By Alissa Nourse

Happy New Year to all of you! It seems fitting that my first article for Lake Tahoe News readers is to celebrate January 2012 and National Mentoring Month. First, I want to thank all of the current and past mentors at Tahoe Youth & Family Services and mentors throughout our community. You are heroes unleashing the innate greatness and unlimited potential of children.

I have been a mentor for three years to an 8-year-old girl who was in foster care when I met her. We’ll call her Jasmine to protect her anonymity. When Jasmine was 4 her mother died in car crash, and her father is in and out of prison. Jasmine and I like to ride bikes, go sledding, bake, read, go to the library, watch movies and walk my dog.

During the past two years I have helped her learn how to crack an egg for baking, how to ride her bike without training wheels and practice reading.

Jasmine is sad sometimes. Life has not been easy for her. She now lives with her grandmother and four other children.

We get together about once a week and the time that we spend together gives her the opportunity to learn and grow and build resiliency and skills that will protect her from substance use, teen pregnancy and school failure. She is learning those skills through the successes and encouragement she gets when we are together. We don’t do anything special or spend a lot of money. We spend time, the most precious gift of all.

She gives me the gift of her time and I give her the gift of my time. It’s a simple relationship – but a relationship that is important to both of us.

We just celebrated her 8th birthday with a party at the Carson Valley Swim Center, one of TYFS’ Safe Place sites. My husband and I are also now mentoring Jasmine’s brother Emilio. Emilio is 6 and a total firecracker. He has brought a lot of laughter to our life.

I encourage each of you to consider mentoring a child during National Mentoring Month. Mentor a child involved in one of TYFS’ mentoring programs, volunteer with our Girls’ Project or mentor a child you know already.

For more information about mentoring through TYFS, contact Eli Stevenson at eli@tahoeyouth.org or call (530) 541.2445 and ask for Eli.

10 things to do in January to Celebrate Mentoring Month

1. Learn more about mentoring online.

2. Tell five friends about National Mentoring Month.

3. Visit a mentoring organization like CASA, TYFS or Boys & Girls Club.

4. Remember the mentors in your life; post a tribute online at TYFS’ Facebook page.

5. Meet a local mentor for coffee and talk to them about their experiences.

6. Read the latest research and find resources on mentoring.

7. Serve your community on Martin Luther King Day of Service, Jan. 16, with a child or teen you are mentoring.

8. Make a financial contribution to a mentoring organization in your community.

9. Go to YouTube on Thank Your Mentor Day (Jan. 26) and make the National Mentoring Month videos the most popular of the day.

10. Become a mentor in your community.

Alissa Nourse is executive director of Tahoe Youth & Family Services.

History will repeat itself Jan. 15 at Ed Z’berg Sugar Pine Point State Park as the Eagle Wings Dance Group, descendants of the Paiute, Shoshone and Washoe tribes, will be offering traditional songs and dances sacred to the tribes represented to the creator-God in thanks as part of the closing ceremonies for Olympic Heritage Celebration week.

An absence of January snow in the Sierra posed similar planning concerns for the organizers of this week’s Olympic Heritage Celebration events as for the organizers of the VIII Winter Olympic Games Nordic events on the West Shore in 1960. The nervous organizers of those original Olympics brought in Great Basin dancers to encourage snowfall.

“No snow coverage has presented problems, but has also opened a door to history,” Heidi Doyle, the volunteer and interpretation program manager for California State Parks in the Lake Tahoe, said in a release. “Sugar Pine Point State Park was the summer home of the Washoe peoples and we are thrilled that their traditions will return to the West Shore of Lake Tahoe this winter.”

Athletes from around the world came to Lake Tahoe to participate in the 1960 Winter Olympic Games. The biathlon and cross country events of the VIII Winter Games were held in what is now Ed Z’Berg Sugar Pine Point State Park. Portions of the marked Nordic trails, found within the state park, follow the route of the biathlon and men’s events. Olympic Heritage Celebration week celebrates the spirit of athleticism and highlights the unique cultural heritage found within the park and our region.

Past Olympians, officials, and dignitaries from the 1960 Nordic events will also be on hand to commemorate the end of a week celebrating our Olympic Heritage. The ceremony will take place at Sugar Pine Point State Park in front of a quarter scale replica of the Tower of Nations that stands at the entrance to Squaw Valley.

The park is located on Highway 89 midpoint on the West Shore of Lake Tahoe, just south of Tahoma. The Closing Ceremonies begin at 2:30pm and there is an $8 per vehicle parking fee.

For more information, call Doyle at (530) 583.3074.

Scott Lankford, author of “Tahoe Beneath the Surface: The Hidden Stories of America’s Largest Mountain Lake”, speaks about his book on Feb. 15 from 6-7pm.

The event is at Explore Tahoe: An Urban Trailhead, 4114 Lake Tahoe Blvd., South Lake Tahoe.

A $5 donation is requested. A $5 flat rate is offered in the Heavenly Village Parking Garage after 4pm.

For more information, call (530) 542.4637.

By Jane Braxton Little, Sacramento Bee

GREENVILLE – Four years after the Moonlight fire roared through 65,000 acres of forest near this Plumas County town, the damage continues to sear the rural community.

A local logger is challenging the U.S. Forest Service about logs removed from the burned area.

How this dispute is resolved could affect the economic future of this timber-dependent town, and local leaders are waiting on the outcome of a meeting today between the logger and the agency’s regional forester to try to resolve the issue.

Randy Pew, owner of the logging company that bought the charred timber, has criticized the Forest Service for “grossly erroneous estimates” of the quantity and quality of the material he harvested to sell to a local sawmill.

The agency overestimated the volume of marketable logs by as much as 90 percent, Pew said.

In August, he filed a claim with the Forest Service for partial damages totaling $375,725. He plans to file another one claiming damages of an additional $1 million or more, he said.

“Their estimates were off by thousands of truckloads of logs,” said Pew. He was recognized by the Forest Resources Association as national outstanding logger of 2001.

Forest Service officials in California have rejected Pew’s claim, citing loggers’ responsibility to make their own estimates of the material available before submitting bids to buy it.

Read the whole story

The art of Reno artist Mark Hammon is on display at the North Tahoe Event Center in Kings Beach until March.

Hammon’s photography is the culmination of his love and appreciation of nature and the world around him, his visual acuity, and a strong interest in technology.

He shoots locally and throughout the Western United States. Although his passion is fine art nature and landscape photography, he has also works in commercial and stock photography.

Hammon’s work has been published in several notable publications and shown in an assortment of galleries and exhibitions in the Reno-Tahoe area. Even though he is primarily self-taught, he has had the opportunity to share his knowledge by teaching beginning and intermediate photographers in a variety of venues.

Snowball is a very sweet 4-year-old shorthair cat with beautiful blue eyes. She has lived with other cats and children, and would make a great addition to just about any home.

Snowball is spayed, microchipped, and vaccinated. She is at the El Dorado County Animal Services shelter in Meyers, along with many other dogs and cats who are waiting for their new homes.

Call (530) 573.7925 for directions, hours, and other information on adopting a pet.

For spay-neuter assistance for South Tahoe residents, go online.

— Karen Kuentz

By Robert Schimmel

I am not given to making New Year’s resolutions because they are usually too intimidating to fulfill and therefore create a failure mentality or become a joke. Taking stock along the way, making small adjustments inch by inch keeps me closer to the path I’ve chosen and less frustrated.

On the other hand I like the annual “big picture” review and assessment that Jan 1 inspires because there is hope and creative brainstorming that ensues. Therefore, gazing at 2011 in the arts’ rearview mirror and into the looking glass of 2012, I’d like to offer a few thoughts.

Robert Schimmel

Kudos: Lakeview Commons had its problems, but is evolving into just what the South Shore needs to bookend and complement the diverse attractions of the Bijou to Ski Run area and the downtown casino corridor. The finishing touches and opening events in 2012 should gestate new visions for what can and should be done to individualize this extraordinary Lake and landscape we’re given. The Tahoe Arts and Design Academy at STHS is a fabulous addition broadening the creative panorama that our kids can investigate and our community utilize. On the Run at Ski Run continues to appropriate its personality and persevere to upgrade its look and uniqueness. All arts volunteer and membership organizations need to be congratulated and supported.

Challenges: With all the struggles South Tahoe has had developing new venues during the past five years specifically, I’d like to see our city and all affiliated bodies in process (like Caltrans, TRPA, etc.) wake up to the need for loosening the stranglehold of regulations that impede small business growth and “outside the box” creativity that is ultimately the only way it can distinguish itself from just another town. Letting go of the power trips and embracing what our community can do on its own will ultimately make the jobs of our now reduced city staff much easier and more productive. If the arts can’t make and flaunt the arts, then what chance do we have of improving our national image? Old case in point is the failed convention center mural for Amgen. Regardless of the event’s cancellation here, had the honest approach to this been to beautify the city by turning the arts community loose and supporting it, we and our visitors would have been enjoying some amazing artwork for at least the last 10 months at a pittance instead of a broken down gray wooden “wall”. I know if the powers that be want something, it happens, like SnowGlobe, so let’s use the same influence to encourage longer lasting, more community friendly economic endeavors, like other performance based fine art, year-round outdoor shows, a regional or national arts expo and/or plein air event, live/work studios (in vacant spaces?), more graffiti artists work, etc.

Personally: I will finally and anxiously be joining the iPhone generation courtesy of my daughter’s hand-me-down 3G, my clutter will likely continue but with more organizational elements to make it more efficacious (if that makes any sense!), painting is once again on my “to do” list as is a new website, red wine and dark chocolate aren’t going anywhere but “in and down”, and aging seems to be at the root of all my needed improvements, so I’m eliminating it.

Most of the successes I see come from sincere collaborations that aren’t burdened with mountainous regulations, suffocating bureaucracies or personal agendas. Hopefully, this year the developing Lake Tahoe Basin Prosperity Plan will become a new paradigm for just such large scale planning and implementation that unites passions and coalesces energy into successful actions for sustaining economic prosperity. Even on an individual level, each of us usually needs help at some point in any endeavor, so if we initiate and engage honestly those who can assist us and, in return, give back to them generously, all productivity and end results will be magnified appropriately.

On that note, having left out reams of roughage to cleanse the 2012 trough, may I leave you with the most difficult and important resolution of all: to let peace and loving faith reign and abide in your hearts and actions each and every day of 2012.

Robert Schimmel is a professional artist and teacher in South Lake Tahoe as well as host of “Lake Tahoe Art Scene” on KTHO radio on Thursdays at 5:15pm.

Following its premiere at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, the documentary feature film “Miss Representation” will be screened at the Tahoe Truckee Community Foundation Queen of Heart’s lunch Feb. 15 at the Resort at Squaw Creek in Olympic Valley.

Written and directed by Jennifer Siebel Newsom, “Miss Representation” exposes how mainstream media contribute to the under-representation of women in positions of power and influence in America. The film challenges the media’s limited and often disparaging portrayals of women and girls, which make it difficult for women to achieve leadership positions and for the average woman to feel powerful herself.

“Miss Representation” includes stories from teenage girls and interviews with politicians, journalists, entertainers, activists and academics like Condoleezza Rice, Lisa Ling, Nancy Pelosi, Katie Couric, Rachel Maddow, Rosario Dawson, Jackson Katz, Jean Kilbourne, and Gloria Steinem.

While women have made strides in leadership over the past few decades, the U.S. is 90th in the world in terms of women in national legislatures and women hold only 3 percent of clout positions in mainstream media.

The distribution of the film “Miss Representation” will coincide with a social action campaign led by MissRepresentation.org. The campaign seeks to empower women and girls to challenge limiting labels in order to fully realize their potential, and ultimately transform our culture for the betterment of all. A portion of the film proceeds will be donated to women’s leadership initiatives led by partnership beneficiaries that include Girls for A Change, Girls Inc., The International Museum of Women, Step Up Women’s Network, The Women’s Media Center, and The White House Project.

For more information about the Tahoe Truckee Community Foundation Queen of Hearts Luncheon and the screening of “Miss Representation”, contact Cathy Dangler at cathy@dangler.us or call (415) 317.7705.

The Haldan Art Gallery at Lake Tahoe Community College will open “Off the Press” on Jan. 12.

The exhibition of contemporary printmaking from artists of the Bay Area starts with an artists’ reception from 6-8pm that Thursday.

The exhibit will run through March 16. More information is online.

The photography of Nina Aegerter will be showing in the Foyer Gallery this winter and the talent of LTCC Art Department faculty and staff will be on display in the Student Gallery. These shows will run through March 17 and are free and open to the public during normal campus hours.

Mark McLaughlin, author of “Longboards to Olympics: A Century of Tahoe Winter Sports”, presents stories and photos of the men and women who made Tahoe a world class ski mecca.

The March 14 6-7pm event is part of the Explore Tahoe Winter Lecture Series.

The event is at Explore Tahoe: An Urban Trailhead, 4114 Lake Tahoe Blvd., South Lake Tahoe.

A $5 donation is requested. A $5 flat rate is offered in the Heavenly Village Parking Garage after 4pm.

For more information, call (530) 542.4736.