Upcoming events and workshops
for October & November:
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Veterans Day Dance Benefit for Have at the
Jenner Inn 11-11-11 Friday Night from 8:00PM to Midnight. Come
early for dinner. Live music by Midnight Sun, Joe “Mountaindawg” Johnson
and Virgil Elliott. $30 suggested donation. Silent auction, raffle,
appetizers and beer and wine bar. Possible bus from the Santa Rosa
Veterans Building to and from event, perhaps early for dinner (5:30). Call Lee Gooding at 707 887-0250 for information. Veterans Organic Peace Garden in front of the
Santa Rosa VA Outpatient Clinic at 3839 Brickway Blvd. at Airport Blvd.
Workshops in Santa Rosa at the North Bay
Veterans Resource Center 2455 Bennett Valley Road #B117. Starting in mid or late October: Creative Writing, taught by Carol Wade-Lundberg Tuesdays 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM 707 664-0242 Humor taught by Lee Gooding, Tuesdays 3:00 PM to 5:00
PM. 707 887-0250. Workshop(s) in Penngrove at the Eagle Ridge
Winery, the Studio of Virgil Elliott, 111 Goodwin Road. Starting in mid or late October: Guitar and/or Traditional Oil Painting, taught by Virgil Elliott (.com ) 707 664-8198. Tuesdays, times to be determined. 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM
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The “ Veterans Organic Peace Garden “ is the current main
project of Helping American Veterans Endure / HAVE. We, HAVE, are in the
beginning stages of starting our first garden, to teach our veterans all of the
various aspects of organic gardening. We strongly believe that this will help
our veterans in many ways, especially those suffering from Post Traumatic Stress
Disorder. Working with your hands in the soil can be a very grounding experience
for everyone and really helps us to get connected to nature. Eating directly out
of the garden is extremely beneficial, not only for the nutrients, but also the
two forms of energy that all living entities, including the earth, have in them. The garden is located at 3839 Brickway Blvd., directly in
front of the Santa Rosa VA Outpatient Clinic, near the Sonoma County Airport, in
California. The owners of the property, Basin Street Properties, in Petaluma,
have agreed to let use their half acre plus parcel for our garden, until they
are ready to construct another building there, at no charge to us. They also own
the building that houses the VA Clinic. We, HAVE and all of our veterans are so
very grateful to them! Our vision for the garden is to create a most inviting park
like garden, where we can teach organic gardening, as well as other workshops in
Creative Writing, Humor, Art, Music, Massage, Photography and many other
subjects that will also be of benefit to our veterans. The garden will have wide
pathways for both wheelbarrows and wheelchairs. Although we are starting in mid
summer we have starts, donated back in May, by the Occidental Arts and Ecology
Center, that we will be planting in raised beds, that we will be building soon,
at our first workshop. We plan on building a picnic area around the two oak trees at
the front area of the parcel, as you drive into the Harvest Business Center. We
plan on using many landscape plants from the nursery, down the street, at the
Sonoma County Honor Farm, as well as many landscape materials that will be
donated by many of our local businesses. Harmony Farm Supply and Nursery has
already donated a soil sample test and will be donating soil amendments, starter
plants and drip irrigation. We first broke soil on
Friday, July 15th, when
Tom Finn, of Sonoma Land Works, donated his time, by bringing his backhoe out
and digging 300’ feet of trenches for our irrigation pipes. Wyatt Irrigation
Supply gave us a discount on the supplies and on Sunday Brian Schuler, of
Mindful Landscapes, helped us install all of the piping, as a donation. We are
so thankful for all of our local business support. Ripping the land is our next step, hopefully before we build
the raised beds. We may plant summer cover crops, which will be buckwheat, as
suggested by our volunteer consultant, Wendy Krupnick, of iGrow Sonoma. Our next
step will be adding soil amendments, tilling and planting our winter garden. At
each stage of the way we will offer workshops for our veterans and put them to
work. We envision having a Farmers Market, with other local
organic farmers participating and selling salads and other dishes to the VA
staff, as well as the employees of the other local businesses, at the lunch
hour. Perhaps some live music and a little comedy might evolve from some of our
future workshops. At the north end of the parcel, we will have our greenhouse,
tool shed and our compost area. This area is where all of the underground lines
are, so we won’t be disturbing them. Herbs and flowers will also be a big part of the garden, with
workshops for both of them. Our workshops will all be taught by volunteers from
the many talented people in our community. We will have signs for our up coming
workshops and one with a list of our donors and volunteers. We invite all of the
members of our community to join us as volunteers and donors, as well as with
ideas for our garden and for future gardens for our veterans. We will be
inviting all of our local veteran groups to join us in the garden, as volunteers
and for our workshops. As the garden grows, so do the tenders. Last, but certainly not least, we are
dedicating this garden to our cofounder, Marty Koellhoffer, who drove out here
from Florida, in April of 2009, because he liked my idea of bringing organic
food and gardening to our veterans. Marty wrote up the entire proposal and named
our organization, Helping American Veterans Endure, which got us up and
operating. He also discovered how bad the suicide problem is with our veterans –
OVER 6500 PER YEAR! We owe our existence to Marty! Unfortunately, Marty had to
resign, as our Executive Director, at the beginning of 2010, due to his ill
health. Marty and I were in the Army together in the late 1960’s and we both get
our healthcare from the VA Healthcare System, the best healthcare system in our
country! We also promote peace and justice for our veterans and all living
things on our planet! Through gardening, art, music, humor and the many other
subjects we are teaching, we hope to help heal our veterans and bring peace to
our world. Blessings to all, contact information below. Lee P. Gooding Executive Director Helping American Veterans Endure 707 887-0250 |
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Please click here for printable flyer |
