Garden Rhapsodies Tour to Feature Area Gardens – July 26

This year’s Garden Rhapsodies Tour will be in the Griffin area with at least five gardens selected on the Steamboat Island and Oyster Bay peninsulas.

The garden tour features lovely gardens cared for in an earth-friendly manner. While these gardens do not have to be strictly organic, they use preventative techniques and pesticides only as a last resort.

The Tour is an educational event and a fund raiser for three local non-profits: Master Gardener Foundation, Native Plant Salvage Project and the Olympia Symphony Guild.

Saturday, July 26, 2008
10:00 am-4:00 pm
Shuttle location: Griffin School at 6530 33rd Ave NW

Tickets are $15 and include a shuttle to all of the gardens. Youth under 16 are free. Tickets are available at all Thurston County nurseries, Olympia Federal Savings branches, Yenney Music, and Olympia Farmers Market. Tickets are also available the day of the tour at the shuttle site and the gardens.

Garden Rhapsodies is sponsored by Thurston County, WSU Cooperative Extension Native Plant Salvage Project, WSU Cooperative Extension Master Gardener Foundation, Olympia Symphony Guild, and the City of Olympia.

For more information, contact Jennifer Johnson, Environmental Educator, Thurston County Public Health and Social Services Department, Environmental Health Division, at (360) 754-4111 ext. 7631 or johnsoj@co.thurston.wa.us

Study Up for Judicial Elections at VotingForJudges.org

Many of the judicial races will be decided in this August’s primary. For this reason, responsible voters are advised to take a good look at their candidates this summer, rather than waiting until Fall.

VotingforJudges is a nonpartisan, impartial source of information about judicial elections in the state of Washington. The site was established in 2006 to provide information to voters in connection with the judicial candidates running for election that year.

The American Bar Association honored VotingforJudges with its 2007 Silver Gavel Award for Media and the Arts, in the “New Media” category. In addition, the Atlanta-based Foundation for Improvement of Justice presented one of its Paul H. Chapman Justice Awards for 2007 to VotingforJudges.

Paul Fjelstad, the Kitsap attorney who designed and provides ongoing updates to VotingforJudges, was honored with the 2007 King County Bar Association President’s Award for his work.

Click here to visit VotingforJudges.org

Benefit to Support Community Supported Agriculture

Join us for a Monthly Luncheon, this time spotlighting locally grown food. Learn to prepare raw food and learn about our local farmers and their life giving art.

Featuring Chef: Maya Adjani, Living Food Preparation and
Farmer: Susie Kyle of Winlock Meadows Farm.

Date: June 28, 2008
Time: 11:30 am to 3:00 pm
Location: 9604 Hunter Point Road NW, Olympia, WA 98502
Minimum Gift: $40 to benefit local farmers
Additional contributions are appreciated

To reserve your spot, gifts need to in by June 20, 2008.

Make checks out “Velma Rogers” and send to 9604 Hunter Point Road NW, Olympia, WA 98502.

For questions, contact Velma at 360-866-0244 or email at VelmasVegetables@aol.com

Click here to download the poster for this event.

Who is Maya Adjani?

Maya is a dynamic healer and health enthusiast. Ms. Adjani is a writer, artist, entrepreneur, world traveler and certified Kundalini and Hatha yoga instructor. She enjoys sharing her in-depth study of wellness and innate passion for life, wholeness and abundance. She began focused study on living foods more than nine years ago, and has never doubted its simple brilliance. Her approach to health and self-healing is compassionate, playful and uplifting. Maya Adjani lectures on the benefits of living food and has taught hanlds-on live food preparation at various venues throughout the Western U.S.

Community supported agriculture (CSA) is a new idea in farming, one that has been gaining momentum since its introduction to the United States from Europe in the mid-1980s. The CSA concept originated in the 1960s in Switzerland and Japan, where consumers interested in safe food and farmers seeking stable markets for their crops joined together in economic partnerships. Today, CSA farms in the U.S., known as CSAs, currently number more than 400. Most are located near urban centers in New England, the Mid-Atlantic states, and the Great Lakes region, with growing numbers in other areas, including the West Coast.

In basic terms, CSA consists of a community of individuals who pledge support to a farm operation so that the farmland becomes, either legally or spiritually, the community’s farm, with the growers and consumers providing mutual support and sharing the risks and benefits of food production. Typically, members or “share-holders” of the farm or garden pledge in advance to cover the anticipated costs of the farm operation and farmer’s salary. In return, they receive shares in the farm’s bounty throughout the growing season, as well as satisfaction gained from reconnecting to the land and participating directly in food production. Members also share in the risks of farming, including poor harvests due to unfavorable weather or pests. By direct sales to community members, who have provided the farmer with working capital in advance, growers receive better prices for their crops, gain some financial security, and are relieved of much of the burden of marketing.

— An EXCERPT from “Community Supported Agriculture (CSA): An Annotated Bibliography and Resource Guide.”

For more information about local agriculture, see the Thurston County Food Map at http://fertileground.org/foodshed/

The Evergreen State College maintains a list of local CSA’s. Click here for that list.

St. Christopher’s Community Church Asks for Support to Build Their Community Center

From St. Christopher’s Community Church, we recently received this letter:

To Our Friends and Neighbors in the Steamboat Island area:

For the past 10 years the members of St. Christopher’s Church (79th and Steamboat Island Road) have been planning a facility that will have a positive impact on the lives of all of us living in this area. Our projected 6,000 square foot community center includes multi-purpose rooms, a conference room and a large divisible meeting room. This project has been designed in large part in response to neighborhood surveys submitted by many of you. To build a facility for use an hour or so each week makes little sense compared to daily use by our neighbors.

St. Christopher’s members have raised just under a half million towards this 1.5 million dollar project and can take on a certain amount of debt. To close the gap we are inviting you to join the “900 Club”. This would be a generous group of neighbors giving a one-time tax-deductible gift of $500. Would you become part of this group? If 900 neighbors participate, construction could commence this fall.

With its Steamboat Island Road entryway, lighted parking, and clean modern facilities, this center will meet the needs of all ages and support many activities from scouts to 12- Step programs, after school tutoring, neighborhood association meetings, and senior activities to name just a few. We hope to be designated as a Red Cross Disaster Center.

You can help this facility happen with your gift to: “St. Christopher Community Center.” The appropriate IRS acknowledgment will be sent to you. Speaking of the IRS, you might consider contributing a portion of your one-time 2007 tax rebate since this is an unanticipated windfall and would serve to stimulate the local economy and support a worthy project. We heartily support this project and hope you will too. If you would like more information, please call 866-2111.

Signed Kathleen O’Shaunessy, Fred Finn, Mark Messinger.

Your tax-deductible gift can be mailed to:

St. Christophers
Steamboat Island Community Center
3320 – 79th Ave. NW
Olympia, WA 98502-9960

Click here to visit the web site of the St. Christopher’s Community Church.
Click here to view an artist’s rendering of the project.

Join the Griffin Foundation at the “Griffin Gala” on June 7

The Griffin Foundation is sponsoring a special fundraising event, the Griffin Gala, this Saturday, June 7th. The event is a dinner at the Viewpoint (lower level at Westbay Marina) from 6:30 to 9:30, prepared by Chef Adam. There will be a prize for the craziest hat, drawing for an incredible Grand Prize package, 10 exciting baskets for silent auction, and live music provided by kids from the Griffin School.

The cost is $40.00 per person or $75.00 per couple and donations are welcome.

For tickets contact Alisha at 866-9004, 5102 Totten Ct NW, Olympia, WA 98502.

It will be a fun evening and support a great cause “Yes for Griffin Kids”. What a great chance to visit with old friends and new.

The Griffin Gala will raise money to fund future information campaigns around Griffin School District levies.

If you cannot attend the event, but would like to contribute to “Yes for Griffin Kids,” you may do so my contacting Alisha Brannam at 866-9004, 5102 Totten Ct NW, Olympia, WA 98502.

For more information about the Griffin Foundation, click here to visit their web site.