15th Annual Pounding Breaks Previous Donation Totals
An unintended event broke its 2014 total Saturday when Cindy Wobbe teamed up with KCST for a pounding at Grocery Outlet. Wobbe had retired last year and hadn’t planned an event for 2015. An anonymous donor changed all that and Wobbe and Coast Radio teamed up once again, with Saturday’s Pounding raising 8,989 pounds of non-perishable food items for the Florence Food Share according to Norma Barton…
“We did just over 8,000 pounds last year, so we broke our record from last year. So that’s just awesome. But the best part about the whole thing is that it is going to be matched with cash by an anonymous donor, we just don’t know how much yet.”
How long will Saturday’s donations last? According to the Food Share Executive Director…
“We received almost 9,000 pounds and we distribute approximately 2,500 pounds a day. So this will last us a little bit more than three days.”
Barton says the Food Share is stocked up on canned vegetables, but are always in need of canned fruits, staples like flour and sugar, carbohydrates including rice and potato side dishes, mac and cheese, and of course proteins. Donations can be made at the Food Share itself or in any of the donation boxes located in local stores.
Shore Acres Lights –
A community tradition in Coos County that began in 28 years ago is gearing up once again. In 1987 the Friends of Shore Acres State Park, west of Coos Bay, strung up “a few lights” to help celebrate the holidays. In that first year, about 9-thousand visitors came to see six-thousand lights, one large Christmas Tree and the decorated garden house at the ocean-side botanical garden.
Last year there were 325-thousand lights, 30-decorated trees, dozens of lighted sculptures, a performance pavilion and… more than 45-thousand visitors between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Eve.
The volunteers begin as early as September preparing the decorations and are putting the finishing touches on the display this week.
There is a $5-State Parks Access Fee for the parking lot, but other than that, it’s free.
To get there, take the Cape Arago Highway from North Bend and Coos Bay through Charleston and continue to the Park. Be sure to dress for the weather…
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Siuslaw Watershed Council
The Siuslaw Watershed Council is hosting the final general meeting of 2015 next week at the Mapleton Grange. There will be a festive air to the meeting, December 2nd at 6:30, with an end-of-year potluck, “Spirit of Siuslaw” Awards and a slide show featuring some of the photographic highlights of the year.
Elections for the Council’s 2016 leadership team will also be held.
The Siuslaw Watershed Council encourages cooperation between public and private entites to promote understanding and awareness of watershed functions.
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ELF opens
The non-profit Early Learning Florence child care center opened last week. ELF organizer Rob Spooner said the organization received all of its certifications Wednesday of last week. They began caring for children under three years of age the next day. ELF is located on Highway 101 next to the Verizon Store at 27th Street. Spooner sought to establish the non-profit group after the closure of two other facilities that cared for very young children earlier this year.
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