Back to Rebuilding Together Seattle

For one day each spring, Rebuilding Together Seattle, the local affiliate of a national nonprofit organization, dispatches teams of volunteers across the city to work, for free, on home-repair projects for needy families and elderly or disabled homeowners. Volunteers spend the day building, repairing, painting, installing and hauling. The day is called Spring Rebuilding Day.

Over the past two decades, Rebuilding Together Seattle and its teams of community volunteers have rehabilitated more than 500 homes and community centers. Projects have ranged from building a railing to enable an elderly woman to safely climb her steps to providing running water, electricity and heat for a needy family.

Rebuilding Together Seattle already has started organizing more than 500 youth and community volunteers for this year's special day, which will be April 29.

Local organizers are in the selection process and are accepting applications for worthwhile projects. Referrals come from neighbors, churches, community-service centers and support agencies.

Anyone at least 14 can be a volunteer. Information about how to volunteer to help, or how to nominate a project for consideration by the local organization, is online at www.rtseattle.org, or call 206-682-1231, or e-mail info@rtseattle.org.

The lunch bunch

Several local luminaries, who all happen to be outdoor-recreation enthusiasts, have consented to a lunch date to help the organization Communities In Schools of Washington State to raise money for educational programs.

CISWA is holding its third annual "Lunch With A Leader" online auction. The winning bidder will get the lunch date, which can be a one-on-one meeting or a group luncheon or speaking engagement.

The auction runs through next Monday. Information on the auction is online at www.ciswa.org/. Communities In Schools of Washington State is part of the nationwide Communities In Schools network.

For safety sake

To note National Child Passenger Safety Awareness Week, local AAA offices are offering free inspections of child car seats this week.

Inspections are available at the Seattle office, at 1523 15th Ave. W., from 9 a.m. to noon Wednesday. Offices in Bellevue, Lynnwood, Federal Way and Tacoma also have scheduled inspection times. For appointments and information, call 425-468-5939.

Getting around

Some motorists might never have noticed them before. But eight 10-foot aluminum sculptures installed on approaches to Seattle's Ballard Bridge are being removed this week to be inspected and strengthened to withstand high winds.

One of the eight Ballard Gateway works of art was damaged during the windstorm a week ago.

The art is installed on eight piers, four on each side of 15th Avenue Northwest between Northwest 49th Street and Northwest Ballard Way.

Sculptures on the east side of the bridge were to be removed this morning, restricting northbound bridge traffic to one lane. Then, the sculptures on the west side will be removed, restricting southbound bridge traffic to one lane.

The sculptures, which mark the entry to the Ballard neighborhood, have been installed since July 2003.

Black History Month

Nearly two dozen collections of stories from black war veterans are highlighted online on the Veterans History Project's Web site — www.loc.gov/warstories — to note Black History Month.

Here & Now is compiled by Seattle Times staff reporter Charles E. Brown and news assistant Suesan Whitney Henderson.

To submit an item, e-mail herenow@ seattletimes.com or call 206-464-2226.