Lake Tahoe School’s Summer Series 2010 for ages 6–14 will be four-day sessions, spanning three weeks: July 12-15, July 19–22, and July 26-July 29.

Overnight, full-day and half-day sessions are offered. Children can experience rock climbing, hiking, kayaking, sailing, and whitewater rafting, and more in the outdoors.

Learning Experiences include Science in the Outdoors, Computer Music Workshop, Wet and Wild Watercolor, Rock and Roll, as well as Theater Improv, Needle and Sewing Crafts, and the popular Rockets program, and more.

Each four-day session ranges in price from $200 for a half-day Learning Experience to $1,200 for the Yosemite Overnight Adventure.

Space is limited, and early summer registration discounts are offered. Enroll by April 15 to receive 25 percent off registration.

For more information, call  (775) 831.5828, ext. 304.

Cowboy Country, the tourism organization that promotes northeastern Nevada, is seeking high school seniors in Nevada who plan to pursue a degree in a tourism-related field to apply for a $1,000 scholarship. The deadline to apply is March 8.

The June Stannard Memorial Scholarship was established in 2008 at the Nevada Commission on Tourism’s (NCOT) Rural Roundup conference. June Stannard was operations manager for the Winnemucca Convention Center and a longtime supporter of tourism in Nevada.

Cowboy Country is one of Nevada’s six “territories” that work under the umbrella of NCOT to promote tourism to their areas. Cowboy Country comprises the communities along the Interstate 80 corridor from Lovelock to West Wendover and north to Jarbidge and Jackpot. It celebrates the western heritage of Nevada, from cowboys and ranchers to railroad workers and Basque sheepherders.

The June Stannard Rural Tourism Memorial Scholarship will be awarded to a Nevada high school senior who is pursuing higher education in hospitality, travel or tourism. The recipient will be announced at the 20th Annual Rural Roundup in Winnemucca March 24-26.

For details on how to apply, contact Sheree Tibbals at (775) 623.2220.

By Kathryn Reed

Water might be something people in the Lake Tahoe area take for granted considering the amount of snow that falls each winter and the big lake that’s out there.

But predictions are that by 2030 two-thirds of the world will lack access to clean drinking water.

Even though 75 percent of the world is covered in water, only 1 percent is drinkable.

These and other startling facts come from the move “Tapped,” which was shown Thursday night to an audience of nearly 50 at Lake Tahoe Community College. It was sponsored by the college’s Geology Club and provided by Tahoe Water Suppliers Association.

Before and after the movie people could test their taste buds by trying three unmarked sources of water. One was bottled, one was from South Tahoe Public Utility District which gets its water from wells, and the other was from Incline Village which gets its water from Lake Tahoe.

The movie shows how the bottled water industry is unregulated. Groundwater is regulated by each state. The Food and Drug Administration was made out to look super foolish in the movie, with its half person devoted to bottle water issues and its reliance on industry reports regarding what’s in the bottles of water instead of using independent studies.

In 2007, it was an $11.5 billion dollar industry. Pepsi, Coke and Nestle are three of the biggest companies to bottle water. Part of the reason they got into water is because soda sales were declining. Now their ads are all about the benefits of drinking water, with subtle implications tap water is unsafe.

The movie said 80 million bottles of water are consumed in the United States each year. As water becomes a commodity, moral issues come into play. The debate becomes are water rights private or public?

People are paying big bucks for water at stores. One gallon ranges from more than $1 to $8, where as tap costs one-tenth of 1 cent. Much of the cost of bottled water is the plastic container its in.

The movie showed the negative affects of companies tapping into community water supplies.

The movie also delved into the hazards of these bottles made with petroleum products. Not only are the areas near the plants prone to having an abundance of residents with health issues, but the bottles also can be dangerous to drink from.

That was another troubling thing about the movie – learning some of the chemicals that have been found in bottled water and there being little or no oversight of the industry.

On top of that, the litter issue was also talked about and how recycling isn’t working when only half of the people in the United States have curbside recycling.

The movie will be shown on March 31 at 6pm for free at the UC Davis Tahoe Environmental Research Center, Sierra Nevada College Campus, 291 Country Club Drive, Incline Village.

For more information about the movie, click here.

North Lake Tahoe’s annual SnowFest, a 10-day winter carnival, commemorates its 29th anniversary with a bevy of new events March 5-14.

Squaw Valley’s Cornice Cantina kicks it off after the Opening Night Ceremonies with the inaugural ’80s Retro Dance Party on March 5 at 9pm. Guests are encouraged to dress in the neon trends of yesteryear with prizes for the best outfits.

In Tahoe City, the completely renovated Fat Cat Café offers up the Frosty Kitty Snow Party March 6 with “wet your whiskers” appetizers and entrees and live music starting at 4pm and running until 2am.Lakeside Pizza, also based in Tahoe City, has the grooving Snow Down Party with San Francisco’s Space Cowboys March 6 at 9pm.

Are you smarter than a bottle cap? Prove it at the inaugural Tournament of Champions at The Slot in the Village at Squaw Valley March 8 at 5 pm when participants are asked to solve the “Mickey’s” puzzle caps in a timed format.

Kings Beach hosts the first Snowman Building Contest March 12 from 3:30-4:30pm at the North Tahoe Events Center. This event is open to all ages, and participants can compete solo or in teams.

North Lake Tahoe Historical Society’s Prohibition Pub Crawl is March 12 from 4-9pm. The festivities begin at the Bridgetender Bar & Grill in Tahoe City, where guests pick up their speakeasy passwords and visit participating gin mills and speakeasies for old-time drink specials – all while learning about the Lake Tahoe Basin’s lawless past and enjoying Tahoe City’s favorite watering holes.

Up on Donner Summit, Sugar Bowl Ski Resort hosts the Silver Belt Banzai on March 13, when skiercross action meets downhill speed, with the first three down advancing to the next round. Olympians Daron Rahlves and Errol Kerr also plan to put the pedal to the mettle in this swift race.

Homemade tamales will be served up at the Food for Thought Tamale Dinner March 13 from 6-10pm at the North Tahoe Boys and Girls Club in Kings Beach. The event will also highlight traditional Mexican fare with local youths’ photography, film and writing showcased as part of the dinner.

Located along North Lake Tahoe’s historical Crystal Bay casino corridor, the Cal-Neva Resort puts on the Snow Ball March 13 with tunes from the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s, in a winter wonderland setting.

For more information about SnowFest and a complete list of events, click here.

By Kathryn Reed

STATELINE — Sometimes the line between work and play is hard to delineate for Terri Marceron.

As supervisor of the 153,000 acres that encompass the Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit of the U.S. Forest Service, she is responsible for more acreage than any other entity in the basin. As an avid hiker, equestrian and boater, she likes to experience the area beyond reading report after report at her desk in South Lake Tahoe.

Marceron wove a tale of her experience packing into the wilderness with friends for more than a week last year and how that relates to life on the job. The hard work, the hours involved, the beauty, compromise, overcoming challenges, setting goals and sense of accomplishment at the end of the day are part of life on the job and in the outdoors.

Terri Marceron

“I have a spiritual connection to the land,” Marceron said.

She started working for the Forest Service in 1988, coming to Tahoe in 2005.

On Wednesday she was the guest speaker at Soroptimist International of South Lake Tahoe’s lunch meeting at Harrah’s Lake Tahoe.

“One challenge in the basin is to get consensus. It doesn’t happen here in a lot of cases,” Marceron said.

She believes the process is as important as the product, but she also believes being decisive is a critical component of her job.

“I love change. A lot of people in my agency don’t,” she said.

Policies often change within the U.S. Forest Service each time a new president takes office.

With all of the regulatory bodies in the basin, Marceron’s job is not just about the land.

“My world is more political than any other forest,” she said.

When a U.S. senator calls, she picks up the phone. She is also held accountable to the regional office in Vallejo and the folks in Washington.

Questions from the audience were about the old Meyers Landfill and Angora Fire restoration.

To the former, she said the cap for old El Dorado County dump will be in place this summer or in 2011. She added Lake Tahoe Wildlife Care will not move there because the use is not compatible.

In regards to work on the 3,000 acres that burned in 2007, most of which was Forest Service land, Marceron said public comment will be sought soon on the next stage of restoration.

Part of the plan deals with tree removal around urban lots, trail work, restoration to Angora Creek, work on Seneca Pond, removing noxious weeks and improving aspen stands. Not all sections of the burn area will be touched.

“I love the work we do. I believe in my agency’s mission,” Marceron said.

The Tahoe Rim Trail Association, in partnership with the National Association for Interpretation, is offering a professional one day Interpretive Writing Workshop on April 9.

This workshop introduces people to the techniques for written interpretation. It will focus on strategies that make non-personal interpretation come close to the impact of compelling front-line interpretation. These techniques apply to brochures, websites, exhibits, public service announcements, books, magazine articles and other interpretive projects. You will leave the workshop with a 42-page workbook and ideally energized to complete your current writing projects. The cost for this workshop is $250.

The instructor by Alan Leftridge. Since 2002, Leftridge has conducted 100 interpretive writing workshops, interpretive guide training, and visitor services seminars in North America.

Leftidge became a certified interpretive trainer in 2001. He is credited with 80 articles and editorials in interpretive magazines, as well as numerous texts for interpretive panels and brochures. He was the executive editor of “Interpreter” magazine and “Legacy” magazine, from 1989 to 2008. He has authored four books in interpretation.

To register, contact Emily Williams at the Tahoe Rim Trail Association, (775) 298.0231 or emilyw@tahoerimtrail.org.

“It’s a Small Fish After All” aims to enhance populations of native Mountain Whitefish and Speckled dace in Lake Tahoe streams by rearing them in the classroom, improving their stream habitat prior to release and educating legislators and the community about the importance of these small fish.

Bob Comlossy’s fifth-grade students in Meyers interviewed numerous organizations and agencies about ways to protect Lake Tahoe and its surrounding ecosystem before selecting a proposal from the U.S. Forest Service and local nonprofit California Trout.

Stepping up to the Disney Planet Challenge, students at the Lake Tahoe Environmental Magnet School have partnered with a local nonprofit and government agencies on a project in hopes of restoring Tahoe’s native fish, while winning the students a trip to Disneyland.

In addition to California Trout and the Forest Service Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit, the Tahoe Resource Conservation District, California Department of Fish & Game, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service are assisting the students in reaching their goal.

St. Theresa School students on Tuesday were given the challenge to document more than 5,000 random acts of kindness in two weeks.

They are competing with other schools to see who can document the most random acts of kindness.

Motivational speaker Brian Williams was at the South Lake Tahoe school this week telling the students how they can incorporate kindness into their daily lives and future careers.

St. Theresa students ready to do random acts of kindness. Photo/Provided

In addition to documenting acts of kindness, St. Theresa students will be taking on the Soles4Souls Mission, a nonprofit organization that has given away more than 5.5 million pairs of shoes around the globe, including Kenya, Nepal, India and the United States.

Students have been challenged to “Change the World from the feet up”. Each student at STS has been challenged to Donate-a-chore in the following amounts: $5, $10 and $20. It is up to each family to decide which chore is worth the value the student donates. For every $5 donated, Soles4Soles will send two new pairs of shoes to the victims in Haiti.

The goal is simple: To inspire and teach children how they can change the world through everyday acts of kindness. Williams is also a martial arts expert. He told the students for every $100 raised he will break a brick. His goal is to break 10 bricks. He has never been done this.

By Karen Houser

Youth in South Lake Tahoe have set the wheels in motion and are taking the next steps to form a South Lake Tahoe Youth Commission. In 2009, high school and community college students began meeting and looking into what it would take to form a Youth Commission. The purpose of the commission is for the youth to have a “voice” in the future of our community.

Following the model established by the El Dorado County Youth Commission, the planning team has been meeting regularly to develop action plans and identify the needs of the youth in the community. Once established, like their county peers who work directly with the El Dorado County Board of Supervisors and local Supervisor Norma Santiago, the South Lake Tahoe Youth Commission will work with the South Lake Tahoe City Council.

Tiffany Racz, (L-R) Hannah Wheelen, Alicia Estrada, Daniel Reyes and Keith Dennis Taylor are part of the SLT Youth Commission. Photo/Provided

The El Dorado County Youth Commission evolved from efforts of a group of young people who wanted to make a difference, just like the group now working in South Lake Tahoe.

The planning team recently wrote, presented and was awarded an EDGABY grant. The El Dorado Grant Advisory Board for Youth (EDGABY) is a program of the El Dorado Community Foundation and the El Dorado County 4-H Youth Development Program. EDGABY is made possible through funding from the El Dorado Community Foundation. The $2,000 award will be used to host a Youth Summit later in the summer.

Youth commissions are operating successfully in many communities across the state and give young people the opportunity to serve in an advisory capacity to their city or county government, bring young people into the government policy making process and provide them with opportunities to develop leadership skills in the political arena.

For information on how to become involved with the planning process of creating a Youth Commission for South Lake Tahoe, contact Karen or Shannon at the Boys & Girls Club (530) 542.0838 or click here. For more information about the El Dorado County Youth Commission and EDGABY click here.

Karen Houser is executive director of the Lake Tahoe Boys & Girls Club.

In association with the production of “The Laramie Project,” the Lake Tahoe Community College Theatre Department is inviting submissions from students, and the community about personal experiences involving harassment, violence, hate, intolerance, or feelings of being targeted or threatened because of sexual orientation, religious beliefs, race, gender, physicality, or disability, and how individuals were able to overcome this experience.

Interested people may submit a written essay about their experience, how it affected them, and how they dealt with it, or a piece of artwork (drawing, painting, other) that represents their experience; or a written essay or artwork based on the theme of nonviolence.

Submissions that are selected will be displayed in the college commons area at LTCC from March 10-21. Submissions may be anonymous.

Submissions can be dropped off at the Theatre Arts Department, Room F116, or mailed to Theatre Arts Department, LTCC, One College Drive, South Lake Tahoe, CA 96150. Submissions must be received by March 8.

For questions or more information, contact Susan Boulanger, director of theatre, (530) 541.4660, ext. 240, or Boulanger@ltcc.edu.