Sandhill crane monitoring season has started. Please report sand- hill crane sightings to Kachemak Crane Watch at 235-6262 or reports@cranewatch.org. The date, time, location and number of cranes is helpful. Leave a name and number in case Kachemak Crane Watch needs more details.
Volunteers are needed for the 22nd annual Kachemak Bay Shorebird Festival, to be held May 8-11. Opportunities include preparing festival bags on May 1-2, helping with registration in 3-4-hour shifts May 8-10, merchandise sales in 3-4-hour shifts May 8-10, and selling and collecting tickets to the keynote address in 2-hour shifts 6:30-8:30 p.m. May 10 at the Mariner Theatre. For more information or to sign up, contact Robbi Mixon, Kachemak Bay Shorebird Festival coordinator, Homer Chamber of Commerce & Visitor Center, 235-7740.
Clean-Up Week runs through Saturday and is sponsored by AJ’s OldTown Steakhouse. Trash dropoff is 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday at the Homer Chamber of Commerce and Visitor Center parking lot. There are four categories this year: Individual (1st-3rd place), Group (1st-3rd place), Kids 6-10 years (1st and 2nd place) and Kids 11-15 years old (1st and 2nd place). Participants may enter only one category. Both the kids’ prizes will be the bikes donated by the Kachemak Bay Lions Club; therefore there will be no kids’ raffle. The chamber encourages the community to start cleaning up Homer early. There are clean-up bags available for pick up at the Homer Chamber of Commerce.
The Second Annual Almost Spring Fling Bazaar, benefiting Special Olympics-Homer Area, will be from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday at Homer United Methodist Church on East End Road. Vendors are still needed and may contact Joyce Shuler at 907-398-6712 or e-mail at joyce.shuler@yahoo.com for more info. There will be a massage therapist at the bazaar, as well as home-based businesses with booths. Handmade items and baked goods will be sold. This will be a great day of fun for the entire family.
Big Brothers Big Sisters will have a clothing drive from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday at the Homer Chamber of Commerce’s Cleanup Day event. There will be a $50 prize for the person who brings in the most bags of gently used clothing, bedding, shoes or towels. For more information, call 235-8391 or go to the Big Brothers Big Sisters of Homer Alaska Facebook page.
Quilters are invited to register quilts, wall art and wearables for the 30th annual Kachemak Bay Quilters quilt show to be held 10 a.m.-8 p.m. May 10 and 10 a.m.-4 p.m. May 11 at the Homer Elks Lodge. Entries are accepted at Ulmer’s from 10 a.m.-6 p.m. May 6 and May 7. A $2 entry fee is requested for each item. For more information, call 235-6973.
The fifth annual Relay for Life of Homer holds a wine tasting and decadent dessert auction at 6 p.m. Friday at the Homestead Restaurant. Proceeds benefit the American Cancer Society. Admission is $30 a person. For reservations, call the Homestead at 235-8723.
Reiki master and author Shalandra Abbey of Maui, Hawaii, teaches a first-degree class from 2 -8 p.m. May 19 and 20 at South Peninsula Hospital. The class is for all ages. After the 12-hour training, students will have the ability to provide hands-on healing treatments for themselves, other people, animals and plants. For more information on Reiki and to register, visit www.reikihawaii.com or call local Reiki practitioner Rita Turner at 907-299-3894.
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, pork shoulder; Friday, rockfish Milanese; Monday, baked chicken teriyaki; Tuesday, lasagna; Wednesday, curried chicken.
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. the second and fourth Thursday in the senior center dining room. Call Pam Hooker at 299-7198 or Daniel Weisser at 235-7655.
Kachemak Bay Campus
Registration is now being held for the 2014 Kachemak Bay Writers’ Conference, June 13-17, featuring 19 visiting, local and statewide poets and creative literary nonfiction and fiction writers. The deadline for early registration at a reduced fee is Friday. See writersconference.homer.alaska.edu for more information.
KBC Commencement is 7 p.m. May 7 at the Mariner Theater.
The annual watercolor painting workshop with Jan Peyton will be May 31, June 2, June 5 and June 7. Register now.
Kachemak Bay Campus and the UA MAPTS program offer an upcoming job training opportunity, the NSTC Unescorted Program, from 8 a.m.-6 p.m. May 9. The fee is $204. Advanced registration is required at KBC. This training is required for all employees prior to arrival on the North Slope. The one-day course consists of six modules (“six-pack”) plus H2S/FeS. Upon completion of the course, participants receive an NSTC card, which allows them to travel unescorted within and between the operating fields to which they are assigned.
Kachemak Bay Family Planning Clinic
Kachemak Bay Family Planning Clinic (KBFPC) will offer clinical services in Seldovia by appointment from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. May 17. KBFPC staff will offer confidential services including well-woman health checks, breast exams and mammogram referrals, birth control consultations and supplies, emergency contraception, STD testing and treatment, pregnancy testing and counseling, and pre-conception counseling. Rapid HIV tests will be available at no cost on a walk-in basis during the day. Samples are collected by oral swab or finger stick, with results in 20 minutes. Additional STD testing will be available with an appointment in Seldovia. STD/HIV testing is available daily as a walk-in service at the clinic, 3959 Ben Walters Lane in Homer. Previous KBFPC Seldovia clinics booked up quickly, so making an appointment early is advised. For appointments or information, call 235-3436 or email clinic.kbfpc@ak.net.
KBFPC accepts private insurance and Medicaid in addition to offering affordable services on a sliding-fee scale to those who qualify. No one is ever turned away due to inability to pay.
KBFPC is a member-supported organization providing high-quality, low-cost reproductive health care for women, men and families of the southern Kenai Peninsula. The clinic offers a range of confidential clinical services for men and women, as well as youth education programs and community health outreach. For more information about KBFPC, visit kbfpc.org.
Pratt Museum
The museum galleries are open noon to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday. Business offices are open 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday.
The Exxon Valdez Oil Spill is the subject of the Pratt’s stewardship exhibit, Darkened Waters, which will be on display through May 11. The Jubilee Student Art Showcase will be on display in the Pratt’s lower level art gallery through May 11. “Key Ingredients,” the Smithsonian Institution’s traveling exhibition about how food and culture inform each other across America, is on display in the special exhibits gallery though May 15. A subsequent exhibit, “Putting By: Food Identity on the Kenai,” will open May 15 and focus on foods collected and preserved to last the winter.
From 5-7 p.m. today, Ember Jackinsky from Local Organic Vegetables and Edibles (L.O.V.E.) Farm presents “Sustainable Foods for Future Generations: Acclimated Heirloom Seeds and Food Security.” Jackinsky will discuss her family’s homesteading systems and efforts to acclimate and make available heirloom seeds on the lower Kenai Peninsula. The presentation is in association with the “Key Ingredients” and “Putting Food By” exhibits opening May 15 and will be outside in the Pratt Pioneer Garden, weather dependent.
In conjunction with these exhibits, the Pratt holds a canned food drive and raffle through June 6.
During the exhibits, the Pratt will be accepting donation of canned and preserved foods for the Homer Community Food Pantry. For each donation made before June 6, donors receive a raffle ticket, eligible to win an array of canning jars and supplies, courtesy of Ulmer’s Drug & Hardware. The drawing will take place June 6 at the “Putting Food By” potluck reception. The limit is one entry per person per day; need not be present to win.
”Dena’inaq’ Huch’ulyeshi: The Dena’ina Way Of Living” opens with a reception 5-6 p.m. May 16. This is the first ever comprehensive exhibit of the Dena’ina culture, curated and provided by the Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center. Join exhibition co-curators Aaron Leggett and Suzi Jones for the Pratt Museum opening reception of the exhibit. The Pratt will be the first stop of the tour, featuring artifacts, multimedia and text exploring the past and present Dena’ina culture. Meet the Dena’ina through film, life-size re-creations, images, hands-on learning stations, audio and more than 40 artifacts.
R.E.C. Room
The R.E.C. Room (a Youth Resource and Enrichment Co-Op) offers activities for the school year. Free programs include instruction on software installation and customization, digital music production, fresh and organic cooking, gardening and slam poetry. The R.E.C. 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 R.E.C. Room is always staffed by a program manager. 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
South Peninsula Hospital will offer a safe sitter class 9 a.m.-3:30 p.m. May 22 and 23 with a break for lunch. Students should bring their own lunch. The class is designed for 11- to 13-year-old children to teach basic child care, infant and child CPR, first aid, safety for the sitter, behavior management and business etiquette. The cost is $75 per person. Call the hospital’s education department at 235-0285 for more information and to register.
SVT Health & Wellness
SVT Health & Wellness offers a series of classes covering all aspects of wellness every Thursday at 6 p.m. Today’s class is “Aromatherapy for Massage and Health”with Melody Barrett, licensed massage therapist and certified spiritual healer. The classes are open to the public. For more information, call 226-2228 ext. 660.
