Boise Urban Gardens

Your September calendar: Harvest dinners, B-52s, Weird Al and Zac Brown

SEPT. 1

Boise Contemporary Theater’s Season Opening Celebration: 6 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 1, Boise Contemporary Theater, 854 Fulton St. Food, wine and beer, music by Bill Coffey, silent and live auctions, performances by BCT actors and students from BCT’s Theater Lab. Benefit for BCT. $100 per person. 331-9224, Ext. 205.

Thursday Thunder: 6 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 1, Boise Spectrum, 7499 W. Overland Road. Vendors, jump houses, children’s activities and music by Pilot Error. Free. www.boisespectrumcenter.com.

Marcus Eaton: 8 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 1, Linen Building, 1402 W. Grove St., Boise. Opening: The Good Hurt, The Fav. $7 at www.brownpapertickets.com or at the door. 385-0111.

SEPT. 2

Coyote Celebration: 4:30 to 7 p.m. Friday, Sept. 2, College of Idaho, 2112 E. Cleveland Blvd., Caldwell. The College of Idaho unveils its new Coyote mascot and logo during a tailgate-style celebration on the J.A. Albertson Activities Center lawn. Includes a barbecue, apparel featuring the new logo, children’s activities, visits from other Treasure Valley mascots, more. Free; $5 for barbecue. 459-5529.

Rachel Coleman: 6:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 2, Summit Church, 10375 W. Overland Road, Boise. Benefit for Signing Time Foundation. $15 general, $7.50 children. VIP available for $25 and $15. Tickets at www.signingtimefoundation.org/boise or at the door.

Movies For a Cause: 9 p.m. Friday, Sept. 2, Caldwell Memorial Park, Grant Street and S. Kimball Avenue. Watch “The Blind Side” and enjoy music, food, street vendors. Benefit for the Mayor’s Youth Advisory Council. Free.

SEPT. 3

International Vulture Awareness Day: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 3, World Center for Birds of Prey, 5668 W. Flying Hawk Lane, Boise. Two Peregrine Fund biologists talk about their work with endangered California condors in Arizona and vultures in Asia and Africa. Also, photo display, children’s activities and live bird demonstrations. $7 general, $6 seniors, $5 children 4-16. Free for ages younger than 4 and members. 362-8687.

Idaho River Reflections » Blog Archive » IRU gets outside to ...

By Keats Conley, IRU intern

Two recent projects drew Idaho Rivers United out of the office to share about the wonders of Idaho’s rivers.

The first, called Water Unites Us, was a multicultural education project conceived by my supervisor, Boise River Campaign Coordinator Liz Paul, and which I helped pilot this summer. I’ve spent a substantial portion of my IRU internship studying and publicizing the connection between rivers and food. With the rising local food movement, a big part of this year’s Boise River Campaign is educating Idahoans about water-efficient gardening techniques. The goal of Water Unites Us is to show young people involved in local gardening the story of water as it moves from the Boise River into food. The two trips I worked on this summer were with kids from Global Gardens Refugee Community Agriculture and the Boise Urban Garden School.

The outline for the float trips: 9 a.m., meet in Barber Park, suit up in life jackets, get masking tape name tags on all the kids, watch Liz animatedly trace the story of the Boise River from the perspective of a snowflake. At 10 a.m., hop into 12-foot non-bailing paddle rafts and begin the float. Learn about the cottonwood down snowing from the trees, the green head that marks a male mallard, the triangular points of limbs toothed by beavers, the willow shoots struggling to establish themselves on rip-rapped shorelines. At 11:30 a.m., eddy out for a snack break, catch and identify macroinvertebrates, learn the Boise River like a story: its beginning, middle and end.  At 12:15 p.m., climb back on the boats.  At 1 p.m., enjoy lunch in Barber Park and a story-telling workshop led by Story Story Night host and IRU board member Jessica Holmes. Articulate a story involving water while the audience slurps watermelon.

At the end of one of the days, one of the boys from Global Gardens confessed, “This has been my best day ever.”

For many of these kids, this was their first time on the Boise River. Before the trip, few knew the source of their drinking water. Common answers when asked where the Boise River flows: the Atlantic, the Caribbean, the Nile. It is surprising how easy it is to take for granted a feature so close to home.

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