Diane Hettrick Editor of Shoreline Area News honored with King County's MLK Medal of Distinguished Service

King County Councilmember Rod Dembowski presents the
MLK Medal to Diane Hettrick at the Echo Lake Picnic on July 21, 2026
Photo by Carl Dinse

By Kate Ledbetter

The Shoreline community paused to celebrate one of its most dedicated volunteers on Tuesday, July 21, 2026 as Diane Hettrick founder, publisher and editor of Shoreline Area News was presented with the Metropolitan King County Council MLK Medal of Distinguished Service at the annual Echo Lake Picnic.

The award was presented by King County Councilmember Rod Dembowski in recognition of Hettrick's years of service to the Shoreline community through her work as founder and publisher of Shoreline Area News.

Each year, the Metropolitan King County Council recognizes individuals who embody the ideals of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The award reflects Dr. King's enduring question, engraved on the medal itself:

"Life's most persistent and urgent question is, 'What are you doing for others?'"
— Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

The official citation accompanying the award states:

"The ideals of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the foremost civil and human rights leader in the United States, are held high at King County. Dr. King's vision of equity and social justice is infused throughout the programs and services of county government."

It goes on to recognize Hettrick's extraordinary contributions:

"Diane Hettrick has responded to Dr. King's question, 'What are you doing for others?' through her dedication and commitment to community service in keeping Shoreline residents informed and connected through her freely available journalism.

"For thousands of Shoreline residents, Shoreline Area News has become part of their daily routine. What began as a community blog has grown into an indispensable resource that celebrates local achievements, shares civic information, and local events while uplifting the Shoreline community."

The MLK Medal of Distinguished Service
Photo by Carl Dinse

In presenting the honor, the Metropolitan King County Council recognized Diane not only for her years of service but also for the example she sets for others. The citation concludes:

"The Metropolitan King County Council today presents Diane Hettrick with the MLK Medal of Distinguished Service for her outstanding community service and honors her as an example to all in our county, state, and nation."

The standing ovation from neighbors gathered at the Echo Lake Picnic reflected what many in Shoreline have known for years: Diane Hettrick's quiet, consistent dedication has helped strengthen the fabric of this community.

Congratulations to Diane on this well-deserved recognition and thank you for the countless hours you have devoted to ensuring Shoreline's stories are seen, celebrated, and remembered. Thank you!

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A New York state of mind

Thanks to David Carlos for this amended view of the spire on the Empire State building.

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Editor taking some time off - how you can help

Gentle Readers,

I will be taking some time off over the next week or so. In my absence Carl Dinse will be keeping the Shoreline Area News going.

Carl has a more than full time (paying) job, so when you are submitting stories, let's make it easy on him.

1. Do not submit anything in Word or pdf
2. Put text in the body of an email and attach the photos and graphics in png or jpg.
3. Photos - no larger than 3mb
4. For events, include the address. (almost no one does)
5. For sports stories include the location of the game (school or field).
6. For pictures, include the name of the photographer and the names of the people in the photograph (if you can).

Send them to Editor@ShorelineAreaNews.com - Carl does not have access to other methods that you may have used.

Thank you for your anticipated cooperation!

--Diane K. Hettrick

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Attn: Email subscribers

If you subscribe to our email edition, the chances are excellent that your email provider will lop off the end of some of the editions.

Always go to the very end of each edition. On the bottom left you will find these words:

Click the blue link "View entire message". The entire edition will open in a webpage. Page down past the articles you have seen until you get to the articles you haven't seen.

If you go to our webpage, you can see all of the articles. ShorelineAreaNews.com

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Email subscribers - make sure you are seeing the entire edition

Photo by fotodawg

Gmail and some other email providers do not like the length of the SAN editions and frequently lop off the end.

To make sure you are seeing everything, check the end of your email.

[Message clipped]  View entire message

If you see this, click the "View entire message" link. 

The whole edition will open in a webpage. You can scroll to the last article (or portion of article) that you saw and read the rest.

The January 1 edition, for example, had three more stories.

If you are not a subscriber and would like to try it, here is the link

--Diane Hettrick, Editor

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The Day After the Thanksgiving Feast

 

See you tomorrow!

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Happy Thanksgiving

I hope you have a peaceful day, enjoying family and friends, and that you don't eat too much.

I am thankful for 

• my daughter, who cheerfully took on the job of hosting Thanksgiving, allowing that task to skip right over me (just as well. I once melted a turkey bag on my turkey)
• Carl Dinse, who handles all the tech stuff for the Shoreline Area News
• All the people, past and present, who contribute articles and photos, particularly those who have been regulars over the years
• All the people who send in tips and reminders and politely advise of errors
• Everyone who encourages friends and associates to read the Shoreline Area News

Diane Hettrick, Editor

Shoreline Area News

 

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Note to Email subscrbers

The last article in today's edition should be about Pramila Jayapal's town hall. 

If it's not, look for gray links at the end to expand what you got or go to the web: 

https://www.shorelineareanews.com/ to pick up what your email provider cut off.

Gmail, usually quite robust, has a size limit which I keep exceeding. This month is very busy!

Diane Hettrick, Editor

Editor@ShorelineAreaNews.com

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Attn: Email subscribers

I have several email subscriptions for the Shoreline Area News.  I'm sorry to say that yesterday's edition was chopped off in all of them.

This is the last photo in the story

The last story should have been Meridian Park Elementary Arts Showcase, and the photo shown here was the last photo in the story.

The story and most of the photos were the work of students at Meridian Park.

Any time you want to see if you got all the stories, go to our webpage  Every story we have published is there, in date order.

There is also a lot of useful information on the webpage that you would not see in your email edition.

Diane Hettrick, Editor

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Note to email subscribers

To our email subscribers

This edition may be a little longer than usual. Sadly some email providers cut of the end of editions that are longer - and you may never know it. 

Other email providers will cut off the end and put a tiny grey link with something like "see more here." 

And some email providers put that link on every article and it goes nowhere.

If you ever suspect that you are not getting all the news, you can read every article on our website. 

https://www.shorelineareanews.com/

If you are not an email subscriber, you can sign up here

--Diane Hettrick, Editor

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Announcing the LFP Stewardship Foundation 2024 Community Service Award Winner: Diane Hettrick, Editor of ShorelineAreaNews.com

Announcing the LFP Stewardship Foundation 2024 

Community Service Award Winner:

Diane Hettrick, Editor of ShorelineAreaNews.com

The award will be presented to Diane at the Lake Forest Park Stewardship Foundation Annual Meeting on Tuesday, October 29, 7pm at Red Sky Gallery in the upper wing of the LFP Town Center, intersection of Bothell and Ballinger Way NE. 

The evening also includes refreshments, a brief business meeting and a presentation on urban wildlife by UW researcher Dave Stokes.

Remove the glasses, turn all the
visible hair gray and this out of date
photo might look like Diane Hettrick

Diane Hettrick, editor of the Shoreline Area News (SAN) is well-known and appreciated for her contributions to this online publication since 2009. 

She and a few friends created the SAN at a time when local printed newspapers were disappearing all over the U.S. She has continued to produce it, reliably and creatively, for 15 years! 

Ironically we are now in a time of online information overload, which makes this “hyper-local” news service more important than ever. 

The SAN brings us a variety of news, notices, and events of interest to our communities, plus some fun cartoons and beautiful photos, too. It keeps us involved and connected, in a very charming “small town way.”

Hettrick says, "Shoreline and Lake Forest Park are full of wonderful people, working hard to make our community a better place. 

"I am grateful that people are willing to take the time to share their stories, events, and activities through the Shoreline Area News and pleased that people find value in what they read there."

Diane is always first to say that she doesn’t do this alone, with a long list of volunteer writers, photographers, and artists who help with content and production. 

The technology has changed over the years, and Diane and crew have adapted and kept the SAN delivering reliably into our email inboxes every day. 

Because of her volunteer work, Stewardship Foundation projects and events have been well publicized over the years. Founded in 2001, the Foundation is the only local nonprofit environmental advocacy group in Lake Forest Park, and we greatly appreciate Diane!

Diane is also the recipient of the Shoreline PTA Council Outstanding Service Award (2010), Shoreline Community College Foundation's Distinguished Service Award (2014), Third Place Commons' Friends of the Community Award (2018), Richmond Beach Community Association Marge Unruh Award (2020) and was a nominee for the NUHSA Human Services' Champion of the Year (2019), and recognized as a community volunteer by the City of Shoreline (2021)

(Read about how Hettrick and other volunteers created the Shoreline Area News here)

Lake Forest Park Stewardship Foundation 

email: info@lfpsf.org 

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Email subscribers: longer editions may be cut off

fotodawg

Every email program behaves differently. I try to subscribe with different programs so I can keep an eye on how the editions are handled.

Yesterday's edition had 12 articles. At least one email program cut off the edition after the 9th article. The articles were there but you had to click the gray link at the bottom to have the edition open in a web page.

You missed the article about tickets available for the Third Place Commons Breakfast, a story about our former congressman Jim McDermott, and one about $3 million for a UW research lab upgrade.

I usually don't have time to create 12 articles but occasionally I get started before midnight.

--Diane Hettrick

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Problem resolved with follow.it email edition

Email digest subscribers began notifying us this week that they were no longer receiving the daily digests distributed by the follow.it program.

We were able to give specific examples to follow.it and they responded immediately.

We have investigated the issue and discovered that one of our email servers was mistakenly blacklisted by Spamhaus, an anti-spam organization. We have taken corrective actions, and the email-sending functionality should now be restored to its normal operation.

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.

To see the articles that you missed, go to the web version of the Shoreline Area News at https://www.ShorelineAreaNews.com to view all we have published. 

You do not have to do anything to restore your subscription. You should begin receiving digests right away.

Also, email subscribers should be aware that follow.it has begun putting large ads at the head of the digest. Our stories start just below that. They also have ads at the end of the digest and occasionally along the sides.

Be careful not to click on any of these.

follow.it is a free program and the ads are the price of doing business with them.

--Diane Hettrick

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Warning: Ads on Follow.it

Those of you who subscribe to our email edition on Follow.it understand that the end of each edition has ads placed by Follow.it

They are nothing to do with the Shoreline Area News, neither products nor candidates that we endorse. They are simply the price of a free service.

In yesterday's email edition there was, for the first time, an ad at the beginning of the edition. At a glance it would be understandable if you assumed it was a story we had placed. Follow.it is getting much more accomplished with the presentation of its ads.

I am asking email subscribers to be wary of what is at the beginning and end of each edition.

If you do not want to see the ads, you have the option of bookmarking www.ShorelineAreaNews.com on your browser and clicking on it each day after 6am to read the most up to date stories. 

We also publish on Facebook; however you need to both Like and Follow AND click on or comment on individual stories occasionally so the Meta algorithm will show you most of the articles published.

You can search for ShorelineAreaNews on Twitter to make sure you are seeing all the published stories.

--Diane Hettrick, Publisher/Editor

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Obituary: Evan Smith 1945-2022

Evan Smith 1945-2022

Evan Bernard Smith, whose resilience and upbeat view of life guided him for decades through the challenges of multiple sclerosis, died November 18, 2022. He was 77.

The son of Bernard and Esther (Davies) Smith, Evan was born in 1945 in Seattle. 

His maternal grandfather, Thomas Davies, an immigrant from Wales, was a pioneering figure in Snohomish County and a special influence on Evan, who came to share his grandfather’s gentle nature and his community-minded spirit.

A graduate of Marysville High School in 1963, and Whitman College in 1967, Evan majored in history and was a Northwest Conference All Star in cross country and track multiple times. He was co-captain of Whitman’s cross country team that finished third in the 1966 NAIA National Cross Country Championships, and individually finished sixth in the steeplechase in the 1967 NAIA National Track Championships. 

Evan still holds two Whitman records – for the two-mile run and distance medley relay. He was known for his commitment to Whitman Athletics and wrote a sports column for The Pioneer, then the college newspaper. The opening line of his column was always “How’s every little thing?” – a phrase he’d continue to say for the rest of his life with a gleam in his eye when inquiring how others were doing.

After graduation, Evan co-founded the Snohomish Track Club in 1968 and would continue to run in the Pacific Northwest, Alaska, and the 1968 Olympic Trials. He stayed involved in the sport his whole life, coaching track for decades at the collegiate and high school levels, even after his illness robbed him of his ability to run. His passion for the sport never waned; during his final years, the TV was always tuned to track events such as in the Olympics or the World Athletics Championships.

Evan trained with the legendary Steve Prefontaine at the University of Oregon while earning a master’s degree in communications (and would later lament the Ducks’ devolution from a running school to a football school).

More than a decade later, he earned a law degree from Case Western Reserve University. As a professor at Kent State University, Ohio Wesleyan University, Southern Illinois University, and University of Alaska - Fairbanks, Evan taught journalism, history, and law during the 1970s, ’80s, and ’90s.

At the end of 1990, he returned to the Northwest with his family. Although MS increasingly limited his mobility, he remained committed to writing, coaching, and leading in the community. He was active in his church and his childrens’ school district, coaching high school and middle school track from his wheelchair. 

Evan wrote news and opinion columns for local news outlets – he co-founded the Shoreline Week which eventually became part of the Everett Herald-owned Enterprise newspapers, where he was Forum Editor. 

Later, he was a co-founder of the Shoreline Area News online publication, where he covered local politics under his byline and local sports in unattributed articles, for over a decade. He was a mentor to the editor, sharing his knowledge of everything from story layout, to suggested topics, to the use of punctuation in headlines.

In 1998, at his daughter’s nomination, Evan was named Father of the Year by the National MS Society’s Greater Washington Chapter, where he volunteered his time to mentor those newly diagnosed with the disease. Evan never let his illness define him: he was optimistic, upbeat, and full of self-described “vim and vigor.” When asked how he was doing, he always answered “Well, except for a little case of MS, I’m just fine!”

Evan is survived by his wife of 41 years, Barbara Schechter, daughter Ellen Gardner (Adam), son Jared, grandson Wyatt, granddaughter Emma, and countless other family members, friends, and caregivers who fell in love with his wonderful (albeit interminable) stories and bad puns. 

He imparted to his children his passion for history and sports and his attention to current political events. Those who spent time with him will remember his friendly nature, sense of humor, intellect and, most of all, his courage and determination to live a full life in the face of a cruel, incurable disease. Those qualities and his memory will forever inspire all who were lucky enough to know him.

A memorial service will be held at 2pm on Saturday, January 28, 2023 at Richmond Beach Congregational Church. Those who knew and loved Evan are invited to come and share stories – he loved nothing more than telling and listening to good ones. 

In lieu of flowers, please contribute to the Evan Smith Fund for Cross Country and Track at Whitman College at give.whitman.edu/smith, which will support the program that meant so much to him and his lifelong teammates. Others might consider subscribing to their local newspaper and reading it regularly in Evan’s honor.

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Shoreline Area News celebrates 13 years

 

And it seems like only yesterday - thanks Whitney

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Shorewood PTSA honors Marianne Deal Stephens as their Outstanding Educator

Marianne Deal Stephens
Photo courtesy Shoreline Schools

For their annual awards, the Shorewood PTSA honored Marianne Deal Stephens as their Outstanding Educator.

Here’s what was said about Marianne in her nomination:

Marianne is always on the ball when it comes to providing pathway and college preparedness/application information, providing just the right information at just the right time. 

Her emails are full of so much relevant information, reassurance, and solid counsel, provided in an organized way that makes it easy to find just what is needed. 

And, she serves literally EVERY single student on campus. As a parent, I find her to be responsive and reassuring. Both of my students (one now in college) brighten up whenever her name is mentioned at the dinner table, and both agree she is truly amazing, and an unsung hero. 

Shorewood is truly made better by her presence.

Marianne is the former School Board reporter for the Shoreline Area News. She left the SAN for the job at Shorewood. 

We have not been able to find anyone with her skill set to replace her, so it is good to know that she is appreciated at Shorewood!

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The best way to read your Shoreline Area News is on the web

Email subscribers and particularly Comcast subscribers to the Shoreline Area News have experienced some recent difficulties in getting the daily editions, or not getting them on time for events.

Comcast and most other large domains and sites have added multiple layers of security in the face of greatly increasing cyber attacks. Comcast has been particularly problematic for us because it takes very little for their algorithms to identify an email as spam.

They will put it in your spam folder a couple of times but if you don't find it and take it out, it blocks the emails from ever getting to you again. 

Follow.it - the product we are now using to distribute the email edition - is more than a bit random for when it picks up the articles and when it delivers them to you.

If I have a last minute article, you may or may not get it in time.

Two problems - one solution.

Create a bookmark on your web browser for the Shoreline Area News. Here's the address: https://www.ShorelineAreaNews.com

We publish first to the website, then copy the articles over to Facebook and Twitter. Follow.it picks up the stories from the web.

If you read the SAN on the web, you can pick what time you see it, and you will always see the most recent articles. There are other useful links on our webmail - Carl's Shoreline Weather, links to medical offices, and community organizations. Tabs across the top take you to articles in the most commonly used categories. 

There's a long list of "tags" that will take you to all the stories on a particular topic. Below that is an archive of every article ever published.

There's a search box to help you find things with keywords - it's small but mighty.

And the web version displays well on your phone.

Each daily edition is done by 6am. New stories will appear no earlier than mid-afternoon - often after midnight.

Shoreline Area News  https://www.ShorelineAreaNews.com

--Diane Hettrick, Editor

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Update for email subscribers

This is what the new digest will look like.

Some of you were transferred to Follow.it today and should have gotten your email from them with the confirmation link.

Most will get theirs on Monday. We had enough addresses that Follow.it is going to do the set up for us. The good news is that they were very responsive.

And they agreed to enter all the addresses at 6am which should mean that you will get your new Follow.it digest at 6am every day.

Many thanks to Carl Dinse who keeps things running behind the scenes!

--Diane Hettrick

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Attention email subscribers - get ready for Follow.it

This is what you may see after you click the confirmation link in the email that Follow.it will send you. Pick the green one that says Website and enter Shoreline Area News or shorelineareanews.com

As I posted yesterday (see article) we are switching to a new carrier for our email subscriptions.

To get ready, put this address in your contacts / address book: hi@follow.it

When we make the switch on Saturday you will get a message telling you to confirm your subscription. You can procrastinate a little but you need to do this before the old product (Feedburner) quits delivering the digest - June 30, 2021.

One tricky thing. We have discovered that whatever time it is when you confirm your subscription - that's the time your digest will show up each day.

We experimented with half a dozen emails - so I have a follow.it edition that shows up at 3am and misses half the stories...

Since so many of you have told me that you sit down with a cup of coffee to read the Shoreline Area News first thing every morning, we will make the switch around 6am. If you confirm right away, your digests will arrive as usual. They will just look different.

If you are not able to confirm at that time, you can wait for the next day. Follow.it will send the digest for at least a few days without your confirmation.

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