Local Near West End elementary school, Mary Munford, is hosting their annual auction. If you’d like to attend or donate an item, please read on for details.

SAVE THE DATE!

Saturday March 27, 7-10:30pm

Jewish Community Center

Mary Munford’s Annual Auction fundraiser will be held on Saturday, March 27th, from 7-10:30 p.m. at the Jewish Community Center on Monument Avenue.  As usual, this is an adult only event, so please mark your calendars now for a night out with fellow Munford parents and staff. Food will be provided by one of Munford’s very own, Linda Marcuse, owner of A Movable Feast. The funds raised at this event will help us obtain the additional programs and materials we need to provide many excellent services to our students.

With all schools facing tighter budgets, financial support from the PTA is essential to keeping the quality of education we are used to at Mary Munford. This year we are raising funds for our World Language Program, which supplements our Spanish language classes. We have also recently completed a much needed renovation to our school playground. These efforts, and many others, are funded almost exclusively by the PTA, so please consider how you can help support our children! For questions, donations and sponsorships, please contact our Auction Chair, Lori Sanzone Martin, Lori.Martin(at)Capitalone[dot]com .

DONATE PRODUCTS AND SERVICES

Graciously, we are accepting donations and would love additional bid items. We already have some exciting products and services and are thankful for each one. With your generosity, we are looking forward to adding more bid items to round out our inventory. All items should be submitted by March 5 and may be dropped off in the school office. All donations are tax deductible. Tap your network. Think about your friends and family members… Does anyone have a seasonal home or timeshare who is willing to donate a long weekend or possibly a week? Year after year, these get-a-ways are very popular! •Is there a season ticket holder in your network? Maybe someone is not able to make it to every event, will you consider donating tickets to one game? Maybe you have season tickets for the theatre or symphony? We would appreciate any event tickets you are willing to give! Who owns a business? Please ask your network to donate products or services for the auction. BE A SPONSOR This year, we are offering a sponsor program for our auction. If you are not able to donate items or volunteer your time, show your support by being a sponsor. Also, this is a great opportunity to promote your business!

Here are the package details.

$50 Level Recognition in Auction Program

$100 Level 2 Admission Tickets Recognition in Auction Program

$250 Level 2 Admission Tickets/4 Drink Tickets Recognition in Auction Program Recognition on Sponsor Board at Auction

$500 Level 4 Admission Tickets/8 Drink Tickets Recognition in Auction Program Recognition on Sponsor Board at Auction Recognition in Monarch Message Newsletter – April

$1000 Level 6 Admission Tickets/12 Drink Tickets Recognition in Auction Program Recognition on Sponsor Board at Auction Recognition in Monarch Message Newsletter – April Company Logo on Mary Munford Website – March and April

A new restaurant, Bocca Toscan (Tuscan mouth), will open at The Village Shopping center later this week, Style Weekly reports.   The restaurant in the space formerly housing Magnolia wine bar, is run by a mother and son team who will focus on family-oriented dining.

The menu will feature pizza, pasta, sandwiches and more. They will be open for lunch and dinner Monday through Saturday (closed Sunday). Surprising to me is that the already have a notable presence on Facebook and Twitter, and their surprising number of fans, considering they haven’t opened yet.

Bocca Toscana

7021 Three Chopt Road

288-7773

Just a note to let you know that the Ledo’s Pizza at Willow Lawn is now open. The restaurant is located behind the Shoppes at Willow Lawn near Qdoba and the Dollar Store.

I’ve mentioned here before that since both my parents and my husband’s parents hailed from Maryland, we are fans of the slightly strange thin crust Maryland-style square pizza. For us it will be a walk down memory lane. Now the test will be to see if the local Ledo’s can keep consistent the nostalgic pizza that we remember from our childhood.

St. Stephen’s Near West End Farmers Market has moved to  Wednesday afternoons.   There aren’t quite as many vendors as on Saturday, but still, we got some great locally grown Honey Crisp apples and had lots of fun chatting with neighbors. My buddy Erin Wright, who runs the market has this update for us:

The Market at St. Stephen’s is thrilled to be able to extend the Farmers’ Market season.  The Wednesday evening market began on November 4th and will be in the main parking lot of the church through December 23.  This market will run from 4-7pm, and will feature several of your favorite food and flower vendors, including:

Night Sky Farms
Zaydie’s Granola
Agriberry
Amelia Soap and Herb Company
Lucille’s Bakery
Eli’s Greens
Breeze Hill Farms
de Rochonnette Chocolatier
Greenway Beef
and
Frog Bottom will begin their Winter CSA pickup on November 11

We are also thrilled to be a pickup site for Fall Line Farms.   Fall Line is a farm to family co-op where the customer pays an administrative fee for access to dozens of local food producers.  The pickups are on Thursdays from 3-6pm, from November 5 through April 30.

St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church is located at 6000 Grove Avenue.

Stay tuned to the St. Stephen’s Market Facebook Page for updates.

My friends over at Barefoot Puppets always put on a great show. I’m happy to say they’ll be performing right here in the Near West End at the end of the month for free (right after a stint at the Smithsonian). Here are all the details. Hope to see you there!

The Sunday after Thanksgiving we return to Richmond and one of our favorite events of the year: the Holiday Open House at Wilton House Museum. This is a great family event in the city’s only Colonial era plantation home. There are games and crafts for the kids, a puppet show by Barefoot Puppets, a concert performance by the City Singers (a wonderful local children’s choir) and an excerpt of the Concert Ballet of Virginia’s Nutcracker Suite. We don’t have the times for the performances yet, but the event runs from 1 to 4 PM. Admission is free to this event, but we encourage you to consider making a donation to the museum while you are there!

November 29 (Sunday) 1:00 to 4:00 PM
Holiday Open House
Wilton House Museum
Little Red and the Gingerbread Man

American Sewing Guild Second Annual Bazaar
11/21/2009 Saturday 9:00am to 3:00pm
St. Matthews Episcopal Church, 1101 Forest Ave, Richmond, VA

Do you know an outstanding local teen volunteer? Henrico Area Mental Health Prevention Services and the Too Smart 2 Start Coalition are seeking nominees for the 14th annual Henrico Outstanding Youth Volunteer Awards. The deadline to apply is Friday, Oct. 30.
The Henrico Outstanding Youth Volunteer Awards recognize young people who have provided exemplary, selfless service to an individual, an agency or their community without monetary gain. Past honorees have engaged in a variety of volunteer activities, such as leading fund-raising efforts to benefit charitable causes, contributing volunteer service to nonprofit organizations and serving as mentors and tutors at local schools.
Nominees must be Henrico residents between the ages of 12 to 18 as of Jan. 1, 2009 and still attending school.
Award winners will be honored at a ceremony Nov. 19 at Virginia Commonwealth University. The awards are sponsored by the Too Smart 2 Start Coalition, the VCU Honors Department and the VCU Division of Community Engagement.

While the Times Dispatch is reporting a high number of people with Swine Flu symptoms at the local emergency rooms, H1N1 vaccine is on parents mind in the  Near West End.  Mary Munford, Richmond City’s only Near West End elementary school, is scheduled to be the first of many Richmond City Schools to hold a mass swine flu inoculation. Any students who return the permission form are able to receive the vaccination for free. A team of 6 nurses will work there way through the school, starting with the Pre-K and Kindergarten classes Monday morning and working their way up to the 5th grade.

Richmond City Health District spokesman George Jones said they are starting with the schools that have the highest return rate for permission forms.

“Nearly 90 percent of permission forms were returned at this school [Mary Munford],” Jones said. A tentative schedule for the rest of the week has been mapped out and will be announced once permission slips are confirmed, he said.

The parents that I’ve spoken with who are chosing not to get the vaccine for their children at school, still plan to get it from their family pediatricians as it becomes available.