LETTERS | Kirkland residents sound off on Cross Kirkland Corridor [4]
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REPORTER
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KIRKLAND
WANIC | Program lets high school students try out careers [8]
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 4, 2015
A DIVISION OF SOUND PUBLISHING
Local “Santa” kicked out of Kirkland Winterfest event
BY TJ MARTINELL
tmartinell@kirklandreporter.com
K
irkland resident Fred Herzberg has been asked to play Santa Claus for 30 years, taking photos at corporate offices, senior living facilities and with his own grandchildren. But this year was the first time he was asked to leave an
event. He said he planned to attend last weekend’s Kirkland Winterfest in his normal Santa outfit but was asked to leave Marina Park in downtown by event organizers, who said it was interfering with a fundraising effort by their own Santa. According to Herzberg, 82, this isn’t the first
time he’s played Santa and allowed people to take photos of him in downtown. Last year, he said, it took him an hour to walk two blocks due to the number of people asking to take photos with him. Herzberg lives near downtown Kirkland and walks to the event. Several months prior to Winterfest he reached out
to the Kirkland Chamber of Commerce and offered to do so again but said he never heard from them. Despite this, he grew out a full beard and on Sunday dressed up and went to Marina Park, where the tree lighting had yet to take place. There, he sat down on a bench where he said people naturally gathered and requested to
take pictures. He told the Reporter he never asked for money or charged anyone during the event. At some point, he said, a woman approached him, saying she was with the company under contract with the paid promoters of the festival. She explained that he was “competing” with the official Santa they had
under contract, who was also taking pictures with people but charging $10. According to the Chamber of Commerce Marketing and Communications Director Sammantha St. John, the money raised goes to cover the costs of the festival. Additionally, she said there were concerns about him being [ more SANTA page 2 ]
Aegis offering help for families of seniors to prepare for emergencies Red Crisis File contains pertinent information in the case of medical event people the information at once?’” he said. One of the many situaFor families with aging tions adult children face relatives in or around is that their parents will the region, senior living avoid moving out of their communities like Aegis of home for as long as posKirkland have created a sible, so that by the time file to help their transithey end up having to tion into assistance care. leave it’s due to a medical Known as the “Red condition. Crisis File,” it contains “Nobody ever wants practical legal documents their parents to leave the necessary for respite home they’re raised in,” care, assisted living and Jacobs said. “But memory care, “...That’s kind of then they start to in the event a the impetus. If realize it’s more relative suffers they had all the urgent. A crisis, from a disease, an emergency information at illness or inonce, they can be trip to the hosjury that makes prepared for this. pital. That’s kind them incapable But indications of the impetus. of caring for If they had all are there they just themselves. A the information haven’t come to at once, they can completed file grips with it and be prepared for also contains aren’t prepared this. But indicaemergency infor it.” formation, copy tions are there of the person’s Gary Jacobs they just haven’t photo ID, as come to grips well as medical with it and aren’t authorizations. prepared for it.” General Manager Jacobs said that makGary Jacobs said that ing the files available the packet, created by a to people who stop by person at the Aegis of Istheir locations, even if saquah, was inspired after they decide not to enter years of observing how assisted living yet, helps people were unprepared places like Aegis when for emergency situations. they eventually do. “We said ‘Wouldn’t it [ more AEGIS page 3 ] be nice if we could give BY TJ MARTINELL
tmartinell@kirklandreporter.com
Mary Paris, left, and Rebecca Willow have co-owned Parkplace Books for 13 years and will host their annual holiday party tonight, possibly for the last time. Paris is seeking a new co-owner to keep the Kirkland business open. TJ MARTINELL, Kirkland Reporter
End of an era? BY TJ MARTINELL
tmartinell@kirklandreporter.com
Today Parkplace Books celebrates what might be its final holiday party after 29 years of operation in downtown Kirkland. Owned jointly by Mary Paris and Rebecca Willow, the store is set to close at its current location on Christmas Eve in anticipation of Parkplace’s redevelop-
Parkplace Books holds annual holiday party tonight, seeking co-owner to stay in business
ment planned sometime next year. With Willow’s announced retirement and a new location still unknown, Paris said that its future will depend on her ability to find a new partner. Opened in 1986, Parkplace Books was originally owned by a couple before it was purchased by Paris and Willow in 2002. Paris first joined the bookstore in 1989, after having worked in
stores around the world. One of the things that attracted her to Parkplace Books was that it’s independently managed, as opposed to a chainstore. Living close by where her children attended school, it seemed an ideal place to work. “The store just had a great feel to it,” she said. “It was a place you wanted to be.” Willow later came on in 1991 after running
a store on Lake Street in the 1980s. Working at Grape Choice in downtown, she got a part-time job at the bookstore that later became full-time. When one of the owners decided to retire, the two purchased the store. “We had a desire to keep it going,” Paris said. “We loved the work, we loved being here.” Throughout the years, [ more BOOKS page 9 ]