Mendocino Fun » Community Service

Candlelight Inn Tours This Week

nancy — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 21:24:08 +0000

Visit the area’s finest lodging sites, enjoy fine food and wine, while helping support Mendocino Coast youth programs. 3-6 pm each evening. For more information, call 707-964-1228. Tickets: $25 pp; $10 under age 10

Thursday, December 8, Mendocino
Friday, December 9, Fort Bragg
Saturday, December 10, Little River
Sunday, December 11, Elk

Santa’s Coming to Town

nancy — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 06:26:18 +0000

Kids both young and old will want to be at the Mendocino Hotel on Main Street for Santa’s arrival on the fire truck. He’ll be here promptly at 3 pm, so don’t be late! Candy canes for the kids, and a photo opportunity with Santa.

Mendocino Hotel Guests Get Opportunity to Help History

bruce — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 22:02:30 +0000

More evidence of how State Parks people and local entrepreneurs are using their creative talents to benefit the Mendocino Coast is an unusual arrangement approved between a state park and hotel in Mendocino Village.

The Mendocino Hotel now offers guests an opportunity to make a voluntary donation to help improve Mendocino Headlands State Park. Don’t recall ever hearing about a similar arrangement.

A percentage of the Hotel’s room rate will added to guest’s bill The funds collected will be used to carry out needed repairs, maintenance and to restore the Historic Ford House, built for Mendocino’s acknowledged founder in 1854, and a state park visitor center since 1984. The visitor center, which serves 25,000 annually, needs a new roof, paint, and foundation repair. The parklands are in dire need of trail improvements and vegetation management.

The donations will be managed and kept in trust by the Mendocino Area Parks Association (MAPA). A local non-profit, which has been supporting local State Park educational programs, since 1984. Loews San Diego, entered into a similar agreement with State Parks to maintain Silver Strand State Beach.

The Mendocino Hotel established in 1878 is the only full service hotel in the heart of the historic village directly overlooking the Headlands and the Pacific Ocean .The Hotel features 51 ocean and garden view suites with fine antiques and works of art, an award winning wine list and a restaurant which ZAGAT SURVEY recommends as “A California Menu Right on the Mark”.

CONTACTS:
Mendocino Hotel, Jamie Buckner, jbuckner@mcn.org 707 937 369-6629
Ford House Manager – Jenny Heckeroth, 707 539-7937

Lightkeeper Rogerson Authors New Lighthouse Book

bruce — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 22:53:08 +0000

“Images of America: Point Cabrillo Light Station,” by Arcadia Publishing, is a wonderful new photo history, covering everything from the Pomos and Frolic shipwreck that led to settlement on the Coast to major preservation awards for the restoration work awarded to the Lightkeepers Association in 2007.

Anyone who knows the author, Bruce Rogerson of Fort Bragg, will tell you he is one of the Coast’s hardest working and most reliable volunteers. When he says he’s going to do something, he does it and does a great job.Rogerson shows you the life and times of the families and lightkeepers who lived and worked at the light station from its opening in 1909 to its closure in 1972. There are even photos of the restoration of the lighthouse, which was re-lit in 1999, and a portrait of the members of the local U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary who continue to keep it burning. The book, a must-have for history buffs and lighthouse lovers, is available from the lighthouse, Arcadia Publishing, (www.ArcadiaPublishing.com), and the following Mendocino County and Coast bookstores:

Harvest Market, Fort Bragg, CA
Gallery Bookshop, Mendocino, CA
Guest House Museum, Fort Bragg, CA
Dolphin Isle Marina, Noyo Harbor
Mendocino Book Company, Ukiah, CA
Cover to Cover Books, Cloverdale, CA
Frame Mill Artworks, Fort Bragg, CA
Cheshire Books, Fort Bragg, CA
Four Eyed Frog Books, Gualala, CA
Ford House Visitor Ctr., Mendocino, CA
Kelley House Museum, Mendocino
Grace Hudson Museum Store, Ukiah, CA
Mendocino County Museum, Willits, CA
Mendocino County Library, Ukiah, CA

While You’re In Town: A Lecture on Osteopathic Medicine

bruce — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 22:58:01 +0000

During the 1918 world flu epidemic, patients treated with osteopathic methods had far higher rates of survival, according to John Cottle, DO, at the North Coast Family Health Center on the campus of the Mendocino Coast District Hospital (MCDH) in Fort Bragg. Dr. Cottle, who has the same training as an M.D. — and more for his D.O.– will discuss “What is Osteopathic Medicine?” at the next MCDH Wellness Lecture Series October 29th. The lecture, in the hospital’s Redwood Room at 700 River Road, is from 6-7 pm and is free. Continuing Education Unit (CEU’s) also are offered.

Harvest Market to Donate Proceeds to Mendocino Coast Humane Society

bruce — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 23:03:48 +0000

We can all boast about our beautiful coast — one of the most spectacular no doubt in the entire world. But we also have world-class citizens like Tom and Penny Honer, owners of Harvest Markets in Fort Bragg and Mendocino. Their generiosity never seems to stop: This time around, Harvest Market are helping the Mendocino Coast Humane Society (MCHS) by allocating 10% of all Pet Supply Sales from June 17th through June 24th to MCHS from both Harvest Market in Fort Bragg and Harvest Market – Mendosa’s in Mendocino. You can be of help by making your pet supply purchases during that time period. “We at MCHS thank you in advance for your support,” said Jerold Karabensh, MCHS’s board chair.

Thanksgiving Coffee Wins Peace Award, Plans African Dinner

bruce — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 18:32:28 +0000

Thanksgiving Coffee Co. of Fort Bragg founders Joan and Paul Katzeff (right in photo) have spent 37 years roasting great coffee and promoting economic and social justice and environmental protection. They do it because it’s in their blood. But now they have received a prestigious award from the Tufts University Global Institute for Leadership for their Mirembe Kawomera (Delicious Peace) coffee project. A big award for two big hearts.

Press Release issued about the award presented March 4:

BOSTON, Mass. – The Tufts University Institute for Global Leadership on March 4 awarded Thanksgiving Coffee Co. of Fort Bragg, Calif. the prestigious Dr. Jean Mayer Global Citizenship Award for supporting a coop of Muslim, Christian and Jewish coffee farmers in Africa. Former winners of the award include Nobel Laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
Thanksgiving Coffee shares the award this year with The Mirembe Kawomera (Peace Coffee) Cooperative in Mbale, Uganda and Kulanu, a grassroots, U.S. volunteer not-for-profit Jewish organization working with communities around the world.
Caspar Celebration
To celebrate the award and share the Peace Kawomera story with locals, Thanksgiving Coffee President Joan Katzeff will host a limited-seating African-inspired dinner at 6 p.m. Tuesday, March 18 at the Caspar Community Center in Caspar. Only 100 tickets ($15) will be available at The Mendocino Bakery in Mendocino, Tangents in Ft. Bragg and at the door will be sold for the event, with the money going back to the Uganda coffee cooperative for the purchase of mosquito nets to help prevent malaria.
Four members of the Cooperative (a Jew, a Christian, a Muslim and an Anglican) and the two project directors from Thanksgiving Coffee will be there to tell their story. There will be music by the Coastal Peace Singers. a as well as the Ugandans singing peace songs in their native language. There will also be a slide show of recent photos of the cooperative at work and play. Free samples of the Fair Trade, USDA-certified organic Mirembe Kawomera coffee will be given to attendees to take home and brew for breakfast the following day.
Praise from the Global Institute
In a written statement, Institute Director Sherman Teichman praised the winners “for your wonderful innovative and powerful efforts on behalf of alleviating poverty, creating accountable and sustainable trade practices, encouraging peace and promoting interfaith harmony.”

“By buying and marketing the Fair Trade and Certified Organic coffee produced by the Muslim, Jewish, and Christian owned Peace Kawomera Cooperative, we are creating the economic foundation on which peace and prosperity can be built by 705 small-scale farmers, and the 10,000 members of their families,” said Ben Corey-Moran, project co-director for Thanksgiving.

Mendocino Coast Chamber Joins Environmental Program

bruce — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 18:50:04 +0000

Already working on the county’s first eco-tourism map, the Mendocino Coast Chamber of Commerce has joined the PG&E Climate Smart program, along with over 15,000 other Climate Smart customers. This program raises money toward high quality, independently-certified environmental projects that absorb or reduce greenhouse gases, starting with preserving California redwood forests (which hug the North Coast). The initial projects will reportedly remove more than 200,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere making the energy use in our business “climate neutral”. This is part of the county’s continuing push to be environmentally conscious, organic, biodynamic and GMO-free.

Surf Motel Opens Doors to 300+ People During Storm

bruce — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 01:18:50 +0000

Govind Reddy says it was his own experience growing up in Fiji, where huge storms left he and his family without food, water or shelter for days, that motivated him open his Surf Motel and Gardens in Fort Bragg to anyone who wanted to take showers. More than 300 people, stranded without power, heat and hot water after a series of big storms hit the North Coast a week ago, took advantage of Reddy’s kind offer. Some tried to pay him. “Of course I didn’t take it. I’ve been in their shoes. My offer was from the heart.” That’s the Mendocino Coast spirit.

A Bit Battered, Perhaps, but It’s Not Outer Mongolia

dff — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 20:02:45 +0000

The New Year has started out with a bang, as Mother Nature decided to celebrate the occasion with the wildest storm in several years. I was reading the Santa Rosa paper this morning about someone who said they were going to file a complaint with PG&E because their power was out in their neighborhood longer than the rest of the surrounding area. She says, “We’re in town. It’s not like we’re in Outer Mongolia.”

At least she had the choice of walking a few blocks to electricity. That wasn’t a choice for the entire Mendocino Coast, lovingly known as “Outer Mongolia”, as we lost power last Friday morning. At my house, we didn’t get our power back until last night — 4 days and 4 nights of no power, and howling winds, and driving rains. I recorded 4 inches of rain in my gauge. During the worst of it, the highways into the area were blocked by large trees. Of course, many of the roads on the coast were blocked, as well, so the authorities told everyone to stay put as much as possible.

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Our driveway was blocked when 2 trees went down.

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Unusual hail on deck.

We didn’t have much choice at our house. The big winds came early Friday morning, and knocked 2 trees down across our driveway. Somewhere in there, we got a bunch of hail that actually covered the ground.

The first week of 2008 has been a wild one. It started out with gorgeous weather, with wild turkeys and deer parading around everywhere in the sun. And then the bank of 3 storms came in, and it all changed.

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Wild turkeys in my driveway.

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Swirling waters off the Mendocino Headlands.

It sounds daunting if you’re not from around here, but people really pull together when we have a massive outage. Kudos go to Tom Yates and Vicky and Joe and all the gang at KOZT-FM, who broadcast throughout the storm. They pull together updates from PG&E and the County and Highway Patrol and the phone company, and give updates every half hour about the progress of the recovery. When you’re stuck in the dark, hearing friendly voices keeping you abreast of developments is a wonderful thing. Many restaurants and stores have generators, so you can stay warm and well-fed.

If you are up here when something like this happens, you have to go with the flow. On the plus side, the waves are magnificent after the storms. If you want to take your own postcard pictures, that’s the time. You have to stay away from the blufftops, of course, because of sleeper waves and winds. In between the storms, the weather this time of year can be surprisingly warm (mid-60s even), and you can check out the migrating whales.

Welcome to 2008!