As part of Tartan Days, the Kachemak Bay Celtic Club celebrates the 693th anniversary of the declaration of Scottish independence with a Scotch whisky tasting from 7 to 9 p.m. Saturday at Alice’s Champagne Palace. The event includes appetizers and a tasting of five Scotch whiskys. Admission is $35 a person with the Scotch whisky tasting or $20 without. The wearing of the tartan and kilts is encouraged.
Registration has started for the Kachemak Bay Shorebird Festival, to be held May 8-12. This year’s keynote speaker is Jeffrey Gordon. For a list of events and presentations with registration information, see the shorebird festival schedule available at the Homer Chamber of Commerce and Visitor Center or visit www.kachemakbayshorebirdfestival.org. For more information, email shorebird@homeralaska.org or call the chamber at 235-7740.
Through the Kachemak Bay Research Reserve’s Coastal Training Program, Pam Kylstra, a program development specialist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Coastal Services Center, offers a free course, “Project Design and Evaluation,” from 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. April 8-9 at the Alaska Islands and Ocean Visitor Center. The course provides coastal resource management professionals with the knowledge, skills and tools to design and implement projects that have measurable impacts on the target populations they want to reach. This interactive curriculum can help increase the effectiveness of projects by applying instructional design theory to the project’s design. Spaces in this course are limited.
To register and for more information, visit kbrrprojecttraining.eventbrite.com.
The Cook Inlet Regional Planning Team (CIRPT) will hold a regular meeting at 9:30 a.m. April 17 in the conference room of the Cook Inlet Aquaculture Association Building at 40610 Kalifornsky Beach Road in Kenai. The topic to be discussed will be the hatchery annual management plans and Alaska Department of Fish and Game presentation on the Susitna Dam and northern pike. The meeting is open to public attendance and participation. For more information, call (907) 283-5761. The agenda is posted on-line at www.ciaanet.org under “CIAA News.”
Kachemak Bay Family Planning Clinic is looking for committed volunteers to help organize this year’s Breast Cancer Run, to be held Aug. 18. Call 235-3436 for more information on how to join the event planning committee.
Anchor Point Senior Center
The Anchor Point Senior Center is open at 8 a.m. Monday through Thursday for coffee. Enjoy coffee and conversation. The senior center also is open 7-9 p.m. Tuesday nights for game night. Enjoy cards, chess, dominoes, cribbage, checkers and pool. Regular hours are 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Thursday and 9 a.m.-noon Friday. For more information call 235-7786.
Friendship Center
Friendship Center Adult Day Services is open 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Monday-Friday with extended hours for special situations.
Homer Senior Citizens
Homer Senior Citizens lunch is open to seniors and their guests and is served 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. Monday through Friday. The lunch menu for this week is: Thursday, roast pork tenderloin; Friday, baked spicy bacon halibut; Monday, Italian meatloaf; Tuesday, chicken pot pie; Wednesday, pulled barbecue pork.
Strong Women classes at Homer Senior Citizens Recreation Room are 2-3 p.m. Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Cost is $3 for members and $6 for nonmembers per class.
Tai Chi classes are Thursday at 3 p.m. Cost is $3 for members and $6 for nonmembers per class. For more information, call Daniel at 235-7655.
Kachemak Bay Campus
Registration is being held for these upcoming classes: garden design with Brenda Adams meets April 6 and 13; botany of Kachemak Bay begins April 11; organic gardening meets April 19-20; watercolor workshop with artist Jan Peyton meets May 31, June 1 and 3. Computer classes offered include Excel, MS Word and Quickbooks; all start in April. Registration also is open for a special personal narrative workshop from May 3-5 with visiting memoirist Debra Gwartney, finalist for the National Book Critics Award. Enrollment is limited; register early. For a list of all courses, visit www.kpc.alaska.edu/kbc. Call 235-7743 for information.
At 6:30 p.m. today, visiting fiction writer Nancy Zafris does a public literary reading.
The Kachemak Bay Campus offers a series of degree information meetings focusing on some of the two- and four-year degrees that Homer area residents and recent high school graduates can earn at Kachemak Bay Campus. Upcoming meetings are:
• Noon-1 p.m. and 5-6 p.m. on April 11: New training opportunities will start this fall at KBC in CADD technology to prepare people for jobs or other degree in building construction, project management, engineering and architectural technology. University of Alaska Anchorage faculty will discuss the new program.
• Noon, 5:30 p.m. April 15: KBC in partnership with the University of Alaska Southeast offers a new two-year degree in fisheries technology that can lead to jobs with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, hatcheries, related agencies and private employment.
• 6 p.m. April 15: Learn more about UAA’s nursing-RN degree program offered by KBC.
• 5:30 p.m. April 18: KPC education professor Pete Snow will discuss how to earn a degree in education.
The Kachemak Bay Campus Community Advisory Board seeks new members. For more information, call 235-1656 or send a letter of interest to KBC, 533 E. Pioneer Ave., Homer AK 99603.
Registration has started for the 2013 Kachemak Bay Writers’ Conference, to be held June 14-18 at Land’s End Resort. Poet Naomi Shihab Nye is the keynote presenter. The early registration fee is $375, space available, with a special student rate. For program and registration information, visit writersconference.homer.alaska.edu.
Pratt Museum
Regular hours are Tuesdays through Sundays, noon to 5 p.m. “Encounters: Whales in Our Waters” is on exhibit until July 21. In association with the exhibit and as part of the “Whale Tales” series, Craig Matkin and Eva Saulitis present “Heart Meets Mind” at 5 p.m. April 26. Their talk deals with the emotions of whale encounters and the science of whale research. There is no charge for the Whale Tales presentations.
The Jubilee youth art show opens Friday, with a reception from 5 to 7 p.m. downstairs in the Contemporary Gallery.
The Pratt is the host of the Homer Chamber of Commerce and Visitor Center monthly mixer from 5 to 7 p.m. April 18. Everyone is welcome to drop in for refreshments and networking with local business representatives.
The museum seeks people to volunteer time and energy this summer. People of all ages can offer their volunteer services to enhance the high quality of experience summer visitors have at the museum. If you enjoy interacting with people and have two to four hours a week to spare, the museum invites you to join its dedicated team of volunteers. Contact Jennie Engebretsen at 435-3326 to learn more about volunteering. Volunteers also are needed to help clean aquarium tanks 10-11 a.m. every Thursday. If interested, contact Art at 435-3323 or building@prattmuseum.org.
R.E.C. Room
The R.E.C. Room (Resource and Enrichment Co-op) is a multipurpose space for youth ages 12-18 as a safe environment to hang out with friends. Hours are 3-6 p.m. Monday-Friday in the lower level of the Kachemak Bay Family Planning Clinic outreach building on Nielsen Circle. Visit www.recroom.kbfpc.org or call Anna at 235-OPEN (6736).
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 “Playing Mother Nature” with Kyra Wagner and Jessica Ryan. Learn about garden site selection and preparation, plant-hardiness zones, the use of different kinds of containers and the role of high tunnels or hoop houses in a home garden. On April 11, Wagner and Ryan present “Building Soil Good Enough to Eat,” about composting and soil amending, soil testing, when to rototill (and when not to), micronutrients and how to warm the soil. On April 18 is “What Grows Here and When to Grow It,” about different plant varieties, their hardiness and seedling care and the best times to plant both indoors and out.
The SVT Health & Wellness Center is located at 880 East End Road. The classes are open to the public. For more information or to suggest topics for future classes, call Amy Rattenbury at 226-2228, ext. 660.
South Peninsula Hospital
Homer Medical Center holds a community open house to showcase the newly remodeled clinic and welcome several new providers. The open house is 5 to 7 p.m. today at the Bartlett Street clinic. Guests can tour the new clinic and meet the four new providers Dr. Hillary Seger, obstetrics and gynecology; Dr. Sarah Roberts, family practice; Cindy Beske, certified nurse midwife; and Devry Garity, pediatric nurse practitioner. Maura’s Café caters the event, with desserts by the South Peninsula Hospital foundation and door prizes.
A Basic Life Support class for healthcare providers is 8 a.m.-noon April 12, and a Heartsaver CPR class is 1-5 p.m. April 12. The fees are $75 for the Basic Life Support class and $50 for the CPR class. Call 235-0258 to register.
In recognition of National Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month, South Peninsula Hospital is offering reduced rate screening colonoscopies. Colon cancer is the second-leading cause of cancer deaths in America, and more importantly, colon cancer can often be cured and even prevented. Colonoscopy is the preferred screening method for colon cancer, as it allows physicians to look directly at the entire colon and to identify suspicious growths. South Peninsula Hospital offers $500 off screening colonoscopies scheduled in April. For more information on these offerings, visit the hospital website at www.sphosp.org or contact 235-0310.
