August 2009 Archives

Julia Wood, 68, hates to see a patch of land go to waste, especially when so many people have fallen on hard times.

"The economy's getting so bad that people can't afford to buy fresh fruits and vegetables," she said.

With that in mind, Wood has taken over a strip of dirt sandwiched between industrial buildings and an asphalt parking lot behind the Ukiah Food Bank, where she volunteers several days a week.

Squash, tomatoes, onions, garlic, basil, peppers and lettuce now fill the strip, along with a few pre-existing fruit trees and grapes.

"It goes straight to the Food Bank, what doesn't go into my stomach first," said Wood, who was born in Arkansas and raised in Tulare County. She arrived in Ukiah in 1958.

Sometimes, people ask Kate Madlem why in the world she volunteers her time to work with inmates in jail.

She's involved in an innovative program called "Read Me A Story" that allows incarcerated parents to read children's books and send a recording of their reading to their kids.

Madlem gets tremendously positive feedback.

"We hear the child wants to listen to Daddy every night before they go to bed, or the child wants to play it over and over again to hear Mom. It's very clear how important that connection is for the child," she said. "It means a lot to the inmates too."

Now in its fifth year, Read Me A Story is part of Friends Outside in Sonoma County, a nonprofit agency that provides services to families affected by incarceration.

Business is good at the best little food pantry in Santa Rosa. Too good, really.

The phone rings constantly -- people needing free groceries must call before coming by the tightly run FISH cupboard on Benton Street. Recently it provided essential food to its millionth client.

Despite the rising demand for food, the pantry's hardy volunteers, most of them well into their retirement years, aren't having trouble keeping shelves stocked.

They receive regular donations of food from local grocery stores and from collection drives by postal carriers and others. What the FISH volunteers don't receive free they buy with money donated primarily by members of churches and service clubs.

After a life lived around the globe, Jim Wilkinson of Santa Rosa is now proving the theory that all politics is local.

The 71-year-old retired American diplomat has navigated heated negotiations between Turkey and Greece, once watched a grenade explode under his office window and endured three coups while living in Thailand.

But since moving to downtown Santa Rosa more than a decade ago, Wilkinson has focused on a decidedly more local agenda.

"I was looking for something different, a second career for someone who has no saleable skills, so I got interested in local politics," he said.

Wilkinson formed the Cherry Street Historic Preservation District Neighborhood Association when he was concerned that city plans would have allowed 10-story buildings on the borders of the historic neighborhood.

The preschoolers each received a small pair of binoculars and a magnifying glass, the better to spot colors in the bugs and birds and other bits of nature around them.

It was a Nature Tots class at the Lady Bug Park in Rohnert Park. The hourlong session got the seven 2- to 4-year-olds outside for stories, songs, a nature walk and crafts.

"At that age they're so fascinated with the outside world, they're curious about every leaf and flower and animal," said Cotati resident Stephanie Derammelaere, the program's founder.

The current session is about using different senses to notice nature. This particular class emphasized sight. Armed with their vision tools, they got a closer look at the outside world, including a treasure hunt of sorts looking for the colors of the rainbow in nature.