The Seafair Pirates have commandeered a highly-collectible, $150,000 handcrafted 2009 Aston Martin V8 Vantage, and will be auctioning a special Valentine’s Day ride this Saturday to raise money for “Heroes For Heroes,” a fund established for the children of Deputy Kent Mundell, who was killed in December.

This Saturday, Feb. 13th, from 6pm – 11pm, Emerald Downs will be hosting a dinner and benefit auction for this cause. Tickets are only $20.00 for a wonderful dinner and plenty of Piratical Company.

2009 was one of the most devastating years for law enforcement officers in the entire country, especially in the northwest. On Dec. 21st, Deputy Mundell was gunned down, and his partner Nick Hausner was possibly saved by the gunmen’s 16-year old daughter, Bryona Crable.

“Heroes for Heroes” is a nonprofit 501© 3 that has been formed to provide college tuition for all of the children touched by this tragedy – both the police officer’s and the gunman’s.

According to a tribute page website for Mundell:

Deputy Kent Mundell was killed while responding to a domestic violence call in Eatonville.

Deputy Kent Mundell

Mundell and his sergeant had responded to a house where a man was fighting with his daughter and brother. The deputies had convinced the intoxicated man to leave the house when he produced a previously concealed gun and fired ten rounds at the officers.

Despite being wounded, Deputy Mundell returned fire and killed the subject. The suspect’s brother and daughter put themselves at risk to pull the wounded sergeant out of the line of fire by pulling him into another room. Deputy Mundell was airlifted to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, where he remained on life support in the intensive care unit until succumbing to his wounds seven days later.

Deputy Mundell had served with the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department for ten years. He is survived by his wife, 16-year-old daughter, and 10-year-old son.

Why the Seafair Pirates? According to a press release:

“Besides being Goodwill Ambassadors for the Pacific Northwest for the last 61 years, several Pirates have been Police Officers.

There have been many memorials and now with the outpouring for Haiti, the Seafair Pirates have joined with Heros for Heros to see that these heroes do not become forgotten.

The Seafair Pirates are out to prove once again, that it really is all about the Kids.

Individually we all can make a difference. Together we can make an impact.”

Emerald Downs is located at 2300 Emerald Downs Drive in Auburn; more info at their website here.

For ticket information or to donate for the auction click here: http://herosforheros.bbnow.org/ or call Sallie Stewart at (253) 468-1101.

More info on the Seafair Pirates is available at their website here.

The Seafair Pirates not only have the ability to scare the livin’ bejesus out of any B-Towner, they also have the ability to help needy families, especially during this time of year.

That’s why they’ve brought in their Holiday Treasure Chests to the following two Olde Burien businesses, where they’ll be on display and awaiting donations until Wednesday, Dec. 24th:

• Dan the Sausageman’s shop, located at 923 SW 152nd Street
• Goodie Gumdrops Toy Shop, located at 816 SW 152nd Street

Generous B-Towners can donate:

• Non-perishable food items (cans, boxes, etc.)
• Toys

Text from the Seafair Pirate’s P-Arrrrgh:

While we’re a notoriously scurvy bunch, we Pirates have big hearts and simply can’t stand the thought that there will be children that wake up Christmas morning with nothing to open. With that in mind, in 1996, we began the Holiday Treasure Chest program.

We discovered that far too many families were going without a Christmas because they were unable to find assistance. The Seafair Pirates heard the need, and met the challenge to help these deserving folks. That is how our program was born.

Since the creation of our program, with the help of local businesses and “Pirate Santa’s” throughout the community, we have served thousands of individual families; have provided countless tons of food and goods to local service providing charities and distributed tens of thousands of new gifts to children throughout the Puget Sound region.

We distribute throughout the Puget Sound area. We are constantly on the lookout for donated warehouse space as the holidays approach. As soon as we have established a “home base”, we begin filling it with our collections from the community and the purchases that we make. We create two areas within the warehouse. One holds the “treasures” where our clients can come and choose gift s for their children and the other holds our foodstuffs.

The families will receive enough food for the holidays and countless days after the holidays have passed. With greater resources and more diligence, we know that we could have served an even greater number of deserving families. For this reason, we have begun our eff orts even earlier this year. We began organizing immediately following the Torchlight Parade and are currently accepting donations as well as taking names of individuals interested in volunteering. In order to make this program a success we spend countless hours acquiring the necessary goods and funds. It doesn’t end there however. If at all possible, we spend individual time speaking with each family and ascertain their needs. If we find that there is a special request, we will network within the community to fulfill it if at all possible.

We need to give credit where credit is due, and thank you for the role you play in making our program possible. We would not be able to continue our work without your kindness and generosity. You are truly a tribute to compassion and we value each and every one of you.

We just got word that the Seattle Seafair Pirates will be raiding Highline High School’s Homecoming Parade in downtown Burien on Saturday, October 25th starting at 11am!

If all goes well, it may look something like this (only not a sunny summer day and in B-Town and not West Seattle):

During the off season, the Seafair Pirates attend numerous charity events each month in support of families and children as well as to aid local charitable organizations in their fundraising efforts. Unfortunately, as their popularity has grown, they have been required to make many difficult choices regarding the groups that they are able to assist due to the time constraints of being an all volunteer organization.

This was the situation when the organizer of Highline High School’s Homecoming Parade contacted the Seafair Pirates and requested an appearance.  The official mascot of Highline High School is a Pirate, so it seemed a natural fit to have the Pirates attend this event.  The Seafair Pirates attended this parade in 2007, but had five other events scheduled for the same weekend in 2008 so they regretfully declined to attend.

In a show of resourcefulness, the students of Highline High School logged on to the Seafair Pirates web site (www.seafairpirates.org) and expressed their disappointment and one senior student stated that “having you guys at our Homecoming Parade last year pretty much made the whole thing, seeing your pirate ship and exploding cannons was really an experience like no other! I couldn’t imagine another Homecoming parade being as much of a success without you guys.”

They once again petitioned the Seafair Pirates to attend this important event for the benefit of the school and the community of Burien. The Seafair Pirates were impressed by the initiative of the student body and they will show the students of Highline that determination is an important skill for their future and support the same by rearranging their schedule in order to attend their Parade and share in “PIRATE POWER”.

So come out and join the Seafair Pirates and show your support of the Highline Pirates – this years’ Homecoming parade will start at 11am on the corner of 4th and SW 153rd (near Vince’s Italian Restaurant) and head to 6th Ave SW (near Sal’s Deli), and then march west on SW 152nd, ending up around 12 Noon in the heart of Olde Burien:

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Thursday afternoon, several unsuspecting cast members of Burien’s own Hi-Liners upcoming production of “Peter Pan” were arrrguably shocked when two authentic Seafair Pirates stormed in wearing full regalia, swords, axes, accents and costumes at their rehearsal space at Lake Burien Presbyterian Church.

The raiding scalliwags included “DC” and “ClapEye,” two real, working Seafair Pirates who even have their own trading cards (DC is on the left, ClapEye on the right)

 

The occasion was to help the young Hi-Liner cast, especially those playing the roles of pirates in “Peter Pan,” to better understand how to portray the part realistically.

“I bet you’re all waiting for me to utter that infamous 18th letter of the alphabet, aren’t ya?” quipped DC, whose duds made it obvious that he outranked his lowly co-hort, ClapEye. “But a true pirate never says such a letter, no. A true pirate needn’t stoop to Hollywood cliches and stereotypes, so there’s no need to say that dreaded 18th letter…”

After the entire room agreed by shouting the dreaded 18th letter, DC then entertained them with tales of what accents to use (cockney is best, even though it’s technically inaccurate but sounds ‘piratey’ enough), how to work with props, why pirates always exaggerate everything, how to handle a fake sword or gun, and why his clothes were fancier than ClapEye’s (he outranked him and therefore had more loot).

One highlight of the visit was when DC asked how the young pirates would take a swig from a (prop) Rum bottle. As quickly as you can do Jack Sparrow slurring the 18th letter of the alphabet, a young pirate-acting woman named Gillian Peterson jumped up to volunteer. Below is an animation of her swig:

The Hi-Liners’ “Peter Pan” starts flying at the Highline Performing Arts Center Sept. 6th.

Buy tickets online here.

Hi-Liners website here.

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Driving west on SW 152nd this afternoon and just had to pull over to see the Seafair Pirates’ official (and quite historic) amphibious vehicle, the Moby Duck, parked quietly (and legally?!!) on the side of road, nary a pirate or wench in sight:

From the Seafair Pirates website:

Starting her life as a 1946 vintage amphibian landing craft or DUKW, the Moby Duck came to the Seafair Pirates in 1954, permanently replacing a DUKW that had been loaned to the Pirates by the US Coast Guard.

Adorned with a writhing Chinese dragon painted by the late Weaver Dial, the Moby Duck made her debut in the 1954 Seafair celebrations.

Over the years Weaver often changed the paintwork. Variant schemes were tried but always the Duck returned to a “Spanish galleon” design, the better to announce to the world that it was indeed a genuine ship.

The first major refit for the Duck was in 1970, just before the Seafair Pirates traveled to New Orleans for Mardi Gras. It was this refit that saw the platform built on her stern transformed in the the first real “poop deck.”

With the passing of years, Moby’s stern grew in scale until reaching her maximum size during the 1991 refit by Captain Gary Kuhn. With only an occasional daub paint this version of the Duck made it through the 90s, but by and by the massive stern begun to sag and another major refit was desperately needed.

Recently, the Moby Duck was stripped down to the bare metal, exposing the extent of time’s damage. Rust was slowly eating her away. The first order of business was to remove fifty years (layers) of paint. Only then all the damage in the coachwork was repaired. Rusted metal was cut away and new plates were welded in, work continued until every dent and hole repaired. Meanwhile, a new poop deck was being fabricated of steel. Smaller and lighter , the steel quarter deck was then trimmed out in wood and fitted on the stern of the Duck.

Finally, painted in the red. gold and black of the 17th century ships of the line, the Moby Duck was ready to again sail forth with the crew of bloodthirsty Seafair Pirate.

And at least for one afternoon, it sits alone, quietly parked on SW 152nd.

Perhaps it’s longing for the nearby waters of Lake Burien?

Or perhaps the driver lives there?

Or (gulp), maybe it was duck-jacked and left behind? (last year someone stole some gold-plated cannons off it, so it’s feasible, matey…)

From what we can tell, the closest event this schooner on wheels will be attending is the West Seattle Hi-Yu Parade on July 19th or the Renton River Days July 26th.

So…does anyone know (or have any ideas) why said ship was in B-Town today?

Please email us, or risk walkin’ the plank ya scurvy dog!

UPDATE: Avast, it appears that all of B-Town is under a ful-fledged pirate attack!

We just found this listing on Craigslist today:

Small Pirate Devil Duck – $4 (Burien)

Small black rubber pirate devil duck

$4.00 cash only please.