Flowers and brunch make for fine Mother’s Day traditions. But maybe you and Mom are in the mood for something a little different. Something that involves getting your hands dirty.
How about a workshop that involves preparing soil and planting at Shasta College’s new community teaching garden?
It might sound a little whacky, but why not? You’ll pick up some soil preparation and cultivation pointers while planting seeds and starts in a garden that will help educate students and provide produce for food bank clients. Learning, hard work and charity. Moms always appreciate those things, right?
The free workshop is scheduled for 1 to 4 p.m. this Sunday at the teaching garden. Participants will meet at the north end of east parking lot on the college’s main campus in Redding. If you just can’t make it on Mother’s Day, the workshop continues at the same time and location on May 16. For either session, you’ll need to register in advance. For more information, email teachinggarden@shastacollege.edu or call 242-2248.
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• When you’re a college-age kid (sorry, but I’m old enough to call voting-age adults “kids”), you do what you can to make ends meet. Among my summertime jobs at that age were church janitor, 7-Eleven store clerk and gardener. The Smart Business Resource Centers in Redding, Weaverville and Hayfork have summer jobs available for 18- to 24-year-olds, and I’ll bet many of those jobs are more rewarding than selling Marlboros and Cheetos to drunks at 1 a.m. The centers can also provide interview clothes, work clothes and even transportation assistance. Visit the centers’ website or call the Redding office at 246-7911.
• Among those more rewarding jobs would be building trails at Whiskeytown National Recreation Area. The nonprofit group Friends of Whiskeytown is hosting a luau this Saturday, May 8, to raise money that will pay for college-age kids to work in the park this summer. Last year, workers in the Park Service’s Student Conservation Association helped build the rugged, five-mile Papoose Pass trail from Sheep Camp to near Boulder Creek Falls. Saturday’s luau at Brandy Creek Beach will feature Hawaiian food and entertainment, cocktails, and both live and silent auctions. Tickets are $40 and may be purchased at the Whiskeytown visitors’ center, Kent’s Meat and Groceries, Crown Camera and Sunset Marketplace.
• If you’re out and about this Saturday, May 8, you just might run into a whole bunch of people wearing work gloves and yellow vests. They’ll be among the 75,000 volunteers expected to participate in “Mormon Helping Hands” day across California. In the Redding area, the volunteers will work at Redding Aquatic Center, the City Hall sculpture park, the Redding Library, Buckeye Park in Shasta Lake and Anderson River Park.
• A few months ago, a woman in front of me at Holiday Market used her EBT card (the Food Stamps debit card) to buy three packages of frozen pizza rolls. Everyone gets the munchies, but three boxes of microwavable grease? It was just the sort of transaction that gives welfare programs a bad name. So here’s a totally different approach: This Saturday, May 8, Healthy Shasta will provide EBT users with an additional $10 if they spend at least $5 at the farmers’ market at Redding City Hall. The additional $10 may be used to purchase fruits, vegetables, eggs, nuts, vegetable plants and olive oil at the farmers market. The open air market is scheduled for 7:30 a.m. to noon every Saturday at City Hall, and, obviously, the growers accept EBT cards. I guarantee that this season’s strawberries taste a heck of a lot better than frozen pizza rolls.
Paul Shigley is senior editor of California Planning & Development Report, a frequent contributor to Planning magazine and co-author of Guide to California Planning, a reference book and college text. He lives in Centerville. Paul Shigley may be reached at pauls.anewscafe@gmail.com.
