Thurston County Progressive Network (TC Pro-Net) is holding their annual “FoodRaiser,” which benefits Thurston County Food Bank (TCFB). As a satellite of TCFB, the local St. Christopher’s Food Bank will benefit in the long term from this county wide event, and we encourage your participation, either as a donor, or a volunteer.

We are still looking for volunteers to run 2 hour shifts. Kris Ness is coordinating the Griffin/Steamboat Island area drive for TC Pro-Net. If you are available for a 2 hour shift in front of Island Market, plus a little bit of time to deliver your shift’s collections to TCFB immediately after your shift, please call Kris at 360-866-3795. We are looking for up to 6 volunteers, who will work in pairs.

We also have shifts open in other parts of the county, so if you are willing to volunteer at another location once we have our neighborhood covered, please let Kris know as well.

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.

Last year the event raised 3000 lbs of non-perishables, and $4000 in cash donations for the total county, and our site at Island Market contributed roughly 10% of that even we were the smallest location of the 10 locations participating.
 
 

You could join a flock of shorebirds sponsored by the Black Hills Audubon Society. Here’s how:

Have fun at the Downtown Olympia Community Arts Studio making a simple, large, sturdy, light shorebird on a pole. Paint one side white, the other black. Decorate.

In the Parade, the flock turns as one to the high school drummer’s beat: Black, then white – just like shorebirds do.

A two-hour workshop: Cutouts, poles,paint and decorating material provided. $5 donation.

The workshop is scheduled for Wednesday, April 6 at 6:30 pm at Downtown Olympia Community Arts Studio.

Expect a fun, informal talk about shorebirds at the beginning of this workshop.

Then, on Wednesday, April 13, we practice our “flocking”. If you miss the April 6 workshop, you can make your bird shapes this day instead.

Contact:  Chris Maynard at 878-0755 or the Community Arts Studio at 705-1087.

Or, if being part of part of the parade isn’t for you, come and observe our flock and the fantastic array of yet-to-be-imagined Nature in the 17th annual Procession of the Species Parade on Saturday, April 23 at 4:30 pm in downtown Olympia.

Don’t forget the beautiful Luminaria Procession on Friday, April 22.

For details – colorful ones at that – about these and other Procession-related events, check out the Procession website at www.procession.org.
 
 

For the second year, South Sound Estuary Association will offer the Beach Naturalists Program.  Beach Naturalists have the opportunity to work with people who have come to area beaches seeking a personal connection with the water. Volunteers work to create a greater understanding of the South Puget Sound and its estuaries. They talk about how everyday choices can have a positive impact on our water quality.

Our own Frye Cove is among those beaches included in this program.

Beach Naturalist volunteers are asked to commit 12 training hours followed by at least 4 days on the beach during the months of June, July, and August.

The Beach Naturalist Program is offering more training opportunities than last year for a modest fee of $40. All program fees are due by the first training session on April 7th, 2011.

Would you like to become a Beach Naturalist, but cannot afford the $40 tuition? The Griffin Neighborhood Association is underwriting the tuition for two participants in the program. You must live within the Griffin School District to qualify for this tuition assistance.

Click here for more information regarding the Beach Naturalist Program. Contact Leihla, Program Coordinator, at 360-888-0565 or leihla@sseacenter.org to sign up or to receive information about one the tuition support offered by the Griffin Neighborhood Association.
 
 

Wednesday, March 16
Capitol Theater Downtown Olympia
Doors Open 6:00 pm – Event begins at 6:30 pm

Captain Charles Moore will talk about the effects of plastics on marine life in Puget Sound as well as the Washington and Oregon coast. We will also show several videos on South Puget Sound and the effects of corporate farming on our tidelands. Donny Westfall, a local musician will also perform. Plan on buying a Sierra cup and having something to drink and eat while looking at the tables of other environmental groups.

Charles Moore founded Algalita Marine Research Foundation (AMRF) in 1994 to focus on the “coastal ocean.” In 1997, his focus dramatically changed. While returning to California from Hawaii aboard his 50-foot catamaran, the Alguita, he chose to chart a course though the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre, where he encountered enormous amounts of trash, mostly plastic, scattered across the area now commonly referred to as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

Proposed changes to the County’s ordinance regarding the discharge of firearms may at last put to rest a two-year effort by local residents to limit where firearms can be used over the waters surrounding our peninsula. A community meeting regarding the proposed ordinance will be held Tuesday, March 1, 7 to 9pm, in the Thurston County Courthouse Bldg 1, Room 152.

Note the date has been rescheduled to March 1st, due to inclement weather in the forecast.

The entire ordinance is available on the County’s web site (click here to download the PDF file). The portion of the ordinance which is probably most pertinent, to local residents, makes it unlawful for any person to discharge a firearm in these areas:

All those areas zoned Residential LAMIRD One Dwelling Unit Per Two Acres; and

All those areas zoned Residential LAMIRD One Dwelling Unit Per Acre; and

All those areas zoned Residential LAMIRD Two Dwelling Units Per Acre (all LAMIRD areas are marked in green, on the County’s map); and

All that portion of land and marine waters of Puget Sound lying 300 yards, waterward, from the ordinary high water line (marked in blue, on the map); and

That portion of Eld Inlet south of an east-west line starting from a Point 300 feet North of the Meander Line as it crosses the East Line of Section 31, Township 19, North Range 2 West, thence due Westerly across Eld Inlet to the Western Shoreline (marked in orange, on the map);

Click here to download a copy of the full-sized map of current and proposed limited shooting zones[PDF].

Local residents that wish to do so may send comments regarding the ordinance to smithr@co.thurston.wa.us

Enforcement of the no shooting and limited shooting zones will fall the the County Sheriff’s Department.

For many residents, this issue didn’t revolve around a desire to ban hunting outright; many of our neighbors enjoy hunting. However, as densities have increased along shorelines, the issue of safety prevailed. Waterfront homes have been struck by shot and most hunters would likely agree that it’s good to separate hunting parties by several hundred yards. The changes proposed in the ordinance reflect a commonsense approach to safety, applied to zoning densities and the size of bodies of water in the area.

The need to reassess the County’s shooting ordinances was brought to the attention of Commissioner Karen Valenzuela by Griffin area homeowners. We have written about this issue in the past (click here to read those prior articles) and we encourage interested residents to review the proposed ordinance and to either attend the community meeting or email comments to the County.

A free, public lecture on Brazil will take place at the Olympia Center, 222 Columbia St. at 7:30pm on Thursday February17th.

Brazil is one of the fastest developing countries in the world. It is expected to be the fifth-largest economy in the world by the time it hosts the 2016 Summer Olympics. How has Brazil moved so far, so fast and what are the opportunities to do business in such a dynamic economy? Where is the country headed after the election of its first woman President, Dilma Rousseff?

Pedro Costa, Brazil’s Consul in Seattle and founder and CEO of The Information Company, will answer these questions and share with us his knowledge and understanding of his native country. Señor Costa may be accompanied to the lecture by the Brazilian Ambassador, as well.

The event is sponsored by the Olympia World Affairs Council.  For more information call 360-867-0919.  http://www.olympiawac.org/