SCIO: Welcome home party planned for Big Red

The taxidermist's mounting of Scio's former rooster mascot, Big Red, will be unveiled at a Welcome Home Party starting at 11 a.m. Saturday at the Scio Feed & Country Store.

Cookies and red punch will be served.

Those who reserved figurine replicas of the Rhode Island red rooster, who was mauled to death by a dog last July, can pick them up at the event. Another 30 figurines will arrive later in the month, and they are for sale.

Audie and Marian Heikkila, who owned Big Red, are throwing the party. They took care of him starting in 1998, when the bird rode into town in the bed of a pickup and took up residence at the store. No one knows where he came from.

Big Red became a regular fixture in Scio as every weekday the bird strolled down Main Street looking for food handouts. His story was profiled in newspapers and on national television.

ALBANY: LBCC forum on global warming

The public is invited to a free presentation on "Focus the Nation: Global Warming Solutions" by project director Eban Goodstein from noon to 1 p.m. Tuesday at Linn-Benton Community College in the Forum building, F-104, 6500 Pacific Blvd. S.W., Albany.

Goodstein is a professor of Economics at Lewis and Clark College and an environmental researcher, author and activist. The project Focus the Nation is a major educational initiative coordinating faculty, students, staff, employees and civic leaders at thousands of institutions across the country to focus national attention around a serious discussion of climate stabilization and global warming solutions.

The project will culminate next year in the form of one-day national symposia held simultaneously on campuses across the country. The project aims to be a catalyzing event, helping to turn the national conversation about global warming from fatalism toward finding solutions.

This free event is sponsored by LBCC and the Oregon Campus Compact. Feel free to bring a brown bag lunch. Parking is free.

For more information, contact Sherry Rosen at 917-4778 or sherry.rosen@linnbenton.edu. For information about Goodstein or the Focus the Nation project, visit www.focusthenation.org.

CORVALLIS: Benton teens invited to summit

The Benton County Commission on Children and Families Youth Commission will hold Teen Summit 2007, "Live Out Loud," from 8:15 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesday at Oregon State University, in the LaSells Stewart Center and the CH2M Hill Alumni Center. Benton County teens are invited to join their peers and learn more about issues that impact their lives such as alcohol and drug abuse.

Teen Summit 2007 will feature workshops on healthy relationships, college planning, sports careers, self defense, yoga and much more.

It's open to all Benton County high school-age students. Registration forms are available at high schools.

For more information, contact Teri Watson at 766-6087.

Korea veterans invited to join association

The Linn-Benton Chapter of the Korean War Veterans Association will meet Wednesday at the VFW Post, 1469 Timber St., Albany. Lunch will be at 11:30 a.m. with the meeting to follow at 12:30 p.m. The group meets the first Wednesday of each month.

The association is seeking members who served in any U.S. military branch in Korea prior to, during or after the Korean War. A change has been made in the national by-laws to allow veterans who served at any time in Korea to be eligible for membership.

To be a member, veterans must have served honorably:

• In Korea, including the territorial waters and airspace between Sept. 3, 1945, and June 25, 1950.

• Within or outside Korea from June 25, 1950, to Jan. 31, 1955.

• In Korea from Feb. 1, 1955, until the present.

For non-military members, an associate or honorary membership is also available.

For more information on status and eligibility, contact Jack Davis at 258-3013 or patmac@centurytel.net.

Democrat-Herald