Briefs

Fall Creek cleanup:The Cornell community is invited to be part of the annual Fall Creek cleanup Saturday, May 3. Join with the Cornell Roots and Shoots Club to collect trash from sites along the creek and near campus. Meet at Risley Hall at 11 am. Participants will be provided with trash bags, work gloves and snacks. This annual cleanup of the drinking water source for Cornell is co-sponsored by the Fall Creek Watershed Committee, Trout Unlimited and the Cayuga Lake Watershed Network. The full cleanup effort reaches from the source of Fall Creek at Lake Como in Summerhill to its mouth at Cayuga Lake and serves as the kickoff of National Drinking Water Week, May 4-10. Last year, 83 volunteers removed a total of 3,300 pounds of trash from Fall Creek and its banks at eight locations. All community members are invited to join in the cleanup. Some of the groups participating this year include:Cornell University Roots and Shoots, the Community Fly Fisher, Sierra Club, Lake Como Association, TC3 student clubs, Soil and Water Conservation Districts of Tompkins and Cayuga Counties, NYSEG, Target, Tops, Wegmans, the city of Ithaca, the town of Dryden in addition to the three sponsoring organizations:the Fall Creek Watershed Committee, the Fall Creek Chapter of Trout Unlimited and the Cayuga Lake Watershed Network. Individuals and organizations that want information about other stretches of Fall Creek that also will be covered by the cleanup efforts, contact Sharon Anderson at the Cayuga Lake Watershed Network office, 532-4104, or Phil Koons of Trout Unlimited at pkoons2000@yahoo.com.

Master Beekeeper Program:The Cornell Master Beekeeper Program will conduct its two-day Apprentice Level Spring Workshop in Ithaca Saturday and Sunday, May 10 and 11. Experienced beekeepers and those interested in starting with bees are encouraged to attend. Topics include the history of beekeeping; the biology of the honey bee; starting with bees and beekeeping equipment; the colony inspection; spring and summer management; and the identification and management of honey bee parasites and pathogens. The cost of the course is $125. This includes a text book and workshop manual. A registration form is available to download at:http://masterbeekeeper.org or call 255-3280.

Literacy volunteers sought:Literacy Volunteers of Tompkins County (LVTC) is seeking volunteers to work with adults who would like to increase their literacy skills. Students may be native English speakers or immigrants or refugees who need assistance with reading, writing or speaking English. At this time, LVTC has a special need for the following:daytime volunteers to tutor at the Family Opportunity Center (FOC) in Beverly J. Martin Elementary School; volunteers who can tutor in Trumansburg; volunteers to tutor incarcerated youth at area facilities; and non-tutoring volunteers to help at the FOC, to join the LVTC Web team or to assist program coordinators. Volunteers meet with students about two hours per week, based on their schedules, and attend 15 hours of training before being matched with a student. Upcoming training sessions will be in late May. For more information, call 277-6442 or send e-mail to literacy@TLPartners.org.