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FRIDAY JANUARY 6/12
EDUCATION| Road Map Project calls for a strong education system [3]
Vroom, vroom | This Renton Technical College mechanics instructor dares to be REPORTER NEWSLINE 425.255.3484 different. [2]
Sen. Prentice to retire after 5th term ends
Highlanders’ spark plug | See what makes Airashay Rogers a special player for Hazen [10]
Del Mead’s ‘little shop of miracles’
BY DEAN A. RADFORD dradford@rentonreporter.com
[ more REDISTRICTING page 9 ]
Del Mead, former president of the Renton Kiwanis Clothes Bank, tends to the racks at the clothes bank recently on South Third Street. ABOVE, AT LEFT: In her teens, Mead was a showgirl; her father was a Vaudeville drummer and her mother was a dancer. CHARLES CORTES, Renton Reporter
Longtime Renton clothes bank president hangs up hat BY TRACEY COMPTON tcompton@rentonreporter.com
Since stepping down from the president’s position for the Renton Kiwanis Clothes Bank board in September,
Del Mead has been catching up on her sleep and enjoying family. But, the 88-year-old is not backing away from her life-long passion yet. Mead says she will serve on the board for as long as she is able.
She is known to many in the community for her work with the clothes bank to which she began contributing in 1967, later served on the board of directors and eventually became board president in 2000. “She is the clothes bank,” said Pat Auten. “I mean she has always been a driving force to keep up the clothes bank.” Mead has been a role model to Auten since she met her in the early ‘80s. “She is just one of those women that [ more DEL MEAD page 5 ]
206.949.1696 www.marciemaxwell.com Marcie Maxwell Associate Broker, Realtor & CRS
Lisa Lam
Realtor, CRS, ABR & ASP
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The political career of Margarita Prentice – including 20 years as a state senator, will come to an end early next January. Prentice no longer lives in the 11th Legislative District, now that statewide redistricting has moved her home on Langston The new districts Road on West Hill into Inside: Page 9 the neighboring 37th Legislative District. It was a move of just a block or so, but it took her out of what she herself called the “Prentice bulge” into the 11th District. But the bulge allowed her to serve her neighborhood. Prentice has lived in Skyway since 1958 and her daughter and son are nearby. Already, Prentice had expressed doubts about running again for a sixth term, a reticence she also felt a bit four years ago. But she did run; this time, the decision was taken out Sen. Margarita of her hands. Prentice “I will not be active in politics anymore,” she said Wednesday. Still, she said she could get elected anywhere. Prentice had spoken with Tim Ceis, the Democratic member of the state redistricting commission, about her doubts, but she said she didn’t expect to lose her district. But, she says she’s not disturbed. Prentice will remain in office as Sen. Adam Kline the 11th District senator until Dec. 31, when her fifth term in the Senate ends. She turns 81 in February. “I have served long and well,” said Prentice. In her last election, she won in every precinct in the district. “I guess that my constituents agree that I did a good job,” she said. Her decision ended the possibility she would run against the 37th district’s current senator, Adam Kline, who was elected overwhelmingly to his third term in office. He’s up for re-election in fall 2014. The Legislature has 30 days to review the new districts as drawn by the Washington state Redistricting Commission, but it can only make technical changes and those require a two-thirds yes vote by the House