Are you ready to get started with Operation Christmas Child? It’s almost the first of October—and the cutoff for turning in boxes is usually around Nov. 20.

My church just got a supply of the preprinted “Go boxes” to fill.

Last year, we decided, in our ladies group, that we would try to fill 20 boxes. Each week, the congregation  brought things to put in them, and scheduled a “packing party” get-together to fill them with the gathered donations just before turn-in time.

A team from Hoopa competes in traditional gambling during last year’s Tolowa Dee-ni’ Day. Courtesy Smith River Rancheria

The event runs from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and features stick games, traditional gambling, salmon dinners, live music, children’s activities and a horseshoe tournament. Activities will be in the vicinity of the Howonquet Hall Community Center, 101 Indian Court, Smith River.

Locally caught salmon, cooked Indian-style on redwood sticks around an open flame, will be served in a salmon dinner for $5 a plate. 

There will be a children’s area with a bounce house and games for kids.

 Concert kicks off DNACA season

The Del Norte Association for Cultural Awareness presents the first performance of its 30th anniversary season, the Eugene Ballet Company in “All You Need is Love,” at 7:30 p.m. Sunday in Crescent Elk Auditorium.

Founded in 1978 by Toni Pimble and Riley Grannan, the Eugene Ballet Company (EBC) has grown from a community-based dance group to become one the West’s busiest and most versatile professional dance companies.  EBC sets a high standard in the performing arts and has gained a loyal following of dance fans everywhere it goes.

Eugene Ballet performed “The Nutcracker” for DNACA in Crescent City in 1985;  “Alice in Wonderland” for the Del Norte-Curry Community Concert Association in 1998, and on this visit will perform a contemporary ballet set to the music of the Beatles titled “All You Need is Love,” as well as two pieces from “Don Quixote” and “Light Rain,” a signature piece of the Joffrey Ballet. 

Performers include the Eugene Ballet Company (Sept. 30)

 Discount tickets now available for all 5 shows

The Del Norte Association for Cultural Awareness 2012–13 concert season opens Sunday, Sept. 30, at 7:30 p.m. in Crescent Elk Auditorium, with a performance by the Eugene Ballet Company.

DNACA’s 30th anniversary season will feature music from around the world — as well as from right at home.

Over the last 34 years, Eugene Ballet Company has grown from a community-based dance group to one of the West’s busiest and most versatile professional companies, performing classical, contemporary and family programs around the world.

 As we go through life we meet many people and through some of those contacts we develop friendships. I have been blessed in life that this has occurred more than most. My life has been interacting with people, education, coaching, broadcasting, fishing, politics and golf.

One such friendship was developed many years ago with a prominent man in town who was a successful attorney. I was initially introduced to this man by my dear friend, John Fraser. John worked with this man during his tenure as a Board of Supervisors member back in the 1970s and they became great friends. They both worked very hard as friends to make this a better community.

This man was James (“Jim”) Hooper, who outside of his professional life was a very private person. As John included me more and more in spending time with Jim, I learned of many things that were going on behind the scenes in working with government agencies and others to try to break through the hoops to complete projects. Some of this was about the harbor and much of it was about reconstruction after the 1964 tsunami and Christmas flood.

 When he attended an artists’ reception Sept. 1 at Crescent Harbor Art Gallery, a couple hundred feet from where his boat rests as it awaits repairs, Katsumi Moritaka, left, didn’t expect to enjoy a full-fledged conversation in his native Japanese language. Then local artist Garretta Lamore, right, telephoned her son-in-law, a native Japanese speaker in the Bay Area, and handed the phone to Moritaka. They talked for several minutes, and the Japanese sailor stranded in Crescent City even broke into song at one point.

Kristy Lynn Ramirez recently graduated with honors from Southwestern Oregon Community College in Coos Bay, Ore. A 2009 graduate of Del Norte High School, she is the daughter of Terri Ramirez of Crescent City, and Paul Ramirez of Bakersfield. Kristy has been accepted at Oregon State in Corvalis, where she will be pursuing a degree in business.

 Haley deVries and Andrew Allen of Hiouchi were married June 23, 2012, in Big Flat.

Haley is the daughter of Joan and Leonard deVries of Seattle. She is a graduate of Western Washington University and is employed as a trails maintenance worker at Redwoods National Park.

 On July 28, 2012, Jeremy Ryan Mills and Misty Ann Webb were joined in holy matrimony at Bethel Christian Center in Crescent City. 

They were joined by family and friends from as far away as the groom’s father Kenny and stepmother Katie, who came from Virginia to attend, a brother from Georgia as well as his mother Ann, sister and the rest of his family from Crescent City and Brookings. 

Del Norte Warrior Football Boosters are once again sponsoring a car wash with proceeds going to support Team Redwood’s annual medical mission trip to care for some of Haiti’s most vulnerable orphans.

The Warrior football team and cheerleaders will be washing cars  Saturday, Sept. 22 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Chetco Federal Credit Union, Hwy. 101 and 7th Street in Crescent City.