The Chelsea Community Gardens (run by fine folks like the ones at left) are accepting applications for garden plots for 2010. If you haven’t seen the gardens yet, they’re located behind Timbertown; area residents farm them for their own veggies and to provide fresh food to Faith in Action.
Gardeners share tools and tips, and you can bet there’s a few extra zucchini to go around at that time of year. Plots (20′ x 20′) are $40, half of which comes back to you if you volunteer for eight hours in the gardens. Additional plots are $35.
To reserve a spot, call 475-0631 or email lsilverio@comcast.net. There are mandatory orientation meetings on March 27 or April 3 at 11 a.m. at the gardens. If you’d like more information about the gardens, join their Google group and see the ongoing discussion!
Ah, Chelsea in the springtime: the buds are plumping, the sun is shining… and the siren is wailing.
The Police Department’s tests of the Civil Defense siren begin again this Saturday at noon, followed by tests the first Saturday of every month as usual through October. Starting in April, there will be two tests, one at noon and one at 12:10 p.m., to test two different siren sites.
It’s Girls on the Run time again, with workouts starting at Beach Middle School on Tuesday, March 15. (Those are some of our Girls on the Run-ners there at left.)
Girls on the Run teaches girls ages 8-12 to run a 5K, along with a few other useful skills along the way: dealing with everything from bullies to negative body images, eating right, and generally growing up physically (and mentally) healthy.
The program costs $125 for the spring season, but scholarships are available to those in need. Girls meet at Beach twice a week for training and group activities. For more information, check with your daughter’s school for a flyer, visit the Girls on the Run Web site, or email coach Sheri Montoye.
The Chelsea Education Foundation will host its annual gala March 20, and this year’s theme is a Hawaiian luau, so get those grass skirts ready!
The event is at 6 p.m. at the Comfort Inn & Village Conference Center in Chelsea, and costs $60 per person or $100 per couple. You’ve got to act fast to reserve a ticket; payment is due by next Wednesday, March 10.
Mail your payment to to the Chelsea Education Foundation if you’d like to go: P.O. Box 281, Chelsea, MI 48118. After that date, contact the Foundation directly for instructions.
The Foundation sponsors scholarships for students – they gave $30,000 to 45 students last spring (those are some of the recipients pictured!) – and grants for educators, which added up to $59,000 over the last two years.
The group is expecting to award another $25,000 in scholarships this year, so get those applications in. The deadline is April 16; more information is posted on the foundation’s Web site.
Tags: Chelsea, nonprofits, schools
Supporters of the Chelsea Schools hoping to help the district avoid more budget cuts are gathering March 10 to join the “March on Lansing.” The district is encouraging local residents to participate.
At 1:45 p.m. next Wednesday, school advocates, employees and parents will march from the Lansing Center to the Capitol Building to express support for school funding. Those interested in carpooling are encouraged by the district to meet in the Washington Street Education Center parking lot near the football field ticket booth at noon.
The district is expecting to cut millions from its budget over the next two years to address a funding shortfall. For more, see our previous story on the closure of Pierce Lake Elementary.
For more information on the March, see the district’s Web site.
This is no optical illusion: this creation is really as tall as the house’s porch. (Click the picture to see more detail.) To put things into perspective, that’s a spare tire and a bucket forming the hat up there.
Two gleeful men with show shovels were putting him together on Orchard Street this weekend. Look at those feet!
If you’re around town today, check him out before he melts.
Shannon Pregitzer is looking for a home for this fellow, who she rescued off the side of the road after he had suffered a head injury.
“He has made a full recovery and is now in need of a good home,” she said. “He really wants to get out of his small shelter, I really don’t want to let him out because I know the male cats around our barn will fight with him.
“He is extremely friendly and cuddly and great with my kids and has the loudest purr I’ve ever heard.”
Shannon runs a local farm share (CSA) and operates at both Chelsea farmers’ markets. Would you lend her and her little furry buddy a hand? Email me if you’re interested in adopting; I’ll pass your message along to Shannon.
Local photographer Michelle Massey Barnes put together this gallery of photographs from the recent Chocolate Extravaganza in Chelsea – enjoy! Suddenly, I feel hungry.
Click an image to show details; click again to close it.
For more on Michelle’s work, see her Web site.
Chelsea Schools Superintendent Dave Killips passed along some additional information about the Pierce Lake Elementary closure and other upcoming budget cuts, all part of what the district is planning to help bridge the multi-million dollar shortfall they’re expecting this year and next.
For background, see our previous stories on the Pierce Lake closure and the district budget cuts.
The current plan as listed by Killips includes:
Tags: Chelsea, Chelsea High School, schools
Grant Ortbring, a Chelsea 13-year-old, will take a starring turn tonight through Sunday in the play “Cheaper by the Dozen” at the Riverside Arts Center in Ypsilanti.
Ortbring has been in several Chelsea Area Players Youth Theater productions and will appear as a school child in the Rob Reiner film “Flipped” this fall.
In the Ypsi play, he narrates and plays one of the two starring siblings in the play based on the popular 1948 book about a very unusual large family. It will show tonight through Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. Tickets are $12 online or at the door.
We caught up with the Beach Middle School 7th grader to ask him a few questions about his time to shine.
