Features

Thursdays have traditionally been my favorite day. It started in elementary school because that was the day my second grade class went to the school library. Later, it became my favorite day because it signified the beginning of the end of the work week. I reasoned that Friday was just around the corner and I had successfully made it through another week.

But Thursday means something else to me now. On this particular day, when I see 12:30 p.m. appear on my computer screen, I give a silent cheer. This is when I meet with my friends for our weekly lunch.

Two years ago, Jerry Barlow made his debut performance in the Guitar and Gateaux series. Thursday, he will be back for an encore performance.

Barlow, an acclaimed Celtic finger style guitarist, is eager to return to the series after a successful first show. “I enjoy performing for a warm and appreciative audience,” he said.

Barlow said Los Alamos residents clearly show a love of the guitar and music.

He added it is always nice to have a welcoming audience.

This Friday, folks at Piñon Elementary will put their backs into some shovel work to beautify the campus and celebrate Arbor Day.

“We are having a school-wide event for campus beautification that includes rotational activities for students with everything from helping improve our field, a walk a thon for our track fundraiser, planting trees an hedges to PEEC activities,” Principal Megan Lee said.

PTO President Melanie McKinley is thrilled about the event and their sponsors.

This week, we take a look at Asset #8, Youth as Resources. According to the Search Institute, “Youth are more likely to grow up healthy when they are given useful roles in the community.”

This asset might be best understood by first approaching it from a family perspective. Do your children or grandchildren have tasks they do as a useful role in the family? Even if they don’t admit it, that’s where it all begins. Everyone needs to have a role in the family to feel like a valued part of it.

Michelle Holland became a poet in high school. She liked to write but staying in the rules and guidelines of writing just wasn’t her thing.

“I wasn’t a very good prose writer in high school,” she said, “(but) I wanted to write. I liked to keep a journal but I wasn’t good at putting together sentences and paragraphs.”

Poetry offered a way out of all the rules. She wrote the way she thought poetry should be written.

Do Los Alamos Big Band Leader Jan McDonald and Southwest Jazz Orchestra Founder Jack Manno together have a total of 100 years of experience in the music business? “Not quite,” said  McDonald. “But almost,” Manno added.

  The long-time collaborators will cover almost but not quite 100 years of jazz history in two sets of toe-tapping music from their two aggregations at the 2nd annual “Swing into Spring” concert at  7 p.m. April 28 at the Duane W. Smith Auditorium.

Betty Ehart Senior Center volunteer Mary Venable began a monthly support group for those facing macular degeneration and hearing challenges more than three years ago.

The group often acquired a guest speaker, then with the help of community organizer, Karen Edwards, held a low vision expo several months later.

“Macular Degeneration and hearing loss are of epidemic proportions and so much denial, even in our beloved community,” Venable said, who herself has some challenges.

The 60th birthday party for Los Alamos  County will take place June 10. As the community marks this milestone with a year-long calendar of events to honor the occasion, Living Treasures of Los Alamos celebrates its 10th anniversary by honoring Laurence Martin “Marty” Holland; Lawry and Alice Mann; and Dale Holm at 2 p.m. Sunday at the Betty Ehart Senior Center.

This week we look at Asset #7 Community Values Youth. According to the Search Institute, youth are more likely to grow up healthy when they perceive that adults in the community value youth.

When I started my interest in working with Assets, our community rated 15 percent, according to our youth, on how the community valued them. While the current data results aren’t due back for a few months, I’m certain the tide is changing.