In my previous post I was telling you all about Oakhurst’s new online site.  Not only will this site be great for tourists, local residents will find it very informative and enjoyable as well.

On the new site you will find information on places to go in the area.  There is a calendar of events as well as an area map with clickable dots to further highlight the events and attractions available in the Oakhurst area as well as other areas.  There is also travel tips listed as well as a section on FAQ (frequently asked questions).

Find information on all sorts of restaurants like, American, Asian, Bar and Lounge, Breakfast, Café and Bistro, Fine Dining, Lunch, Mexican, Picnics and Take Out, Pizzerias, Seafood, Sunday Brunch and restaurant coupons.

There are places listed for wedding planning, meeting planning, and event planning.  You will find it easy to find information on facilities that rent for a variety of reasons.  Local wineries are listed with information on private tours, sightseeing tours and ultra premium wineries to name a few.  Thinking of planning a wedding?  No need to look any further.  This site has everything listed from wedding planners, to party sites to romantic lodging, to transportation.  There is also information listed on art galleries, attractions, spas, car rentals, casinos, golf courses, museums, RV rentals, shopping etc.  You name it, it is there.

Visit www.Oakhurstchamber.dpway.com and check out all the fun information that is now available about our great area!  What a brilliant marketing tool that is now available to everyone!

This has to be one of the most entertaining mayoral fundraisers yet.

Come out on Wednesday, May 21 at midnight (yes, that’s right midnight) for a premier of the new movie “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” at Met Cinemas in Oakhurst. If you really want to get your Indiana Jones fix, you can come a couple hours before the midnight showing to see “Raiders of the Lost Ark” as well. Doors open at 8pm and the first movie starts at 9pm and there will be an hour intermission between the two movies. The cost for both movies is $15, with $7 of that money going towards the “Mat for Mayor” campaign. While Mat is “running” for mayor, Indy will be running from the bad guys in Peru when the Cold War is at its height.

The fourth part of the Indiana Jones franchise stars (of course) Harrison Ford, Cate Blanchett and Shia LeBeouf. Harrison began portraying adventurer Indiana Jones in the 1980s. The first Indy movie was “Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark”. This was followed by “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” and “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade”, which also starred Sean Connery.

Oakhurst has recently made a wise decision in partnering up with Destination Partners.  Destination Partners is an internet marketing company that has products and services that are geared towards serving businesses, leisure travel and hospitality industries online.
Their new alliance as brought Oakhurst further onto the information highway, via the internet.  Tourism is sure to get a boost with all the information that is now available to travelers online.  People will now be able to see more information on the general area with just a few key strokes.

Special coupons, discounts, incentives and promotions, are now available online.  There are instant savings on luxurious hotel accommodations, restaurants, tours, shops, and transportation in Oakhurst and the surrounding areas, as well as information about attractions to enjoy.

The new portal provides everyone with up-to-date information on everything you could imagine.  When you go to the website, you simply click on “Oakhurst” and hit “go”.  There you have it….information is at your finger tips.  You will be able to obtain addresses, phone numbers, directions and other important details to make your travel or special event planning much easier.

The site is extremely user friendly with drop down menus and simple click and go features.

Are you in need of an area hotel?  Look no further; this site has many choices available from Bed and Breakfast Inns, to budget hotels, to luxury hotels.

Please check back on Wednesday for the conclusion to this post.
 

Sober Grad Night celebrations are now popping up all around our country.  For years, some seniors have celebrated their completion of high school with unsupervised parties where alcohol is being provided and consumed.  These sober parties offer a safe alternative for teens to celebrate together and still have a fantastic time.

The Yosemite School Sober Grad Night is in need of funding.  They are currently $5,000 short of what they need to pull off their big bash.  The party will begin at 8:30 p.m. on June 11th and will directly follow the commencement ceremony.  Seniors will able to stay up all night and hang out with friends.  There will be games, food and prizes to be won.

Participants are required to check in soon after the graduation ceremony ends at the high school.  This is a “lock-in” party.  If they chose to leave, they will not be allowed to come back into the party.  There will be prizes awarded all night, but only those in attendance will be eligible to win them.

The committee is in need of big ticket prize items.  Suggestions would be a trip, a computer or even a car.  They are also looking for donations of smaller items that college bound students would need.  Suggestions would be blankets, blenders, clocks, microwaves and radios.  Gift cards are also a good idea.

If just one alcohol related crash, one injury, one arrest, or especially one death is prevented, then all the work that volunteers have put into making a fun and safe party for grads, would all be worth it!  If you are interested in helping out this very worthwhile cause, contact Tammy Thacker at (559) 683-4667 ext. 319.

If we don’t keep our area clean, who will? First and foremost it is important not to litter, but of course we know that everyone does not do this. It is not fair, but in order to keep our area looking good, sometimes we do have to clean up the messes that someone else has made.

With that in mind, the Community Roadside Litter Clean-up will take place this Saturday, May 17 from 8 am until Noon. You will be able to pick up trash bags at the following locations: the Oakhurst Branch Library, the Coarsegold Tepee, the North Fork Post Office and the Bass Fork Mini Mart. There are some areas in North Fork, Coarsegold and Ahwahnee that are in need to attention, so keep that is mind as you decide where you want to help. Call Mountain Area Information at 559-877-3424 for more information.

When you have filled your bag(s), you should place them so that they are not in the road. There will be trucks that will come to pick up the trash. Then pat yourself and your companions on the back for a job well done. Take yourselves out for ice cream or plan some other treat as a reward for your selflessly volunteering your time to make our community look a little better.

Relay For Life is kicking off their spring fundraisers around the country once again.  It is the world’s largest fundraising walk held.  In 2007, the Relay For Life raised over $405 million dollars worldwide.  The money raised is used to fund research, spread cancer awareness, cover treatments and cures and celebrate survivorship.

After the opening ceremony, everyone is sure to enjoy the “survivors lap” that is taken by those who have survived this horrible disease.  There are 23 teams that are registered so far this year for the 5th Annual American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life in Eastern Madera County.  Festivities will be held on Saturday May 15 at 9:00 a.m. until Sunday May 16th at 9:00 a.m.

Team members will run or walk for the entire 24 hour time period.  Each team will need to pay $150 registration fee and each team member is asked to raise $100 in donations.

Each year, luminaries are placed around the track and lit at dusk.  They will remain lit until dawn.   It is truly an awesome site to be seen.  Luminaries can be purchased to honor a cancer survivor or to honor someone who has lost their battle with cancer.   The cost of purchasing one is $10 this year.  If you are interested in purchasing one or need more information on this amazing event, contact Janice Ellis at 683-0968 or Lynette Schrank at 683-5066.

In these days when gas prices are soaring, many people are looking for alternate modes of transportation. Some people adapted the bike-riding habit years ago; others are just catching on. Either way, it cannot hurt to consider new ways to get where you need to go. Biking is not only better for the environment; it can also create a healthier you.

May is Bike Month, May 12-16, 2008 is Bike-to-Work Week, with May 15 being highlighted Bike-to-Work Day.

Here are some ways you can take part in Bike Month in May and beyond-

-Follow the example of Sacramento, CA and track community biking miles.
-Have a progressive dinner with bikers traveling and eating along a pre-determined trail.
-Have a bike parade on your block.
-Ride your bike to the library and get a book about cycling.
-Teach a child how to ride a bike.
-Go to a cycling race.
-Make a bicycle-themed dessert.
-Set up a scavenger hunt for cyclers.
-Help to clean up litter on a bike trail.
-Donate a bike helmet to someone who needs one.

For more ideas visit the Bike League website.

In continuation to the post last Friday.

Sadly, a mere nine years after the first official Mother’s Day was celebrated, Anna Jarvis became a major opponent of what the holiday had become.  She wanted to keep the holiday simple, yet commercialization became rampant and this was quite different than how she had envisioned her original idea.
 
Mother’s Day is now the most popular day of the entire year to dine out at a restaurant.  American’s are expected to pay $3.51 billion dollars dining out on Mother’s Day.  Most people dine out for brunch or dinner.   It is by far the most commercially successful holiday that is celebrated in the United States, even surpassing Christmas.  Americans will spend approximately 68 million on greeting cards this Mother’s Day.  There is expected to be approximately $2.6 billion spent on flowers.  There will be approximately $1.53 billion spent on spa treatments and other lovely pampering gifts for Mom.

Mother’s everywhere work hard and deserve all the thanks that they can be given.  The commercialism is certainly a far cry from the day of rest for Mom’s that was what Anna Jarvis set out to accomplish in 1908, but everyone seems to enjoy pampering their Mom on one special day.

Here’s wishing all Mom’s a Happy Mother’s Day….no matter how you decide to celebrate it.

A Mother’s Day History Lesson Part I Of II

Mothers’ Day is celebrated on various days in various ways depending on what country you reside in.  In the United States, Mother’s Day is always celebrated on the second Sunday in May.
 
Originally it was inspired by the British Mother’s Day which is also called “Mothering Sunday”.  In 1858, Ann Jarvis who was a young Appalachian homemaker from West Virginia attempted to improve sanitation through what she called “Mothers’ Work Days”.  She organized women throughout the Civil War to work for better sanitation conditions and tried to help reconcile both the Confederate and Union neighbors.  It was originally intended as a call to unite women against war.  In 1870, Julia Ward Howe, wrote the Mother’s Day Proclamation which was a call for peace and disarmament.    She did not ever receive formal recognition for a “Mother’s Day for Peace” that she sought.

After Ann Jarvis passed away 1907, her daughter Anna Jarvis, began to work to find a way to honor her mother as well as all mothers.  She wanted to make it a simple celebration to show appreciation for all her mother had done for her.   Her efforts paid off and led to the first recognized Mother’s Day.  The first Mother’s Day was celebrated in Grafton, West Virginia on May 10, 1908.  Other states began to declare Mother’s Day an official holiday beginning in 1912.  In 1914 President Woodrow Wilson declared the first national Mother’s Day as a day for all American citizens to show the flag in honor of those mothers whose sons have died in war.

Please check back on Monday for the conclusion to this post.

This past April, The State Center Community College District decided that it is time to start the formal college naming process that will give the Willow International Center a moniker of its own. They are now looking for names and the names they select will be presented to the Board of Trustees in October.

Anyone, be they staff, students or a member of the community at large can submit a name for consideration. The college’s websites will allow you to suggest a name via the internet. And there are also suggestion boxes at the Willow International Center, so you can drop off your name suggestion in person.

This is your chance to go down in history as the person who chose the name of a great public institution. Names can make all the difference when it comes to community acceptance, so the school is making sure that the community feels like it is a part of this college. We all have a vested interest in local centers for higher education and this time the community will be there from the start, christening this school with its new name.