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Residents and staff of Oak Tree Villa donated $1,500 toward the families of deceased Santa Cruz Police Officers Loran “Butch” Baker and Elizabeth Butler on Wednesday, Aug. 21. The assisted living home held a rummage sale in its courtyard on July 20 and raised $1,500 towards the cause. They chose to donate to the families of the officers because they were killed in duty around the same time planning for the rummage sale began, said Oak Tree Villa Executive Director Tracy Freudendahl. To accept the donation, Santa Cruz Police Officers, including Chief Kevin Vogel came to Oak Tree Villa in their 1961 Chevrolet Biscane cruiser and gave rides to some of the residents. “It was very cool,” said Freudendahl. “The residents enjoyed it.” Oak Tree Villa will hold another rummage sale this Saturday, Aug. 24 to raise money for the Alzheimer’s Association — the same charity the sale benefitted in 2012.

Each time I'm in my garden it's a different experience. The familiar buzz of hummingbird wings brings a smile to my face. Sometimes it's the silence that gets my attention. Where are the chirping songbirds or the raucous scolding of the jays? Where is the wind, the rustling of the forest grass leaves? Other times the quaking of the redwood boughs a hundred feet up makes the garden come alive like giant wind chimes. Sound adds dimension to the garden.

Bonny Doon Elementary School

"A thousand times a day, nature--in the most ordinary of places--has something to tell or show us; something it wants us to touch, smell, or feel; something it wants all of us, not just the overtly artistic, to express."

A leadership-oriented after-school program is set to kick off on the San Lorenzo Valley Elementary School campus this year.