Motorists driving between downtown Truckee and the Pioneer Trail roundabout on Donner Pass Road may not realize that they are passing by the future home of the Humane Society of Truckee-Tahoe.

The animal shelter is in its final stages of construction.

It is tucked out of sight from the main thoroughfare on a back parcel on Stockrest Springs Road.

To build awareness and satisfy the curiosity of community members ready to embrace this new facility, the HSTT is offering hard hat tours of the shelter, which are free and open to anyone. The tours will be conducted twice a week throughout the summer months. Dogs, cats and employees are expected to move in the fall.

Hard hat tours of the animal shelter will be conducted on the following days and times:

Every Tuesday from June 4 through Aug. 20 at 5pm. (The June 4 tour date is full.)

Every Friday from June 7 through Aug. 23 at 4pm. (The June 21 tour date is full.)

Saturday tours will be conducted on an as-needed basis.

To reserve a spot, call (530) 587.5948 or email steph@hstt.org.

What will your child be doing for the summer? Lake Tahoe Boys & Girls Club has programs for youth ages 5-18 that ensure they will be safe, have fun and be participating in activities that will help them retain what they learned throughout the school year.

The weekly rate is $60/child. Additional siblings receive a discounted rate. Breakfast, lunch, and a snack are provided at no additional cost.

The program operates Monday-Friday, 8am-6pm.

Go online to find out more and download a member application or stop by the club at 1100 Lyons Ave.

The June 4 Tech Tuesday will feature Alexis Robin of Nourish Life Coaching.

Robin will be teaching attendees how to harness the power of smart phones, calendar and Web apps to be more productive at work. The workshop will look through the technology lens to help people sell smarter, stress less, capture ideas, leverage their strengths and get things done.

Tech Tuesday is the first Tuesday of the month from 8-9:30am in the Lake Tahoe South Shore Chamber of Commerce Conference Room at 169 Highway 50, Stateline.

The series is free for chamber members, and $15 for prospective members. Reservations are recommended and can be made by calling (775) 588.1728.

Three performing arts students were signaled out at the annual Senior Awards ceremony May 29 at South Tahoe High School.

The Carol Joy Pace Harney Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Musical Arts went to Alyssa Ferrer; the June Marie Harney Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Performing Arts to Alec Niven and Outstanding Achievement in the Communicative Arts to Vanessa Cruz.

Ferrer has been a strong musician in orchestra for all four years of high school. She is a singer and songwriter, was a member of the Blue Bells, and was successful in the guitar class. She plans to continue to take music courses in college and plans to keep making music her whole life.

Niven has performed in every play throughout his high school years, and has earned many lead roles.

Cruz is marketing manager for the Sotanian yearbook. She plans to attend Lake Tahoe Community College next year to pursue her education.

Pages of an old phone book.

To the left is a page from the 1954 Pacific Telephone Book for Lake Tahoe (California) when calls still were placed verbally through the operator. (Think of Andy Griffith in Mayberry).

Emerald Bay is on the cover of this old phone book.

Notice the intriguing phone numbers like Homewood 2-Y-5 or Tallac 31.

All the phone listings, A-to-Z, occupied only 18 pages. Self-dialed local calling didn’t arrive until the later 1950s. Long-distance calling required operator assistance into the 1960s.

Did you know Kimball and Ludlow? Prior to today’s all-digit phone listings, KImball (54) and LUdlow (58) were the word prefixes for South Shore California and Nevada, respectively.

For example, KImball 4-6474 today is 544-6474, and LUdlow 8-6611 today is 588-6611. The change from word prefixes to all-digit occurred in the early 1960s.

Telephone book courtesy of Theresa and Darrell Eymann.

— Bill Kingman

Lake Tahoe Community College Foundation is seeking nominations for the distinguished alumni award.

This award is based upon alumni or a former students’ exemplary achievement in his or her life endeavor. Their accumulated academic, business and/or civic activities are also considered. It is expected that nominees attribute their success in life in some way to the knowledge and experience they gained while attending Lake Tahoe Community College.

The nomination deadline is June 14. Recipients will be selected by the LTCC Foundation board of directors and recognized on stage at LTCC’s graduation ceremony June 28.

Here is a nomination form. For more information contact Peter Bostic, at Bostic@ltcc.edu.

Barton Hospice encourages people who have experienced the loss of a loved one or have endured a significant, life-altering event to their ongoing bereavement group called Reflections of Life and Loss.

They are the first and third Thursday of each month from 5-6pm at 2092 Lake Tahoe Blvd., Ste. 600, South Lake Tahoe.

The benefits of a bereavement group include sharing emotional connections with others when many cannot find peace with friends and family. In addition, the bereavement group will help teach attendees how to cope with certain situations. Support and bereavement groups offer people the opportunity to release emotions they may otherwise keep to themselves.

Reflections of Life and Loss can improve a participant’s mood and decrease psychological distress.

For questions or more information, please call Barton Hospice (530) 543.5581.

A villain known as “The Bad Idea” has a bad idea. He wants to stop the world from having creative minds. However, a band of super heroes team up to fight back. The heroes must work as a team to stop him.

Learn all about this when the Dragon Puppet Theater comes to the South Lake Tahoe library on June 21 at 2pm.

The event is free.

The library is at 1000 Rufus Allen Blvd., South Lake Tahoe.

Two children’s painting workshops will be offered July 15-19 and July 22-26 as part of the annual Valhalla summer festival.

Gina Stowell’s painting workshops are designed to help children develop and discover the excitement of painting via the instinctual urge to play with color and shapes. Each outdoor workshop is one week, from 10am-1pm each day. The cost is $150, which includes the materials.

To register, call (530) 318.3639.

Sugar Bowl’s Lake Mary Cabin Dinner Series returns to Donner Summit this summer, featuring chef Alan Davis’ French-inspired California cuisine.

Dining will be offered most Saturday and Sunday evenings from July 21 through Sept. 15, with seating offered from 5:30-9pm.

Each evening showcases a different local nonprofit organization from the Truckee-

Tahoe community, with a portion of the evening’s proceeds benefiting that cause.

Dinner dates and nonprofit partners are as follows:

July 21: Young Life Truckee

July 28: Gateway Mountain Center

Aug. 3: Donner Summit Area Association

Aug. 4: Humane Society of Truckee-Tahoe

Aug. 10: Truckee Donner Land Trust

Aug. 11: Excellence in Education

Aug. 17: Truckee Trails Foundation

Aug. 18: Donner Summit Historical Society

Aug. 25: Sugar Bowl Academy

Sept. 1: KidZone Museum

Sept. 15: Sierra Avalanche Center.

Booking in advance is recommended, as these dinners sell out. For reservations, call (530) 426.7002.