Longtime Cabrillo volunteer to conduct bird walk
Residents will have an opportunity on Saturday to get close to nature, as Cabrillo National Monument volunteer Claude Edwards, a biologist, hosts another in a series of monthly bird and biodiversity walks.
Edwards, who is celebrating 30 years of volunteer service at Cabrillo, conducts a moderate, hour-and-a-half walk that helps visitors forge personal, emotional and intellectual connections with the national park.
A noted biologist and birder, Edwards has continued as a biologist and a partnering consultant with Kline-Edwards Professional Services.
Edwards’ volunteer activities have not been limited to Cabrillo National Monument, however. He also founded the San Diego International Bird Festival and was an active participant in the San Diego Bird Atlas project.
For more than 30 years, Edwards has been active in the annual Christmas Bird Count, serving as its compiler for seven consecutive years.
He also sits on the board of he San Diego chapter of the National Audubon Society and chairs its Audubon Anstine Nature Preserve Committee.
Edwards leads the birds and biodiversity walk on the third Saturday of each month, except in December.
The walks, which are open to all experience levels, begin at 9:30 a.m. in the front of the Cabrillo National Monument Visitor Center at the south end of Catalina Boulevard.
The park is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily.
Participants are urged to bring binoculars and walking shoes. For more information, call (619) 557-5450, or visit www.nps.gov/cabr/.
OB woman to star in
‘The Glass Menagerie’
Ocean Beach resident Annie Pritchard, who won acclaim as Catherine in last year’s San Diego State University production of “Proof,” will now give a haunting and complex portrayal of Amanda Wingfield in SDSU’s upcoming production of “The Glass Menagerie.”
The work by Tony Award and two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Tennessee Williams, is being put on by SDSU’s School of Theatre, Television and Film at the Experimental Theatre from Sept. 28 through Sept. 30 and then from Oct. 3 through Oct. 7.
“The Glass Menagerie” tells the story of a St. Louis family struggling to cope with the harsh realities of the Great Depression and the bitter memories that haunt them.
Revealed in flashback, the play follows the lives of factory worker Tom Wingfield, torn between his role as the family breadwinner and the desire to lead a life of his own, and his abrasive mother Amanda (played by Pritchard), among other personal factors and issues.
For more tickets and more information, call (619) 594-6884, or visit www.theatre.sdsu.edu.
Concert to aid widows, kids of 9/11 victims
In the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, fire departments across the U.S. collected money for their fallen New York brethren. San Diego firefighter Christopher Finch, no less touched by the tragedy, began making beer as a way to raise money his own way.
Finch is now founder and president of the Firehouse Brewing Co. and the Firehouse Foundation, a nonprofit organization that will host its first “9/11 Concert at Liberty Station” on Sept. 16 to raise funds for the widows and families of firefighters who died in the attacks.
The concert lineup will include pop and alternative performers like DJ Scooter and First-Class Fiction, a band the brewery sponsors, according to Tony Martinez, the brewery’s marketing director. Firehouse will also raffle off a variety of prizes, including a kegerator with a keg and local restaurant and hotel gift certificates.
In addition to offering a complimentary beer garden, the brewery has arranged for several San Diego restaurants to provide free food tastings during the concert, including Dussini’s Mediterranean Bistro and the Firehouse American Eatery and Lounge.
Martinez says Firehouse, which is holding the first concert more than six years after 9/11 occurred, hopes to honor the memory of victims “as opposed to [hosting] a mourning event.
“During the event we will have bagpipes play and firetrucks raise a flag, but what we’re really trying to do is celebrate the memory of those who lost their lives,” he added.
According to Martinez, the tragedies shared by firefighters and their families in the aftermath of 9/11 inspired Finch to establish the Firehouse Brewing Co. in 2004.
The brewery donates a portion of its proceeds to the Firehouse Foundation to benefit the widows and orphans of deceased firefighters.
The Firehouse Foundation, a nonprofit offshoot of the brewery, also helps raise funds for safety equipment purchases for San Diego fire stations. The goal of the 9/11 Concert at Liberty Station, Martinez says, is to build up a permanent fund to further the Foundation’s charity efforts.
The Firehouse Brewing Co.’s first 9/11 Concert at Liberty Station will take place from 3 to 9 p.m. at the NTC Promenade at Liberty Station. Tickets are $20 before the event and $25 at the door.
Attendees must be ages 21 and older. For more information about the concert, or to purchase tickets, call (858) 605-1416 or visit www.firehousebrew.com.
Library seeking local authors published in 2007
The San Diego Public Library is looking for local authors who published a book in 2007 to submit their work for the 42nd Annual Local Authors Exhibit. The Exhibit will showcase local talents and provide opportunities for their work to be recognized. Local authors who wish to participate or those who know of one can call the San Diego Public Library at (619) 236-5847. The deadline for submission is Dec. 1.