Etc. Column

Gardens ‘n grapes

set for Palouse

“Gardens and Grapes,” an afternoon of garden tours and wine tastings at three homes in Palouse will be June 22 from 1 to 6 p.m. The event is sponsored by Palouse Community Center and proceeds will go for landscaping the area between the center and the consignment shop.

Featured local wineries on the tour include Camas Prairie, Merry Cellars and Wawawai Canyon. The $25 per person admission includes three tastings at each garden, a commemorative glass and light hors d’oeuvres. Bottled wine will be available for purchase.

Participants will gather at Heritage Park to begin the tour which will feature the homes of Mary and Loren Estes, Rosemary and Bruce Gage, and Judy and Ben Finch.

All are located within a three-block area so participants will be able to walk to the three sites.

Presale tickets are available from Mary Estes, Rosmary Gage, Janet Barstow and Judy Finch as well as at each of the wineries and the Bank Left Gallery, Mimi’s Bakery, the Green Frog and Needful Things.

Estes said that the landscaping plans for the community center include a concrete or cobblestone area with a picnic table or two and boulders.

Blackwood

quartet slated

at Garfield

The award-winning Nashville-based Blackwood Brothers Legacy Quartet will perform a community concert at Garfield Park next Friday, June 7, at 6:30 p.m. The Blackwood Legacy performance is being hosted by Garfield Community Church. Admission is free.

The Mansion Records artists link southern gospel’s traditional sound with today’s newer country gospel and worship music.

The Blackwood Legacy Quartet is the current formation of the Blackwood Brothers Quartet, which was formed in 1934 by three brothers in Choctaw County, Miss.

Winners of eight Grammy Awards and four Dove Awards, the Blackwood Brothers have sold more than 50 million albums and have been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, the Gospel Music Association Hall of Fame and the Rockabilly Hall of Fame.

The current group includes lead singer Daniel Childs, great-grandson of founding leader Roy Blackwood. Bass singer Rick Price was a protégé of the late Cecil Blackwood, beginning his career with the Blackwood Brothers in 1977. In addition, current Quartet members include Spokane native and baritone Luke Yates and tenor singer Paul Secord, a former featured singer at Disney World.

For more information, call Garfield Community Church.

Photography exhibit set for Colfax fest

In conjunction with the Concrete River Festival in Colfax, photographers are invited to participate in an exhibition July 26-28 in the Colfax Library. Theme will be “Our Palouse: People, Places and Possibilities.” There will be no entry fee, but the library asks all participants contribute one photo, 8x10 or larger with white matting, for a lasting exhibit to be housed at the library.

Photographers can sell their images during the exhibit but entrants will be responsible for conducting transactions. The exhibition will be open July 26, noon to 6 p.m .; July 27, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., and July 28, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Other events on the festival schedule are A Color Mob 5K Fun Run through the river channel, live music all three days with beer garden, craft and food vendors, a Friday night street cruise and roller derby exhibition, Saturday parade, kids’ carnival and car show. A concrete river mural will be completed and unveiled.

CLUBS & YOUTH GROUPS

Rosalia Garden Club

Members will meet at the home of President Roseanna Hester on June 5 at 8:45 a.m. for a short business meeting before they travel to the University of Idaho to tour the Arboretum and Botanical garden. Tour time is from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. with lunch to follow at a Moscow restaurant.

The club recently donated two large red maples to the Horn School rest area on Highway 195 just south of Rosalia. The trees were planted May 13 for the 2013 Arbor Day Planting program. The red maples were selected to add color to the rest area, specifically in the fall when the WSU football season starts and fans travel to Pullman to cheer on the Crimson and Gray.

State FFA elects

Heitstuman VP

Michael Heitstuman of Uniontown was elected the state vice president for the Washington State FFA Association May 11 in Pullman. As a state officer, Heitstuman will travel more than 275-days during the next 12 months promoting the 7,000-member state FFA Association through chapter visits, district leadership events, and correspondence with state agricultural leaders.

Heitstuman will represent youth as a board member of the Washington State FFA Foundation and serve as a voting delegate at the 86th annual National FFA Convention to be held in Louisville, Ky., Oct. 30 to Nov. 2

Heitstuman, now studying agricultural education at the University of Idaho, is the son of Mark Heitstuman and Michele Blakely-Heitstuman of Uniontown.

McDonald

promoted

Patrick McDonald, formerly of Colfax, was promoted at Fort Lewis to the rank of Sergeant Major in the Army Reserves. McDonald, 52, the son of the late Roy and Carol McDonald of Colfax, has been in the Army Reserves for 22 years to include six deployments including two recent ones to Iraq. In his civilian job he is the assistant to Washington Secretary of State Kim Wyman and is pursuing a doctorate degree in public policy and administration. He will spend 10 months on active duty at the Ft. Bliss, Texas, sergeants major course starting in August.