Sierra-at-Tahoe Resort was honored by Clif Bar and the National Ski Areas Association as the recipient of the 2010 Silver Eagle Award for Environmental Education. This is the second time Sierra has won this award.

“Climate change presents a major and imminent challenge to everyone who enjoys the outdoors, especially when snow and winter activities are involved,” Ricardo Balazs, sports marketing experience manager for Clif Bar & Company, said in a press release. “We’re proud to support the ski industry’s efforts to address global warming and hope the Golden Eagle Awards will inspire others to take action as well.”

Established in 1993, the Golden Eagle Awards for Environmental Excellence recognize the environmental achievements of ski areas. The awards honor members of the NSAA, which represents the majority of ski area owners and operators in North America. Clif Bar & Company, which employs wind energy, biodiesel, waste reduction and other initiatives to reduce its own footprint on the planet, is the administrator of the awards program.

The award for Environmental Education was given to Sierra-at-Tahoe Resort to recognize a three-part educational campaign aimed at raising awareness among youth about the amount of trash people generate and educating youth about how to reduce waste. The message: “You can make a difference, every day, every time, by choosing to responsibly dispose of the waste you create.” In 2009, Sierra reached out to almost 3,000 local students through bottle top collection and on-mountain trash clean-up efforts. The resort also partnered with TransWorld Snowboarding to create a short video titled “Environmental Awakening” that aired nationally to millions of viewers on MTV2.

Other finalists for the category award included Telluride Resort in Colorado and Whistler Blackcomb in Canada.

The Douglas County Sheriff’s Office is warning business owners to be cautious of another scam targeted at service-type businesses like hotels and restaurants.

A suspect contacts the business via email or phone call, and attempts to make reservations for multiple overnight stays or meals for a large group, then requests to pay for the hotel/meal reservations in advance.

The suspect requests to send the business a check issued for more than the cost of the hotel/meal reservations, and directs the business owner to deposit the check, deduct the cost of the services plus a “processing fee”, then send the remainder — usually several thousand dollars — back to the suspect.

This is a new twist on an old ploy where a suspect agrees to purchase an item that is listed for sale in an online classified ad (usually listed on e-Bay or Craigslist) by paying more for the item than it is listed for. Payment is made via check, and the suspect directs the seller to deposit the check and send back the overage. The check is then later discovered to be fraudulent, and the victim is out the money they sent back to the suspect.

Sheriff Ron Pierini reminds the public to be wary of scams. Methods used by scam artists vary, but the intended result of separating you from your money remains a constant. Most important, never deposit funds from any unconfirmed source, nor pay money to an unknown/unsolicited entity based upon some promise of monetary gain or return.

By Jeremy Benson, ESPN

This winter, Daron Rahlves’ ski-cross-style Silver Belt Banzai Race, previously a one-off event held at California’s Sugar Bowl ski area, will become a three-series tour around Lake Tahoe.

Known as the Rahlves Banzai Series, the races will be held at Alpine Meadows (Jan. 22-23), Kirkwood (Feb. 5-6) and Sugar Bowl (March 12-13) and will feature skiers and snowboarders going head-to-head around gates set on big-mountain terrain.

“I thought, let’s start a new tradition and build a tour off the success of the last two Silver Belt Banzais,” Rahlves says, “and take it to other cool places like Alpine Meadows and Kirkwood.”

The first-ever Silver Belt Race was held at Sugar Bowl toward the end of the resort’s very first season, in April of 1940. The GS-style race ran skiers down the challenging natural terrain of Mt. Lincoln. In a time before World Cup competition, the race was widely considered to be one of the toughest of that era and often attracted the top American and European competitors. The Silver Belt Race was held for 35 seasons, the last in 1975.

After it ended, the race became something of a legend. A trail was named after it at Sugar Bowl and black and white pictures hung from the walls of the Belt Room Bar in the ski area’s Disney Lodge.

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By Nick Behney and Cheyanne Lane

What are the first thoughts that go through your mind when you see a youth on the streets? How did they get there, where are their parents, and are they safe? It’s disturbing to realize that between 1.6 and 2.8 million youth run away annually. That’s each year.

Most youth who run away do so because of threatening environments at home, such as physical/verbal abuse, substance abuse issues, questions of sexual orientation, or escaping state care. Unfortunately, by choosing to run away, they further subject themselves to threatening situations that impede their progress in life.

Youth who have chosen to run away are at an elevated risk of pregnancy, suicide attempts, substance abuse, sexual exploitation and participating in criminal activity.

November is National Runaway Prevention Month. It’s a public education campaign coordinated between Tahoe Youth & Family Services, the National Runaway Switch Board, California Coalition for Youth, and other services agencies across the nation. The goal of National Runaway Prevention Month is to increase awareness of the issues surrounding youth who have run away, and help find ways to prevent youth from running away.

The best methods to avoid having our youth run away are first being aware of the causes, and then working on preventing youth from feeling like running away is their only choice.

Tahoe Youth & Family Services’ Drop In Center is an excellent resource for youth who have run away, are homeless, throwaway or couch surfing. At the Drop-In Center, the staff can assist youth with food, clothing, socks, hygiene supplies, laundry services, showers, help looking for a job or filling out an application, obtaining proper identification, or we can simply be there to listen, which oftentimes is the most important part.

For more information about the resources, what the Drop In Center provides, or how to can help runaway youth in our community, contact Tahoe Youth & Family Services, South Lake Tahoe office at (530) 541.2445, or in Gardnerville at (775) 782.4202. The Drop-In Center in South Lake Tahoe is open from 1-5pm Tuesday through Friday and 1-7pm on Saturdays. The Gardnerville Ranchos Drop In center is open Tuesday-Friday 3-7pm and 2-7pm on Saturdays. Both Drop-In centers are closed Sunday and Monday. Tahoe Youth & Family Services’ 24-hour crisis number is 800.870.8937.

Nick Behney and Cheyanne Lane work for Tahoe Youth & Family Services.

By Kathryn Reed

“Why do you bully each other mentally and verbally if you are telling us not to?”

“If you continue bullying, what kind of message will you be sending to the children of the world?”

“The commercials you have been making are like cyber bullying.”

“Our school is trying really hard to defeat bullying and you are not helping us.”

Those are excerpts from letters sent by South Tahoe Middle School sixth-graders to lawmakers. Teacher Cindy Cowen has been engaging her students in a discussion about what bullying is so the incidents decrease.

But students don’t understand why adults — especially those who espouse to be leaders — are bullying their opponents and others. They hope their letters will sink in with the politicians to show them that leading by this example is not a great idea and a bit two-faced considering they all seem to say bullying is a bad thing and then they do it.

Beth Delacour

“We are trying to defeat

bullying and build

compassion and kindness,

which can be difficult

at this age.”

STMS Principal Beth Delacour

Principal Beth Delacour is trying to change the culture by quashing bullying and in turn hopes it will carryover with the eighth-graders when they enter high school.

“It’s all about relationships. I want to see how far we can take this and see if we can go to the community,” Delacour said. “We are trying to defeat bullying and build compassion and kindness, which can be difficult at this age.”

Bullying comes in many forms. Physical is often the easiest to identify, as are verbal taunts. Sometimes what might seem like innocent teasing is really bullying. Laughing at someone and not letting him have a seat a lunch – more bullying.

Delacour recounts a recent struggle at her school where a boy was in her office crying. It had been a long day. Four incidents, which taken individually might not have seemed like much, were in the end too much to handle without help.

Delacour called in the perpetrators. They listened. Hearing how their actions had a compound effect on a fellow student visibly moved them. They seemed to get what they were doing was bullying and that it was wrong.

What’s good about this example is that it was resolved without the victim doing harm to himself or others. But what worries educators and other youth advocates is what happens to the person – young or old – who doesn’t have someone to talk to, or doesn’t have a way to peacefully change what is going on.

On Nov. 9 South Tahoe Middle School is having two morning assemblies for the entire student body called Rachel’s Challenge. The public is invited that night at 7pm to hear the same message in the multipurpose room.

Rachel Scott was the first person killed at Columbine High School in April 1999. Her father, Darrell, founded Rachel’s Challenge as a way to stop bullying and violence.

Delacour said she was in tears the first time she saw it.

Fresh Ketch Pray for Snow Party is Nov. 17 from 7:30-11:30pm.

Fresh Ketch is at 2435 Venice Drive, South Lake Tahoe.

Daron Rahlves’ ski-cross-style Silver Belt Banzai Races.

The races will be at Alpine Meadows (Jan. 22-23), Kirkwood (Feb. 5-6) and Sugar Bowl (March 12-13) and will feature skiers and snowboarders going head-to-head around gates set on big-mountain terrain.

On Nov. 11 at 11am the American Legion in South Lake Tahoe is honoring all living and passed veterans at the American Legion Post, 2748 Lake Tahoe Blvd.

Refreshment to follow.

By Marek Warszawski, McClatchy-Tribune

FRESNO – Tim Cohee, the new owner of China Peak, is crossing his ski tips that this winter brings a ton of snow.

But not too soon. There’s still too much left to be done during what has been an unusually busy offseason at the 1,300-acre ski resort 65 miles east of Fresno.

Cohee promised fresh ideas and a customer-friendly atmosphere after he and two partners purchased China Peak (formerly Sierra Summit) in May for $3.8 million. Judging by all the ongoing construction and general hustle and bustle observed on a recent afternoon, the former president of Kirkwood Mountain Resort is making good on that pledge.

“It’s been pretty hectic, but all these improvements are sorely needed,” Cohee said. “The difference will be very dramatic.”

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Poet and professor of English at Sierra Nevada College, Karen Terrey, will share her thoughts on how one lives as a writer and how she works with other writers to inspire and motivate.

Since spending the summer of 2009 studying poetry in Prague, she finds inspiration for her efforts to help build literary community in Tahoe from the underground writing movement called Samizdat that resisted Communist rule in Prague. She’ll also perform a short reading of some of her historical and regional poetry. She encourages the audience to engage with questions and comments.

Terrey teaches creative writing in Truckee through her business Tangled Roots Writing. She facilitates creative writing workshops and one-on one-coaching with project-focused writers to help guide creative process and improve craft. At SNC, she teaches classes in Freshman Composition, American Literature, and Creative Writing. She is also poetry editor for a literary arts journal, Quay, published in print and online twice a year.

Terrey received her bachelor’s from University of Vermont in biology and environmental studies and her M.F.A. in creative writing from Goddard College.

Her poetry explores boundaries of neighborhood and relationships between people and place. Some of her poems have been published in Moonshine Ink, Sierra Nevada Review, Autumn Sky, Word Riot, Rhino and Edge. She is the recipient of a Sierra Arts Endowment Grant in 2009 and a John Woods Scholarship to the Prague Summer Program.

To learn more about Terrey’s efforts to build literary community in Lake Tahoe, see her blog at www.karenaterrey.blogspot.com and Tangled Roots Writing on Facebook.

The event is Nov. 13 from 10am-noon, Prim Library, Sierra Nevada College, 999 Tahoe Blvd., Incline Village.

Fee: $3 optional continental breakfast.