Week 2, April 2010
A change in both format and mission has begun with WeekendWanderings.com. Read why here.
This week’s highlighted local treasure is The Berkeley Free Clinic. For over forty years, the BFC has provided healthcare for this local community enabling especially those who have lost their jobs and their insurance and their ability to pay for these services a chance they probably otherwise would not have. Let’s start with this proclamation from their website: Fees have never been charged for any services, materials, medications or supplies provided at the Berkeley Free Clinic. Income has been generated solely via individual or organizational donations and government programs. I’m choosing this place and this subject as my first to highlight in the Weekend Wanderings new format because we all surely know instinctively that our community’s health is the foundation of all of its successes. And as a nation, I believe our healthcare is both a symbol of our inequitable system and a shining example of what’s so desperately in need of improvement. Healthcare is a basic right and should not be linked to profit, so says the Our Philosophy page of the BFC. The recently-passed Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act beginning in 2011 will allocate $11 billion to community health centers. While still just a fraction of what was spent to bail out AIG ($182 billion), this is a massive step towards helping our communities to lift up from within, and to hopefully also begin to change our very system from that of a disease-management system to one of disease-prevention system. So, most of all today I want to applaud the Berkeley Free Clinic for its commitment and its impact on this community over the past 40+ years, and I hope for those of you reading this you will see this as a perfect example of what I call a Treasure in Your Town and Beyond.
Let’s Find Some Fun ‘Round Here…
Yuri’s Night at Ames NASA Research Center in Mountain View: From their website: MOFFETT FIELD, Calif. – Yuri’s Night Bay Area 2010 will bring together scientists, engineers, artists, musicians and an estimated 10,000 guests to NASA’s Ames Research Center on Saturday, April 10, 2010 for a multimedia celebration of space exploration. The 12-hour action-packed event will feature top musical acts, an aerial show, 120 exhibits, large-scale art installations and speakers to commemorate the anniversary of the first human space launch (Yuri Gargarin, April 12, 1961) and the first space shuttle mission (John Young and Bob Crippen, April 12, 1981). Yuri’s Night Bay Area coincides with hundreds of other celebrations around the world.
Client Appreciation Show at The Warehouse Gallery in Oakland: From their website: The Warehouse Gallery is a contemporary arts space founded in 2009 to host emerging artists alongside established artists. Utilizing our 3,000 square foot warehouse space, we created a large gallery and multimedia room. We are genre un-conformists, instead focusing on themes and special events. At The Warehouse Gallery, a variety of artwork will be exhibited: classical, experimental, performance, video, installation, and anything that can be experienced. The gallery is as diverse as the talents which show. In other words, we are the peoples’ gallery. The Warehouse Gallery is located in the San Antonio district of Oakland. We are by appointment only, with events about every two months.
Any Old Time String Band at the Freight and Salvage in Berkeley: From their website: Original members Kate Brislin, Suzy Thompson, Valerie Mindel, Sue Draheim and Genny Haley will revive their signature mix of rousing fiddle tunes and old-time songs, humorous novelty numbers, Cajun waltzes, haunting ballads, and hip-shaking classic blues songs for two nights at Berkeley’s Freight & Salvage Sunday night. Besides revisiting the old favorites, the quintet is working up some new material for the occasion!
Pic ‘o the Week:
A Carmel Evening Begins