Diane Henderson, third from left, speaks to the inaugural AgVenture class on Friday, Aug. 13, 2010. Photo by Paula Bryant.

LAKE COUNTY – Twelve community leaders from a wide range of leadership positions in Lake County have been selected to participate in a new public program.

AgVenture, an innovative concept in agricultural education designed for non-farming community leaders who wish to understand more fully the workings of the local agricultural industry, has been launched by the Lake County Chapter of California Women for Agriculture.

Members of the first class include Jackie Armstrong, Health Leadership Network; Scott DeLeon, director of the Lake County Water Resources department; Terry Dereniuk, owner of Cat’s Paw Vineyard, Kelseyville; Anthony Farrington, Lake County Supervisor; Ted Herrera, president of the LAVA Center, Nice; and Wally Holbrook, Lake County Superintendent of Schools-elect.

Also taking part are Cathy Koehler, executive director of the Lake County Land Trust and co-director of the UC Davis McLaughlin Reserve; Elizabeth Larson, editor and publisher of Lake County News; Fiona Ma, California assemblywoman, representing the 12th district (San Francisco); Ray Ruminski, director of the Lake County Environmental Health department; Debra Sommerfield, deputy county administrator for marketing and economic development; and Ruth Valenzuela, field representative for Assemblyman Wes Chesbro in Lake and Mendocino counties.

Modeled after long-standing and successful programs in Santa Cruz and Monterey counties, the AgVenture program in its initial year will consist of once-a-month, day-long seminars held over a period of three months. Each day’s session will focus on a different major commercial crop grown in Lake County and feature speakers and site visits.

The sessions will cover such topics as economics, labor, history, marketing, water and land use, ag tourism and sustainability. Class members will gain a broad knowledge about agriculture and farming in general, and more specifically about the heritage, culture, economy and business of local agriculture.

Community leaders were invited to participate and the members of the first class were selected based on their interest in the program and being in a professional position to help maintain a viable agricultural industry in Lake County.

The first in the series of seminars, held Aug. 13, focused on the pear industry in Lake County, with orchard and packing house tours. Speakers included Lake County Supervisor Rob Brown, who gave an overview of agriculture and its importance to the Lake County economy, with a discussion of pears, winegrapes and walnuts and other commercial crops.

Rep. Mike Thompson discussed invasive pest legislation, international trade issues, food safety and immigration. Rachel Elkins, UC Cooperative Extension farm advisor, covered cultural practices, the abandoned tree ordinance and water issues. Jim Bengard of Bengard Marketing informed the class about the marketing of pears, how the grower and packer derive their income, and working with foreign markets.

Diane Henderson of Henderson Orchards, Kelseyville, provided a tour and discuss cultural practices, integrated pest management and sustainability, regulatory compliance and the challenges faced by pear growers.

Toni Scully of Scully Packing, Finley, talked about issues faced within the pear industry and provide an escorted tour of a packing house in full operation.

The second session will focus on water and watershed issues and the winegrape industry, while presentations during the third seminar will discuss the walnut industry, farmers markets and the evolution of crops grown in Lake County.

Generous sponsors for the 2010 series of seminars include the Lake County Winegrape Commission, Adobe Creek Packing, Umpqua Bank, Lake County Winery Association, Woody’s Café, Tallman Hotel and Blue Wing Saloon, and Scully Packing. Additional support has been donated by Gregory Graham Winery, Lake County Wine Studio, Bengard Marketing, Lake County Pear Association, Kelseyville Pear Festival Committee, and Elizabeth Davis, Realtor.

Transportation for the field trips and site visits is being provided by the Military Funeral Honors Team van with support from the Lake County Farm Bureau.

The AgVenture program coordinator is Annette Hopkins, a graduate of the Santa Cruz Farm Bureau’s “Focus Agriculture” program.

Members of her steering committee are Toni Scully, president of Lake County CWA, Paula Bryant, Janine Grothe, Shannon Gunier, and Diane Henderson. Other members are Michelle Scully, Margaret Eutenier, and Wilda Shock, all past presidents of the Lake County Chapter of CWA.

More information about California Women for Agriculture is available by writing to P.O. Box 279, Finley, CA 95435.

LAKE COUNTY – While Lake County is experiencing affects from the economic crunch, visible in everything from unemployment rates to homelessness, youth serving organizations continue trucking along doing their best to serve youth and their families.

Lake County Department of Alcohol and Other Drug Services (AODS) prevention component annually offers the community the opportunity to apply for Friday Night Live mini-grants.

The Friday Night Live program engages youth to build partnerships for positive and healthy youth development which engage youth as active leaders and resources in their communities.

The purpose of these clubs is building youth leadership skills; while maintaining a drug and alcohol free lifestyle.

Youth development philosophy states that children and teens, provided with consistent and sound positive messages, are capable of making the choice to avoid risky behaviors altogether, especially if they are empowered by strong family, school and community.

Youth development is the process through which teens acquire the cognitive, social and emotional skills and abilities required to navigate life.

The experience of adolescence varies for every youth due to culture, gender, and socioeconomic class which all have an impact on development.

This development occurs in formal and informal settings such as home, church, or school; and similar relationships, such as peer friendships, work, parenting, teaching or mentoring.

Although youth development is a natural process, it cannot be left to chance.

The elements or needs essential for the healthy development of young people, particularly adolescents, have been described by Konopka (1973) and Pittman (1991).

To grow and learn to optimum capacity in healthy ways and to function successfully in the adult world, young people benefit from opportunities to feel a sense of safety and structure; experience active participation; group membership and belonging; develop self-worth achieved through meaningful contribution; experiment to discover self; gain independence, and gain control over one's life; develop significant relationships with peers and adults; discuss conflicting values and formulate their own; feel the pride and accountability that come with mastery; expand the capacity to enjoy life and know that success is possible.

Youth development, then, is a combination of all of the people, places, supports, opportunities and services that teens need to be happy, healthy and successful.

Lake County Division of Alcohol and Other Drug Services (AODS) also would like to thank all of our community partners who work with them on addressing the diverse needs of the youth in the community: Team DUI, Community Action Agency, Lake Family Resource Center, Department of Mental Health, School Districts, Sober Grad, Every 15 Minutes, Challenge Days, Friday Night Live Chapters, our Courts and Hilltop Recovery.

For more information about AODS youth programs call 707-263-8162.

Erin Evans shows her market lambs. Courtesy photo.

ANDERSON MARCH, Calif. – Hi my name is Erin Evans. I live in Lower Lake. I am 9 years old.

I have been in the Anderson Marsh 4-H Club for three years now, and this is my first year in the sheep project. I am taking two market lambs, two breeding sheep, four pictures and one baked thing, probably cookies.

The projects I take are sheep, goats, dog care, cooking, graphic design, arts and crafts, and horse.

I am the fourth generation in my family to show at the Lake County Fair. Going to the fair is one of my favorite things to do, especially if I can show my animals.

My two market lambs are Davis and Denis and my breeding sheep are Aggie and Rosie. I got Aggie and Davis from UC Davis. Denis and Rosie I raised from birth.

What I like about sheep is how cute they are when they are baby lambs. Some of the things I have learned about sheep are how they digest food, cuts of meat, they don’t like to eat when it is hot and how to care for newborn lambs. I feed my lambs twice a day and walk them daily.

I also care for my horse Cleo and my goat Nibbles. In my spare time I like to read, swim, play basketball, and go camping and skiing.

In the future, I would like to go Cow Palace and the state fair with my sheep. I would like to go to U.C. Davis College to be a pediatric nurse.

MENDOCINO COUNTY – A celebration of the 90th anniversary of women getting the vote will be held from noon to 3 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 22, at the Kelley House lawn, 45007 Albion St. in Mendocino.

Speakers will include Noreen Evans, chair of the Assembly Budget Committee; Meg Courtney, Fort Bragg City Council; and Meredith Lintott, Mendocino District Attorney.

Kendall Smith will read a proclamation from the Board of Supervisors. Oral histories will be presented by Jan Cole Wilson as Belva Lockwood; Toni Orans as Jeanette Rankin; and Jane Person as Carrie Chapman Catt. Fionna Perkins, Poet Laureate, will be the featured poet. The Coast Women’s Chorus also will perform.

The National Women’s Political Caucus of Mendocino County and the League of Women’s Voters sponsor this event. It is free and open to the public. Bring chairs or blankets for lawn sitting.

It began with the Woman’s Rights Convention in Seneca Falls, NY in 1848 and ended with the addition of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1920.

As noted by suffragist leader Carrie Chapman Catt, president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, “Millions of dollars were raised … hundreds of women gave the accumulated possibilities of an entire lifetime, thousands gave years of their lives, and hundreds of thousands gave constant interest and such aid as they could.”

It was a continuous, seemingly endless chain of activity. Young suffragists who helped forge the last links of that chain were not born when it began. Old suffragists who forged the first links were dead when it ended.

Between 1868 and 1920, the women's suffrage movement confronted the great obstacles of well-financed political, corporate and religious opposition, as well as voting fraud so widespread that politicians dismissed it with a wink and a nod and women guarded the ballot boxes to help ensure a true vote count.

During this time, suffragists were forced to conduct 56 referenda campaigns to male voters, 480 campaigns to urge legislatures to submit suffrage amendments to voters, 47 campaigns to induce state constitutional conventions to write suffrage into state constitutions, 277 campaigns to persuade state party conventions to include women's suffrage planks in their platforms, 30 campaigns to urge presidential party conventions to adopt suffrage planks and 19 campaigns with 19 successive Congresses.

Women in the West led the way with victories for state-level Woman Suffrage in Wyoming (1890); Utah, Colorado and Idaho (1900); Washington (1910); California (1911); Arizona, Kansas and Oregon (1912); and Montana and Nevada (1914).

Many suffrage campaigners endured terrible food, contaminated water, uncomfortable beds, and often hostile audiences. Some were chased by wolves, faced fever and food poisoning, and survived train

collisions, explosions, and other near-tragedies. Others flew in hot air balloons and early airplanes to scatter rainbow-colored “Votes for Women” leaflets over neighborhoods and county fairs.

In the great Eastern cities, women planned and carried out well-crafted advocacy campaigns and, defying social convention and facing disapproval from their families and communities, marched in huge suffrage parades in colorful costumes, with symbolic floats, brilliant banners and stirring bands. They were sometimes attacked by violent mobs of angry, drunken, and disorderly men.

Suffragist leaders Alice Paul and Lucy Burns along with members of the National Woman’s Party challenged President Woodrow Wilson’s failure to support woman suffrage by picketing the White House and enduring arrest, incarceration, beatings and brutal forced feeding.

Some women came out of prison barely alive, and the news of this treatment by the police and the jailers resulted in national outrage, and the cause of women’s voting rights gained much-needed momentum,

The 19th Amendment, called the Susan B. Anthony Amendment, finally narrowly passed Congress in 1919 and was ratified by 36 states in 14 months. It received its last state approval in Tennessee by one vote, that of 25-year-old legislator Harry Burn, who switched from opposition to support after getting a telegram from his mother saying, “Hurrah, and vote for suffrage!”

It was certified as part of the U.S. Constitution on August 26, 1920, a day celebrated thereafter as

Women's Equality Day.

This year’s 90th anniversary of the greatest single expansion of citizenship rights in the United States presents a remarkable opportunity both to honor the unrelenting tenacity and spirit of the multitude of women and men who worked to secure women’s right to vote and also to illustrate how much can be achieved in a democratic society by the collective efforts of citizens committed to political reform.

It was the hope of our foremothers who fought and died for women's suffrage that future generations of women would use that hard-won vote to make this a better world and to fight for full equality and justice for women.

To join the celebration of this event, call Val Muchowski at 707-895-3543

For more information about the origin of women's suffrage or the activities of the National Women's History Project, contact: National Women's History Project 3343 Industrial Drive, Suite 4, CA 95403, telephone 707-636-2888, e-mail This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or online at www.nwhp.org.

MIDDLETOWN, Calif. – Calpine's Cartwright Geothermal Visitors Center will host a Geothermal Education Day on Friday, Nov. 5.

Please come and enjoy presentations on Calpine's geothermal operations at the Geysers, free bus trips to a geothermal power plant and continental breakfast.

Reservations are strongly recommended; please call 707-987-4270 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

The visitors center is located at 15500 Central Park Road, Middletown.