Recently I had a chance to speak with Carole Williams, former principal of B.F. Day Elementary School, and Suzie Burke, Fremont Land Owner. They reminisced about the ‘Bite of B.F. Day,’ an event they helped organize to benefit the school and the P.T.S.A.
In 1985, these two formidable Fremonsters, joined by many Fremont business owners, fought to convince the Seattle School District not to close and relocate B.F. Day to the former Lincoln High School in Wallingford (read about it in a column from May 3, 2000.)
Fremont also collaborated on an event involving area restaurants. For the ‘Bite,’ most restaurants sent trays and trays of food to serve to ticket buyers, but some came up to the school, and got a first-hand view of the 100-year-old B.F. Day Building, one of the central reasons for the event.
In fact, the event had several motivations – the least of which was feeding folks. Organizers wanted to show B.F. Day staff that the community cared, they wanted to raise money for the school, and they wanted to get the general public inside our school.
They were wildly successful on that last. Burke recalled one little boy from the school that sold dozens of family tickets (tickets were sold individually, and at a generously low family rate,) and proudly presented his money to his teacher. Williams remembered the boy – one of the homeless students, he lived in an area motel with his dad – and Burke remembered thinking that this was one child who would do well.
When the ‘Bite’ began, Williams looked out the school windows in shock – the line-up of people come to dine wrapped around the front of the large building. In fact, all the restaurants – including the newly opened Julia’s and Costas Opa – ran out of food. The only two that managed to keep up with the hordes were McDonald’s (once located at N 45th Street & Stone Way N) which served beverages, and a Fremont pizza parlor (possibly Pizza My Heart,) which just kept delivering more and more pies to the school.
Those who came late may have found little selection in the food offered, but organizers felt victorious. Williams recently observed that the school staff knew then that Fremont (and Wallingford) wanted their school, open and operating, and would do everything they could to make it so.