Community News

Native Plant Sale

The Long Beach Department of Parks, Recreation and Marine is reimaging their annual California Native Plant Sale at El Dorado Nature Center (7550 E. Spring St.) to follow COVID-19 safety guidelines. Hundreds of beautiful and beneficial native plants will be offered in this year’s drive-through sale.

Patrons can expect an easy shopping experience:

Download a plant order form from the city’s website or pick up a form at El Dorado Nature Center in advance.

Drive through the designated order fulfillment line 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, through Nov. 21.

Staff will collect the completed order form and load the plants into the shopper’s vehicle.

Pre-orders are not available; and the items chosen on one’s plant order form are distributed on a first-come, first-served basis. Payment (cash, checks or credit cards) will be collected at the time plants are received.

Proceeds from the California Native Plant Sale will benefit Friends of El Dorado Nature Center, an affiliate of the non-profit Partners of Parks, a group that works to cultivate respect, understanding and stewardship of the natural world.

For more information, call (562) 570-1745, or visit the El Dorado Nature Center website.

Virtual NOAA

On Saturday, Nov. 7, at 9 a.m., the Aquarium of the Pacific will host a virtual event with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). NOAA and Our Planet Day is an annual event at the aquarium, but this year it will be held virtually, with sessions streamed online. The theme for this year’s event is Innovation for a Sustainable Ocean.

NOAA scientists and experts will present sessions on the marine life they study and monitor along our coast, including Pacific salmon, seals and sea lions, sea turtles, giant sea bass, and abalone. They will share educational tools for children, winning entries from the NOAA Day Art Contest, and a session on sustainable recreational fishing.

Learn how NOAA, a government agency, works to understand and predict changes in the Earth’s environment to help protect people and property and to conserve and manage coastal and marine resources.

Videos go live on the aquarium’s website and are available to view any time at aquariumofpacific.org/events/info/noaa_and_our_planet_day/. This virtual event is free, no RSVP required.

Info: (562) 590-3100.

Forest Lawn Honors Military

Forest Lawn’s 61^st annual Veterans Day Celebration will go virtual this year, bringing the patriotic pageantry of this beloved event directly into the home. Streaming via Facebook Live, on Nov. 11, at 11 a.m., this event will honor members of the United States Military with a flyover, patriotic music, a rifle salute, an invocation, a color guard, a wreath laying and more.

Program highlights include:

• Keynote speech by Stephanie Stone, Director of Veteran Affairs, County of Los Angeles
• Presidential proclamation by Air Force Colonel Jennifer Bergdorf and Air Force Colonel Andrew Bergdorf
• Music performances by Band of the California Battalion in Civil War uniforms
• Invocation and benediction by Monsignor Frank Hicks of St. Basil’s Catholic Church
• Military flyover by The Condor Squadron.

Republican Women Meeting

The community is invited to hear conservative commentator Elisha Krauss at the Saturday, Nov. 14, 2020 Long Beach Republican Women Federated breakfast meeting. A writer and podcaster, Krauss currently is a host and contributor on Ben Shapiro’s “Daily Wire.” She has appeared on Fox News, One America News Network, CNN, and NBC to name a few networks where she has shared her conservative views.

The November breakfast meeting is held at The Grand (4101 E. Willow St.) with registration starting at 8:45 a.m. and the meeting starting promptly at 9:15 a.m. The cost is $30 for members and $35 for non-members with free parking and includes a served breakfast.

The meeting is an opportunity to learn more about Republican Women Federated and how women and men can be part of America’s largest grassroots organization. For information and reservations: Email: loisledger5@gmail.com or call (562) 432-5822.

Autumn Cultural Festival

Celebrate the arts and cultures of China, Japan, Korea and the Philippines on Nov. 14, with the Aquarium of the Pacific’s 19th annual cultural festival.

 The virtual festival will take place from 10 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. and will feature music and dance performances, cultural arts exhibits, crafts, and an award ceremony. The festival will also include appearances by an aquarium animal ambassador. During the festival at 12:35 p.m., the aquarium will stream the presentation of its Heritage Award to the Chinese Historical Society of Southern California (CHSSC) in recognition of the organization’s efforts to preserve and share Chinese and Chinese American culture and history. CHSSC Board President Susan Dickson will accept the award on the organization’s behalf. The aquarium will stream festival events on its website and social media channels throughout the day.

Info: (562) 590-3100 or visit aquariumofpacific.org/events/info/autumn_festival/

Music at the Point

Ted Russell Kamp is equally at home writing and performing his own material as he is playing bass for artists like Shooter Jennings, Tonya Tucker and Jessi Colter. And even though the pandemic has him playing at home most of the time now, on Sunday, Nov. 15 at 3 p.m. Ted will be venturing to Long Beach to play the second virtual concert of the popular Music at the Point concert series.

Ted is well known for his ability to step into bands and rock all genres of music — the decades he spent holding down the bottom end for bands as diverse as Shooter, Jessi Colter, Whitey Morgan, Wilson Phillips and others have made sure Ted had the chops for anything from major festivals to David Letterman appearances and the Sirius XM Outlaw Country Cruise.

Normally the Music at the Point concerts are either free-will donation or a ticket. For the livestream concerts, Music at the Point is now using Crowdcast. To reserve your unique URL to be able to view the livestream, go to https://www.crowdcast.io/e/ted-russell-kamp/register. $10 registers you for the event, and you will receive an e-mail with the link.

Mid-World Players

Mid-World Players close out their 2020 season this Thanksgiving with a streaming production of J. M. Barrie’s “Dear Brutus.” Directed by Jesse Seann Atkinson and adapted exclusively for the digital landscape, the show is the third in the company’s Quarantine Collection of socially distant performances.

“Dear Brutus” tells the story of six strangers, who’ve been invited to a country estate by a capricious host. When a mysterious forest appears outside, they find themselves drawn toward the promise of a new beginning.

Mid-World is devoted to keeping theatre alive any way they can. In hopes of getting back to the stage as soon as they can, they will continue to be creative, giving the community theatre in a new form: Socially distant filming, edited together to create a whole new experience.

“Dear Brutus” will premiere on Thanksgiving Day and will be available for streaming until Jan. 1.

Visit the link, http://gf.me/u/y5w7hx and make any kind of donation to Mid-World Players to receive the Vimeo link to the film and Playbill via email.