On March 28, students at Incline Middle School will learn all about the dangers associated with using tobacco.

Thanks to the Incline High School leadership students, the American Lung Association’s Teens Against Tobacco Use program and the North Lake Tahoe Fire Protection District, this collaborative program will provide life-saving information presented by the leadership students to the middle school students in a peer teaching fashion.

This is one of many education programs the NLTFPD coordinates and conducts in the schools throughout the year. This collaborative effort offers valuable information for the students that they can take home and share with their families.

“The information not only focuses on Tobacco Education and being properly informed about the health risks that tobacco usage poses, but making right choices and not giving in to peer pressure”, said Jill Andersen, who coordinates the Tobacco Education Program for NLTFPD.

A national report ranked El Dorado County the sixth healthiest county in California.

The University of Wisconsin’s Population Health Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation published the report.

Counties were ranked on key factors that affect health such as: smoking, obesity, binge drinking, access to primary health care providers, rates of high school graduation, rates of violent crime, air pollution levels, liquor store density, unemployment rates and number of children living in poverty. Researchers used data from 2005-11.

• Barton Memorial Hospital’s Skilled Nursing Facility recently received the highest rating of five-stars from U.S. News & World Report in the publication’s best nursing homes list for 2013.

• California Tahoe Conservancy is putting on a two-day workshop about the Upper Truckee River restoration project. Click on the flyer for more info about the May 2-3 event.

• Have you voted for Corral Trail on the Bell Built Grant Facebook page? Voting ends April 12.

• Brendan McGill of the Hitchcock restaurant in Bainbridge Island, Wash., is Food + Wine magazine’s People’s Best New Chef. The California winner is Matthew Accarrino of SPQR in San Francisco. Truckee’s Jacob Burton of Stella’s was a contender.

• The 81st Annual Far West Ski Association convention is June 6-9 at the Grand Sierra Resort in Reno.

The Family Resource Center will be making and selling tamales in early April. Pork, chicken, cheese, and pineapple tamales will be available.

Fill out the order form and fax to (530) 542.0397 or email to cristina.luquin@yahoo.com by March 29 at noon.

One dozen tamales cost $15. Orders may be picked up on April 4 from noon-5pm.

For more info, call (530) 542.0740.

Kiwanis Club of Lake Tahoe wrote a $500 check for concussion impact testing for South Tahoe High School athletes.

Every athlete in every school sport is given this baseline test and then retested every two years, or sooner if they are injured.

Typically the school will test 250 students per year. Because of this donation, Kiwanis Club of Lake Tahoe is ensuring all students are tested at no charge.

Visit the Kiwanis website for ways to participate in this and other community programs.

The Taylor Creek Visitor Center is looking for motivated people to help in the gift shop.

Located on Highway 89 just north of Camp Richardson, Taylor Creek is home to the popular Stream Profile Chamber and Kokanee Salmon Festival. The center offers several guided and unguided interpretive trail hikes and hosts many summer programs at the Lake of the Sky Amphitheater. Volunteer from one to three days of your time each week.

For more info or to sign up, call (530) 543.2672 or email tsafrica@fs.fed.us, after May 15 call (530) 541.5227.

• Fallen Leaf Lake Community Service District has a new website.

• Sierra Resort team athlete and 2013 X Games gold medalist Jamie Anderson will make an appearance at the Billabong Flaunt it Finals at Sierra on April 6.

• Kindergarten registration for 2013-14 at Zephyr Cove Elementary started March 18.

• Children and families are invited to Easter Ham Bingo on March 23 from 5-8pm at the South Lake Tahoe Recreation Center. Proceeds benefit the Aktion Club of Lake Tahoe, a Kiwanis Club of Tahoe Sierra sponsored club for adults living with disabilities. There is no charge to attend. Card games are 25 cents a hand.

• Chas Guldemond, Ulrik Badertscher, Gjermund Braaten, Sage Kotsenburg and Torstein Horgmo are five of the competitors in High Roller Hold ’Em on April 6 at Heavenly Mountain Resort.

The Tallac Historic Site is looking for motivated people to help take part in the preservation, interpretation and maintenance of the historic structures on the Baldwin, Pope and Heller estates.

Located on Highway 89 just north of Camp Richardson, there are many things one can do as a Tallac Site volunteer. You can:

Provide tours

Be a museum docent

Provide living history programs

Help with general site maintenance

Preserve and restore the buildings

Garden.

Volunteer from one to three days each week. If interested in helping preserve the past and interpret it in the present, call or email (530) 543.2672, tsafrica@fs.fed.us, after May 15 call (530) 541.5227 .

Barton Hospice’s Reflections of Life and Loss is a grief support group on the first and third Thursday of each month from 5 to 6pm.

Meetings are at 2092 Lake Tahoe Blvd., Ste. 600, South Lake Tahoe.

Barton Hospice encourages people who have experienced the loss of a loved one or have endured a significant, life-altering event to attend.

The benefits of a bereavement group include sharing emotional connections with others when many cannot find peace with friends and family. This grief support group also helps teach attendees how to cope with certain situations and provides an opportunity and comfortable atmosphere to release emotions they may otherwise keep to themselves.

For more information or to RSVP, call Barton Hospice at (530) 543.5581.

• There is a Relay for Life meeting March 20 at 5:30pm at Kahle Community Center in Stateline.

• The Banff Mountain Film Festival comes to the MontBleu Theatre in Stateline on April 1 at 7pm, doors open at 6pm.

• Lake Tahoe Wildlife Care’s volunteer training is May18-19. Sign up online.

• Here is the Caltrans El Dorado-Tahoe roadwork schedule for the week.

• A Little League team in Illinois is raffling off an AR-15 as a fundraiser and defends that decision in this video