LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Are you a girl, age 14 to 17, who enjoys volunteering in your school or community?

Do you work to make your world a better place? Do you look on  the bright side of life and strive to make that true in other’s lives?

If so Soroptimist International of Clear Lake is offering you an opportunity to apply for the Violet Richardson Award.

This is a $500 cash award that honors teenage girls between the ages of 14 and 17 for volunteer action and leadership.

Volunteer activities can include such categories as fighting drugs, crime and violence, environmental issues and/or working to end discrimination and poverty.

Actions that benefit women and girls are of particular interest.
 
This award begins at the local level and Soroptimist International Clearlake will present a $500 award to the winner at a luncheon next March in Lake County.

The Soroptimist International Clearlake winners are eligible for one of 28 $1,000 awards. In addition, $1,000 will be contributed in honor of these winners to their volunteer organization.

One finalist will be chosen from the 28 winners to vie for an additional award including a contribution of $2,500 to the finalist’s volunteer organization.

For information about the Violet Richardson Award applications, please contact Fawn Williams at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

The final deadline for  applications is Dec. 1.

The award program is named after Violet Richardson who was the first president of Soroptimist International of Oakland, founded in 1921. Richardson believed in personal responsibility and the motto, “It’s what you do that counts.”

Soroptimist established this award to honor her memory and her dedication to volunteer action.
 
Soroptimist International of Clear Lake was founded in 1964 and is part of the Soroptimist International of the Americas. Its mission is to improve the life of women and girls in local communities and the world.

Clear Lake members join with almost 95,000 Soroptimists in approximately 120 countries and territories worldwide to contribute time and  financial support to community based projects benefiting women and  girls.

The group meets the second and fourth Thursdays at noon for lunch at Howard’s Grotto and women who are interested in learning more about the organization are encouraged to contact President Wanda Harris at 707-987-9027 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The Clearlake Trowel and Trellis Garden Club will be offering a morning of fun and learning on the the second or third Saturday of each month at different members’ homes.

Members, their guests or potential members interested in taking part in fun garden-associated projects are welcome.

The first Kitchen Garden Saturday was held recently at CLT&TGC President Leanne Harvey’s home where attendees learned to make an incredible summer table centerpiece, a two and one-half tall ukulele- playing monkey out of garden fruits and vegetables.  

Harvey also showed the process of collecting local wild “Redbud” tree seeds and planting them to naturalize elsewhere.  

The members also tasted home grown tomatillos and were interested in the new flavor that could enhance many dishes.

Future Kitchen Garden Club Saturdays will offer fun and instruction in everything from raw food cooking, to making health and beauty products from plants found in your yard and garden.

The CLT&TGC welcomes new members; more information about the club is available at www.CLTTGC.org .

The club meets at noon on the third Tuesday of the Month (except July and August) at the Scotts Valley Women’s Clubhouse, 2298 Hendricks Road, Lakeport.

CLTTGC is a member of the Mendo-Lake District, California Garden Club Inc., Pacific Region and National Garden Clubs Inc.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The Acme Foundation recently celebrated its 4th Anniversary Celebration of Caring, which took place on Sept. 16 at Rob Roy Golf Club on Cobb Mountain.

The delicious champagne lunch was prepared and served by Rob Roy staff. The event was organized and coordinated with the help of Rob Roy’s Sue McDonald.

Thanks are extended to John Zimmerman for providing his wide array of wonderful music. Founders Pat and Jon Meyer and Paul Woycheshin from San Leandro all took part to emcee the event. Woycheshin also was the event photographer.

Volunteers included Lilo Hansen, Paula Werner, “head cashier” Jan Woycheshin and from Clearlake Veterinary Clinic were Yvonne Scott, Kristin Westcott and Alanna Bobbitt.

The “Acme Store” offered attendees items from all over the United States including pet items, home décor items, art, gift baskets, wine and numerous gift certificates. Thanks go to Ann Aldridge from Berkeley who was responsible for obtaining most of the donated items.

A raffle was held for many fun items and a special raffle for 4 tickets to Disneyland was held at the end of the event.

The successful event raised funds to help continue providing grants to Lake County’s low income seniors and the disabled to help with the expenses incurred for the treatment of their seriously ill cats and dogs.

The Acme Foundation is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization and 100 percent of all net proceeds are given to qualifying grant applicants. The foundation’s Website is at www.AcmeFoundation.org .

HIDDEN VALLEY LAKE, Calif. – All are welcome to Stone House Historical Society’s presentation of the history of Rabbit Hill Nature Sanctuary on Tuesday, Oct. 2.

The presentation will begin  at 10 a.m. at 18174 Hidden Valley Road in Hidden Valley Lake.

Speakers include Middletown resident Dee Groves, niece of Hugo “Huck” Hamann who, with his wife Juanita “Skee” Hamann, lived on Rabbit Hill in Middletown until their deaths in 1975 and 1983 respectively.  

Their property, a 10-acre serpentine outcropping at 21281 Steward St. in Middletown, was developed as a nature preserve by the Hamanns and left to the Madrone Audubon Society in Napa. In 1999, it was deeded to Lake County Land Trust.

Susanne La Faver of Hidden Valley Lake transcribed Rabbit Hill’s oral history for the land trust and will speak of the endearing relationship the Hamanns had with Middletown children.

Botany, classical music, Scrabble, hiking and skiing are just some of the activities children enjoyed with the Hamanns.

In his lapidary on Rabbit Hill, Huck Hamann made gem stone rings for incoming kindergartens at the local school.

Also, Anderson Marsh Interpretive Association President Roberta Lyons, Lower Lake, and Board Member Anna McAtee, Hidden Valley Lake, will report on efforts to keep Anderson Marsh State Historical Park in Lower Lake open and available to Lake County residents.

Docent tours of Stone House Museum are the second Saturday of each month. October’s tours are Oct. 13 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Visitors enter via Hartmann Road gate.

The Stone House Historical Society meets the first Tuesday of each month at 10 a.m. in the activities center next to Hidden Valley Lake Association offices.

All are welcome. Refreshments are served.

Dues for membership are $5 per person. See www.lakecountystonehouse.com .

UPPER LAKE, Calif. – One hundred and 50 years ago this month, Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which altered the course of the Civil War and changed America forever.

The Redwood Empire Civil War Roundtable will be discussing this momentous document at their next gathering on Tuesday, Oct. 2, beginning at 6:15 p.m. at the historic Tallman Hotel in Upper Lake.

The Emancipation Proclamation was somewhat of an enigma and a paradox. Common understanding is that it freed the slaves.

“In reality, it freed very few, as it declared as free only those slaves that were in Confederate control and beyond the power of Lincoln to free them,” Roundtable Co-founder Phil Smoley said.

“It maintained slavery in areas under United States control,” he said. “In fact, the Emancipation Proclamation maintained slavery in the states of Maryland, Delaware, Kentucky, Missouri, Tennessee and much of Louisiana and Virginia. Freedom did not come to the slaves in those areas until months after the war was over and Lincoln had died. Thus, the Emancipation Proclamation had the strange effect of attempting to free the slaves where it couldn’t, while maintaining slavery in the United States where it could free them.”

In addition, at the time Lincoln issued the proclamation, it did not take effect until Jan. 1, 1863. Lincoln’s goal was to give the southern states 100 days to return to the Union, and if they did, they could keep their slaves. This element further clouded the motives and priorities behind the proclamation, according to Smoley.

At the time, the Emancipation Proclamation was highly controversial, even in the North. Since Lincoln bypassed Congress, there were questions of whether he had the Constitutional power to make such a proclamation in the first place.

“But it had a powerful effect internationally, and it changed the war’s focus from solely a war of conquest and forced reunion to adding the element of emancipation, which undoubtedly ended slavery in America years earlier than would have occurred without the war,” Smoley added.

Tallman Hotel proprietor and avid historian Bernie Butcher will lead the discussion and analyze the events leading to the proclamation and its impact on the war and the people it affected.

There also will be a review led by local historian Zane Jensen of other events of October 1862, including the Battle of Perryville, the biggest and bloodiest battle to occur in Kentucky.

The meeting is free and open to anyone attending.

For more information, contact either Phil Smoley, 707-264-4905, or Zane Jensen, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

NICE, Calif. – The Sons of Italy host a spaghetti feed on the first Sunday of every month.

The next spaghetti feed will be from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 7, at the Sons Of Italy hall, located at 2817 Highway 20 in Nice.

The menu consists of spaghetti, salad, sausage, meatballs, garlic bread, dessert and coffee.

The bar is open for those who wish to purchase a beverage.

Everyone is welcome to come sing and dance with Roland and his karaoke machine for a fun afternoon.