Illinois Valley News

MINI MARDI GRAS - A children’s Mardi Gras party will be held on Saturday, Feb. 13 from 2 to 3:30 p.m. by the Illinois Valley Branch of Josephine Community Libraries Inc. Children are invited to come in costume, decorate a mask, and enjoy refreshments at the library in Cave Junction. Phone 541-592-4778 for more information or to register.
Regular library hours are Wednesdays and Fridays, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.; and Saturdays, noon to 4 p.m. The library is at 209 W. Palmer St., just down the street from Carlos’ Mexican Restaurante.

CUPIDS & COWBOYS - On Valentine’s Day, Sunday, Feb. 14, The “Cream of Country Round-Up” will be held at Pacifica Gardens Auditorium, 14615 Water Gap Road, near Williams. Folk, Country, Bluegrass, Cowboy music and poetry will be featured. The fun will start at 2 p.m. as area players and singers come together. Phone Butch Martin at 541-218-2477 for more information. See the ad elsewhere in this issue.

VALLEY HONORS - Illinois Valley Chamber of Commerce will hold its annual awards banquet on Saturday, March 6 at the Junction Inn’s Boswell Room in Cave Junction. Along with a choice of prime rib, chicken or vegetarian entrée, guests will be treated to the foot-stomping sounds of valley Bluegrass favorite, Eastfork. Business and Citizen of the Year awards will be presented. Tickets are available at the chamber office at the I.V. Visitor Center on Caves Hwy. Phone 541-592-3326.

WIZARD! - A production of “Wizard of Oz” will be performed at Lorna Byrne Middle School by students.
There will be two 7 p.m. shows: Cast A will perform on Wednesday, Feb. 24; Cast B on Thursday, Feb. 25.

NOTEPAD - Cave Junction Lions Club will hold an open house on Saturday, Feb. 13 from 1 to 5 p.m. at the Josephine County Bldg. in Cave Junction. There will be refreshments, live music, crafts and a story time for children. A video about Lions Club will be shown, and there will be a Guide Paws 4-H Club training demonstration from 1 to 3 p.m. … Various closures will be in effect on Monday, Feb. 15 in honor of Presidents’ Day, a federal holiday. Banks, post offices and schools are included … Students will be excluded from public schools as of Wednesday, Feb. 17 if their immunization records are incomplete ... Rough & Ready Lumber Co. employees recently stood for a group photograph, a retake of one taken in 1977. Some 13 employees featured in the 32-year-old photo still are with the company and are included in the new version, said R&R’s Michelle Perata ... Southern Oregon Birth Connections will present a free Family Resource Fair on Sunday, Feb. 14, from 1 to 3 p.m. at Bellview Grange Hall, 1050 Tolman Creek Road in Ashland. The event will provide an introduction to a range of practitioners and an opportunity to experience available services. Receive hands-on bodywork, watch a birth video, play with natural cloth diapers, or “have your belly henna-ed.” Phone 541-482-6067, or visit www.southernoregonbirthconnections.com ... Raffle tickets are available for a chance to win a replica of Kerby’s historic Stith-Nauke house. The dollhouse is displayed at Evergreen Federal Bank in Cave Junction. Proceeds will help obtain matching grants for restoration of the venerable building ... Candidates for Josephine County Commissioner will gather to face questions and offer their views during a forum co-sponsored by Illinois Valley News and Illinois Valley Chamber of Commerce on Thursday, March 25 at the Josephine County Bldg. in Cave Junction … A Spring Festival Concert will be performed at Lorna Byrne Middle School on March 16. The free community event will feature the choir, cadet band and concert band ... Bumper stickers: *I brake for … Oh no, no brakes! *Guns don’t kill people. Drivers with cellphones do.

LAST WORDS - “It is incredible how as soon as a people becomes subject, it promptly falls into such complete forgetfulness of its freedom that it can hardly be roused to the point of regaining it, obeying so easily and so willingly that one is led to say, on beholding such a situation, that this people has not so much lost its liberty as won its enslavement.” (Étienne de la Boétie)