Hospice volunteers seek plant donations to nurture spring sale at greenhouse
Published Tuesday, May 13, 2008
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Stumble It!With daylight hours undergoing the annual spring stretch, local gardeners are getting plant happy.
One of the most popular annual sales is that organized by Hospice of the Tanana Valley, which uses the money to assist with the services it provides for those in the final stage of life.
Volunteers are working at the hospice greenhouse Monday through Friday from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. daily, and they need donations to boost the plant sale. The sale is set for May 24 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
This week they would love to inundated with seedlings, houseplants, gardening supplies, tools, or anything else that would be of benefit to the sale.
Volunteers are available to come to your home to collect plant donations. To have a volunteer come to your home or for more information, call the hospice office at 474-0311.
Since some perennials are showing signs of life already, donors can call the office to schedule a volunteer to come to their home to dig or thin plants to be donated.
The hospice greenhouse is at 20th Avenue and Turner Street. Access is possible from either 17th Avenue or 23rd Avenue, both of which connect to South Cushman Street.
The sale on May 24 is also at the greenhouse.
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BOTANICAL GARDEN: The Georgeson Botanical Garden holds its spring plant sale Saturday at UAF from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
There will be annual bedding plants, hardy perennials, trees and shrubs, as well as house plants.
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GREENUP: The average greenup date in Fairbanks over the past three decades is May 10, which makes this year just about average.
The late Jim Anderson, who used to keep track of this seasonal change by looking out at Chena Ridge from his office on the West Ridge, would probably have agreed that the widespread green tint began to appear on the hillside Sunday.
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ENERGY FAIR: Anyone who wants help dealing with the rising cost of energy should make plans to head for Nenana on the last day of the month.
On May 31, Nenana is hosting an Oil Conservation and Energy Fair from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. in the Nenana Civic Center.
So far, more than 13 businesses and other organizations, including the Cooperative Extension Service and other nonprofit groups, plan to offer information about what people can do now to lower their fuel and electric bills.
Nenana resident Pamela Samash is organizing this fair because some people are in trouble and facing choices they shouldn’t have to make, such as whether to buy oil or food.
She also said that businesses are getting hit as well and small fuel oil companies are being squeezed, along with restaurants and other enterprises that use a lot of energy.
Samash said she is trying to line up as many experts as possible from the Interior to help spread knowledge about how to get the most out of every gallon or kilowatt/hour.
“With the high costs of fuel and electricity, many people are financially struggling just to make ends meet,” she said. “The winters are especially difficult if people are heating their homes exclusively with diesel.”
She said the fair is open to everyone, no matter where they live, and that the goal is to offer constructive suggestions and prepare for next winter.
For more information about the fair, call her before 9 p.m. at 832-2013.
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FUEL FORECAST: One of the big questions for the tourism industry in Alaska is just what kind of hit will be created by the national economic slowdown and the rising price of fuel. Highway travelers would appear to be the most likely to put off traveling to the 49th state and stay closer to home.
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NEARING THE END: Fred Knutson, the walker carpenter, hopes to complete his pedestrian journey to Anchorage on Wednesday.
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VISITING: Bob Nelson visited Fairbanks over the weekend, marking only the second time he’s been back since he finished high school with a class of six at Monroe High School 50 years ago.
He was back in town to say a few words to the 50th graduating class. Nelson said he looks back on his life now and sees that in high school he was already interested in the things that would attract his attention later in life.
He works as an electrical engineer in Austin, Texas, but his avocation is that of a bass singer in operatic productions. He was in the chorus in high school.
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LITTERED: A volunteer who cleaned up Ester Dome road said he picked up about 40 wrappers from energy packets, which may have been tossed by runners and bicyclists. He suggests this is a practice that should stop, and I agree with him.
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BIKE SAFETY: There are more people than ever riding bikes this spring. Both motorists and bicyclists have a part to play in trying to keep anyone from getting killed.
Community Discussion
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"Both motorists and bicyclists have a part to play in trying to keep anyone from getting killed."
I would add that makers of public policy at the national, state, and local levels have a part to play, too:
* They could tax gasoline fairly so that users pay at the pump for petroleum pollution cleanup, emergency response to car accidents, highway construction and improvement, the graveling of icy streets, the time of police and troopers doing traffic duty, and productivity lost due to high-pollution days. Many European countries are paying in excess of $8 per gallon. Higher gasoline taxes to support just causes would not be unfair, but they would rein in driving.
* The state Department of Transportation might focus on an infrastructure of short-distance rail, which can benefit all equally, rather than roads, which only subsidize private automobile driving.
* Public agencies at all levels could invest in transit that is frequent, reliable, inexpensive, and late-running, so that fewer people would need to drive and fewer cars will be on the streets and roads.
* The Borough Assembly could pursue mixed-use planning, so that more people could walk or bike to meet their day-to-day needs.
* The Assembly could encourage denser settlement, by declaring a moratorium on residential, non-agricultural building outside the city until all vacant lots (not parks) have been in-filled, so that people would not have as far to travel and would not be in such a hurry.
* The state DOT and the City of Fairbanks could embrace the "skinny streets" design idea, which causes drivers to pay more attention and slow down.
* The Borough might get to work on a network of pedestrian/bike paths around the city and borough -- paths that are significantly removed from auto traffic.
I don't disagree with you, Dermot, that bikers and drivers have a part to play in safety, but I would hate for the whole analysis to boil down to personal responsibility. Public policy shapes the choices we're given and affects the choices we make.
Readers (or Mr. Cole) may wonder why I'm making so much of his short, throw-away remark. It's exactly because it was a throw-away that I felt it deserved comment.
Its underlying assumption, because it mentioned only motorists and bicyclists, seemed to be that responsibility lies solely with those who are in the traffic. My point is not that bikers and drivers are somehow responsibility-free; that's just silly. Neither am I actually endorsing the full slate of suggestions I made; there are some I don't know enough about. All I am saying is that it's a danger to reduce this problem to one of personal responsibility, since public policy routinely influences our behavior by limiting the options we have.
Paul:
Good points, as usual. My comment was directed at what is most important in the here and now. Those who drive cars and ride bikes have to be alert to the threat at this moment.
The broader issues you mention are worth examination and have long been ignored.
Dermot
You're quite right; of course the in-the-moment threat has to be addressed. I can sometimes leap too quickly to long-term solutions and ignore what must be done right now. One of my many faults.
In no way did I mean to imply that you'd done some shoddy analysis, since your recommendation wasn't meant to BE analysis. I certainly apologize if it came across that way.
--Paul
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