Making Tracks For A Track -- Whitman Middle School Youngsters Will Run For Money To Build Athletic Field

Fourteen-year-old Evan Osborn plans to run 38 laps tomorrow. Thirteen-year-old Mike Johnson is hoping to run 30; Jessica Kastorff and Monique Zampera, both 13, are aiming for at least 20.

The Whitman Middle School students will be running, jogging or walking to raise money for student activities and to help the North Ballard neighborhood build a new six-lane cinder track for the school with the help of a $47,355 city neighborhood matching grant.

But there's a catch - the city approval is contingent on Whitman PTSA raising its share of the money and materials by Dec. 15.

That's why the student body's annual "Cat Tracks," a walkathon-jogathon, is taking on added significance this year. Not only will the student participants raise money for school activities but for the track project as well.

The present course is barely a two-lane oval of crushed rock, shy of the regulation quarter-mile distance.

"This is a cow path" is the way Judy Hammer, volunteer programs vice president for the PTSA, describes the track below the school at 9201 15th Ave. N.W.

Jessica said she is seeking pledges from neighbors. "My parents are providing mine," Evan said.

Cecilia Beaman, a school counselor, pushed the project initially, but needed a neighborhood sponsor to qualify for the city matching grant.

That's when the PTSA stepped in.

Scotty McDonell, a parent and PTSA fund-raising chairman, took up the reins from the PTSA side. Together, McDonell and Beaman wrote and guided the grant to city approval - with the Dec. 15 deadline, however.

"We still have to raise about $24,000," McDonell said.

Plans call for the track, 20 exercise stations in the northeast corner of the field, an eventual soccer field in the middle, and possibly a baseball diamond.

McDonell said community groups, including the Ballard Soccer League and the Northwest Little League, have volunteered cash, labor and supplies. The Ballard Lions Club also has donated money. The school's PIPE (Partners in Public Education) partner, the Ballard Rotary Club, has also been approached, he said.

"Our major campaign is going to be a neighborhood solicitation, because this is not just for Whitman students, but for the whole community," McDonell said.

Beaman, a former runner herself, said a lot of people use the makeshift track now. "It will be nice to have a nice track for the community," she said.

The group will solicit money in the Olympic Manor, North Beach, Crown Hill, Blue Ridge and Loyal Heights neighborhoods, McDonell said.

Beaman and McDonell hope to sign a contract with the city for the matching-fund project next month and hope to begin excavations in early winter if they can meet the Dec. 15 deadline and if the school district approves.

A contractor has offered to do the work for a substantial discount and local Boy Scouts, under supervision, will help assemble the exercise stations, McDonell said.

Bob Walker, Whitman's physical-education instructor, said a new regulation track will help the school's fitness program. He said national fitness tests are judged on quarter-mile or mile runs. "The actual course we have is not a true quarter mile." It's about 15 yards short, and the crushed rock - the best that could be spread with limited money when the track was put in - "is not that good . . . on ankles," Walker said.

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SPONSOR A STUDENT--

Anyone wishing to sponsor a Whitman Middle School student in the school's annual "Cat Tracks" walkathon-jogathon or to donate money or volunteer help for the school's track and athletic-field refurbishing project, may telephone Cecilia Beaman at 281-6315 or write to her at the school, 9201 15th Ave. N.W., Seattle 98117.