LAKEPORT
Lakeport Buzz Cut Challenge has gained traction
The Lakeport Buzz Cut Challenge has already raised more than $1,800 for St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital, and that number is expected to surpass the $2,500 goal before the last Bicoastal Media Summer Concert Series event on August 18.
What, you might wonder, is The Lakeport Buzz Cut Challenge? Steve Short from Lakeport Tire and Auto Service created The Lakeport Buzz Cut Challenge to generate excitement around the fundraising effort to benefit St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital. “We’ve been giving away free bottles of water at every concert for the past year and a half. Some concert attendees asked if we had any cold water. We decided to set up coolers full of ice cold water at our booth during the concerts and asked people to make a donation to St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital.”
To make it more interesting, Steve Short announced that if the donations hit $2,500 he would get a buzz cut on stage right before the last concert of the year on August 18. As a result, the Lakeport Buzz Cut Challenge was born. “The response has been far better than I could have imagined” said Steve Short, whose hair is at risk of being buzzed off. “We set a big goal of $2,500 and I expected to get perhaps half of that, saving my hair from the buzz cut. Imagine my surprise when the amount of donations kept climbing and I realized I really might have to get a buzz cut. I haven’t had a buzz cut since I enlisted in the U.S. Marines nearly 45 years ago”.
So, why get a buzz cut to raise money? The answer is to show solidarity with the kids at St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital, many of whom lose their hair as a result of cancer and other treatments at the hospital. Steve said “If those children can go through those treatments and lose their hair, then a buzz cut to help raise a little money is the least I can do”.
If the $2,500 goal is reached, Michaela Wright from Locals Barber Salon in Lakeport will “do the honor” of giving Steve a buzz cut right before the last concert of the year on August 18. Michaela will set up a chair in front of the stage and will buzz away at Steve’s hair. “I’ve had several guys say they’ll also get a buzz cut if we hit the $2,500 goal, but I suspect most of them will chicken out at the last second” said Steve.
BiCoastal Media puts on the Summer Concert Series in Lakeport’s Library Park every Friday night from June 16 through August 18. Lakeport Tire and Auto Service has been a Major Sponsor of the Summer Concert Series for the past two years, along with a number of other local businesses.
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LAKE COUNTY
Library offers free language learning resource
The Lake County Library is supporting language learning with its new, free online resource: Mango Languages.
Mango Languages is a language learning service available on the web and as an app for Android and iPhone, free with your library card. This resource is especially beneficial to adults who are learning English as a second language.
Mango Languages is a personalized, adaptive language-learning experience that provides the tools and guidance you need to expand your language skills wherever and however you learn best. Mango has over 70 world languages, including Endangered and Indigenous languages, and more than 20 specialized English courses.
Mango Languages offers:
- Real-world conversations that won’t leave you lost in translation
- Placement Tests to begin exactly where your skillset suits you
- Voice Comparison for matching your pronunciation with native-speaker audio
- Listening & Reading Activities for reinforcing learned material and building new skills
- Personalized Review System that adapts to your individual learning pathway
- Culture Notes for unique insights into different cultures
Access Mango Languages for free through the Lake County Library by visiting: https://www.lakecountyca.gov/1551/Mango-Languages
Need more help? Library Staff will be happy to help! Call (707) 263-8817 or visit your local branch or email library@lakecountyca.gov.
The Lake County Library’s Literacy Program is also working to support adults learning English as a Second Language with its one-on-one tutoring program. If you are interested in becoming a volunteer literacy tutor, please call 707-263-7633 or email literacy@lakecountyca.gov.
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MIDDLETOWN
MAC invites public to first ‘RECIPROCITY’ event
The Middletown Art Center (MAC) is excited to invite the public to join the first of many “RECIPROCITY” events that will revitalize the EcoArts Sculpture Walk at Trailside Park. On Saturday July 29 and Sunday July 30, renowned Pomo basket weaver, Corine Pearce and sculptor, Laura Kennedy will lead community-engaged artmaking to co-create sculptures of animal species that once inhabited park lands from natural materials. This, and all RECIPROCITY events are free and open to people of all ages and abilities.
Gathering at the Park at 9:30am on Saturday, Pearce will share with the group stories and the wisdom and practice of caring for the trees, land, and all of its inhabitants as we work together to create larger than life animal sculptures from oak and manzanita branches. Participants will spend some time learning to tend to sprouting oaks at the park with sensitivity to their role in, and health of the ecosystem. Before it gets too hot, the group will move to the MAC studio where they will work together as the sculptures begin to take on life.
No experience is required. Please bring clippers, loppers and gloves if you have them, plenty of water and a lunch as work will continue into the afternoon. Everyone is invited to join again, or for the first time on Sunday morning at 10am at MAC with hopes to install the first sculpture later that day! This event is sure to be not only fun and educational, but meaningful as well. Please RSVP at MACLake.org or click here.
The MAC is honored to have received grant funding from Upstate California Creative Corps and the California Arts Council for RECIPROCITY. MAC has brought 19 artists and culture bearers together to embark on an artmaking journey designed to bring people together in nature as we learn about what it means to be stewards of the land and honor one another’s cultural and personal identity. Over the course of a year, free public art-making workshops will be held offering variety of opportunities to create from natural and discarded materials, learn about fire mitigation, native and non-native species, the role of pollinators in our environment, the plight of the Hitch,organism habitat, cultural diversity, and using plants to make cordage, as we engage in creative expression and problem solve collaboratively!
Following 12 years of annual, temporary exhibits, the 13th annual EcoArts sculpture walk was destroyed in the 2015 Valley Fire. Tens of thousands of trees and shrubs were removed from the park. In 2019 EcoArts reopened in a fire damaged venue with half the number of artists. COVID, combined with park conditions, discouraged artist participation. The sculpture walk has been dormant for 3 years.
“We designed RECIPROCITY with tremendous enthusiasm, hope, and commitment to the people, land, and all living things in this beautiful place we all call ‘home’ – Lake County,” said project lead artist and MAC’s Artistic Director Lisa Kaplan. “RECIPROCITY is a vision not only to revitalize the sculpture walk, but to utilize the trail as a way to bring diverse people together in a meaningful experience that models healthy and sustainable ways of living with the land and each other.”
Drawing on ancient and traditional knowledge that modern society haphazardly discarded in the name of progress, we recognize that it is vital in these rapidly changing times to slow down and reevaluate how we choose to move forward together. It is imperative that we find a new way of being that embraces old wisdom, to be willing to learn from the past, and cultivate an openness to creating a more beautiful and sustainable world our hearts know is possible. As we learn about how to tend the land through the lens of the first people of this place, we also learn how to work, learn and grow together.
Middletown Art Center is a Lake County non-profit dedicated to engaging the public in art making, art education, and art appreciation. Through exhibitions, performances, workshops, and community events, the Art Center provides a platform for diverse voices and perspectives, striving to create an inclusive and accessible space for all. The MAC is located at 21456 State Hwy 175. Trailside Park is located about 3 minutes away at 21435 Dry Creek Cutoff off Hwy 175. To learn more or support MAC’s work visit middletownartcenter.org or call 707-809-8118.
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