Tahoe Arts Project is sponsoring its 10th annual Arts Festival on July 9-10 at South Tahoe Middle School.

This outdoor festival will include art booths, food vendors, children’s art activities, entertainment, and fun for the entire family. This is a juried show and there is space available for artists interested in showing and selling their work.

Cost is $250 for a 10×10 booth and $400 for a 10×20.

TAP does not take a commission from your sales. Applications are available online or call (530) 542.3632 to request an application. The deadline is March 31.

Entertainers who would like to donate their time to perform at the festival should call (530) 542.3632.

This is Tahoe Arts Project’s major fundraiser for the year. Tahoe Arts project is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to provide cultural enrichment and diversity for the community through the arts and education with particular focus on our youth. Tahoe Arts Project has been bringing professional performing arts of various cultures into South Lake Tahoe schools and community for 24 years. All proceeds from the festival will go toward these programs.

By Mel Shields, Sacramento Bee

There’s a way to feel warm even on a snow-covered day in Reno. Visit the Nevada Museum of Art and see “Wondrous Cold: An Antarctic Journey.” By the third photograph, you’ll be delighting in the relative warmth of a Sierra winter.

Joan Myers, in several trips to the subcontinent, traveled by foot, plane, helicopter and snowmobile to settled (not many of those) and remote (all the rest) locations, taking photographs. The collection on display here, organized by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service, covers a broad range of subjects. Antarctica is, after all, more than just ice.

There is, however, plenty of ice in the photographs. One color image (most are black and white) captures the majesty of an iceberg, going within to show the ocean waves pounding through a passage. In another image, a man stands within a crevasse, dwarfed and vulnerable within the chasm.

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The North Tahoe Public Utility District’s Annual SnowFest pancake breakfast is March 12 from 8:30-10:30am at the North Tahoe Event Center in Kings Beach.

Cost is $7 for adults and $3 for children, and includes pancakes with strawberries and whipped cream, sausage, orange juice, milk and coffee. All proceeds from the event go to the Youth Trust Fund.

The Fund provides scholarship opportunities for children in the District to request funds in order to pursue recreational activities that may not otherwise be available to them. This past year the fund paid for $900 in scholarships for eight deserving youth to participate in youth leadership classes and athletic tournaments.

By Lisa Huard

STATELINE — A common celebration occurred throughout the world Tuesday. March 8 marked the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day.

Soroptimist International of South Lake Tahoe and Soroptimist International of Tahoe Sierra marked the event by bestowing the Violet Richardson, Women’s Opportunity, and Ruby Awards to women in the South Shore community.

The Violet Richardson Award program began in 2000 as a way to recognize girls for their volunteer service to their communities. This program honors young women between the ages of 14 and 17 whose volunteer efforts include: helping other disadvantaged girls; fighting drugs, crime and violence; cleaning up the environment; and working to end discrimination and poverty. Violet Richardson Ward, was the first president of the first Soroptimist club and was committed to creating opportunities for girls and young women.

Four young women — Riana Cerceo, Haley Dressel, Allyson Marchus, and Alejandra Medina — were recognized Tuesday night.

Two inspiring women received recognition as they were received the Women’s Opportunity Award, which was first awarded in 1972. Tiffany Reid and Lisa Shafer inspired the room of guests at Harrah’s Lake Tahoe with the story of their past and more important, their plans for the future. To date $25 million has been disbursed to help tens of thousands of women achieve their dreams of a better life for themselves and their families

The Soroptimist Ruby Award highlights women helping women. LeeAnne Stigers-Genasi was recognized with an award that honors the first federation president, Ruby Lee Minar. Stigers-Genasi’s has worked abroad to provide dentistry needs in Third World nations.

Lisa Huard is a member of Soroptimist International of Tahoe Sierra.

South Lake Tahoe’s community pool is closed today until at least 1pm.

Call (530) 542.6056 before heading to the facility to confirm it is open.

Looking for the blue sky.

Here is the ski report from Curtis Fong, the Guy from Tahoe.

Tahoe Cross Country hosts its 10th annual Gourmet Ski Tour March 13.

Bring skis or snowshoes or rent gear for the 1-3pm trek along a one-mile trail filled with food and wine kiosks.

Cost is $30 adults, $25 ages 13 to 17, free for 12 and younger. Price includes an afternoon trail pass. Dessert in the Yurt will go until 5pm.

The ski center is at 925 Country Club Drive, Tahoe City.

For more information, go online.

By Dan Smith, Sacramento Bee

Republican Beth Gaines edged GOP rival John Allard on Tuesday to make the runoff against Democrat Dennis Campanale in the crowded race for the 4th Assembly District.

Campanale, the lone Democrat in an eight-candidate field, took the top spot with 31.8 percent of the vote. Gaines edged Allard by 667 votes — 22.5 percent to 21.5 percent — for the second slot in the May 3 runoff. She will be the favorite in a heavily Republican district that includes Amador County and parts of Sacramento, Placer and El Dorado counties.

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By Mandi Winnicki

When I was a kid growing up in Flagstaff, Ariz., we had a little ski resort that had sporadic snowstorms. We never really “prayed for snow” because we knew our prayers wouldn’t ever be answered. At least not the way they were in the Sierra or anywhere else for that matter. But, if it was a day off of school and the lifts were running, we were skiing.

Dad would load us up in the Subbie, drive the 40 minutes to the hill and drop us off by 9am sharp. There was no need to be there any earlier then that because we were already geared up and ready to ski. When I was a kid we’d put our boots on at home. There was no time to get dressed when you got there because Dad would drop you off right in front. We’d hop out of the car, grab our skis and sack lunch and in three minutes we were skiing.

Mandi Winnicki

We skied all day. There were no breaks. We ate our lunch on the chairlift.

We skied in all conditions, sunny, powder, snowing, blowing, raining, hard pack, dirt, grass mixed with slush, it was all the same to us. It didn’t matter because we weren’t at school — we were skiing.

When I was a kid we never took a day of skiing for granted. You never went home because the conditions were crappy, or the powder was all tracked out. Once we got to the slopes our only option was to ski. So we would, all day until Dad came to pick us up at 4. There were no cell phones to call for a ride home and it was a long distance call from the payphone at a lodge anyway. If you were lucky enough to have a dollar in your pocket, you wouldn’t waste it on a phone call; you’d buy a darn candy bar and ski.

I feel like I should have brought this up a few weeks ago and now that we have been blessed with feet and feet of beautiful powder it’s easy to forget about the last month. We went six weeks with almost no snow. It almost seemed like the end of winter. The slopes were empty; you pretty much had to stick with the groomers.

If you didn’t have your G.N.A.R. scorecard it was getting a bit monotonousness. But the one thing I noticed were the people who were out there riding anyway and not complaining. Just talking about where was good and where might be a little better. If you look out there today on this perfect powder-filled day, those guys and girls out there shredding through the pow as if they were on fire, the ones who you wish you could ski like. Those are the ones that will be out there anyway. I know it’s hard to motivate to drive 45 minutes to ski boilerplate conditions. The last month of no snow, I’ve tried to remind myself that I ski because I love to ski and if I have a chance to ski and have fun, I’m not taking it for granted no matter the conditions.

Mandi Winnicki moved to South Lake Tahoe in 1996 when she was 19.

• Tahoe Maritime Museums’ 3rd annual Launch into Summer party is May 28 from 5-8pm. For more information, contact Patty Williams at patty@tahoemaritimemuseum.org or (530) 525.9253, ext. 102.

• Lizzy Latenser is Heavenly Mountain Resort’s communications coordinator.

• As part of the Harrah’s and Heavenly “Winter Snow Blast” weekends, the Sun Kings will be in town March 18 at 7:30pm. For tickets, call 800.786.8208.

• California’s Franchise Tax Board this month reported a 5.1 percent decline in income reported on personal tax returns ($34,079)  from 2008 to 2009. However, Alpine County reported the biggest increase at 7.5 percent.

• Fitch Ratings affirmed its “A” rating on about $31.2 million in outstanding Reno-Tahoe Airport Authority revenue bonds. The rating outlook was upgraded to “stable” from “negative.”

• Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp., parent company of Liberty Energy, announced an 8 percent dividend increase.