Sertoma coat drive wraps up Jan. 31

Carson Valley Sertoma member Eileen Behr provided a recent update on the current coat drive and said the event has been “amazingly successful” so far.

Behr co-chairs the drive and reports that as of mid-January, 2,458 coats and more than 5,000 warm items including socks, hats, mittens, and scarves have been collected and distributed.

Anyone considering a material or monetary donation before the event concludes at the end of the month can log onto CarsonValleySertoma.org to view a list of blue barrel collection sites and instructions on how to make a financial contribution.

In addition to expressing gratitude for the many donations made by the local community, Behr thanked “all the companies that are helping out this year with hosting barrels or holding their own coat drives” and specifically mentioned the positive impact of a couple of in-house collection efforts.

Employees of Harrah’s and Harvey’s in South Lake Tahoe gathered 54 coats, 46 pairs of gloves, and 204 hats for the drive and sanitized all contributions prior to presenting them to Sertoma. Pau-Wa-Lu Middle School’s site-based drive “gave us an incredible 139 coats and a number of other warm items,” said Behr. Before leaving for the holiday break, National Junior Honor Society student representatives delivered the clothing to Sertoma volunteers.

This is Sertoma’s fourth annual coat drive, and donation totals have increased significantly each year. Sertoma members sort and air out all items before packaging and passing them along to a number of local service centers and organizations for distribution.

Sertoma derives its name from the phrase, SERvice TO MAnkind. The club’s primary mission is “to improve the quality of life today for those at risk or impacted by hearing loss through education and support.” The local Carson Valley chapter emphasizes volunteer service to help meet the needs of the community.

All are welcome at the group’s meetings, which are currently being held via Zoom every Friday from 7:30-8:30 a.m. For more information or to obtain a meeting link, log onto the Sertoma web page and submit a request, or contact a Sertoma member directly.

Jan. 22 Dine and Dash

The Tahoe/Douglas Elks are preparing barbecue chicken with Santa Maria-style beans and macaroni salad for Friday night’s Dine and Dash takeout event.

Each meal provides two servings and is offered for a $25 donation; proceeds help support programs that benefit veterans, seniors, and youth throughout the Carson Valley.

Meal reservations must be made by 4:30 p.m. Thursday; call 775-265-5483 and leave your name, number of orders, and preferred pickup time between 5-7 p.m. If you want confirmation of your order, include that request along with a return phone number and someone will get back to you.

The Tahoe/Douglas Elks lodge is located at 1227 Kimmerling Road in the Gardnerville Ranchos.

A plethora of palindromes

A palindrome is a word, phrase, or numerical sequence that reads the same forward and backward. We started the year with a numerical palindrome date on Jan. 2 (1-2-21), and it’s a fun fact that Wednesday’s date of 1-20-21 was the first in a series of ten successive palindrome dates this month. Now through Jan. 29, 2021, each date written in a month-day-2 digit-year format reads as a numerical palindrome, and we’ll see another series of palindrome dates come December.Amy Roby can be reached at ranchosroundup@hotmai