifestyle and supports the important work of Kindering, as well as other local charities.”

Mimi Siegel, the Executive Director of Kindering, said “We are excited by the prospect of this year Bellevue 5K Run/Walk, especially after the tremendous support we received from last year’s participants in the event.  It will be such a fun and healthy event, and we are thrilled that the course centers on Crossroads Park, our neighborhood jewel.”  Mimi Siegel further added, in gratitude for the BBRC’s work to organize the Bellevue 5K Run/Walk, “Thank you, Bellevue Breakfast Rotary, for your continued support of Kindering and calling attention to the importance of early intervention for infants and toddlers with special needs.”

BBRC’s President, Margie Burnett, further says “We are determined and excited to make the fourth annual Bellevue 5K Run/Walk our best event ever!  With the wonderful support  from over 1200 participants last year, we are looking forward to see many more people enjoy the fabulous outdoors in our City and to support a worthy the cause at Kindering. ”

The BBRC membership is dedicated to “service above self” and we derive much toward this goal through the contributions of our dynamic membership and local businesses.  The club welcomes all interested parties who want to participate, volunteer or donate money to the event to contact us directly via our web: www.Bellevue5K.com.

“There’s no denying that Kirkland has a need for this kind of speed,” notes Mayor Joan McBride.  “We are a high-tech, innovative community and Google’s high speed service will make our teachers and students, employers and employees and computer users more efficient.”

Google’s Kirkland campus is located on 6^th Street South in the Everest neighborhood. Google’s ultra-high speed broadband network will provide Internet speeds more than 100 times faster than what most users have today.  The company will announce its selections by the end of this year.

Editor’s note:  I did go and nominate Kirkland, although I live in Bellevue and wish we would go after this network too.

Carey is an owner of Seattle Sounders FC and serves as chairman of Sounders FC Alliance presented by FSN, the club’s member association. He is also the host of the popular television game show, “The Price is Right”.

Carey was born May 23, 1958 to Beulah and Lewis Carey in Cleveland, Ohio. The youngest of three brothers, Carey became especially withdrawn when his father, a draftsman for General Motors, succumbed to a brain tumor in 1966. As a result, Carey asked for psychiatric care; his mother, who was working multiple jobs to support the family, didn’t have time to help him seek out therapy.

Since there was a large age gap between Carey and his older brothers, the solitary, depressed boy was often left to his own devices. When the school day was done, he entertained himself with humor books, recordings of comedians and cartoons, and spent time with friends.

While in the Marine Reserves, his military buzz cut and black wide-rim glasses became part of his trademark look. He began his successful career as a comedian in April of 1986 at the Cleveland Comedy Club. One of his first big breaks was competing on “Star Search ‘88.”

In 1991, Carey landed a spot on HBO’s “14th Annual Young Comedians Special” and appeared on “The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.”  Carey landed his own television development deal at Disney, which led to an opportunity for Carey to co-star in the series “The Good Life.”  Carey also had the opportunity to work with Bruce Helford, who was a consulting writer on the series and hired Carey as a staff writer for “The Gaby Hoffman Show.” Their experience led the two of them to decide to co-create a series for Carey. Carey went on to star in his own comedy special for Showtime, “Drew Carey: Human Cartoon” and performed in Showtime’s “Tenth Anniversary of the Montreal Comedy Festival.”

In 2007, Drew Carey was honored to be hired to take over the reins from the legendary Bob Barker on CBS’ “The Price is Right” series.  He has recently begun production of his third season on the long-running daytime game show, which first aired on CBS in 1972.  Drew Carey is an actor and producer who had the distinction of having two hit shows simultaneously: the long-running comedy “The Drew Carey Show,” which ran from 1995-2004, and the improv/sketch show “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” on which he was host and a producer.  The success of that show led to the creation of “Drew Carey’s Improv All-Stars,” an improv troupe that performs in showrooms across the country.

Next year Friends of Youth – a non-profit agency dedicated to supporting youth and their families in King and Snohomish counties – will celebrate 60 years serving teens and young adults.  Friends of Youth provides a broad range of services to improve its clients’ emotional stability and self-sufficiency, including homeless shelters, transitional housing, outreach, mental health counseling and substance abuse prevention and treatment.  For more information, visit www.friendsofyouth.org.

This is a perfect opportunity to donate those purses and handbags for a great cause, Gilda’s Club of Seattle, and maybe find a new one to replace it.  Hundreds of recycled handbags will be up for silent auction and the latest designs from Seattle’s hottest bag stores will be on display for shopping.

Over 25 NW wineries will be showcasing their newest releases to taste and Seattle firefighters will also be on hand to sell and sign their 2010 calendars.

Joan Kelly, from Seattle’s Fashion First Annual Fashion Show, will be the Emcee/Auctioneer for a very lively auction of incredible celebrity handbags.  Yes, celebrities are into recycling too and have donated their slightly used, but still gorgeous, handbags for auction.  Attendees can walk away with a handbag once carried by Carol Burnett, Olivia Newton John, Shawn Johnson, Tina Fey, Sharon Osbourne, Regina King, Lili Taylor, Sweet P, Scarlett Johansson, Rachel Ray, Elisabeth Moss, Aya Sumika, Marcia Cross, author Rebecca Wells or the Indigo Girls’ Amy Ray! And the most unique handbag to be auctioned will be one specially decorated by famed glass artist, Dale Chihuly.

“Bags & Bottles” is a fundraiser for Gilda’s Club of Seattle, a meeting place where men, women and children living with cancer, along with their families, partners and friends, join with others to build social and emotional support. Tickets are $40, and can be purchased at www.gildasclubseattle.org.

Bags & Bottles: 4^th Annual Handbag Auction & Wine Tasting

Sunday, March 14^th 2010

4pm – 7pm, Registration opens at 3:30pm

Westin Hotel

1900 5^th Avenue
Seattle, WA 98101

Tickets: $40

…and other interesting facts about the Peace Corps and Washington state

March 1-7, 2010 is Peace Corps Week. In celebration of the Peace Corps promoting world peace and friendship for 49 years, the following are interesting facts about the Peace Corps and its connection to Washington state:

1961 Year the Peace Corps was founded by President John F. Kennedy

49 Number of years the Peace Corps has been promoting world peace and friendship

139 Number of countries the Peace Corps has served to date

76 Number of countries the Peace Corps currently serves

200,000 Approximate number of Americans who have served in the Peace Corps since 1961

8,430 Number of Washington residents who have served in the Peace Corps since 1961

3 Rank of Washington state for producing Peace Corps volunteers since 1961;
California and New York are first and second, respectively.

343 Number of Washington residents currently serving in the Peace Corps

199 Number of Seattle-area residents currently serving as Peace Corps volunteers

5 Rank of Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue in the country among metropolitan areas for
producing Peace Corps volunteers

1 Rank of University of Washington for producing Peace Corps volunteers
among universities and colleges in the U.S.

4 Number of consecutive years University of Washington has held the No. 1 spot

5 Number of Washington universities on the Peace Corps Top Colleges rankings –
University of Washington, Western Washington University,
University of Puget Sound, Gonzaga University and Evergreen State College

90 Number of minutes it will take to virtually travel the world through the eyes
of returned Peace Corps volunteers at Seattle’s Peace Corps Week Event
Friday, March 5 from 5:30 to 7 p.m. at the REI Flagship Store, 222 Yale Avenue N

28 Average age of Peace Corps volunteers

80+ Age of the oldest, currently-serving Peace Corps volunteers

8,000 Approximate number of Peace Corps volunteers serving every year

4,000 Approximate number of new Peace Corps volunteers needed every year

27 Months of service abroad in a Peace Corps assignment

94 Percent of Peace Corps volunteers who connect weekly to the Internet

21,000 Number of Peace Corps Fans on Facebook

Peace Corps volunteers serve in a variety of areas, including education, youth and community development, health and HIV/AIDS, business, agriculture, and the environment.

The benefits of being a Peace Corps volunteer include the following: monthly living allowance; medical and dental care; language, technical and cross-cultural training; 48 paid vacation days; possible student loan deferment and partial cancellation; and graduate school opportunities during or following service.

The Peace Corps provides both tangible benefits and a life-defining leadership experience with which Peace Corps volunteers return from service as global citizens.

As the Peace Corps approaches its 50th anniversary, its service legacy continues to promote peace and friendship around the world with 7,671 volunteers serving in 76 host countries. Historically, nearly 200,000 Americans have served with the Peace Corps to promote a better understanding between Americans and the people of 139 host countries. Peace Corps volunteers must be U.S. citizens and at least 18 years of age. Peace Corps service is a 27-month commitment. To learn more about the Peace Corps, please visit www.peacecorps.gov.

The Mariners kick off their spring season later today in Peoria, Arizona.  Here is the official press release:

The Seattle Mariners will officially open Cactus League play with a 1:05 p.m. MT/12:05 PT spring training game against the San Francisco Giants.

Right-handed pitcher Doug Fister (3-4, 4.13 with Seattle in 2009) will make the start for the Mariners. The Giants will counter with two-time reigning National League Cy Young award winner Tim Lincecum (former University of Washington star).

Also scheduled to pitch in the Cactus League opener is Kanekoa Texeira (RHP), Ricky Orta (RHP), David Pauley (RHP), Mike Koplove (RHP), Jesús Colomé (RHP) and Chris Seddon (LHP).

The game will be carried live on the radio in the Seattle area on ESPN 710 Seattle and the Mariners Radio Network.

Manager Don Wakamatsu has announced the following starting lineup for the Cactus League opener: