The State Historical Museum of Iowa is a wonderful place. Visit frequently

• by yourself
• with your children
• with your grandchildren

Use any excuse.

They are quite pleased to tell you that they are open every day of the year except for Thanksgiving and Christmas. That’s a credit to them; they serve the public first.

The museum has permanent exhibits and changing exhibits, and they are all very well done. One exhibit that seems to be a sure hit traces the history of people in Iowa and their connections to our natural resources. That’s where the buffalo above is found, along with loons, foxes, raptors, and other Iowa creatures.

When you first enter the museum, you are greeted by a mammoth skeleton. When I was there Tuesday that prompted the question, “Was it really that big?” Mammoths ranged from 9′ to 15′ tall and roamed the Midwest during the Ice Age. Read up at the museum’s site or go see for yourself.

There are also artifacts and modern representations of Native American cultures including a walk through bark shelter. While I went through it four times in both directions, my unofficial 7 year old guide was leading a fast-paced tour, and some of the details have escaped me – a decent docent nonetheless.

If you like local history Patten’s Neighborhood is terrific.

And you can visit a few exhibits on-line.

I went to the museum on Tuesday for the Irish Fest and did something for the first time: I got a green stegosaurus spray painted on my face. I thought it matched my personality.

Keep posted about the goings-on at the State Historical Museum. Until you get there, you won’t know how good it is – so go.

• visit the museum
• visit the gift shop
• use their archives
• use their libraries and special collections
• check out the education resources
• visit their remote historic sites away from Des Moines
• check out their historic preservation program
• read their publications
• volunteer and get involved

You can even rent space!

Or you can read what I said last year.

photos by James Lindberg and the Purple Wren

For people who prefer less hype as they view the work of artists and artisans, Artfest Midwest, run by the Stookey Companies, will be held on Saturday, 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., and Sunday, 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Admission is free and the location is the Varied Industries Building at the state fairgrounds. There will be a silent auction, with proceeds going to Orchard Place.

A free shuttle will provide transportation between the Arts Festival and Artfest. For those people taking public transportation, DART has information on its website about the detour on the #1 bus route and for the free D-Line downtown shuttle. Set-up for Arts Festival has already detoured those two bus routes.

The 30th Triennial Congress of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom wraps up this weekend at Simpson College in Indianola. Talk show host and author Amy Goodman will talk at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, June 27th. Cost is $15 and RSVP is required. Location is the Great Hall on the Simpson campus. On Saturday, June 28th, at 6:00 p.m. a dinner and tribute will be held featuring Fran Korten, publisher of Yes! magazine. Cost is $35 and RSVP is required.

The weather is expected to be in the low 80’s this weekend and dry. If you are looking to volunteer the people Parkersburg, Cedar Rapids, or another part of Iowa hit hard by a tornado or a flood, call the Iowa Concern Hotline at 800-447-1985. I never heard about this phone number until it started appearing in story after story about the 2008 floods. So, I searched the Internet for more information. The hotline is a service of Iowa State University’s Extension Service. It was started as a rural concern hotline in 1985 during a farm crisis. It now offers a 24-hour, 7-days a week resource for issues ranging from agriculture to volunteers. The extension service also has other hotlines, including ones specifically for teenagers and for people with gambling problems. There is also an Iowa Concern website.

Des Moines swimming pools are open but portions of bicycle trails are still listed as closed on the Parks and Recreation webpage.

M.R. Field encourages organizations and performers to send news about their upcoming events to events@AroundDesMoines.com. 

With regards to the general condition of levees, Roger Less with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said, “other than Birdland, I’m feeling very comfortable about what I’m seeing.” Although, he continued to caution that “it’s what you don’t see that scares me.” He said levee walkers saw nothing wrong early this morning in Birdland and ten minutes later there was a breach. Des Moines Mayer Frank Cownie stressed that while all but the Birdland evacuations were being lifted and the bridges were being re-opened, a heavy rainfall before the rivers return to normal levels could reverse that again.

Less reported that Saylorville Lake is currently at 890 feet above sea level and releasing over 40,000 cubic feet of water per second. The normal level for the lake, in terms of conservation, is 836 feet. It may take the rest of the summer to reach that level and with current precipitation forecasts will take until next Sunday, June 22nd, for the water level to drop to a key point.

The breach in the levee at Birdland occurred at the upstream end of the system, which according to Less is the “worst place.” This allows water to pool behind the levees at a height that is above the downstream river level. Thus, efforts were made to cut another hole in the levee to allow the flood waters trapped on the wrong side of the levee to flow back into the river.

Less said that Congress had authorized the Corps to rebuild the Birdland and the Central Place levees as part of legislation passed in December 2007. The design stage was in process but money had not yet been allocated for construction. Less said the cost for the two levees would be around $10 million.

 An additional note: The public library sent out a news release yesterday noting it will be closed this weekend to reduce traffic downtown.  City Hall staff will continue to work from the second floor of the Central Library next week.  Some second-floor material may not be directly accessible by the general public.

M.R. Field covers local events for AroundDesMoines.com.

Guest Writer: Brenda Friedrich is an Iowa-based writer and business communications consultant. You can also find her blogging at Enroute365.

Technorati Tags: Iowa, Des Moines, Des Moines News

If you are going to do that read the instructions right now.

It will save you time if you register on-line. You must have had a tetanus shot within the last 10 years. If you need one, you can get one free at 1907 Carpenter, but you will have to get the shot before reporting to the Volunteer Reception Center at 1111 9th Street (between University Avenue and I-235 just 2 blocks west of Mercy Hospital).

Go for it!

Guest Writer: James G. Lindberg (Jim) is the Purple Wren’s sweetie and is a visiting chemistry professor at Grinnell College and retired from Drake University.

As part of the Des Moines Public Library’s AVID series, George Guidall will talk about his experiences narrating and recording audio books. The event is at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday, April 10th, at the Central Library.

Valley Junction’s spring Gallery Night is on Friday, the 11th., from 5:00 to 9:00 p.m. Eleven galleries, plus other shops and restaurants, will be open.

This is the last weekend for Sarah, Plan and Tall at the Des Moines Playhouse. Friday at 7:00 p.m., Saturday at 1:00 p.m., and Sunday at 1:00 and at 4:00 p.m. Adult tickets are $15.00. The Pajama Game opens at the Playhouse on Friday, April 11th.

For stargazers, Drake University’s spring series at the Drake Municipal Observatory (Observatory Lane off of Polk Boulevard in Des Moines) is on Friday, the 11th, at 8:00 p.m. This week’s topic is Stars That Are Not Stable. On Saturday, the 12th, the Des Moines Astronomical Society will offer tips on stargazing at 8:00 p.m. at the Ashton Observatory (Hwy. F-17, off of Hwy. 330, west of Baxter).

Ritual Cafe (13th between Grand and Locust) has performers scheduled Thursday through Saturday: Julie Loyd at 7:00 p.m. on the 10th, Nikki Lunden at 8:00 on the 11th, and Big John Burns at 8:00 p.m. on the 12th.

Java Joe’s CoffeeHouse (4th Street between Walnut and Court) offers a family game night and ice cream social on Thursday the 10th. The ice cream costs $2.50 per scoop and is provided by KaleidoScoops Ice Cream & More of Ankeny. On Sunday, the 13th, Pastor John Colyer will host an open forum on “The Bible,” from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m.

A recommendation for QWIKSAND comes from a reader. The group will play at the House of Bricks (525 East Grand) on April 10th at 7:00 p.m. Because of the locale, this performance is age restricted (21 or older). There is a $5 charge. According to a February 28th press release, the band was in Los Angeles filming the pilot for a reality TV show.

Conversations with a group of people last week made it very clear that this is the season for new puppies and kittens. If you want to help make sure they have good and healthy lives, consider volunteering with the Animal Rescue League of Iowa. ARL has a volunteer orientation the second Saturday of every month. One is scheduled for April 12th. These events are held from 9:00 to 11:00 a.m. at 5452 NE 22nd Street in Des Moines. Volunteers are important for providing services to animals, including making sure dogs are walked. No pre-registration is required for the orientation.

If you do nothing else, take a walk, look at the flowers, imagine a canopy of leaves overhead, and wave to your neighbors.

M.R. Field encourages organizations and performers to send news about their upcoming events to events@AroundDesMoines.com. 

Many Americans, including a large number of Iowans, have been and are working for change. They may do this as members of the Peace Corps or as Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA). They may do it as elected officials or as appointees to a governmental commission. They may do it as mentors to boys and girls.

People can lead an effort for change or they can participate in some other capacity. We need thinkers who come up with new ideas. We need laborers who can donate a bit of their time. We need bankers to help keep the people working for change from starving. We need managers who can coordinate the various parts. We need politicians to codify policies. Even the critic is important for change as he or she can help people think about why there should or should not be change.

A country is both its government and its people. Change can be a massive event such as World War II or Social Security but it can also be something smaller such as countering urban sprawl or growing organic food. Rep. Wayne Ford (D-Polk County) ran for office because he wanted to change the high rate of incarceration for African Americans in Iowa’s prisons. Katy Flynn started Des Moines for Darfur because nobody else had. Sue Dinsdale switched jobs to push withdrawal from Iraq as a campaign issue. The list of individual Iowans working for change goes on and on.

Often I disagree with individuals about specific changes and have written about the harm some supposedly good changes have wrought. In addition, I oppose change just to have change and oppose maintaining the status quo just because that’s the way things are. Nevertheless, I take pride in the number of Americans I have observed giving of their time, their money, and their lives to bring change to our communities and to our country.

M.R. Field is editor of Leading Voices: Iowa. 

Volunteer work seems to have been replaced with e-mail petitions. All we have to do to make a difference anymore, it seems, is to type our name into a form provided by some organization funded by a financier and send it off into cyberspace. Meanwhile, local organizations and local chapters of national groups struggle to attract people to meetings, let alone to do all the work involved in maintaining and promoting an organization.

We are spread thin by daily demands. Our daily newspapers and other publications (broadband, broadcast, or broadsheet) seem only to leave us wanting more, or take so much time to sort through that we have no time left to volunteer. Yet, we are offered a multitude of choices for networking that seek to make our lives better.

As I rush out the door to attend yet another meaningless political talk about women and families, I hasten to finish this commentary. I keep waiting to see the presidential candidates talk about men and families. Heck, maybe someone can bring back the idea that men should receive wages when they marry and then when the first child is born. (By the way, November 25 was the United Nations International Day for Elimination of Violence Against Women.)

I am asking for readers’ input on two items. There is a survey to assess what a permanent edition of Leading Voices: Iowa might include. The survey will take only a few minutes to complete. I also have started to put together a list of women’s organizations and groups in Iowa. This is incomplete and in need of better online formatting, but it already is an impressively-long list. I know there are organizations and other items missing from it and would appreciate help completing the list. Thank you.

M.R. Field is editor of Leading Voices: Iowa.

The Obama For America headquarters are located at 323 E Locust Street in Des Moines. Contact Aaron Gardner, Field Organizer at (515) 883.2008 to see how you can get involved.

For those of you living in or visiting Iowa, Union Park (map) is located at 1895 Pennsylvania Avenue. According to neighborhood leaders, Union Park is an area that has been naturally integrated for many, many years. I tried to find more history – but couldn’t – so if you know more about the area, please comment and we’ll keep the conversation going.

It’s also home of the Heritage Carousel. Look for another post about an upcoming event there.

5th Annual Asian Heritage Festival
Saturday, May 12, 2007
10 a.m.-9 p.m.
Des Moines Water Works Park (directions)
Free admission. Parking $2.

Each May the different Asian American communities in Iowa unite for a daylong celebrAsian. Villages at the 2007 Asian Heritage Festival include: Burmese, Cambodian, Chinese, Filipino, Indian, Japanese, Korean, Laotian, Nepalese, Thai, Taidam, and Vietnamese. It’s the largest Asian American event in Iowa. The program this year includes:

• cultural exhibits
• history
• food
• performance artists
• sports
• martial arts
• children’s villages and rides
• other family-friendly activities

There’s plenty of opportunities to get involved.

technorati tags: Home Turf Media, Iowa, Des Moines, CelebrAsian, Iowa Asian Alliance, Annual Asian Heritage Festival