Firefighters are wrapping up at the scene of a house fire in the 1200 block of Northeast 100th Street.

Fourteen units were dispatched on the call, beginning at 10:41 a.m.

No one appeared to be injured, and there was not extensive damage visible at the home.

Winter is upon us, and with it drives to help the needy.

Thornton Place retirement community is currently holding a food drive to support Northwest Harvest, which operates statewide.

The retirement center, at 337 N.E. 103rd St., writes:

We have opened our community to Northwest Harvest’s annual food drive. Northwest Harvest Food Drive collection boxes are ready to receive your donations in the following locations: apartment lobbies of Thornton North and Thornton South Buildings, the management office and the gym. The food drive ends 11/20/11. Please donate generously. There is also an option to donate $10 by texting 8 END HUNGER at 80888.

On Sunday, Dec. 4, North Helpline is holding a Gingerbread House Decorating Party as a benefit. The food bank, at 12736 33rd Ave. N.E., serves northeast Seattle including Maple Leaf and Wedgwood.

At the party:

Every family will have a station complete with their own gingerbread house, white royal icing, and a selection of candy.

Enjoy coffee, cookies, and cocoa included in cost of event. Live holiday music and a chance to have your photo taken with Santa or your finished gingerbread house!

There are two sessions, at 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. Advance tickets are available for $35 at brownpapertickets.com or RSVP via email at events@northhelpline.

Also, the Maple Leaf Grill, 8929 Roosevelt Way N.E., is again holding a toy drive for the holidays.

We’re up to our old tricks. Collecting donations of toys and clothes for Treehouse, that is. Stop by, take a gift tag off the Giving Tree, shop for one or more items listed on the tag, and return the items (unwrapped) to us by Monday, December 12th. Because every kid deserves to open presents for the holidays. If you’d prefer to make your donation online, use this link and remember to list Maple Leaf Grill in the “Donation Drive Name or Organizer” field.

Finally, remember our earlier post on the Northgate Community Center’s hat and sock drive through Dec. 7.

Update 5:31 p.m.: Hail, thunder at Maple Leaf Life.

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At 11:20 this morning the National Weather Service issued a short-term forecast saying that today’s cold front is bringing rain and lightning strikes just to the north of us, and moving southwest. Hail and gusty winds to 45 mph are possible.

Metro has announced it will operate on reduced service Friday for Veterans Day.

Among the routes canceled is popular Maple Leaf Route 77 to downtown.

For more information see Metro’s holiday service page.

As a longtime staff historian for HistoryLink.org, Maple Leaf resident Paula Becker has written plenty about her own neighborhood.

But lately, Becker has had her hands full with a couple of other projects that span Seattle’s many neighborhoods as well as into other cities, states and even other countries.

On Oct. 21, HistoryLink published a book Becker co-wrote, “The Future Remembered: The 1962 Seattle World’s Fair and Its Legacy,” whose release coincides with events already taking place at Seattle Center to commemorate the 50-year anniversary of the Seattle World’s Fair.

“It was a complete honor to get to meet some of the people who were so important to civic life then,” Becker said. It was a stark difference from the book she and co-writer Alan J. Stein had just finished, “Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition,” a centennial book to celebrate the 1909 event that left them with a lot more research than people to interview.

Not that Becker minds. “I love doing research,” she said. “That for me is the candy.” (more…)

Posted at the Dog Oasis this evening.

Next week, St. Catherine School’s Parent Club is inviting you to join them as they take an up-close look at America’s school system during a film screening of “Race To Nowhere“:

“Race To Nowhere” features the heartbreaking stories of young people across the country who have been pushed to the brink, educators who are burned out and worried that students aren’t developing the skills they need, and parents who are trying to do what’s best for their kids, “Race to Nowhere” points to the silent epidemic in our schools: cheating has become commonplace, students have become disengaged, stress-related illness, depression and burnout are rampant, and young people arrive at college and the workplace unprepared and uninspired.

The film begins at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 16, in the Victoria Hall at St. Catherine School, 8524 Eighth Ave. N.E. After the screening, a discussion will be facilitated by Jenell Kheriaty, student counselor at Seattle Preparatory School. Tickets are $10 in advance at Event Brite or $15 at the door.

Dozens of women shopped for a good cause on Tuesday night at Maple Leaf Ace Hardware for the first of its monthly “Pink Tour” events.

Its Facebook page explained the evening as a “Hardware Event for Women by Women,” and plenty of staff were on hand to answer every possible hardware question.

And in addition to plenty of expert advice, there was complimentary beer, wine, cheese and crackers.

Not to mention a few groups who made it their own ladies night out for a good cause, with 5 percent of the night’s proceeds donated to Susan G. Koman For The Cure.

The next “Pink Tour” is scheduled for 7-9 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 6. Email mike (at) mapleleaface.com to reserve your spot.

If you happened to turn on KCPQ-13 this morning, you might have seen a familiar face as well as a few familiar products.

Kristine Pottle with The Wandering Cafe tells us that KCPQ’s Monday morning news show featured This Charming Candy, the Maple Leaf-area gourmet lollipop company that we wrote about earlier this year. The Wandering Cafe, 7533 Lake City Way N.E., also stepped in the spotlight for the piece, since that’s also where co-owner Susan Dziadosz, pictured at right, makes her lollipops.

It doesn’t appear video footage is available, but we’ll be sure to post it if we find it!

Want to do your part for those in need who live in the neighborhood?

Northgate Community Center, with help from the North Precinct, is in the midst of a hat and sock drive to benefit homeless and low-income men, women and children in the Northgate area.

New socks or hats can be dropped off at the center, 10510 Fifth Ave. N.E., by Dec. 7. For more information, call the center at 206-386-4283.

Update Monday Nov. 7: Seattle schools have withdrawn this proposal, which was on tonight’s school board agenda.

“Based on a shared concern between district leadership and the board, this policy will be pulled from the current list of updates, scheduled for board action Dec. 7, and will be revisited in 2012,” Interim Superintendent Dr. Susan Enfield said this afternoon

The proposal had drawn wide coverage over the weekend and today, including from electronic media and our news partners The Seattle Times.

“As a former journalism teacher, it is important for me - as I know it is for our board - that we uphold our practice of trusting our teachers to educate our students on the rights and responsibilities that come with freedom of expression and a free press,” Enfield said.

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This post is from our sister site My Ballard, but pertains to all Seattle public school papers.

Journalism students at Ballard High School say a proposal in front of the Seattle School Board violates their first amendment rights. They say the “new policy would remove student responsibility for content and set the stage for administrative censorship.”

The proposal, which was introduced at the last School Board meeting, gives school principals the right to review student newspapers before they’re published.

Kate Clark, the editor-in-chief of the Ballard Talisman, and Katie Kennedy, the managing editor, are furious at the proposal. On Friday, the duo spent their afternoon plastering downtown Ballard with these fliers (.pdf).

Clark and Kennedy are encouraging community members to attend the next School Board meeting on November 16th. Wippel tells us that action will be taken on December 7th, the day before the general election that includes four incumbent board members.

From the flier: (more…)

“A Hardware Event by Women for Women” is being offered (in slightly frillier type) on Maple Leaf Ace Hardware’s Facebook page.

Besides touring the store after hours with Ace’s female staff and learning about what’s in stock, the event also boasts, “for your shopping enjoyment:”

• Wine
• Beer
• Cheese
• Crackers
• Bolts
• Nuts

A couple of the store males will also be around.

First event is Tuesday, Nov. 8, from 7-9 p.m. Next is Tuesday, Dec. 6, 7-9 p.m.

By invitation only, invites are available at the store, 900 Roosevelt Way N.E., or next door at Reckless Video.

RSVP required to mike (at) mapleleaface.com

Must be at least 21 years old and lack a Y chromosome.

Five percent of sales donated to Susan G. Koman For The Cure.

If you’ve been craving soup as the days have been growing colder, Northgate Community Center has the perfect remedy for you.

Tomorrow, Nov. 4, the center at 10510 N.E. Fifth Ave. is inviting the community to its Soup It Up benefit dinner from 6:30-8 p.m., featuring a variety of home-cooked soups, salad, bread and dessert that will warm your bones as well as your heart, since proceeds will go toward the Northgate Community Center’s scholarship fund.

Entry is $25 for a family of four, or $8 per person.

Although pre-registration was requested by Monday, Assistant Coordinator Cara Brown says you still can attend the Friday night event, she just requests that you call the center at ahead of time at 206-386-4283 to let them know how many people will be in your party.

Looking for a deal in the neighborhood?

COA Mexican Eatery & Tequileria has a deal via GiltCity Seattle that will get you two Aha Toro signature cocktails and two appetziers of your choice for $25. Also available is a three-course tequila dinner and tasting for two from 6:30-8:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 10, for $85.

And via Eversave Seattle, for $26 you receive $25 gift card for Target AND a $50 gift card for Restaurant.com. Although Target is right down the street, it doesn’t appear any Maple Leaf restaurants participate in Restaurant.com. A few nearby participants include Mama Mia’s at 5301 Roosevelt Way N.E. and Snoose Junction on 10406 Holman Road N.

While you’re checking out all of these online coupons, don’t forget about our own North Seattle Deals and Coupons, which right now includes offers from Dr. Elizabeth Smoots, whose medical practice is located at at 9730 3rd Ave. N.E., Suite 202; and Avila Dental at 11050 Fifth Ave. N.E., Suite 202.

All photos courtesy Dane Doerflinger Photography

The witches are back in the basement and the pumpkins are on their way out, but what a Halloween it was here in Maple Leaf.

The rain vanished by mid-afternoon and the streets were filled with the calls of children, 127 of whom had visited Maple Leaf Life by the end of the evening. !!!

(Thanks, Peg, for the official count.)

Also, Donna - the organizer of Sunday’s successful Parade of Costumes - has posted a thank-you to the folks and businesses that made it happen. She put it in comments on our earlier post - it’s quite a list.

That’s Donna on the right, by the way. If you click here you’ll be taken to a set of parade photos by Dane Doerflinger, a photographer, whitewater guide and Maple Leaf resident. There are over 100 photos; you might recognize yourselves.

Thanks, Dane!

Boo! Department: JP has commented on a group of 9-10 adolescent boys who showed up on his doorstep on Halloween.