Food Drive for Area Kids April 13th thru May 1st

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The Griffin 2nd grade Wolf Cub Scout den is sponsoring a food drive for the Thurston County Food Bank with emphasis on food for the FORkids Backpack program Monday, April 13th thru Friday, May 1st. Collection bins will be located at the Griffin School inside the main entrance and middle school entrance.

Did you know that last summer The Olympian reported that there are 671 homeless children in Thurston County? To help these youth, the Thurston County Food Bank has a FORkids Backpack program to help kids at 30 local elementary schools (preschool – 6th grade) – Griffin included. The FORkids Backpack program serves 600 kids weekly!

The Food Bank puts together packets for the area kids that provide meals for two days that can include: individual cold cereal box, hot cereal packet, non-perishable milk, juice box, cup-of-soup, easy mac, two fruit cups, pudding, a protein (items like: vienna sausages, beef jerky, tuna and cracker packets and poptop ravioli type items) granola bar, and peanut butter crackers or cheese crackers. These supplies are put in a zip lock bag and discretely put in the student’s backpack on Friday.

Unfortunately, the Food Bank has to purchase a lot of these items, and they don’t get a price break. They can especially use protein items.

Double Your Monetary Donations in April

The Feinstein Foundation is matching donations made to the Food Bank in April. If you wish for your monetary donations to go toward the backpack program make checks payable to the Thurston County Food Bank and in the memo section designate the “FORkids backpack program”. Many employers have a matching program too.

Please mail monetary donations to:
Thurston County Food Bank
220 NE Thurston
Olympia, WA 98501

The Griffin staff cannot collect monies going to the Food Bank.

Thank you for your support.
The Wolf Cubs

Can you help promote this event? Click here to download a copy of their flyer.

Neighborhood Comes Together to Benefit Local Food Bank

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Residents in the Griffin area came together to organize a food drive which collected a truckload of food and nearly $600 in cash contributions the day before Easter to benefit the Thurston County Food Bank. Thank you for the many neighbors who made contributions at the drop-off in front of the Island Market.

The drop-off was staffed from 11 AM to 5 PM. Thank you, Steve Lundin, Paul Meury, Peter Savin, Gail Sheikhizadeh, Sharon Parker, and Sharon’s friend from Montana (whose name will almost certainly be mis-spelled here), Neivis.

Steve Lundin, who is a local author, provided signed copies of his book, Griffin Area Schools, for those who contributed $25 or more.

We want also to acknowledge the support of local businesses and organizations, who helped to get out the word: The Griffin Fire Department, Prosperity Grange, and Steamboat Animal Hospital, who posted notices on their reader boards, and Steamboat Island Coffee.

Thanks are due to the Island Market, too, who allowed us to stage the drop-off there.

We want to thank local resident and owner of Yellow Bear Journeys, Dale Stubbart, for contacting us regarding the idea of holding a food drive.

Special thanks to thank Mary Skelton, who did so much to organize and promote the event. Mary designed the event’s logo and flyer, then made copies of the flyer and distributed them. With Paul, she set up the drop-off, including boxes and signage, and then staffed the drop-off over at least two shifts. Mary’s efforts are responsible for the success of the food drive at the Island Market.

Boxes of food collected for
the Food Bank fill pickup truck

Several other individuals and organizations held food drives at grocery stores across north Thurston County on the same day. We are awaiting results of the final combined amount of food and cash collected. As soon as those numbers are available, we’ll post them here.

It was a real pleasure to see such a terrific turnout for this weekend’s food drive.

It should not surprise any that hunger is a local issue. Right here on the Steamboat peninsula, we are fortunate to have a distribution and collection point for the Food Bank, at St. Christopher’s Community Church. Residents who have donations to make, but who missed this Saturday’s food drive, are invited to contact the church at 866-2111 for a time when the staff at St. Christopher’s can accept your donations.

Food Drive This Saturday at Island Market

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In 2008, the Thurston County Food Bank served a record 37,000 clients, a 39% increase from 2007. These numbers continue to increase, in 2009, as the global economic slowdown worsens. Our own St. Christopher’s Community Church is a local distribution point for the Food Bank. Hunger is a local issue.

This Saturday, April 11, local residents will come together to collect food and cash donations for the Thurston County Food Bank. A collection point will be staffed from 11 AM to 5 PM at the Island Market, 3403 Steamboat Island Rd., Olympia, WA 98502.

Saturday, April 11
11 AM to 5 PM
Island Market

Food Donation Ideas:

  • High protein food such as canned chili, peanut butter, beans, or canned meat.
  • Pasta and Macaroni and Cheese.
  • Canned fruit and vegetables.
  • Soup.
  • Baby Food and Formula.
  • Fresh fruits and vegetables that store well in a refrigerator.

Cash and Checks (payable to “Thurston County Food Bank”) will be greatly appreciated.

The Food Bank also has a “wish list” for supplies to support their FORKids program. This program provides weekend food for homeless and needy elementary school children. These children receive free breakfasts and lunch at school during the week and need nourishment for the weekend. The food is supplied by the food bank and put into the child’s backpack for the weekend.

  • Oatmeal packets
  • Cup of Soup
  • Fruit cups
  • Small boxes of raisins
  • Vienna sausage
  • Beanies & Weenies
  • Cocoa mix
  • Cold cereal boxes
  • Easy Mac and Cheese
  • Tuna and Crackers
  • Cheese and Crackers
  • Ravioli cups
  • Cup of applesauce

Please, no peanut products, for the FORKids program.

Griffin area residents realize that hunger is a local problem and they are coming together, the day before Easter, to help neighbors in their time of need.

Griffin’s Saturday Morning Networking Breakfast – April 18

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Griffin’s Saturday Morning Networking Breakfast: Strategies for Dealing with a Tough Economy and a Tougher Employment Market.

Saturday, April 18th
8:30-9:30 A.M.
Griffin School Grizzly Grill

Why: To provide Griffin Community Members an opportunity to meet one another and to build strong business and social networks – resulting in an even stronger community.

Short program provided: Importance of Building a Network in a Tough Economy.

This is a great opportunity for community members who are unemployed, underemployed, and/or looking to improve or expand business.

Who: Open to any Griffin resident wanting to come together with other community members to develop business and/or social friendships.

What: Short stack breakfast (donations welcome), great conversations and dialogue with others while expanding your network of business and social friendships.

When: First breakfast is Saturday, April 18, 2009 from 8:30-9:30 A.M.

With a good turnout at the first breakfast, future events will be scheduled for the first Saturday of each month.

Where: Griffin School Grizzly Grill

Come and Join Us!

Breakfast Sponsors:
Griffin Neighborhood Association,
Griffin School District
and a community of volunteers.

Note – RSVP for Breakfast:
Please call Don Brannam (360) 866-4918 x104 or email dbrannam@griffin.k12.wa.us

Help get out the word! Click here to download a copy of the flyer for this breakfast.

St. Christopher’s Neighborhood Preschool Now Registering

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St. Christopher’s Neighborhood Preschool is registering now for classes beginning in September. Register by June 1 and receive a 20% discount on September’s tuition!

The preschool is for children from 3 – 6. There are morning and afternoon sessions and each parent can select whichever sessions they want. The afternoon and morning sessions will be different so children staying for the entire day will have new fun things to do in the afternoon.

There will be small class sizes and a minimum of two trained staff present at all times. Class sessions will include art projects, letters, numbers, sign language, rhythm and music, snacks and play time!

For additional information and registration forms, please visit their website at: www.stchristopherspreschool.org or phone their director, Danielle at 970-2999.

Thurston County Sheriff’s Office Quarterly Newsletter

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We received today a copy of the Sheriff Department’s Quarterly Newsletter. We cannot yet find it, on their web site, but you can click here and retrieve your own copy.

Sheriff Dan Kimball has taken heat, recently, over proposed cuts in the Department’s budget (click here and here for more information). While the County’s budget issues cast a shadow over activities in all departments of the County government, there is other news to report, in the Newsletter.

Chief Jim Chamberlain wrote an article describing the Sheriff’s Office Registered Sex Offender Program and Stanley Phillips penned a piece regarding the Crime Victim Advocacy Network. This is a consortium of trained advocates providing free and confidential services to victims of crimes in Thurston, Mason, Lewis, Grays Harbor, and Pacific Counties.

Visit the Sheriff’s Department web site at www.thurstonsheriff.org for information on a variety of local public safety issues.

Olympia Transportation Workshop – April 13

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The City of Olympia is holding it’s 2nd Annual Transportation Workshop in mid-April. While it’s promoted largely whithin city limits, Griffin area residents will want to be heard as the big city folks come together to seek new approaches to meeting the Olympia Comprehensive Plan goals. All of us travel to Olympia, particularly to the congested west side, where congestion on Black Lake and along Henderson is only liable to get worse.

2nd Annual Transportation Workshop
Monday, April 13, 2009
7:00 to 9:00 p.m.
The Olympia Center, Columbia Street & Olympia Avenue

Among the concepts that will be presented are:

  • Primary bus corridors: Work with Intercity Transit to develop streets with high-quality bus services.
  • Connectivity: Continue to develop a gridded street network, as well as bicycle and walking paths.
  • Complete streets: Build streets that support all modes and contribute to a sense of place.
  • Financing: Examine new funding sources for walking, biking, bus and motor-vehicle improvements.

Come share your thoughts. Whether you walk, bike, ride the bus, or drive a motor vehicle, your ideas about the future of transportation in Olympia are sought.

Click here for more information or contact Sophie Stimson at (360) 753-8497 or sstimson@ci.olympia.wa.us.

Karen Valenzuela Campaign Kickoff

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As you are probably already aware, there is special election, this August and November, to fill the seat of Thurston County Commissioner for District 3. Karen Valenzuela was appointed to fill the vacancy created when Bob McLeod resigned. Valenzuela has filed to run for the position. The primary election is in August, the general election is in November.

Karen Valenzuela’s Campaign Kickoff
Thursday, April 2nd
5:30 – 7:30 PM
River’s Edge Restaurant at Tumwater Valley Golf Course

Donations gratefully accepted to People to Elect Karen Valenzuela
120 State Ave. NE #135, Olympia, WA 98501
www.KarenValenzuela.com
Karen@KarenValenzuela.com

Valenzuela is already being endorsed by:

Thurston County Commissioner Sandra Romero
State Representative Sam Hunt
Tumwater Mayor Ralph Osgood
Tumwater City Councilmember Joan Cathey
Tumwater City Councilmember Pete Kmet
Tumwater City Councilmember Ed Stanley
Former Olympia Mayor Mark Foutch
Former Olympia Mayor Bob Jacobs
Olympia City Councilmember Joe Hyer
Olympia City Councilmember Jeff Kingsbury
Olympia City Councilmember Joan Machlis
Olympia City Councilmember Karen Messmer
Olympia City Councilmember Rhenda Iris Strub
Tenino Mayor Ken Jones
Tenino City Councilmember Dawna Kelley
and Thurston County Coroner Gary Warnock

Free Eld Inlet Heritage Meeting and Workshop Series Begins March 29

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Area residents are invited to participate in a free Eld Inlet Heritage Meeting and Workshop Series, beginning March 29th.

This is a special series of workshops designed specifically for shoreline landowners and featuring a variety of speakers, workshops, history, food and fun!

This series of workshops is a new program aimed at helping shoreline landowners along Eld Inlet to attain the best and most sustainable practices for managing their shoreline and providing them with assistance to do just that. Participants that live on the shoreline of the Eld will also have the opportunity during these workshops to apply for a scientist to assess their property and may receive free plants, labor and other assistance.

March 29th
1:30 to 4 p.m.
“Rain Gardens – Your Key to managing Drainage & Protecting South Sound”
Native Plant Salvage – Erica Guttman
Mason County Public Works
W. 100 Public Works Drive
Shelton, WA 98584
Participation is free, but seating is limited.
Please call Karin at (360) 427-9436 x 22 (Mason Conservation District) for more information and to sign up.

The workshop will begin at 1:30 p.m. They anticipate that the program will be full, so please make every effort to arrive a little early so you can get checked in before hand, allowing them to start on time.

What to bring: This workshop will be as hands-on as possible. They encourage everyone to bring: A soil sample or soil samples from an area or areas in your yard that you are considering turning into a rain garden. Make sure you are planning at least 10 feet away from any structures and at least 50 feet away if you are uphill of a septic system, or at least 15 feet away from septic a septic tank or drain field in flat terrain.

To take the soil sample: carefully remove your top vegetation in a small area, then dig down about 12 to 18 inches; place a few cups of soil from this level in a plastic bag and label its location and depth. If you can go deeper (up to 24 inches), that provides additional helpful information about your underlying soils. Put a few cups of this lower level of soil in a plastic bag; label its location and depth. Refill your hole and replace your plants. If you are thinking about making more than one rain garden, or you have different sites you are considering, then bring additional soil samples if the different areas aren’t near each other in your yard.

If you want more information about what rain gardens do, please check this link. We will also discuss this with you at the workshop.

Potluck and Eld Inlet Heritage meeting
April 17
6 to 8 p.m.
Olympia Community School
4346 Sunset Beach Dr NW.

This is going to be a potluck and Eld Inlet Heritage meeting (bring a dish to share and get to know your shoreline neighbors) with guest speaker historian Drew Crooks.

For more information about the Potluck and Eld Inlet Heritage meeting, contact Gabby Byrne, Education and Involvement Coordinator, People For Puget Sound, at (360) 754-9177 or click this link to email.

We’ll pass along whatever information we receive, about additional events in this series.

Land Conservation Efforts by Private Land Owners on the Rise

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In an article appearing in the Olympian last week, John Dodge, wrote that “South Sound land conservation groups are busier than ever, despite an economic downturn that cuts across the landscape.”

Click here to read the article.

In the article, John Dodge reports that, “In the past month, Capitol Land Trust has closed three deals to protect more than 130 acres of special habitat in Thurston and Mason counties, bringing its conserved land base in South Sound to more than 3,000 acres.” Eric Erler, the executive director of the Trust, is quoted as saying they “have another 2,500 acres in the works.”

Despite the economic slowdown – or maybe because of it – people have become interested in learning about alternatives to selling or developing land they own.

Capitol Land Trust “seeks to maintain the coexistence of people, wildlife and the natural habitats that sustain us all, by working with groups and individuals at the local level to protect and conserve important lands.”

Our work is guided by four strategic conservation goals. Our efforts are community based, locally supported and economically beneficial. By working cooperatively, and with support from its members and the community, Capitol Land Trust protects the natural environment by offering landowners non-regulatory alternatives.

The Trust conserves important wildlife habitat and natural areas by accepting donations of conservation easements and gifts of land, or by working with partners to purchase lands. The Trust also meets with and counsels landowners on these and other conservation techniques.

Readers of this blog will recall that we’ve already written about the “tremendous expansion of the federal conservation tax incentive for conservation easement donations” approved by Congress in 2006. At that time that piece was written, Congress had only planned to extend particularly attractive taxing incentives to easements established in Tax Years 2006 and 2007. However, folks went to work and have been successful at extending those through 2009.

The Land Trust Alliance is an excellent resource regarding tax policy, as it applies to conservation easements. Their web page at http://www.landtrustalliance.org/policy/taxincentives/tax-policy is a good place to start. There’s even an opportunity to join their campaign to make the tax changes permanent.

If you are interested in discussing the advantages of a preserving land you own, a call to the Capitol Land Trust is a great place to start. All inquiries to Capitol Land Trust are without obligation and completely confidential.