The Kachemak Emergency Service Area Board holds its regular monthly board meeting at 7 p.m. today at the McNeil Canyon Fire Station, 53048 Ashwood Ave. (Mile 12 East End Road). The public is welcome to attend. For more information, call 235-9811.
The North Pacific Fisheries Association holds its annual meeting at 6 p.m. Friday at the Kachemak City Community Center. Dr. Megan Peterson makes a presentation, “Whale Depredation in Commercial Fisheries.” Any interested parties are welcome to attend.
The Homer Fish and Game Advisory Committee holds an election meeting at 6 p.m. Monday at the NERRS building on Kachemak Drive. Also on the agenda will be a report on the Board of Fish and Lower Cook Inlet meeting and continue preparation of comments on Board of Fish Upper Cook Inlet proposals. For more information, contact Dave Lyon at 399-2340.
In honor of National Mentoring Month, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Homer sponsors several community events that are open to the public. At 6 p.m. Monday is a presentation to the Homer City Council at the Ralph Cowles Council Chambers. From 5-7 p.m. Jan. 18 at the Homer High School is a Mentoring Month fundraiser with food, family-friendly fun, entertainment and an auction and raffle. The first 30 tickets sold will receive a free ticket to the Homer Council on the Arts Stepping Out talent show which follows at 7:30 p.m. Advance tickets are on sale at the Homer Bookstore at $10 a person or $20 for a family of four. Kinds under 5-years-old are free. At 5:30 p.m. Jan. 30 is BBBS Movie Night at the Homer Theatre, with a family-friendly PG or G film to be announced. Admission is free and open to the public, but donations are appreciated. Winners from the Mentor Writing Contest will read their entries prior to the start of the movie. For more information, please contact BBBS at 235-8391.
The Kachemak Bay Conservation Society holds its annual membership meeting at 6:30 p.m. Jan. 17 at the Alaska Islands and Ocean Visitor Center. Homer writer Nancy Lord presents the evening’s program. “Glaciers and Otters: A Century of Change in Harriman Fjord and Beyond,” a slideshow talk from a week-long kayaking trip in Prince William Sound’s Harriman Fjord. As part of the U.S. Forest Service 2013 Voices of the Wilderness program, Lord and photographer Irene Owsley retraced John Muir’s 1899 exploration of the fjord, with particular attention to landscape and climate change and the stewardship of wilderness lands.
Friendship Center
Friendship Center Adult Day Services is open 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Monday-Friday with extended hours for special situations. Special programs are offered daily, including story time, crafts and musical performances. For more information, call 235-4556.
Homer Senior Citizens
Homer Senior Citizens lunch is open to seniors and guests and is served 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. Monday-Friday. The lunch menu for this week is: today, roast beef; Friday, oven baked trout; Monday, chicken cordon bleu; Tuesday, barbecue beef brisket; Wednesday, chicken parmesan.
Strong Women classes are 2-3 p.m. Monday, Wednesday and Friday at the Homer Senior Center. The cost is $3 for members and $6 for nonmembers per class.
Zumba Gold classes with Maria are 11 a.m.-noon Tuesdays and 1:30-2:30 p.m. Thursdays at the Homer Senior Center. The cost per class is $4 members, $6 nonmembers.
Tai Chi classes are Thursday at 3 p.m. The cost per class is $3 members and $6 nonmembers. Call Daniel at 235-7655.
Caregiver Support Group meets 2-3:30 p.m. every other Thursday in the senior center dining room. Call Pam Hooker at 299-7198 or Mary Jo Gates at 235-7655.
Kachemak Bay Campus
Registration for the winter/spring semester has started. Class listings have been mailed and are posted online at kpc.alaska.edu/KBC/searchable_schedule. Many classes begin the week of Jan. 13. For information, call 235-7743.
Check out new KBC programs in fisheries technology, outdoor education and AutoCAD technology as well programs in psychology and anthropology. Classes include computer programming, welding, nonfiction creative writing, painting, yoga, Natives of Alaska, marine boating safety, medical assisting, ceramics, Suqpiaq-Alutiiq culture, bears of Alaska, history of Alaska, the Civil War, public speaking and biology of sharks.
A U.S. Civil Rights Day public lecture is presented at 6:30 p.m. Jan. 20 by Donald Craig Mitchell, author of the two-volume series, “Sold American: The Story Of Alaska Natives And Their Land, 1867-1959” and “Take My Land, Take My Life: Alaska Native Land Claims, 1960-1971.” Mitchell, a former vice-president of the Alaska Federation of Natives and a key figure in fashioning the 1980 rural-subsistence priority, will explore the development of the Alaska Native rights to vote and the emergence, through the ballot box, of significant Alaska Native voices in the state. The talk will be followed by a community conversation facilitated by Michael Hawfield, associate professor of history and political science at Kachemak Bay Campus-Kenai Peninsula College/UAA.
Pratt Museum
The museum galleries are closed all of the month of January. Business offices will be open 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday in January.
The Pratt Museum is now accepting exhibition proposals for the 2015 calendar year. Whether a solo, group, or multimedia art installation, or an exhibit that takes a scientific, historical, or interdisciplinary look at the Kachemak Bay area, the museum wants to hear proposals and ideas. Proposals should fit within the museum’s mission and values, and explore the culture, science and art of the Kachemak Bay region and its place in the world. Please download and complete the Exhibition Proposal Form found at www.prattmuseum.org. The deadline is Wednesday.
R.E.C. Room
Young people ages 12-18 yrs are encouraged to join R.E.C. Room staff and chef, Megan Palma, owner of the Alibi A’ la Carte, for a hands on lesson in preparing healthy and tasty dishes with local ingredients. The class is 3:30-6:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Alibi A’ la Carte’s kitchen. Teens will have a chance to learn to make multiple dishes including the best fish taco in town from Megan in her commercial kitchen. The selected dishes are simple; they taste good, and are good for you. This unique FORK Club opportunity will allow youth to explore the career field of culinary arts. To sign up, stop in at the R.E.C. Room, email recroom@kbfpc.org or call 235-6736. The class is limited to the first 13 teenagers to sign up.
The REC Room (a Youth Resource and Enrichment Co-Op) offers activities for the 2013-2014 School Year. Free programs include instruction on software installation and customization, digital music production, fresh and organic cooking, gardening and slam poetry. The REC Room provides teens ages 12-18 with a safe space to hang out after school and connect with positive resources, activities and programs available in our community. It offers computers and Wi-Fi for homework, guitars, XBox Kinect, games, darts, rave gloves, movies, art supplies and more.
A program of Kachemak Bay Family Planning Clinic, the REC Room is always staffed by a program manager. Homer Middle School students can now ride Bus 65 for drop off at the REC Room. Call for details. Hours are 3 p.m.-6 p.m. Monday through Friday, 3957 Nielsen Circle, off Ben Walters Lane. For more information, call 235-6736, e-mail recroom@kbfpc.org or visit facebook.com/rec.room7 or HomerRECroom.org.
South Peninsula Hospital
The South Peninsula Hospital Foundation holds its annual meeting at 3:30 p.m. Monday in the hospital conference room on the lower level of the hospital. They will discuss the accomplishments of the year, conduct a recap of their investments and review the grants awarded, including but not limited to funding for the Reflection Room, six healthcare scholarships, instructional materials for the babysitting class and diabetes education. The SPH Foundation is a not-for-profit foundation that supports the mission of South Peninsula Hospital. The public is welcome to attend. For more information contact Foundation Chair Phyllis Cooper at 235-8820.
Seldovia Village Tribe Health & Wellness Center
The SVT Health & Wellness Center offers a series of classes covering all aspects of wellness every Thursday at 6 p.m. Today’s class is “Vitamin D: A Path to Prevention and Wellness,” with Rep. Paul Seaton. For more information or to suggest topics for future classes, call Amy Rattenbury at 226-2228, ext. 660.
