Opportunities (March 31, 2017)
Published 1:30 am Friday, March 31, 2017
Occupy: Keep the kids busy over break
Spring break is next week for many schools. Need some ideas for preventing twiddling thumbs and annoying whines?
Local libraries offer a host of free activities, for young children to teenagers. Get messy creating amazing art, learn about space robots, puzzle your way out of an “escape room” or get an early start on those Easter egg hunts.
Find a long list of boredom-busters inside today’s Community Extra section in the “Youth” section of the calendar.
More info: www.sno-isle.org, www.epls.org
Train: Become a Beach Watcher
Do you wonder what lives on Puget Sound beaches? Do you enjoy sharing what you know with others?
WSU Snohomish County Extension is recruiting volunteer Beach Naturalists for its 2017 training program.
Take 18 hours of training to learn about marine life and how to share your knowledge with youth groups and the public. Then volunteer at least 12 hours (four shifts) at Beach Watchers events this spring and summer in the Edmonds, Mukilteo and Stanwood areas.
Training is set for 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. April 21, April 28 and April 29. Classes will rotate between Everett, Mukilteo and Edmonds.
Applications are due April 7. A free background check is required. There also is a $35 materials fee.
An application is at http://tinyurl.com/BeachWatchers.
More info: Yolimar Rivera, 425-357-6029 or yolimar.rivera@wsu.edu
Celebrate: Skunk cabbage means spring
Celebrate one of the first signs of spring at the Swamp Lantern Festival, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday at the Northwest Stream Center at McCollum Park, 600 128th St. SE, Everett.
Eschew the crowds as you enjoy a half-mile stroll past a trout stream exhibit, through a salmon stream riparian zone, onto an elevated nature walk. The accessible route winds through duck ponds and cedar groves, past a salmon stream and through four varieties of wetlands. Rest stops are located at strategic viewpoints.
Along the way, signs will describe the “forest web.” A large area of the festival’s namesake — more commonly known as skunk cabbage (Lysichiton americanus) — is visible deep in the wetlands.
Reservations are required. The cost is $5 for Adopt A Stream Foundation members, $7 non-members, children younger than 5 are free. No dogs.
This is a special one-day open house at the Stream Center, which is working on plans for other open houses and a goal to be open six days a week. Learn more about the effort and how to help at www.streamkeeper.org.
More info: 425-316-8592
Help: Work parties to prep kids bikes
The 2017 Kids Bike Swap is set for June 18, and volunteers are needed to help get kids bikes repaired for the big event sponsored by the nonprofit Sharing Wheels Community Bike Shop.
Work parties are set for 6-9 p.m. first and third Thursdays (April 6, April 20, May 4, May 18, June 1 and June 15). Sunday work parties are set for 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. April 16, May 21 and June 11.
Practice your mechanic skills or simply help clean and primp these rides. All abilities welcome.
Sharing Wheels is in the Broadway Mall building at 2531 Broadway in Everett. Entry and parking are at the back.
More info: 425-252-6952, www.sharingwheels.org
