ALBANY

Pumpkin patch opens Saturday

Uncle Daniel’s Pumpkin Patch opens Saturday, Oct. 6, at the Finch Family Water Garden, 772 Gold Fish Farm Road S.E., in Albany.

The pumpkin patch is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays through Oct. 28.

For more information, call 926-9737.

Roast of former mayor McLaran will aid Kiwanis, CASA

No retirement is complete without a roast, and retired Albany Mayor Chuck McLaran will get his turn in November as part of an Albany Kiwanis Club fundraiser.

The roast will take place Thursday, Nov. 8, at the Linn County Fair & Expo Center. Tickets are $50 each, with proceeds going to the Kiwanis Club and Court Appointed Special Advocates of Linn County.

Tickets are available at Jordan Jewelers, 202 First Ave. S.W., and the Edward Jones office at 937 Geary Street S.E. Kiwanis Club members and CASA board members also are selling tickets.

The roast raised about $7,500 last year, with most of that going to CASA. The two organizations have a similar agreement this year.

McLaran, a former FBI agent, served as Albany’s mayor for 12 years. He retired at the end of 2006.

CORVALLIS

Volunteer earns governor’s award

Corvallis volunteer Don Jones was named the regional Senior Volunteer of the Year during the annual Governor’s Volunteer Awards Luncheon and Volunteerism in Oregon Forum held Friday at the Salem Conference Center.

Jones started his volunteer career in January 1999 upon retirement as an Oregon State University professor. After reading a plea for AARP Tax-Aide volunteers in the local newspaper, Jones contacted RSVP in Corvallis. In his ninth year of volunteering, he now collaborates with the IRS, AARP and RSVP to teach the Tax-Aide training classes at Linn-Benton Community College.

Jones has accumulated more than 3,532 lifetime hours of volunteer service in the community. After the 1999 Tax-Aide season ended, he became a trained Senior Heath Insurance Benefits Assistance counselor, as well as delivering meals for the Meals-on-Wheels program.

RSVP was also honored to be a local sponsor for the Senior Health Insurance Benefits Assistance (SHIBA) program that was awarded Outstanding Statewide Volunteer Program. Nearly 20 volunteers in Linn and Benton counties provided Medicare advice and counseling throughout the year. The volunteers helped more than 3,000 people understand the new program through one-on-one counseling and public presentations.

LEBANON

LBCC to offer phlebotomy training course

Free phlebotomy training orientations will be offered through Linn-Benton Community College for those interested in training to become a phlebotomist.

There will be two orientations: 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Tuesday, Oct. 16, and 2 to 3:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 7, both at the Lebanon Community Hospital, conference room C, 525 North Santiam Highway, Lebanon. No preregistration is required.

The 15-week phlebotomy training course starts Jan. 28, 2008, and runs through May 9. Skill areas covered include medical terminology, basic anatomy and physiology, customer service, medical law and ethics, phlebotomy, job success skills, and basic Microsoft Office applications.

Cost for the course is $2,800. The course is eligible for financial aid. Check for course prerequisites at the LBCC website, www.linnbenton.edu/go/admission-forms-and-applications.

Attendance at one of the orientations is mandatory in order to take the course.

For more information, contact LBCC Health Occupations and Workforce Education at 917-4923.

MID-VALLEY

Teen writers invited to apply for Young Voices

High school students in the mid-valley who are interested in writing or photography are invited to apply for the Democrat-Herald’s Young Voices program.

Young Voices gives students the opportunity to learn about newspaper work and a variety of other topics as they produce stories and pictures for a weekly Young Voices page.

Students can contribute as much or as little work as their schedules permit but must be willing to follow through on whatever work they commit to. They’ll receive a $25 stipend for every story the paper publishes.

Any student interested in the program should send an e-mail to Associate Editor Steve Lundeberg, the Young Voices adviser, at steve.lundeberg@lee.net. The e-mail should include a 200-word autobiography and a few general story topics the writer is interested in pursuing.

For more information, call 812-6110.

Democrat-Herald