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Shoutouts
- Trainees and returning volunteers are invited to help with BCMGA’s biggest fundraiser of the year! Unless otherwise noted, you are invited to sign up for as many slots as you wish.
- [T] 5/5-5/6 BCMGA’s Plant Sale, Contact Leslie Hauser, Plant Sale Volunteer Coordinator, with questions or if you need help signing up. lesliehauser107@gmail.com, 702-340-6513. Report service as: Fundraiser: support
- [T] Various dates Plant Propagation! Potting up perennial starts, labeling, and preparing thousands of plants for our upcoming sale. Report service as: Fundraiser: support
- [T] Various dates BCMGA Veggie enthusiasts! We are ready to start planting veggies at the Philomath High School Greenhouse for the Plant Sale (Saturday, May 6). Sessions are planned (mostly) on Tuesdays (one Thursday) 1:00 – 3:00 pm. Please sign up for ONE session. This is a pretty popular activity, so we want to share the time. We’ll send out another reminder if needed to fill slots. Questions? Contact Jennifer Klammer, 541-602-0431 Report service as: Fundraiser: support
- Volunteer opportunities [T] = includes opportunities that trainees can join now!
- Flex schedule Returning volunteers – meet new trainees and invite them to your favorite activities! It’s a new day for mentoring – special skills are no longer required! Thank you, Alan Taylor, 541-929-4141, alantaylor@alyrica.net Report service as: Master Gardener Class Mentor: Direct
- [T] 4/8, 4/22, 4/29 – Seed to Supper in the Garden is an intro gardening class for new gardeners who qualify for food assistance. We need instructors and helpers for a two-class series at Willamette Community Garden in Corvallis! 4/8 @10-11:30am, all volunteers meet to plan. 4/22 & 4/29 from 10am -12pm are the class dates. RSVP by adding your name to this spreadsheet or emailing cget.bentonmg@gmail.com Report service as Instructor: direct or Educational Event Planning: indirect.
- New! [T] 4/8 and various dates – Special Event Plant Clinics at the Corvallis Farmers’ Market and beyond. Report service as Plant Clinic: Direct.
- New! [T] various dates Plant Clinic at Benton County Extension Office. Report service as Plant Clinic: Direct.
- [T] various dates – Community science – Contribute data to research on gardens, plants, and wildlife. Explore and sign up. Many projects are remote and on your own schedule. Report the time as Citizen Science: Indirect
- Continuing Education [G] = opportunities that Trainees can use for Garden Lab credit.
- 4/11 Growing Oregon Gardeners – Global Gardening: Asian Vegetables for Pacific Northwest Gardens, – 12:00pm – 1:00pm, ZOOM. Learn more & RSVP: beav.es/SJk
- 4/12 Public Seed Library Talks – Row covers, vertical gardening, and irrigation – 6:00pm – 7:00 pm, Corvallis Library, 645 NW Monroe Ave, Corvallis.
- 4/13 Trauma: The What, Why and How We Can Respond – 10:00 am to 3:00 pm (lunch break noon to 1:00 pm, food provided). Sunset Building, 4077 SW Research Way, Corvallis. RSVP. Understanding how common trauma is and how it affects learners can help community educators like us to reach more people and reduce barriers to learning.
- [G] 4/14 Growing Together – Seed Starting – 1:00pm – 2:00pm, Linn County Master Gardener Association Demonstration Garden in the Fairgrounds, 3700 Knox Butte Rd E, Albany
- 5/4 Public Seed Library Talks – Thinning, weeding, and succession planting – 6:00pm – 7:00 pm, Corvallis Library, 645 NW Monroe Ave, Corvallis.
- Anytime: Growing Oregon Gardeners – Level Up 2022: watch recordings HERE
- Anytime: Recordings of Zoom Master Gardener training from Curry County with your favorite guest lecturers from OSU and beyond, are available for any volunteer to take as continuing education. Trainees are also welcome to watch and supplement their classes. More links are being added weekly, see the current list HERE.
- OSU Extension Master Gardener Program News
- Program funding – how stakeholders like you can help:
- Via Jennifer Alexander, Extension Communications Director: “We need to ensure that state legislators continue to hear directly from their constituents—including youth—about the impact of Extension and need for state funding. As one legislator put it to us on Statewides Day, we need to “flood them.” A push over the next few weeks would be helpful, as we head toward the next hearing for the Statewides budget bill that’s set for April 21. Here are resources to take action:
- Letter portal, which makes it easy for stakeholders, community members to personalize a letter to their state legislators to share personal impact and urge funding support.
- Find your legislator tool, if people prefer to contact legislators directly.
- Schedule for Ways & Means committee budget road show public hearings—Members of the public have the opportunity to testify at each of these scheduled hearings regarding their perspectives and priorities around the state budget.
- April 8, Portland Community College, 10:00 a.m.-noon
- April 14, Newport Performing Arts Center, 5:00-7:00 p.m.
- April 21, Umpqua Community College, Roseburg, 5:00-7:00 p.m.
- April 28, Four Rivers Cultural Center, Ontario, 5:00-7:00 p.m.
- And use this Slide deck with key points to support their informational outreach.
- Via Jennifer Alexander, Extension Communications Director: “We need to ensure that state legislators continue to hear directly from their constituents—including youth—about the impact of Extension and need for state funding. As one legislator put it to us on Statewides Day, we need to “flood them.” A push over the next few weeks would be helpful, as we head toward the next hearing for the Statewides budget bill that’s set for April 21. Here are resources to take action:
- Program funding – how stakeholders like you can help:
- BCMGA News
- Board Meeting Update: The April meeting will be on Monday, April 10 from 9 to 11 a.m.
- This is a Zoom meeting. See email version of the newsletter for a link.
- From BCMGA board president: “I hope many of you have communicated with your legislative representatives asking that Extension and other statewide OSU outreach programs will be fully funded to keep these programs at the level they need to be. A bill has been introduced to the Ways and Means Committee. It is bill SB 458. Please refer to this bill when writing to you legislator. Timing is important. The Ways and Means Committee will meet in March. Judith Kenner has a new message about this in BCMGA News and has provided a great template from which you can construct a message to your legislator. There is also a link to sample letters at the bottom. Please check out the latest OMGA newsletter and website.
- When you contact elected representatives please copy Judith (judithkenner@gmail.com) or let her know how you have communicated.
- Here is a list of our local representatives:
- Corvallis
- House Speaker Dan Rayfield, House District 16, rep.danrayfield@oregonstatelegislature.gov
- Senator Sara Gelser Blouin, Senate District 8
- Philomath
- Representative David Gomberg, House District 10
- Senator Dick Anderson, Senate District 5
- Albany
- Representative Shelly Boshart Davis, House District 15
- Senator Sara Gelser Blouin, Senate District 8
- Corvallis
- Board Meeting Update: The April meeting will be on Monday, April 10 from 9 to 11 a.m.
- Community news (Please note that anything in this section is not eligible for MGV volunteer service nor endorsed by Extension, but is mentioned as a courtesy to our community.)
- None this week, check back soon.
