White Center Pond

Today, 40 industrious volunteers planted 1400 native plants at the White Center Greenway Regional Stormwater Pond. I personally planted 9 madrones, which put me rather far behind the 35 per person average. Probably because mine were planted perfectly.

The White Center Pond is a three-celled, six-acre water quality and retention facility that is part of an extensive urban lake-stream-wetland complex of approximately two miles in the Salmon Creek basin. The stormwater pond collects excess rain and street water and holds it until pollutants have a chance to settle to the bottom. Some of the water exits to the South and goes on to Mallard Lake and Hicks Lake. I wrote about my involvement with Friends of Hicks Lake in the "Benches for Bumbershoot" post. Improvements to the White Center Pond complex also help clean up the water in Hicks Lake. The native plants we put in today will take up excess water, protect the pond, feed birds and look beautiful for our community.

I felt quite proud to be among so many good people who were willing to volunteer their time and energy. Most of them were much younger than I am, which might be another reason they were able to plant more trees and shrubs than I did during our 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. work time. When I see young men and women working hard to improve our environment, it makes me hopeful for the future.

And on a side note, while speaking of good people, my husband was a beneficiary of an act of kindness this week. He was assigned to lockup his church each weekday morning after an early session of Bible study for high schoolers. When he was ready to get into his car to come home, he realized he’d locked both building and car keys in the church.

The church is rather isolated with no businesses or homes nearby. He didn’t have a cell phone with him to call for help, and he isn’t much of a walker, so he didn’t think he could make it home or to a phone. Then he saw a man and a woman walking out of a stand of trees near the church. They had parked their car in the church parking lot and slept in the woods. My husband told them about his predicament, and they offered to take him home. They drove him to our house and waited for him to get my set of keys then took him back to the church. My husband gave them $10 as a thank you, though they had volunteered to help him without asking for any compensation. I love this story. It so turns upside-down what most of us think about the homeless. The vagrants rescued the solid citizen.