Darby Bread Box collections
The Darby Bread Box is collecting the following items for the months of April and May:
peanut butter, cereal, canned fruit. The items can be taken to the Bitterroot Credit Union and People’s Market in Darby. All donations are appreciated.
DCPL story time
Learning to read begins before children start school. Your public library promotes early literacy and social development with weekly programming for children. The Darby Community Public Library offers a weekly Children’s Story Time every Tuesday at 1 p.m. for all children under five years old with a caregiver. Come Talk, Sing, Read, Write, and Play at your library.
Evergreen Kids Corner registration
Evergreen Kids Corner announces that registration for Spring 2012 Pee Wee and Kindergarten Soccer is now open. Children ages 2.5 to Kindergarten are invited to register for this six week sports program, which will run April 14 to May 19 in Hamilton. Early registration is encouraged, as spaces are limited. Registration forms are available at Evergreen Kids Corner Preschool (201 S. 8th Street in Hamilton) or by visiting www.evergreenkidscorner.org. Save $5 if registration is received by EKC by March 29. Evergreen Kids Corner is a non-profit preschool. Pee Wee Soccer is coordinated as a community service and fundraiser. EKC does not discriminate against children of any race, color, national and ethnic origin. Call 961-0182 for more information.
Quilt show
Quilters are invited to participate in the Quilt Show sponsored by the Sapphire Quilt Club on July 13 and 14 at the Stevensville High School. The purpose of the club is philanthropy and education. Its “Sunshine Quilt” project is the club’s main project. Members create and give away quilts to people in the Bitterroot Valley who have a personal tragedy such as illness, accident, fire, etc. This is a big year for the town of Stevensville. The theme of the July show is “Bringing Country Home.” Stevensville will celebrate the following milestones this year: 100 years of 4H; 100 years of the Creamery Picnic; the 200th birthday of Father Ravalli; 170 years of celebrating Founder’s Day (September 23rd). This year, the above categories have been added to the quilt show. Quilters will want to get started early if they want to enter a quilt in one (or more) of these categories (total number of categories available is 29). Details for entering a quilt can be found at the club’s website: www.sapphirequilters.org. You can also contact Mary Baughn, Quilt Show Chairperson, at 207-0334 or by email: skyvalley96@wmconnect.com.
Wednesday, April 11
BPL preschool story time
Preschoolers are invited to meet in the children’s corner of the Bitterroot Public Library on Wednesday, April 11 to enjoy “Things that Wiggle!” with storyteller Lisa DeMoss. Story time begins at 10:30 a.m. and is designed for children 3-5 years of age. All story times are free and open to the public. Call 363-1670 for more info.
NARFE meeting
The National Active and Retired Federal Employees (NARFE) will hold its monthly no host luncheon meeting on Wednesday, April 11 at 11:30 a.m. in the north conference room of Perkins Restaurant, 1285 N. 1st, Hamilton. The speaker will be Jill Davies who will discuss Sustainable Living Systems. There will be a business meeting following. All members, guests and those interested in joining are cordially invited. Contact Warren at 546-6706 for more information.
Thursday, April 12
Women Newcomers’ Club
The Bitterroot Women Newcomers’ Club will meet on Thursday, April 12 at 10:30 a.m. at the First Christian Church on Fairgrounds Road in Hamilton. Kathy Miller, Mammographer/Licensed BSE Coordinator at Marcus Daly Hospital, will discuss breast cancer and how to perform self-examinations. Members and guests are encouraged to bring non-perishable foods for Haven House to the meeting. For additional information contact bitterrootnewcomes@yahoo.com.
Welcome Baby meeting
Welcome Baby meeting will be Thursday, April 12 from 10 a.m. to noon at the North Valley Family Center, 5501 Hwy 93, suite 3 of Florence Business Center in Florence. The topic is “Balancing Your Life.” With the new baby here, or on the way, how are you going to have time for yourself? For parents, the tendency is to put 99% of available energy into family, friends, and work. This leaves little room for attending to personal needs and recharging. Lets get together and have a conversation about what we love to do, and how we can create balance in our busy lives! Welcome Baby is for new and expecting parents. Come bring your baby and meet other new or expecting parents in the North Valley. Welcome Baby meets on the second Thursday of each month from 10 a.m. to noon. Call 273-0142 for more information.
Green Thumbs Up to Meet
The Green Thumbs Up garden club will meet Thursday, April 12 at 2 p.m. in the Community Meeting Room, downstairs in the Bitterroot Public Library, Hamilton. David Schmetterling, garden coach and co-owner of Butterfly Properties with his wife, Marilyn, will discuss how to use native plants to reduce water use, attract birds, butterflies and other insects to your home garden/yard. Check out his blogspot at http://montanawildlifegardener.blogspot.com. (A follow-up field trip to visit the gardens surrounding his yard in Missoula is scheduled for July.) The meeting is free and open to the public. For further information, telephone Susan Duff, 961-5455.
Tea Party Patriots
Ravalli County Tea Party Patriots will meet Thursday, April 12 at 6:30 p.m. at the Willow Court Apartments, 150 Skeels Ave, Hamilton (from Hwy 93 turn east on Foxfield by Tire-Rama, dead ends at Skeels, turn right, apts on left, park across the street). Republican candidates for state House District 87, Pat Connell, Scott Boulanger and Jeff Burrows, will present their views and answer questions. Come and get to know the candidates for this important legislative seat. All are welcome. For more information contact Jennine Jones, 381-0314, donandjennine@gmail.com.
Stevensville All School Reunion Meeting
Next meeting for the All School Reunion is Thursday, April 12 at 6:30 p.m. at the Senior Center behind Cenex located at 100 Mission, Stevensville. Anyone interested in helping out with this in conjunction with the 100th Creamery Picnic should plan to attend.
SPWBCH meeting
Selway-Pintler Wilderness Backcountry Horsemen & Women is a group of hard-working volunteers dedicated to preserving backcountry trails. Join them to share the effort, fun, and love for the wilderness. The next general meeting will be on Thursday, April 12 at 6:30 p.m. in the USFS conference room, 1801 N. 1st St., Hamilton. The group will be planning its summer trail work and Youth Day. For any questions, call Linda, at 961-1435.
Art Club
Join the North Valley’s Art Club on Thursday, April 12 at 6 p.m. for studio drawing. The club meets every other Thursday from 6 to 8 p.m. at the North Valley Family Center, 5501 Hwy 93 N, Suite 3 of Florence Business Center, and is open to anyone interested in art/drawing, from beginning to experienced, and everyone in between. Bring your own materials. Call for more information 273-0142.
Irrigators’ meeting
Irrigators and pond owners are invited to attend a meeting to learn about treatment options, regulations and permits needed for treating ditches and ponds for aquatic weeds and algae. The meeting will be held at the Corvallis Grange on Thursday, April 12 beginning at 7 p.m. The Grange Hall is located about 1/8 mile west of Highway 93 on Dutch Hill Road.
Friday, April 13
Mature drivers class
An AARP Driver Safety Class will be presented at Marcus Daly Hospital in Hamilton on Friday, April 13. The class begins at 9 a.m. and will last approximately four hours. This safe driving strategies class is designed for drivers age 50 and over but all drivers are welcome. The class fee is $12 for AARP members and $14 for non-members. Attendees are requested to bring a check made out to “AARP” for class fees. Pre-registration is requested. Contact Jones Korman Insurance at 363-6583 for further information. There is no written test. Montana mandates an insurance discount for qualified graduates.
Toddler Time
Ready!Set!Play! Toddler Time will be held Friday, April 13 from 10:30 a.m. to 12 noon at the North Valley Family Center, 5501 Hwy 93, suite 3 in the Florence Business Center. Come enjoy story time and arts and crafts with your toddler. Learn tips that help promote language and literacy development in your toddler. This month’s theme is “Feelings and Manners.” Snack is provided. Call 406-273-0142 for more information.
SHS drama production
The Stevensville High School Drama Department will present “The Actor’s Nightmare” and “Business Lunch in the Russian Tea Room” by Christopher Durang plus student improvisation pieces on April 13, 14 and 21 at the Stevensville Playhouse. Tickets are $4.00. Doors open at 7:30 p.m. with the show at 8 p.m.
RML ebola lecture
Guido van der Groen, Ph.D., who in 1976 was one of the first scientists to isolate and identify Ebola virus, will discuss his pioneering work on Friday, April 13, at 7 p.m. in the Hamilton High School Performing Arts Center, 327 Fairgrounds Road. The talk, titled, “How a Virus Hunter became an Ebola Freak,” is free and open to the public. Rocky Mountain Laboratories (RML) is sponsoring the talk as part of its community outreach series.
In the summer of 1976, Dr. van der Groen was a 33-year-old biochemist and research assistant at the Institute of Tropical Medicine (ITM) in Belgium. Reports of an unknown infectious disease led him and a team of scientists to the central African nation of Zaire, now named the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Near the village of Yambuku along the Ebola River, people were dying from a disease that destroyed their internal organs.
No one knew the cause of the disease, how it spread, or how to stop it. But Dr. van der Groen and the ITM team—along with Karl Johnson, M.D., and his colleagues from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)—spent months independently working among villagers and eventually identified a new virus, Ebola, named after the river.
“After three months expedition in Zaire trying to control the epidemic as well as to find out where Ebola hides in nature, my interest in this fascinating virus started,” Dr. van der Groen wrote in a summary of his life experiences. He also gained an appreciation for people who survive with minimal resources. “Working three months under very primitive field conditions … encouraged me to do the maximum with the minimum of tools available. This trip made me aware of the tremendous public health problems in the developing countries.”
By the fall of 1976, scientists in Zaire had documented 318 cases of Ebola hemorrhagic fever; 280 of them had died—an 88 percent fatality rate. That same year in neighboring Sudan, another 284 people suffered from a different strain of the virus; 151 of them (53 percent) died.
“Guido was a leading figure in the field of emerging infectious diseases when I was starting a career; he was a role model,” said Heinz Feldmann, M.D., Ph.D., who oversees hemorrhagic fever research at RML as chief scientist of the Integrated Research Facility. Though Dr. van der Groen retired in 2003, he and Dr. Feldmann have maintained contact, primarily through conferences, where Dr. van der Groen remains a desired speaker because of his extensive field expertise.
“He still has an extreme interest in science and always introduces fresh ideas to push the field further along,” Dr. Feldmann said.
From 1976 to 1984, Dr. van der Groen focused his research on Ebola virus, making additional excursions to Africa in 1979 (Zaire) and 1981 (Cameroon) in search of the source of the virus. He was a World Health Organization consultant in 20 different countries. Dr. van der Groen also helped establish some of the earliest maximum-containment laboratories in the world, working at ITM in Antwerp, Belgium; in Moscow; outside Washington, D.C.; and at times alongside Dr. Johnson at the CDC in Atlanta. RML brought Dr. Johnson to Hamilton in 2007 to discuss his research career working with exotic diseases in maximum-containment laboratories.
Saturday, April 14
Flea market
A flea market will be held Saturday, April 14 from 8 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. at the Hamilton Senior Center, 820 N. 4th. Food will be available. Rent a table for $5 by calling Katie at 363-2316 or 363-5181.
Youth development training
“Building Assets in Youth” will be presented on Saturday, April 14 from 9 to 11 a.m. at the Florence-Carlton School new gym. Are you interested in helping the youth of Florence succeed? If so, attend this free two-hour training presented by Gloria Howell. Identified by the Search Institute, assets are positive building blocks for the healthy development of all youth. Ms. Howell has provided this training to teachers, college students, church leadership and ministry workers, and teen mothers. During this very interactive training class you will: learn to recognize and understand the assets; experience the power of assets to protect and promote; learn to intentionally build assets in all youth. Building assets in youth requires a paradigm shift in how we think about our relationship with young people. For more information call 273-0142.
Victor Community Garden workday
Victor Community Garden/Edible Schoolyard will hold a Tour and Workday on Saturday, April 14 at 10 a.m. The garden is on 5th Avenue just west of Chief Victor Camp Road. There is an acre of hay pasture that was tilled last year with a deer-proof fence. Volunteers will lay out and mark the 20’x20′ plots and scoop out the paths. Plot reservations for this year’s growing season are now being taken – $20 for a 20’x20′ plot. Watering will be provided and there will be tools on site. Compost and mulch will also be provided. The garden also has a native plant/pollinator garden in the center. Come for a tour. Call Jill at 642-3601.
Pet health fair
Come on out to the Pet Health Fair on Saturday, April 14th from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. in Murdoch’s Parking Lot, Highway 93, south of Hamilton. The Pet Health Fair will feature information from local pet care professionals Jeannie Fullerton of 21st Century Homeopathy, LayzD Equine Services providing Natural Hoof Care, and others, as well as natural pet care product information. There will be free kids activities including Parsons Pony Rides, a Bounce House, petting area and hot dogs. Donations are accepted and encouraged. The fair is a fundraiser for Wings LLC, Equine Assisted Programs, a pending 501(c)(3) non profit program providing therapy and learning programs for local youth, veterans, hospice programs and services for other organizations. Call 363-3346 or WingsPrograms@live.com for additional info.
Family Fun Day
Family Fun Day will be held Saturday, April 14 from noon to 3 p.m. at the North Valley Family Center, 5501 Hwy 93, suite 3 of the Florence Business Center. Escape from the house and bring your kids for activities and fun for the whole family! Make your own root beer, and cap some already made root beer to take home. Come bring your smiling faces and put the caps on your root beer to celebrate CAP – child abuse prevention month. Lunch will be served. All ages are welcome. Call 273-0142 for more information.
Water Forum activities
This April, in celebration of “Water Month,” the Bitter Root Water Forum (BRWF) is hosting several educational events throughout the Valley and hosting an art contest for Bitterroot Valley youth.
Whether it is for fishing, drinking, or irrigating, water plays a vital role in our lives. April is a great time to learn more about the water resources that make life in the Bitterroot not only possible, but special. Join BRWF staff and speakers to learn more about our water resources and take part in volunteer workdays to help protect and restore our watershed.
Saturday, April 14 – “Aquatic Invaders” – Find out about the spread of aquatic invasives from the Ravalli County Weed District, 10 a.m. to 12 noon at the Lee Metcalf Wildlife Refuge.
Tuesday, April 17 – “Fish and Fires” Fisheries biologists, Mike Jakober, will discuss the 2000 fire’s impact on fish in the East Fork. 6 p.m., Sula Clubhouse (Annual Meeting)
Sunday, April 22 –“Earth Day Revegetation Project.” As part of an ongoing restoration effort in the headwaters, BRWF will implement a revegetation project along the East Fork near Sula. With the help of volunteers, BRWF will plant nearly 100 native plants to help create a healthy riparian buffer between Hwy 93 and the East Fork of the Bitterroot River. Visit www.brwaterforum.org for more details.
Tuesday, April 24 – “Groundwater Investigation of the Bitterroot River Valley.” Ginette Abdo from the Bureau of Mines and Geology will present on the process and findings of the ongoing groundwater and surface water investigation in the Valley, 6:30 p.m., Bitterroot National Forest Building, 1801 N. First St. Hamilton.
BRWF is also hosting the 2012 “Clean Water is Life!” art contest. Local youth are encouraged to submit art inspired by clean water. Winners will be selected weekly from different age groups and will have their work displayed in the Ravalli Republic newspaper and at Liaison’s Café (111 N. 2nd Street, Hamilton.) All Ravalli County students from Kindergarten to 12th grade can participate. Contact Bitter Root Water Forum at 375-2272 for more information.
BRWF is a community driven non-profit organization dedicated to supporting the traditions of agriculture, community and recreation by protecting, enhancing and restoring the Bitterroot watershed through on the ground projects and watershed education.
Contra dance
A contra dance and special presentation on Western Square Dance will be held Saturday, April 14 at 6 p.m. at the Rocky Mountain Grange, 1436 S. 1st Street (south of Hamilton on Hwy 93, east side). A potluck will be held at 5:30 p.m. with the presentation at 6 p.m. and contra dancing with the Celtic Knots at 7 p.m. (practice session for new dancers begins at 6:30 p.m.). The presentation, “Promenading toward Democracy: The story of the Western Square Dance,” will be given by Mark Matthews and is sponsored by Humanities Montana Speakers Bureau. Cost is $5 per person and $10 per family. All dances are taught, no experience is necessary, and singles are welcome. The venue is fragrance-free. For more information call 642-3601.
Sunday, April 15
Vegetarian Society
Western Montana Vegetarian Society will have a vegan Tex-Mex potluck for the public on Sunday, April 15 at 5 p.m. at 102 McLeod Ave, corner of Higgins Ave in Missoula. Bring a plant-based entree and join in. This is the official veg society for Missoula, Ravalli County, and surrounding areas. Enjoy the wonderful tastes of plant-based foods with good people and conversation. For more information contact Sue at: NewDawnMT@gmail.com.
Monday, April 16
Stevi school menu
April 16-20
Monday: Breakfast – Cereal or yogurt, toast, fruit, milk; Lunch – Quesadillas, green beans, mixed fruit, bread & butter, milk
Tuesday: Breakfast – Egg & cheese wrap, fruit, toast, milk; Lunch – Chicken fajita, lettuce, salsa, oranges, bread & butter, milk
Wednesday: Breakfast – Cereal bar, fruit, toast, milk; Lunch – Tuna salad, sandwich, fresh veggies, apricots, bread & butter, milk
Thursday: Breakfast – Waffles, fruit, toast, milk; Lunch – Hamburgers, taters, bananas, bread & butter, milk
Friday: Breakfast – Cereal or yogurt, toast, fruit, milk; Lunch – BBQ pork ribs, stir-fry veggies, rice, pineapple, bread & butter, milk.
Hamilton spring clean-up
The City of Hamilton will hold spring clean up days April 16-18 between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Curb pickups within the city limits will take place on Monday, April 16 in the area northwest of Main to Highway 93; Tuesday, April 17 in the area southwest of Main to Highway 93; and on Wednesday, April 18 in the area east of Highway 93. Town crews will pick up organic yard material including bagged leaves and small branches bundled and tied (not to exceed 4 feet in length or 4 inches in diameter). No rocks, dirt or
Red tags will be placed on items that are not in compliance with the above requirements. Red tagged items must be sorted so that unacceptable materials are removed. Once this is complete, contact the Public Works Department at 363-6717 to come back for pick up.
Wednesday, April 18
BPL preschool story time
Preschoolers are invited to meet in the children’s corner of the Bitterroot Public Library on Wednesday, April 18 to enjoy “All the Pretty Horses!” with storyteller Diane Ackermann. Story time begins at 10:30 a.m. and is designed for children 3-5 years of age. All story times are free and open to the public.
Baby Sign Language Class
Would you like to jumpstart your baby’s language development? Enhance your child’s self-esteem? Stimulate your baby’s intellectual development? Strengthen your parent-infant bond or reduce your child’s communication frustrations?
Marcus Daly Rehabilitation Services offers a six week Baby Sign Language Class in the spring and fall for children 6 months to three years of age and their parents and siblings.
Spring class begins April 18. The class will meet every Wednesday for 6 weeks from 6 to 6:45 p.m. in the Marcus Daly Rehabilitation Service’s pediatric gym. The gym is located inside the new Marcus Daly Rehabilitation Center at the west end of 1200 Westwood Drive, Hamilton. Amy Yockey, MS, CCC/SLP, an accomplished, licensed Speech Therapist at Marcus Daly Memorial Hospital, will be teaching this class. If you have a child in your life 6 months to 3 years of age, call Marcus Daly Rehabilitation Services at 375-4570 to reserve your spot. The fee is $25 and space is limited.