The award-winning Prima Trio, including, from left, Guilia Gurevich, Boris Allakhverdyan and Anastasia Dedik, perform here April 18. Submitted photo

An award-winning trio composed of violin, clarinet and piano, Prima Trio will present its trademark virtuosity in a program of diverse and entertaining repertoire.

The Prima Trio was formed in 2004 and debuted at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., in 2006.

Guilia Gurevich (violin/viola, Uzbekistan), Boris Allakhverdyan (clarinet, Azerbaijan) and Anastasia Dedik (piano, Russia) met as students at the renowned Oberlin Conservatory in Ohio. Each musician has been distinguished as a soloist internationally, and as members of a trio they have met with equal success.

Among their prizes, Prima Trio won the Grand Prize and Gold Medal in the Senior Division at the prestigious Fischoff Chamber Music Competition (South Bend, Ind.) in 2007, earning a domestic tour and debut at Italy’s Emilia Romagna Festival.

C&K Market, Inc. and non-profit Cell Phones for Soldiers are asking local residents to help troops call home by donating gently-used cellular phones. With ongoing deployments to combat areas and elsewhere, as many as 290,000 troops are serving in the U.S. military overseas. By donating gently-used cellular phones to Cell Phones for Soldiers to be recycled by Mindful eCycling, local residents can provide troops with that precious connection to loved ones back home.

Today through April 30th, residents can donate their phones to the cause at any of C&K Market Inc.’s family of stores, including Ray’s Food Place, Shop Smart, C&K Market, and Lo Buck$. This year’s benefactors of donations will be the Oregon National Guard and the 235th Engineer Company (Sapper), a National Guard unit located in Petaluma.

Last year, C&K Market Inc. collectively raised 1,033 cell phones, equating to 61,980 minutes of free talk time. This year, C&K Market has set a 1,500-phone goal. The company hopes that local communities will come out and support our deployed troops as well as the recycling of cell phones that may otherwise end up in landfills.

Siblings Robbie and Brittany Bergquist founded Cell Phones for Soldiers at the ages of 12 and 13. The charity has since provided more than 181 million minutes of free talk time to service men and women stationed around the world. Funds raised from the recycling of cellular phones are used to purchase pre-paid international calling cards. On average Cell Phones for Soldiers distributes 12,000 calling cards each week to bases around the world, care package programs, deployment ceremonies and VA hospitals.

“Each year we have been humbled by the amount of people and organizations like C&K Market that take the initiative to support our troops,” said co-founder Brittany Bergquist. “We have also watched the communication gap between our armed forces and their loved ones continue to grow as more troops are deployed for their third or fourth tour overseas.”

Vickey Stamps and two of the 158 dolls she has made since 2007 for sick kids: “I supply the labor and God supplies the need.” Del Norte Triplicate / Bryant Anderson

Local woman has made 158 dolls for sick children here and around the world

It started in 1990 when Vickey Stamps learned of an 8-year-old girl suffering from cancer. She was losing her red hair, so Stamps, using her honed sewing skills, made the girl a red-headed cloth doll.

Fast-forward to 2007. By then Vickey has moved to Crescent City with her husband, retired from his work as a contractor in Southern California. Vickey recalls that little redhead from her past, and starts sewing again.

Now 72, Vickey has made 158 dolls for children in need — cancer patients, organ transplant recipients, kids from broken homes.

She started her own nonprofit, Dolls for Sick Kids, and gives her work to the American Cancer Society and other organizations, including the Harrington House, a Crescent City shelter for victims of domestic violence.

“I supply the labor and God supplies the need,” she says.

Sometimes she works with a certain child-recipient identified, and chooses the skin color accordingly. Other times not. Either way, she says, “there’s so much love in that one doll, it’s hard to describe.”

The girl dolls are 24 inches long, made out of muslin fabric and stuffing and sporting lace and trim. Each one takes about 12 hours. The 28-inch-long boys go a little faster — they sport a smiley face on one side and a sleeping face on the other.

Many of the dolls have no hair — like the children they are given to who are enduring chemotherapy.

The Crescent City/Del Norte Chamber of Commerce is seeking nominations for this year’s Fourth of July Parade grand marshal.

Nominees should exemplify the theme of “REDwood, WHITE & BLUE.”

Nominations should include the nominee’s name and why he or she would fit the theme.

Anyone is welcome to submit nominations.

Nominations can be submitted in person or mailed to the chamber at 1001 Front St., Crescent City, CA 95531, or by fax, 464-9676.

Include contact information for either yourself or the person you are voting for.

Nominations are due by Monday, April 29. Call 464-3174 for information. 

Supplies and volunteers for car wash and bake sale

The Progressive Employment Concepts program is going to hold a car wash and bake sale Friday to raise money for the Family Resource Center.

Donations of all kinds are sought, including sponges, soap, towels and buckets to help with car wash. Also sought are cookie and brownie mix to help with our bake sale.

Volunteers are also needed for the Friday event, which will be held from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the parking lot of Pizza Hut.

For more information, contact Brittany Peterson at 954-0624. 

Andrew Napier won an award for quickly fattening up his 1,292-pound steer, Bud, at last year’s fair. Del Norte Triplicate / Bryant Anderson

This year marks the 120th anniversary of the Del Norte County Fair, and local 4-H members are already getting ready!

Have you ever walked through all the buildings during the four days of our fair? Entries include baked goods, sewn items, original poems, photographs, canned foods, one-of-a-kind displays and much more.

Our 4-H members are already hard at work planning, designing and for some of the entries, beginning the work that will be displayed in August.

The skills that members use to create these high-quality items will be used in their futures as community members: dedication to a project, care and understanding in the process of creating and pride in a job well done. And many of the things they learn, from making and preserving food to sewing clothes, can be applied as useful skills for the rest of their lives.

Many of our 4-H members are raising animals this year. It may be wet and soggy outside, but that doesn’t stop a dedicated 4-H kid! Morning and night, those with animals to care for are slogging across wet ground to care for the animal that they will show at this year’s fair.

Whether it be a steer that already weighs hundreds of pounds, or a laying hen that has just hatched and still has her downy feathers, the members that currently own these animals are hard at work raising them up to be the best representation of their species.

The 4-Hers that raise the market animal, egg-laying poultry, or dairy goat or cow can truly appreciate the effort, energy and expense that go into the production of a healthy product.

Te Maia Wiki jumps rope, Isaak Johnson plays guitar and Sophie Long dances during the Klamath River Early College of the Redwoods talent show last Thursday night at Crescent Elk Middle School.

Ron Phillips addresses the audience during the unveiling of the kitchen Friday. Del Norte Triplicate / Bryant Anderson

“Crescent City Kitchen 101,” as Ron calls it, will be put to myriad uses, including demonstrations by local chefs on how to prepare healthy meals from produce purchased at the Farmers Market, which begins its every-Saturday run at the fairgrounds June 1.

He and wife Nita returned from Southern California recently with the kitchen in tow.

Using various grants, RHS purchased the kitchen in Lake Elsinore for $67,000.

“Initially what I wanted was ‘wow.’ But ‘wow’ came in at $97,000. So I had to go with “woo-woo,’” Ron said, eliciting laughter from the crowd standing around the kitchen and a table sporting a cake that had been made in its convection oven.

Now RHS is looking for more money for accessories to make the kitchen more complete, and Walmart has pledged its help, Ron said after the ceremony.

Phillips and the kitchen: “It’s been Ron’s baby and he’s done a great job on it.” Del Norte Triplicate / Bryant Anderson

The Board of Directors for Redwood Coast Regional Center is seeking interested persons to fill a board vacancy in Del Norte County. 

Nine positions will be available for election throughout the region. Applications must be received by May 1.

Applicants must be at least 18 years old.

The Redwood Coast Regional Center is a non-profit organization that provides a wide array of supportive services to adults and children with intellectual disabilities.

Travel expenses are reimbursed, and there are six meetings per year.

Call (707) 445-0893, ext. 317, for more information.