It’s starting to feel like the dog days of summer, so today was a perfect day for the 19th annual Dog-A-Thon at Fort Steilacoom Park in Lakewood.

Organizers expected 2,500 people and 500 dogs to attend the event, a fundraiser for the Humane Society of Tacoma-Pierce County.

Pure-breeds and mutts alike gathered at Fort Steilacoom for the event, which featured demonstrations of dog herding and agility, contests for the best dog costume and biggest dog and other festivities.

“It’s a canine carnival,” said Kathleen Olson, the society’s executive director. “People like to see and be see with their dogs.”

Linda Leeman was among those seen with her dog Rusty, a 5-year-old red Australian cattle dog. Leeman owns Ewe-Topia, a herd dog training facility in Roy. She and Rusty herded some ducks into pens and up slides as an appreciative crowd applauded.

“We like doing this for the Humane Society,” Leeman said. “It’s a great organization.”

Last year’s Dog-A-Thon netted $137,000 for the organization. Olson said this year’s event is expected to raise more than $150,000. The money will benefit homeless animals.

Cats did their part, too.

Granted, they opted out of a day at a park teeming with dogs.

Laurie Cinotti, fosters kitten for the Humane Society and keeps a blog on them, www.theittybittykittycommittee.com. She mustered the blog's fans to raise Dog-A-Thon funds that will be used to expand adoption facilities for cats. People from all over the country and around the world donated. They also bid on naming rights for the new foster kittens, and on donations of an original watercolor and an art clock.

The effort brought in $21,200.

The nonprofit wasn’t the only one raising money. Vendors of dog toys, dog collars, doggy daycare and other canine goods and services se up booths around the park. Vendors say it’s one of their best events.

“This is their clientele,” Olson said of the dog owners. “These (dogs) are their furry children.”

The Pierce County Library System has a winning design for its first teen library card, and the winning artist is Michelle Barreto, an 18-year-old who graduated from Harrison Preparatory School in Lakewood.

“I use a watercolor technique with more paint and less water, which produces a bright, mural-like piece,” Barreto said in a library news release, describing how she created her fish-and-floral design.

Barretto's card will be available for free, in addition to other designs that the library system offers at its 17 branches, during the third annual card drive this fall. While the new design is intended to appeal to teens and tweens, adults can ask for it, too.

The contest began this spring, when 110 young contributors submitted creations in colored pencil, pen, paint, camera and computer-generated art. Judges narrowed the field to five finalists, and 1,240 Pierce County residents cast votes on the library’s Web site to pick the winner.

Rosa Morgan died Monday. She had been frail for the last several years of her life but had been able to remain at home with the help of caregivers until shortly before she died.

Rosa was part of a partnership with her husband Murray – one of those teams where the names were rarely mentioned alone. It was nearly always Murray and Rosa.

According to daughter Lane Morgan, she was born two days before the end of World War I and first saw her future husband while she was playing the violin at age 14 in the Universalist Church in Tacoma. Murray was the young son of the minister and they married six years later in 1939. For a honeymoon, they went to Europe and kayaked down the Danube River.

It was her first time east of the Cascade Mountains and must have been a magical journey – until they were detained briefly in Romania after Germany invaded Poland. The authorities thought they were spies.

Rosa helped Murray research his books on history and culture and was his essential editor. She sometimes sat in on his graduate courses at Columbia so he could work three jobs. She studied photography under Man Ray in New York and once photographed Diego Rivera from his scaffold while she and Murray lived in Mexico.

Their homes on Trout Lake and Harstene Island were centers of conversation and debate for many dinner guests over many years.

Murray died in 2000.

Rosa later received a degree in English from the University of Washington and was a reference librarian at Pacific Lutheran University. She was active in Democratic politics, the peace movement and the League of Women Voters. She insisted on voting for Barack Obama – in person at the polls – last November.

Lane encourages those who want to share stories about Rosa to visit the website of the funeral home.

If it can happen in Ohio, it can happen anywhere.

If you think bikini baristas are in poor taste, how would you feel about a bikini mannequin attracting customers to a BBQ restaurant? (No pulled pork jokes, please.)

I saw a post about just such a thing on Consumerist today.

The store manager said the promotion has boosted business by 30 percent.

Remember the Charles Wright Academy students who met former Harlem Globetrotter Curly Neal as part of their history project?

They're taking that project to the next level.

Charles Wright freshmen Koby Deitz and Alex Nielsen placed second at the state National History Day competition Saturday and will go to Baltimore to compete nationally in June.

They'll compete in the group exhibits category with their project on Harlem Globetrotters founder Abe Saperstein.

Also headed to the national competition are Bethel High School students Shelby Woods, Emily Molstad, Manny Estacio and Michael Gant. The team won first place in the group exhibit category for their project on Roger Baldwin and the American Civil Liberties Union.

The first- and second-place winners in each category at the state level go forward to the national competition.

That means the students will have some tough competition at the national contest, which will be held at the University of Maryland campus June 14-18.

Last month, I wrote a story about a group of longboarders, led by UWT student Ben Warner, who planned to ride across the country to benefit the Boys & Girls Clubs of South Puget Sound.

Richard Crook, grandfather of rider Jerry Craker, just sent me this picture that was taken the day the team set off on its long, grueling journey. It was snapped by Samni Bell (Ben's mom) on March 21.

(Pictured: Back row - Mike Jones, Jerry Craker, Ryan Donahue, Ben Warner. Front — Stacy Donahue)

The team left San Diego at 10 a.m., and skated 50 miles the first day, Crook writes. They made it to Gila Bend, Ariz., today and expect to be at the Tuscon Boys & Girls Club on Saturday.

"They have made friends with the Border Patrol and are getting honks and waves when they pass them," according to Crook.

Shameless plug of the day: Check out the publication in Stacy's hands. That's right. It's a copy of the Feb. 27 edition of the News Tribune that featured their story on A1.

For more information on the team's historic trip, click here.

It’s not too late to get a seat at the table as the local chapter of the American Red Cross honors 20 individuals for quick action and bravery at its 15th annual “Real Heroes” breakfast Friday.

Awards will be presented in the categories of fire rescue, law enforcement, medical rescue, military, workplace safety, youth humanitarian, spirit of the Red Cross and the Marvin Klegman Memorial Award.

Winners range from a teacher who saved a student from choking on a piece of candy, to a barista who donated a kidney to a coffee customer, to firefighters who responded to the Atlas Foundry explosion.

We'll be writing more about these "Real Heroes" in Kathleen Merryman's Saturday column and in the Sunday You & Me section, page B2.

The breakfast, co-sponsored by MultiCare Health System, will be held at 7:30 a.m. Friday in downtown Tacoma at the Hotel Murano Bicentennial Pavilion, 1320 Broadway Plaza.
Donors can give what they want, with proceeds benefitting local Red Cross programs and disaster relief efforts. Those wishing to attend should call (253) 474-0400. Contributions may also be sent to American Red Cross Mount Rainier Chapter, ATTN. Real Heroes, 1235 South Tacoma Way, Tacoma, WA 98409 or make an on-line donation at www.rainier-redcross.org.

Actor Naho Shioya of Book-It asks kids to fold themselves into cranes in a "movement workshop" for second graders in Linda Williams' class. Steven Harrell is on the left and Zachary Francis is in center. Actors from Book-It Repertory Theatre presented "Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes" followed by "movement workshops" at Hillside Elementary School at Fort Lewis (Peter Haley/The News Tribune)

After the play, students covered the steps in front of the stage with cranes they made. Here, left to right, are fourth graders Lyssa Armstrong (making a wish), Raven Bergen, Shaylah Steinborn, and Bronza Smith. Actors from Book-It Repertory Theatre presented "Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes" followed by "movement workshops" at Hillside Elementary School at Fort Lewis. (Peter Haley/The News Tribune)

I've just filed my story from Fort Lewis. I talked to three students about what they thought of the war (and other usual 9-year-old stuff like school). What struck me was how matter-of-fact they were with the subject of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

I thought I'd share the audio of my conversations with them. The crackling sound you hear are the kids making origami cranes. They're all in mp3 format.

Here is Nathaniel Hall.

Here is Morgan Villanueva.

Here is Nyair Washington.

I'll be back on here later to post some photos taken by one of our photogs, Peter Haley.

I'll have audio online in a bit about this, but I thought I'd share something a 9-year-old student told me. She and her Hillside Elementary School classmates folded more than 1,200 paper cranes and wrote a wish on each one.

“One of my wishes was for my dad to have no more surgery on his leg because he went to Iraq and got shot,” she said. “And my other wish was world peace and for the war to stop because more people are getting hurt.”

Again, she's 9.

Benilda Ignacio reads through the voters' guide after casting her ballot at Hope Lutheran Church in Tacoma on Tuesday.