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Feb 3 5:00pm - Feb 3 9:00pmFill the streets of Downtown Roanoke with families and friends. Visit the museums, discuss your favorite works...enjoy snacks and visits - roanokeartbynight.com
first Friday of each month - Hoodie-Hoo Day!
Feb 20 12:10am - Feb 20 11:10pmStep outside and give a yell! Hoodie-Hoo is how we will chase winter away! - Cascades Garlic Mustard removal for 2012
Apr 28 10:00am - Apr 28 3:00pm2012 Garlic Mustard Challange at the Cascades
a fun day to help take care of the Cascades ecosystem
free parking, open to groups
More details, contact Eastern Divide Ranger Station
540-552-4641
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Admin
Hello Folks!
Ashley and I were just so pleased with the response for our request for making donations to Feeding America Southwest Virginia for our annual KIVA birthday bash last weekend! We set a goal of 400 lbs. of food for this year’s event. Families who visited the Mill Mountain Discovery Center last Saturday helped us to collect 116 pounds. Thank you so much!
The kind employees and owners of Walkabout Outfitter collected 127 additional pounds for our food drive! We are so thankful to those wonderful people. Make sure to stop by one of their three locations this week to tell them thank you.
That leaves us with a total of 243 pounds of food collected for families in our area! Mr. Robert Rogers, a representative of Feeding America was so pleased with the response and the interest of families who were willing to help. He shared with the group about the local need for food and how Feeding America Southwest Virginia 14 million pounds of food last year to our area.
You can read more about the efforts of Feeding America Southwest Virginia here:
http://www.faswva.org/Subnav/about-us.html
There is still time to donate toward our food drive. Feel free to contact us about a pick up or you can donate the items yourself on location in Salem, Virginia. Just let them know that your donation should be counted for the Kids In the Valley, Adventuring! collection drive.
Several KIVA folks asked about making monetary donations, as well. Knowing that each dollar collected by Feeding America Southwest Virginia can be turned into EIGHT dollars of food helped us to see that the Donahues could help this way, as well. If you would like to make a donation to Feeding America Southwest Virginia and help to make a change locally, please visit:
http://www.faswva.org/Subnav/donate.html
Again, mention that the donation is in honor of the Kids In the Valley, Adventuring! food drive.
Thanks so much for your time and efforts. We look forward to adventuring with you very soon.
We also need to thank the fine folks at Mill Mountain Discovery Center. They stayed open late to host our birthday bash. We are so proud to introduce families to this wonderful resource for families. It is so much more than a bathroom spot before you hit the Mill Mountain Zoo. They have that, of course, but they also host some really fantastic programs.
Here is a list of upcoming programs to be held at the Mill Mountain Discovery Center next month:
Mill Mountain Discovery Center Programs:
Winter Tree ID - February 4, 10-11:30am for ages 10+, $5
Family Winter Hike - February 11, 10am-12pm, for ages 6+, $5
Maple Tapping, February 18, 10am-12pm, for ages 4+, $5
Cave Critters, February 25, 10-11:30am, for ages 6-12, $5
Link: www.roanokeva.gov/playonline
Thanks again,
Chip and Ashley W. Donahue
The Donahues were so honored by the kind folks who visited with us during our KIVA Birthday Bash #4! Mill Mountain Discovery Center is such a wonderful place. We are always so proud to be able to share it with new families in the area.
We will have a running total update on food collected, but we are actually quite short of our goal of 400 lbs. of food to be collected for Feeding America Southwest Virginia.
If you are able to donate and were not able to do that on Saturday, please let us know - KIVAinfo@gmail.com. We would be happy to arrange a pick up. You can also drop your food donation off at Walkabout Outfitter at Valley View Mall. This needs to be dropped off by Wednesday January 25. The Donahues will be picking up their kind collection Wednesday afternoon.
Feeding America Southwest Virginia is specifically in need of the following:
■canned meats
■canned veggies
■canned fruits
■rice,
■beans
■peanut butter
■100% juice
After the final food weight has been tracked, we will send out one further request through our e-mail group if needed.
Thanks again for your support and very creative ideas for family adventures in the Roanoke Valley. Thanks especially to Mr. Jon Beard - who has so graciously offered his volunteer services to host our website, www.kidsadventuring.org and to come along to our KIVA events to photograph them for the KIVA event gallery. Check out the most recent photos at http://www.kidsadventuring.org/gallery/.
Please come along and join our happy throng!
We’d love for you to join us as we celebrate four years of outdoor fun with families all around the Roanoke Valley.
Here is a map to the Discovery Center in Roanoke, VA - atop the lovely Mill Mountain.
Rember, instead of gifts, please bring a canned food item for Feeding America Southwest Virginia. We have set a goal of collecting 400 lbs. Won’t you help us make a difference in our community?
Would you like to receive our e-mails? We usually send 3-4 each month, detailing upcoming family fun events in the Roanoke Valley. We’re happy to help you stay aware!
kivainfo @ gmail.com to sign up!
When we started KIVA in January of 2008, Ashley and I saw a chance to make a difference in our community by encouraging families to get out and explore together. Later that year, we were chosen by Family Fun Magazine as a family to receive $1,000 to give to the charity of our choice. There was no question that Feeding America, then Second Harvest Food Bank, was the only choice for our family.
Ashley owned a bakery in Downtown Roanoke for many years and we got a quick lesson in daily hunger in our community. Being a school teacher for the last 13 years has shown me that students don’t always get their day started off right with a warm, healthy meal.
We could use this as a chance to help the food bank. We took a tour of the facilities and learned just how much work goes on there. Since then we have continued to host a food drive for Feeding America Southwest Virginia during our annual birthday bash. We are always honored when people show up for our events, but to see them smiling as they walk up to the table to drop off a canned food as a donation, Ashley and I are always overwhelmed. Each family doing a small part (or often families who bring more tan their share…) turns out to be a lot of food.
Also, we are hoping to do our part through KIVA to bring attention to this very large issue for our community: Hunger. Families often go hungry. As we gather around the table each night, we try to remember those who do not have enough.
Help us make that difference. Join us THIS Saturday from 3 - 5 PM at the Mill Mountain Discovery Center atop the lovely Mill Mountain. We will gather for a walk and then return to celebrate another fine year of KIVA adventures, as well as collect food for Feeding America Southwest Virginia.
Our goal of 400 lbs. of food will add to our collective donation of food at over 1,000 pounds!
Here are some specific items that Feeding America is requesting at this particular time of the year.
canned meats, canned vegetables, canned fruits, rice, beans, peanut butter, 100% juice
Thank you for being a part of this adventure with us.
The Wild Donahues
It was an honor to be among the numbers in the walk for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. yesterday in Downtown Roanoke. Please take a few moments to read about our walk via The Roanoke Times article at
http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/303590
That’s my head popping up in the back, along with our youngest little one. It was he who made my day so special yesterday, asking heart-felt questions about the purpose of the walk and questions about the life of Dr. King.
Want to learn a little bit more, then check out the video from WDBJ 7, our local station which covered the event here:
The above photo was taken from an Exploring Roanoke website. A great write up of this historical spot in Roanoke can be found at http://www.nokenews.com/2008/09/01/exploring-roanoke-dr-martin-luther-king-jr-memorial-bridge-and-statue/
We hope that you will take time with your family to make a difference by serving tomorrow.
Enjoy this video and be inspired.
After your day of service, please join us as we walk tomorrow afternoon for the
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Youth Day Celebration
Beginning with a march at the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Bridge on First Street, the program will conclude at First Baptist Church (310 Jefferson St. N.W.) with guest speaker Dr. Nathaniel Bishop, president of Jefferson College of Health Sciences.
When: 3:00 p.m.
Where: Memorial Bridge, First Street, Roanoke
Cost: Free
Contact: 400-2459
For more information about this special bridge, honoring a world-changing man, please visit the Exploring Roanoke page for the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Bridge at http://www.nokenews.com/2008/09/01/exploring-roanoke-dr-martin-luther-king-jr-memorial-bridge-and-statue/
Information taken from Hands On Blue Ridge
Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service – January 16, 2012
“Life’s most persistent and urgent question is: What are you doing for others?
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. devoted his life to equality, social justice, economic advancement, and opportunity for all. He challenged us to build a more perfect union and taught us that everyone has a role to play in making America what it ought to be. With his leadership, our nation made great strides against racial discrimination and toward increased civil rights.
More than 40 years after his death, Dr. King’s example can continue to guide us in addressing our nation’s most critical issues today. Each of us can contribute to strengthening our own communities by serving in Dr. King’s honor on the King Holiday and throughout the year. And, by making service part of our daily lives, we can help realize Dr. King’s dream. Together we can work to create opportunities for Americans to strengthen economic opportunity, ensure that more young people graduate from high school; that American’s of all ages have healthier futures; and support our military families and veterans.
Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service Event
Monday, Janaury 16, 2012
10AM – 2PM
Tanglewood Mall
Service opportunities for all ages!
Hosted by:
Sponsored by:
A Little Food = Big Savings
Now through Saturday, Janaury 21st, donate canned goods or non-perishable food items at either of their three locations, draw for a discount, and get up to 30% off*!
Walkabout Outfitter has been a kind partner with KIVA: Kids in the Valley Adventuring in the past and is now offering to help us collect canned foods for Feeding America Southwest Virginia.
OUR GOAL: Collect 400 lbs. of food!
Feeding America Southwest Virginia is specifically in need of the following:
■canned meats
■canned veggies
■canned fruits
■rice,
■beans
■peanut butter
■100% juice
Walkabout Outfitter’s very kind offer for a discount includes the following details…
*Applies to in-store items only. Not good on prior purchases. No other discounts apply. Please donate all you can, but only one discount per person.
When the world brings you unlucky days…
throw some Roger Miller on it!
maple surple… HAH!
After sending out the most recent KIVA e-mail, detailing our upcoming KIVA Birthday Bash, we received so many nice notes from the folks on our e-mail list. Ashley and I were so honored by your kind words and remarks about our past adventures.
This one, I just had to share. The names have been left out. But the story just warms our cold winter hearts.
Dear Chip & Ashley,
I wanted to say Happy Birthday and congrats to you and KIVA on your fourth year of outdoor adventures. My son and I attended your very first event in January four years ago. We really enjoyed learning about letterboxing. We loved your idea of an outdoor family nature club and took this to our friends that very same year. Because of you all and KIVA we started our own informal nature outing club with mostly families of boys. It started with four families and has grown to include up to 10 families some times (with a few girls every now and then). We do wintertime frozen waterfall hikes to springtime kite flying to our summer family camping trip at a state park to fall time corn maizes. We even work together to pull off a week-long outdoorsy all-boys summer camp – which is the boys most fave summer camp of all times!
Thanks for the inspiration – and know that your idea has caught on and expanded by other families right here in the Roanoke Valley! We love your emails and look to them for great ideas – keep up the wonderful work!
Happy Birthday!
Wow! Thanks so much. We are floored.
We are looking forward to gathering together with KIVA folks from around the valley at Mill Mountain Discovery Center on January 21st from 3-5PM. We’ll have more details, including an awesome special announcement from one of our local outdoor retailers about a way you can save some money on your next purchase and help us with our canned food drive for Feeding America Southwest Virginia!
More about that tomorrow!
If you would like to receive our weekly e-mails which detail upcoming KIVA events or other family fun ideas, feel free to e-mail us at KIVAinfo @ gmail.com.
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