Spirit of Christmas needs a home

The burgeoning local economy may doom what has become a tradition for Ruth Ann Young of Woodinville. She can't find free space to pack her Operation Iraq: The Spirit of Christmas gift boxes for American troops. Earlier this year she closed her Kirkland store, the Spirit of Christmas. She organized the gift-box packing from that office. The first year the boxes were packed in the store; in 2004 and 2005 she used an empty store at a Totem Lake mall. Young's project has shipped nearly 30,000 boxes to war zones.

She needs to use about 2,000 to 2,500 square feet of space from now until the boxes leave in mid-December.

Young still has the desire, the volunteers ready to work and the corporations willing to donate the goodies.

"I'm going to be just sick if we can't do The Spirit of Christmas this year," she said.

She can be reached at 425-885-0796.

About town

Loni Anderson made a cameo appearance last weekend in Kirkland and Redmond. The actress was at the Brothers Four concert at the Kirkland Performance Center and accompanied the folk-singing group to the center's gala Sunday night.

Anderson reportedly is good friends with Bob Flick, the Brothers Four bass player.

By the way, An Affair for Arts gala, held Sunday night at the Marriott Hotel in Redmond, grossed more than $160,000. It may be a record. Performance-center staff said they would know in a couple of weeks, after all expenses have been tallied.

Page-turner

When it comes book reports, give Kirkland a gold star. Thanks to the Kirkland Library, Kirkland Arts Center, the city and ParkPlace Books, folks have launched the If All of Kirkland Read the Same Book project.

A program to get people to read the same book and share discussions about it was launched a few years ago by Nancy Pearl, then a librarian at Seattle Public Library. The concept has spread — sort of like paperbacks that proliferate at my house — to other cities.

The novel for Kirkland is "Highest Tide." Author Jim Lynch will be at ParkPlace Books at 7 p.m. Thursday.

On a cheerful note

Former Seafair Queen Anne Taylor will teach a special-needs cheerleading class through Bellevue Parks & Community Services. The class starts today at Highland Center.

There are no plans at the moment to organize the students into a cheerleading team for Highland Center's extensive sports programs, Taylor said.

"We'll see what the interest is after we've had a few classes," she said.

Taylor coaches cheerleading for several schools, volunteers at Eastside Heritage Center and is the advertising manager for The Advocate, the Bellevue Community College newspaper.

One last grin

The owner of this black Ford Ranger truck may live in the Northwest but obviously leaves part of his or her heart in Hawaii.

The license reads: ILVMAUI.

Me, too; me, too.

Sherry Grindeland: 206-515-5633 or sgrindeland@seattletimes.com