Scene from this morning’s 2nd Annual 5k Run/Walk to Remember on S. Laurel Street:
Good morning, Fort Lee!
Reply
Category Archives: community
VCU Intercultural Festival in Monroe Park Saturday
From VCU press release:
Virginia Commonwealth University will honor the culture and diversity that thrives throughout its campuses at the 2013 Intercultural Festival at VCU, themed “A World Premiere.”
The 2013 Intercultural Festival at VCU takes place on Saturday, April 6, from noon until 6 p.m. at Monroe Park. Entrance to the festival and all activities are free and open to the public.
The festival will include a variety of foods from various cultures, as well as cultural displays, performances and fashion shows, student art exhibits and booths with games and crafts for all ages. There will be a petting zoo and door prizes to showcase more than 30 cultural organizations at VCU.
The Intercultural Festival has been at VCU for more than 10 years, but the first recorded festival took place in April 2002. Over the years, the festival has continued to grow and become an annual university-wide celebration.
The Office of Multicultural Student Affairs within the Division for Student Affairs and Enrollment Services and the Student Government Association sponsor the Intercultural Festival at VCU.
To learn more information about the festival, call 804-828-4514. For information about ICF week activities, which precede the festival, visit https://www.facebook.com/icfvcu.
5K Run/Walk to Remember This Saturday
The Virginia War Memorial will host their 2nd annual 5K Run/Walk to Remember on Saturday, April 6 at 8 am. The route goes through Oregon Hill and Hollywood Cemetery. Between 8:30 am and 9:30 am there will be 500 participants traveling on the streets.
The event will only close 2nd Street from the Lee Bridge to Byrd Street the morning of the race. No others streets will be closed. Soldiers from Ft. Lee will be along the race route directing participants.
Friends of the Library Book Sale This Weekend
Byrd House Market Buys Fine Foods
While its not on their blog yet, Byrd House Market manager Anna Edwards has confirmed that the Byrd House Market farmer’s market, using a mixture of funding from the William Byrd Foundation, federal grants, crowdsourcing, and their own produce proceeds, has purchased the Fine Foods convenience store on Idlewood.
“We wanted to create a ‘game-changer’ for Richmond farmers markets in order to further our mission of providing living laboratories for learning nutrition, ecology and economics.” said Edwards. She alluded to a not-yet-announced partnership with another grocery enterprise to help run the new store/market.
Though a lot of details have not been settled, some things are becoming clear- the farmer’s market with outside vendors will eventually move from their current location near the Grace Arents Community Garden to one side of the Fine Foods building and possibly be open everyday to sell fresh produce. (This is where the Fancy Flea market was held previously.) The Fine Foods building itself will go through a major overhaul. There’s discussion of adding a whole floor to the building and doing significant landscaping changes to the asphalt parking lot area. Solar panels and/or green roof are part of that. A portion of the building will be reserved for gardening and community workshops. The grocery shelves will gradually become more oriented to natural/healthy/gourmet.
Perhaps of more interest to current Fine Foods patrons, the new business will, at least in the beginning, retain the employees of Fine Foods to sell selections from their expanded beer fridge as well as lottery tickets.
New Twist On Urban Chicken Debate
Later today there will be an unveiling for Oregon Hill’s “Virtual Chicken House”. A neighborhood resident and artist, who does not want his address or name published, has created a project that he says was inspired by the local debate over urban chicken-keeping. “I was working on it before the recent flurry of messages over the neighborhood Yahoo list,” he said, “but with proposed legislation before City Council, now maybe the perfect time to take it public.”
It consists of a wooden backyard structure that is a little bit bigger than a standard chicken coop, but fully networked for an array of a half a dozen reconfigured Roomba vacuum robots, that simulate chickens. Using timers, cameras, microphones, and speakers, the ‘chickens’ periodically go in and out of the ‘house’, making slight clucking and pecking noises. The website with Roomba-chicken camera feeds is not yet online.
Photo Credit “Moving in for the Kill” Eirik Newth @ Flickr. Creative Commons. Some rights reserved.
“I thought about naming each Roomba after City Council members and various City officials and adding their photos to the tops of the Roombas, but I thought that might cause bad feelings so I decided not do that,” said the artist. Instead, he will be offering patrons the chance to adopt and name the individual Roombas. He noted that are other chicken Roomba automation schemes out there, as well as other forms of Roomba art.
Note: Roomba is a trademark of the iRobot company.
Peace Essay Contest Deadline for Entries is April 22
From email announcement:
The deadline for entering the Richmond Peace Education Center’s 2013 Peace Essay contest is April 22, 2013. The theme for this year’s contest is “Learning to live in peace.” The writing prompt asks students to think and write about the roles their families or other care-givers play in teaching them about peace. They are further asked to write about how this teaching affects their actions in the community and the world; and to support their ideas with examples from their personal lives and from history and current events.
The contest is open to any elementary, middle, or high school student in Virginia. It offers a top prize of $100 in each of four grade divisions: K-3, 4-5, middle, and high school. Seven additional cash prizes are also awarded in each division.
Entry forms, along with contest rules and a conplete description of the writing prompt are available at www.rpec.org, or by emailing rpec@rpec.org.
Oregon Hill Neighborhood Association Meets Tomorrow Night
The Oregon Hill Neighborhood Association (OHNA) meets tomorrow night at 7 pm at the William Byrd Community House.
KaBOOM! Playground Effort for William Byrd Community House
William Byrd Community House is applying for a project from the non-profit KaBOOM! and are asking for residents to stop in and sign their petition (WBCH will have a copy at their front desk for people to sign). If WBCH is approved, there will be a design day around the beginning of April.
The local community is invited to participate. There will be a one hour youth session where children are encouraged to design the playground of their dreams. Then a 2-3 hour adult session. They are requesting about 15 parents or other non-staff community members to be involved. They will also be asking for volunteers for various teams (recruitment, fundraising, food, music, safety, logistics, construction, green, and youth involvement).
The Build Day would be June 7th. The playground would be open to the community. No details have been settled on, but WBCH is requesting a playground suitable for 5 – 12 year olds. To learn more about KaBOOM! or see photos of the existing playground, check out this link.
Letter in The Times Dispatch
From today’s Times Dispatch editorial page:
Editor, Times-Dispatch:
Dominion Virginia Power has a distasteful presence on the north side of the James River, near Oregon Hill. Two of the ugliest buildings in the city and a parking deck completely obliterate one of the most beautiful riverscapes on the James.
Visitors to the river are denied a spectacular view of the rapids and boulders located in the area. Residents of Oregon Hill, bikers, walkers and hikers on the trail as well as tourists and visitors in Hollywood Cemetery would have difficulty respecting Richmond’s new name, River City.
Why is Dominion Power even there? And if it must have this location, perhaps its executives could come up with a plan that would not disfigure our lovely river and riverbank in this way.Mary Virginia Beane. Richmond.