May 2017 Volume 23 Number 9

Salutations:

We have touchdown! The BridgeFest Quilt has landed here at the community center and folks this quilt is a sight to behold.

I’m not a quilter but I am told that it is quilted in a “wonky” pattern. It has shades of blue and green with a peacock feather border around it. You have to see it to believe it. Every year a handful of dedicated volunteers donate materials and countless hours of their time to painstak-ingly craft these masterpieces all to help raise funds for our cause.

This year’s quilters are: Robin Wojcik, Clover Howeth, Julie Stephens and Pam Walker. Thank you!

We would also like to send out a thank you to Susie Freese of Susie Sews in Eureka. Susie has quilted the BridgeFest quilt for a number of years now, in kind. Susie did an amazing job this year and we are thankful for her beautiful work. Come by the center if you would like to have a look at this year’s quilt, it will soon be taken to Fortuna Fabrics and Crafts to be dis-played.

The BridgeFest Committee is meeting monthly now. The committee has decided on a design for the BridgeFest T shirt as well as a poster design. Thank you to Tim Garvey for the years of dedication you have put into crafting out of this world designs for our fundraising efforts. If you would like to volunteer to help with BridgeFest (August 19th) please call the BCC to let us know. Things that we need help with are: grounds cleanup, setting up canopies, emptying garbage bags, running booths, and other small errands in general. We would love all of the help we can get, the more the merrier! We also

are now accepting vendor applications; the fee for a booth is $20. Please call the BCC for an application or visit our website at www.bridgevillecommunitycenter.org

The letter carrier’s food drive will be held on Saturday, May 13. There will be a food donation barrel at the Bridgeville Post Office the week leading up to the drive if you would like to do-nate. Many thanks in advance to donors and collaborators on this project. All donated food stays in the Bridgeville area to be distributed to community members when needed.

This month the Dinsmore pantry hours will be adjusted in order to work with the anticipated road closures on Highway 36. The hours will be from 8:30 am to 11:00 am. We thank you for your patience while we work out the kinks.

The BCC would like to thank our pantry vol-unteers who show up like clockwork and make short work out of putting together 70 bags of food. Sometimes the days are long and slow, sometimes we’re out there with our running shoes on sweating. T ha n k y ou Ju d y McCl intock, Nancy Herzog-Bottom, Claudia Sauers, Karen Sander-son, Kay Brown and Rene Hudson.

With great expectations, Chantal Campbell,

Executive Director

Welcome to

May

Inside this Month Bridgeville United

Bridgeville School News Healthy Spirits

BridgeFest BroadCast Dear MFP

BVFD News Are We Crazy or What?

TRCCG News Calendar

BridgeFest— August 19th

Bridgeville Community Newsletter Published monthly by the Bridgeville Community Center

Attila Gyenis—Editor

Bridgeville Community Center PO Box 3 Bridgeville, CA 95526 Tel: (707) 777-1775

Email– BridgevilleNews@yahoo.com

Comments and corrections are always welcome. Manage-ment is not responsible for any errors, omissions, or other editorial mis-statements, intentional or otherwise. The views expressed by the authors do not necessarily reflect the Bridgeville Community Center or its staff. If you have any other concerns, please submit them in triplicate.

Humboldt County Bookmobile

Read A Book

They Deliver

The Bookmobile comes to Bridgeville and Dinsmore the second Tuesday.

Bookmobile: (707) 269-1990

Bridgeville School 10:30 - 11:30 Dinsmore (next to Laundromat) 12:15 - 2:15 Carlotta (Martin & Shirley's) 3:30 - 4:30

Bridgeville Community Newsletter Published monthly by the Bridgeville Community Center

Attila Gyenis—Editor

Bridgeville Community Center PO Box 3 Bridgeville, CA 95526 Tel: (707) 777-1775

Email– BridgevilleNews@yahoo.com www.BridgevilleCommunityCenter.org

The Mad Group - Invites you to join us!! When: Sundays @ 2:00 pm Wednesdays @ 5:30 pm Where: Community Center, Mad River (on Van Duzen Road)

AA

Bridgeville Community Center Mission Statement

“The Bridgeville Community Center is dedicated to improving the quality of life for all our community members. We are committed to bringing people of all ages together to encourage good health, self-esteem, creativity, and personal development.”

Who are the members of the Bridgeville Community Center Board of Directors?

Kent Stanley, President; Laurie King, Treasurer; Kay Brown, Joyce Church, Nancy Herzog-Bottom Roger Schellhous, Kathy Wolff

Good Kind Bridge - AA Group, Bridgeville (Mar 15 to Oct 15) Thursdays, 5 to 6 PM

- on the old bridge - park by the Post Office - bring a 5 gal Bucket!

REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE

By Tammy Farmer

Bridgevil le United would like to thank eve-ryone for participating in the recent community survey. On April 23rd we had another successful

luncheon. We had 50 people attend and Laurie Church once again outdid herself with a feast of deli-cious food.

This final luncheon in this grant cycle gave us an opportunity to see our neighbors, meet new resi-dents and to discuss the concerns that we have gathered over the past 7 months.

It was important at this luncheon to introduce our community to other agencies in our area that people may have questions for. In attendance were Bo Lee from Cal Fire, Ben Filippini and Mike Fridley Hum-boldt County Sheriff’s Office and Ben Fleek from the Bridgeville Volunteer Fire Department.

Over the next few months we are going to com-pile the information and discussions to come up with a plan to address those issues.

We have grouped the common core concerns into categories; Social isolation due to a lack of co-hesiveness with neighbors and community, Commu-nity Isolation because we are far removed from the basic services provided in town, Public Safety be-cause people don’t feel safe, a community center to gather at to resolve some of these issues away from the school grounds and people would like improve-ments to the town for housing and small businesses.

If you would like to participate in future meetings to discuss a plan, please call the community center to find out when we will meet again.

Again, thank you for your input in the process. We are already working on some solutions for the future.

Common Concerns

HWY 36 Road Conditions: Road construc-tion is slated to begin late May/Early June. Road will be closed during the weekday from 8am –5pm, opening noon-1pm, mm 36.0 to 40.4. Get up to date info at CALTRANS

or https://flh.fhwa.dot.gov/projects/ca/sr36/

School News by Mrs. Fearrien

BES Movie Night Fundraiser

A family movie night will be held Fridays in Heidi Taylor’s classroom from 3:30 until 6:00. Admission is a suggested do-

nation of $2.00 and snacks will be available for pur-chase. Scheduled movie days are 5/5 and 5/12.

Also, The class will behaving a bake sale at Murrish Market Saturday, May 6th from 10-2

All proceeds go towards the 8th grade trip.

TWO RIVERS COMMUNITY CARE GROUP OFFERS CAREGIVING CLASS

Two Rivers Community Care Group is celebrating our 9th year by inviting the community to a class on caregiving May 6 & 7. It will take place at the Bridge-ville Community Center. Please arrive and sign-in at 8:30. Class will start promptly at 9:00am.

This low-cost class is appropriate for professional caregivers, IHSS workers and family members. The class will explore the basics of helping people who are frail or critically ill. Lunch will be provided both days so pre-registration is requested. Cost is sliding scale $5.00-$20.00. To register, call the BCC – 777-1775.

Our class enjoys counting to the 100th day of school. Everyday we add tally sticks to our place holder cans. Students always hope they get to bundle the 10 ones to move to the tens place. Lucky is the student who gets to bun-dle the tens to move to the hundreds place. After flag salute and calendar the circle monitor gets to color in a gumball on the oversized gumball machine poster.

On the 100th Day Mrs. Fearrien let us chew big gumballs in class! We also counted 100 cookies and MM's to see how many each of us would get. Since there were only 5 of us that day, we got a lot!! We read stories like “I'll Teach My Dog 100 Words”,”100th Day Wor-ries” and our favorite “The Wolf's Chicken Stew”. We also made cool glasses.

Mother's Day is celebrated to honor all mothers and express appreciation for the hard work they did. Thank you.

Healthy Spirits By Lauri Rose, RN

Please spay and neuter your pets. Need help getting your cat fixed? Call 442-SPAY

Cancer Screenings Cancer screenings are sometimes touted as

‘prevention.’ They are not, prevention is exercising, eating right and minimizing toxin exposure. However, screening is detection and we know that the earlier a cancer is caught the better the survival rate is.

Breast, skin and colon cancers have great survival rates – if caught early. All women over 21, regardless of sexual habits, should get a PAP smear which is a screening for cervical cancer. Screening recommen-dations are ages 21-30 every 3 years, 30-65 every 3 years or if HPV (human papillomavirus virus) testing is done then every 5. After 65 screening is no longer needed. If you had a hysterectomy you may still need screening and should discuss it with your Healthcare Provider. Those most at risk for cervical cancer are smokers, women practicing unsafe sex and women who have not had the HPV vaccine as HPV is the pri-mary cause of cervical cancer.

Women should get a mammogram every two years. However, most cancers caught early are found during monthly self breast exams. If you have natu-rally lumpy breast this can be scary so just ignore all the instructions and simply feel your breast. After awhile you will know what you feel like and you’ll have a good chance of noticing anything different. Women at risk for breast cancer include those who have first degree relatives with breast or colon cancer, espe-cially if they got it before age 50. First degree is mother, father, sisters brothers, aunts, uncles.

Most prostate cancer is very slow growing, There is controversy whether men should get PSAs (blood test) or not. And how often they should have their Provider manually check their prostate. Discuss test-ing with your Provider.

It is recommended everyone get a colonoscopy at age 50 and every 10 years thereafter. If you won’t do a colonoscopy ask your doctor about a test that sam-ples your poop for blood. Any time you have a change in your bowel habits that’s not explained by diet or you notice blood in your stool - discuss it with your doctor right away.

Once a year have your doctor exam your skin for suspicious changes or moles, especially on your back where you can’t see. Many insurances will cover smokers for a screening CT to detect lung cancer. If you ever smoked or lived in a smoggy city get this done.

Other signs of cancer include problems swallowing, unusually long lasting fatigue or flu like symptoms, vague abdominal pain or bloating. If you have these bring it to the attention of your Provider.

Practice Gratitude, Forgive Often, Work Hard

Raffle News and More

We are off to a rousing start with our supporter contributions for the BridgeFest Raffles. We re-ceived $400 from Swains Flat Garden Center, a pal-let of soil from Swains Flat Garden Center for the Dirt Bag Muster prize, two nights and Dinner for 2 at Bear River and $100 cash from Redwood Capital Bank. Much more is in the workings with Lyn Javier as the lead go-getter.

Tim Garvey presented some very impressive de-signs for the BridgeFest T-shirts. With much discus-sion all decided that two designs presented could be intermingled into one great design. Tim will get back to us with the semi-final design. The master poster design has taken a right turn into an Alien theme. Wait till you see it!

Joyce Church was kind enough to volunteer to lead the Kidz Zone. Brooke Entsminger will lead the Raffle booth at the event. We are still looking for volunteers to lead the Dirt Bag Muster and the new Rock’n’Pot game off the old bridge.

And Randy Krahn has been kind enough to keep on giving us pointers from his vast experience with BridgeFest.

Bridgeville Fire District Board

The Bridgeville Fire District Board is looking for community member interested in joining their board. They have two opening that need to be filled. Community member who are interest need to send a letter of interest to the Board, or bring them to our next meeting on May 8th at 5:00. The meeting are held at the Bridgeville Community Center.

Monthly Meeting Wednesday, May 3

2:00 at BCC

“Dear MFP” (Master Food Preserver)

By Dottie Simmons

BRIDGEVILLE Volunteer FIRE Department

Spring has arrived, the time of year with warm sunny days but cool mornings and brisk eve-nings. This welcomed weather often call for a little fire to warm the home. Unfortunately after a long cold, wet winter creosote may have had a chance to begin to build up in the chimney. It is very important to manage, maintain, and moni-tor a safe fire at all times. Chimney fires can start very quickly and can be undetected until the distinctive roaring sound alerts to a problem. SAFETY is always the #1 priority! Move your family and pets to a safe area and DIAL 911 to dispatch the fire department. If safe, close all the fireplace vent openings to decrease the oxy-gen supply to the fire. There are a variety of methods and products available to assist in ex-tinguishing a chimney fire, however SAFETY FIRST and the fire department is on the way. The Bridgeville Volunteer Fire Department had three volunteers complete the 2017 Eel Valley Fire Academy. The Department and District are very proud of their dedication for the numerous volunteer hours devoted to training both in the classroom and with hands on skill build-ing. This knowledge and training is a great benefit not only to the Department but the Bridgeville Community. The Bridgeville Volunteer Fire Department, Inc. has a new mailing address. All correspondence and your generous donations can be mailed to Bridgeville Volunteer Fire Department, Inc. PO Box 4, Bridgeville, CA 95526. The Department has also established an email address at BridgevilleVFD@gmail.com, and don't forget to Like Us on Facebook. The BVFD meets the first Tuesday of each month at 6pm. You are invited to participate. Thank You for your continued support.

Bridgeville Volunteer Fire Department, Inc. PO Box 4 Bridgeville, California 95526 BridgevilleVFD@gmail.com

Strawberries, Rhubarb, Peas, Asparagus - How to Preserve Spring Foods for Future Enjoyment?

Select ripe, firm strawberries with a deep red color. Discard immature and defective fruit. Wash and remove caps. Strawberries are delicious in jam, are easy to freeze and excellent dried.

Rhubarb is paired with strawberries in jam, jelly or pie. Choose firm, tender, well-colored stalks with good flavor and few fibers. Wash, trim and cut into lengths. Remember the leaves are toxic.

Asparagus is best frozen. Asparagus pickles re-tain their crispness and are bursting with flavor. Se-lect young tender spears. Wash thoroughly, trim, and sort by size.

For snap pea, snow peas, or English peas, freez-ing is the best. Frozen peas retain color, texture and flavor. Select filled pods containing young, tender, sweet seeds. Discard diseased pods. Snow peas should have flat pods with barely visible tiny seeds.

Methods: Dehydration – Strawberries dry best in a dehydra-tor. Slice smaller strawberries in half, larger ones into ¼ to 3/8 inch slices and place on trays. Dry 24 to 36 hours. Test dried fruit by breaking and squeez-ing between fingers. If moisture shows, they need more time. Follow your dehydrator’s instructions. Store in airtight container. If condensation appears, open container and dry more as needed. Freezing - Strawberries: Spread on trays, when frozen place in containers or, for sweetened, mix in ¾ cup sugar to 1 quart (1-1/3 pounds) strawberries and let stand 15 minutes. Pack all into containers, leaving headspace. Seal and freeze. Asparagus - Cut into even lengths to fit containers. Water blanch small spears 2 minutes, medium spears 3 minutes and large spears 4 minutes. Cool promptly, drain and package, leaving no headspace. Seal and freeze. Rhubarb – Trim and cut into 1-inch lengths. Water blanch 1 minute. Cool promptly, drain and package. For sweetened, pack blanched rhubarb tightly into containers, cover with cold 40 percent syrup. Either way, leave ½ inch headspace. Seal and freeze. Peas - Water blanch 2 minutes. Cool promptly, drain and package, leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Seal and freeze.

NOTE - Follow recommended blanching times. Blanching stops enzymes which cause loss of flavor, color and texture. Time varies with food and size. Under-blanching stimulates enzymes and is worse than no blanching. Overblanching causes loss of flavor, color, and nutrition. Find recipes in the Ball Blue Book or So Easy to Preserve. Remember to label and date containers and use the "oldest" first.

TRCCG News Two Rivers Community Care Group

ARE WE CRAZY OR WHAT? (BACK TO THE LAND in our 60's and beyond)

Clinical Trials

People who have an illness that is not responding to available treatment often seek to participate in a clinical trial so they can try something new and cut-ting edge. The gold standard for drug testing is called a random double-blinded study. In this kind of study participants receive either the new drug or pla-cebo/usual care. Neither the participants nor the researchers know who is getting what, they are ‘blind’ to what they are receiving. It is ‘blinded’ that way so expectations can’t play a role in results and researchers can’t subtly favor those getting the new medicine. Those not receiving the medicine are in the ‘control’ arm of the study. If both arms, or parts, of the study have the same results we know the drug is not working. What people seeking to participate in a clinical trial don’t always understand is that they may or may not receive the new treatment. Partici-pants don’t get to say which part of the study they will be in. This is why researchers sometimes have a hard time recruiting people to clinical trials, people don’t want to take the chance they may only be get-ting a placebo.

After trials are completed and drugs are brought to market surveillance still continues. Trials usually involve a few hundred to a few thousand people, marketed drugs are sold to millions. Often it takes millions of people taking a drug to discover the small percentage of people who have bad reactions.

We have all heard of studies where the bad re-sults were hidden or the statistics ‘played’ with to make the drug seem better than it really is. This can happen and people should be aware of this problem. If you decide to participate in a study do some homework, look at who is sponsoring or paying for the research and the reputations of the researchers doing the trials.

Despite the problems inherent in making drugs for profit, clinical trials are the way we learn if new treatments work. It is how breakthroughs are made and participants in clinical trials are really needed. If you have a chronic or terminal condition and want to know if there is a trial or study you can join go to ClinicalTrials.gov for a large database of trials look-ing for participants.

Vernal words, Twiddling and Easy Does It - part 77

Right about now our winter-running waterways would normally be dried out to “Vernal streams”. Vernal? Well, there’s Vernal equinox on March 20, but a Vernal Stream? The dictionary usually defines Vernal as ‘fresh as spring’ but science adds Vernal to different types of water habitats that dry out after the wet season; the only source snow or rain. That’s ours: Two Vernal Streams. Usually dry about now because of that long drought we’ve had but is cur-rently sounding as though the earth opened up a vast ocean right by our front door. Inside the cabin we hear buckets of rain falling- but it’s just our Ver-nal Stream’s music. T’isn’t bad at all.

So, at the end of April, we are still mostly sitting inside while it’s raining; twiddling our thumbs, won-dering whether we can stand another game of street dominoes or rummy. When the skies clear some-what we run out and pull up weeds that are soggy, dry out the chicken coop, fix the greenhouse door that blew off its hinges and any other thing we can do to feel like we are active on our land. You know, you’ve heard us yearning for retirement from all the stuff we have to do to live on the land….but now, with cabin fever; we can’t wait to do those things again.

We have sprouts in the greenhouse that are look-ing out at the rain and telling each other “what is go-ing on? Are we ever going to be stuffed down into outdoor soil so we can stretch out?” We have rounds of wood out in the field that is saying “come on… we are so wet the splitter is going to drown!” We have a barn roof where certain areas bellow “Man, I’m just not going to hold together much longer”. We have a put-together chicken run shel-ter that tells us “I’m separating and don’t care any-more!” We have a rain spout drain silently remind-ing us daily to “close me up…I’m getting wet!”

We are inundated with small challenges yet to be met, because of rain. What does it matter anyway, philosophically speaking - “day by day all things must be fixed….or end”. Or, “one day at a time, let go, easy does it – all will come to pass”, etc. etc. etc.

Back to dominoes. Lyn Javier and Kate McCay

Two Crones Ranch, Larabee Valley Memorial Day

Memorial Day, originally called Decoration Day, is a day to remember those who have died in our nation's service.

I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community and as long as I live, it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work the more I live.

~ George Bernard Shaw

Thank you Sponsors for making the newsletter possible.

Newsletter Sponsors

Dennis & Dottie Simmons, Susan Gordon, Jim & Francene Rizza, Ken & Carlene Richardson, Lauri Rose, George & Kathy Hayes, Richard & Carol Holland, Pamela Markovich, Charles and Jan Rose, Gyula & Iren Gyenis

Bridgeville Community Center is a Federal non-profit organization. Please consider donating to support the newsletter and the community center.

To be a sponsor for this newsletter, please send a contribution of $25 or more to BCC,

or through our website via paypal:

Bridgeville Community Newsletter P. O. Box 3

Bridgeville, CA 95526

For Information, contact BCC at (707) 777-1775

Thank You Bridgeville Trading Post

BCC Board Members Needed - There will be two openings on the BCC Board of Directors in July, 2017. All interested parties must submit a Letter of Interest/Candidate State-ment and sign up on the Membership Roster at the BCC office by June 15, 2017. Candi-date Statements will be published in the July, 2017 Newsletter. Candidates are en-couraged to attend the June 2017 Board Meeting. An election will be held if there are more than 2 interested parties. Volunteer Firemen Wanted– The Bridge-ville, Mad River, and Ruth Volunteer Fire Departments are looking for volunteers. The house they save may be yours or your neighbors. Contact them directly to sign up. Southern Trinity Fire: 574-6536 BridgeFest needs volunteers. Aliens and humans welcome. BridgeFest is August 19th, and we need all sorts of volunteers to help greet the aliens who will be descending from all points in the sky. Please call BCC, 777-1775, or come to a BridgeFest meeting. Drum Circle next full moon @ Bridge at 7pm

Carol Ann Conners License OE79262 Greg Conners License 0488272

Patterson/Conners Insurance Services 654 Main Street, Fortuna CA 95540

707-725-3400

The Bridgeville Baptist Church

Sunday School- 9:45-10:45 am Sunday Morning Worship- 11:00-12:00

We are on Alderpoint Road, just past the Bridgeville Bridge off Hwy 36.

Valley View Realty

Irene Hetrick

(707) 845-5751

ihetrick@live.com See all current listings in the area: www.Highway36.com

25th annual Letter Carriers Food Drive on Saturday May 13th - Letter carriers will be picking up donations of non-perishable food and delivering these donations to Food for People and local food banks. It’s easy to partici-

pate. Look for the blue, pre-printed donation bags or post card reminder in your mailbox the week leading up to the May 13th food drive. PO Box holders will receive postcards and can pick up blue donation bags in their post office lobby.

Bridgeville Community Newsletter PO Box 3 Bridgeville, CA 95526 Change Service Requested

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www.BridgevilleCommunityCenter.org

WEEKLY:

Monday: BCC CLOSED

Tuesday: Strength & balance exercise class 10:30-11:30

Thursday: Strength & balance exercise class 10:30-11:30 Senior Lunch 11:30 – 1

BCC Board Meeting on first Thursday of month at 3:30pm

May 2017

Local Community Breakfasts

Every First Sunday of the Month 6 Rivers - Mad River Community Center 8–11

Every Second Sunday of the Month Breakfast at the Van Duzen Grange, Carlotta

BVFD Breakfast cancelled until further notice

Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday

“The only Zen you find on tops of

mountains is the Zen you bring

there.” ~ Robert M. Pirsig

1 May Day

2 BVFD Meeting 6pm

3 BridgeFest meeting 2pm

4 BCC Board meeting at 3:30

5 BES Movie Night

6 - TRCCG Training - BES Bake Sale Murrish Market -HTRA Rummage Sale, Mad River Hall

7 TRCCG Training

8 - BV Fire District Meeting, 5 pm, BCC - BES School Board @ 5:30

9 Bookmobile 10:30-11:30

10 11 12 BES Movie Night

13 - Rabies Clinic, Mad River Hall 9:30-10:30 - USPS Letter Carrier’s Food Drive

14

Mother’s Day 15 16 17 18 19

USDA Com-modities, 10 am – 4 pm, BCC

20 Kid’s Free Fishing Derby, Ruth Lake Marina, 8am-11am

21 22 23 BCC Mobile-Food Pantry- Dinsmore, 8:30am-11am

24 25 26 STAR Dinner, Mad River Hall

27

28 29 Memorial Day

30 31

Hwy 36 Construction: Drive Carefully

Call 1 (800) NO BUTTS New Start, Stop Smoking