In 2011, the United Nations declared October 11 as International Day of the Girl with the goal “to help galvanize worldwide enthusiasm for goals to better girls’ lives, providing an opportunity for them to show leadership and reach their full potential.”

The youth-led event has grown since its debut in 2012, each year focusing on a theme like gender inequality, child marriage, violence against women and access to education. The 2018 edition's theme is "With Her: a Skilled GirlForce," focusing today's generation of girls preparing to enter a world of work that is being transformed by innovation and automation. While educated and skilled workers are in great demand, roughly a quarter of young people – most of them female – are currently neither employed or in education or training.

International Day of the Girl events are happening all over the world, including right here in the 94941, as Mill Valley Recreation is hosting one on Thursday, Oct. 11 from 5:30pm to 8:30pm.

The free event kicks off with the opportunity to meet a variety of local women- and girl-centric organizations, followed by a 6:30pm screening of Girl Rising (PG13), the 2014 film that "spotlights the unforgettable stories of girls living in the developing world, striving beyond circumstance and overcoming nearly insurmountable odds to achieve their dreams." The film is voiced by acclaimed actresses including Meryl Streep, Kerry Washington, Anne Hathaway and more.

The 411: Mill Valley Recreation hosts an International Day of the Girl event on Thursday, Oct. 11, 5:30pm-8:30pm, featuring local girl- and women-centric organizations and a screening of of Girl Rising. Mill Valley Community Center, 180 Camino Alto. Free. MORE INFO & REGISTER.

​Want to know what's happening around town? Click here to subscribe to the Enjoy Mill Valley Blog by Email!

The Mill Valley Public Library’s Centennial Celebration in 2011 had a pair of notable outcomes: recognition for one of Mill Valley’s hallmark institutions and its ability to evolve in the digital age, and a shot of fundraising adrenaline for the once-disparate organizations dedicated to supporting that institution.

At the Mill Valley Library Foundation’s Beyond the Book Bash Saturday night at the Throckmorton Theatre, the celebration continued with a group of star-studded group of talent from literary, comedic and musical arts. And library supporters’ ability to raise money showed no signs of slowing down.

Foundation officials reported Tuesday that the event raised another $124,000 to support Library programs and services, and that the foundation has raised more than $1 million for an endowment and financial support of programs such as First Fridays and After Hours events; children and teen programming and digital entertainment. 

"Programs like these make the library more relevant than ever," City Librarian Anji Brenner said.

“We want to blow your mind about what a library can be in a community,” MVLF board chair Andy Mercy told the crowd of more than 200 people. “Tonight is a celebration of your thirst for knowledge and the library’s ability to quench that thirst.”

That thirst was quenched Saturday night from every angle, with local comedian Mark Pitta keeping the night moving swiftly with joke-laden segues, including light jabs at City Hall: “I almost didn’t make it here tonight on Miller Avenue; man, someday they might give us drivers our own lane!” and book sales in the digital age: “The title of my new book is ‘Add to Cart.’”

The night’s entertainment included:

• Tam High student Emma Weinswig reading her poem “26 Seconds,” which juxtaposed the rate of high school dropouts in the U.S. and the struggles of children in places like Afghanistan, where the Taliban “scare dreamers into silence.”
• A reading by local author Holly Payne from her new book Damascena: The Tale of Roses and Rumi that took the audience to Turkey in 1270. Payne brought the unparalleled poet Mevlana Rumi to life, unraveling the mystery surrounding a legendary orphaned girl who discovers her gift of turning roses into oil.
• Tam Valley actor, author and ubiquitous documentary narrator (including Ken Burns’ The Roosevelts) Peter Coyote gave a wildly entertaining reading about a youthful jaunt through Mexico from his latest book, The Rainman’s Third Cure, a spiritual memoir that will be published by Counterpoint Press in spring 2015. 
• In a hilarious chat with Pitta, legendary comedian and political humor pioneer Mort Sahl spoke about Last Man Standing: The Life and Passion of Mort Sahl, author James Curtis’ impending biopgraphy, with Sahl drawing raucous laughter with lines like: “There are many wives to chase down and they’ll tell him, ‘Every minute with him was pure hell,’” and “It wasn’t a very puritanical life, but it was a whole lot of fun.”
• Joined by piano, drums and Beyond the Book Bash producer Tom Corwin on bass, longtime Santana singer Tony Lindsay gave a spirited performance, while New Tork Times best-selling author Tom Barbash delivered a reading from "The Break," a story about a newly single mother who in interferes in her son's love life over his Christmas vacation from college – part of Stay Up With Me, his 2013 collection of stories that explore the myriad ways we try to connect with one another and with the sometimes cruel world around us. 

But while the readings, the music and the performances were stellar, it was the tributes to the library itself that stood out.

• "Hi I’m Mark and I have a Library Card," Pitta quipped at the evening's outset.
  
• "The Mill Valley Library is showing the way in how to stay relevant in the digital age," Corwin said.
  
• "Our library is a ridiculopusly beautiful place," Barbash said.
  
• "I’m so excited to see all these people out here for this secret leftist institution, the library, paid for by your tax dollars – how discreet," Coyote joked.

"For thousands of years the library has been a vital repository for knowledge and books, a place to explore and touch the physical world," Mercy said. "In Mill Valley, we are blessed also by a place of beauty that nurtures contemplation and collaboration. Tonight's event celebrates that legacy and the innovation that keeps it relevant in today's changing world."

Click here for more information of the 31-year-old Mill Valley Library Foundation.

With La Ginestra in the midst of its 50th Anniversary Celebration this week, the Mill Valley City Council honored the restaurant's owners, the Aversa family, with a proclamation at its September 2nd meeting.

“We’re so glad that we can celebrate this with you,” Mayor Stephanie Moulton-Peters told Maria, Fabio, Tino and Ann Aversa Tuesday night before reading the proclamation.

Salvatore and Maria Aversa moved to Mill Valley as a recently married couple after emigrating from Sorrento, Italy. They opened their restaurant in May 1964 and named it La Ginestra after the Scotch broom vegetation that was prevalent in both the wilderness of Mount Tamalpais and in the hills surrounding their hometown.

The couple raised their three children – Lucia, Fabio and Tino – in Mill Valley. Fabio Aversa recounted to the Council a story about the family closing the restaurant briefly in 1965 so they could return to Italy for one month. At the end of the trip, Salvatore Aversa told his wife that he’d go back to Mill Valley to re-open the restaurant, and “that if nobody shows up, I’ll pack everything back up and come back to Italy,” Fabio Aversa said. Instead, he found flowers and welcome back signs and notes outside the restaurant.

“What a testament that is to this community,” Fabio Aversa said. “It’s a great place and we’re so happy to serve all of you and to continue to do so.”

As part of the 50th Anniversary Celebration, La Ginestra has asked its customers to share their memories and tributes to the restaurant on its Facebook page. Here’s a sampling:

Click here to read more tributes and to share your own. 

Beginning September 2 at 9am, motorists will encounter some lane closures in both directions of Miller Avenue between Sunnyside Avenue near downtown and Almonte Boulevard near Tamalpais High School as the City of Mill Valley begins the initial phase of the Miller Avenue Streetscape Project. This first phase of the project is designed to improve parking, traffic and pedestrian safety. 

The right lanes of both inbound and outbound sections of Miller Avenue will be closed periodically on weekdays between 9am and 5pm from September 2–22. The lane closures will not impact the entirety of Miller Avenue simultaneously, as contractors will move from section of the road to another throughout the project.

Click here for the full story.

Joe Serbaroli is keenly aware of his family’s history, and the vital need to pass it down to the next generation.

But although Serbaroli lives in Yonkers, N.Y. and traces his family roots back to Roma, Italy, that lineage has deep ties to the City of Mill Valley.

That’s because in 1914 – 100 years ago – Serbaroli’s grandfather, artist Ettore (pronounced Et-toh-ray) “Hector” Serbaroli, created the enormous landscape painting of Mount Tamalpais found on the back wall of the City Council Chambers at City Hall.

At five feet high and 20 feet long, the oil-on-canvas landscape of Mount Tam is one of six paintings completed by the Italian-born Serbaroli for the Panama Pacific International Exposition of 1915. It was lifted to its current location by a crane via one of the windows in the Council Chambers.

The painting took a circuitous route to get to City Hall.

When the Pan Pacific Exposition ended, the painting was mounted on a wall at the Ferry Building in San Francisco. A member of the Yost family, whose patriarch Nicholas Yost gave the original Mill Valley Lumber Company its moniker in 1910, bought the painting in 1928 and hung it on the wall of the Mill Valley Bank on Miller Avenue until 1947. From 1954 to 1974, the painting lived in the City Council Chambers, until it was temporarily removed to accommodate renovations at City Hall.

According to a memo from longtime Mill Valley resident Margaret  “Kett” Zegart to Mill Valley’s Art Commission in the 1970s, the painting was stored in a space at the Mill Valley Library that would later become the Lucretia Hanson Little History Room. Much of the available historical information about the painting comes – as does much of Mill Valley’s history – from the work of Little herself.

The years that followed the painting’s move to the library were laden with contentious debate about the painting’s future, Joe Serbaroli says, with city officials exploring possible alternate locations like Tamalpais High School, Oddfellows Hall and auditorium at The Redwoods. By October 1976, the Mill Valley Art Commission motioned “to wrap up in brown paper, to tie with a string and to store the Mt. Tamalpais Painting by E. Serbaroli in the Library.”

A dispute ensued about the painting’s future, and whether it was worth it to restore the painting – and who should pay for it if it was restored. Restoration estimates ranged from $2,500 to $4,000. 

“There seemed to be quite a lot of animosity at City Hall about the restoration and who should pay for it,” Joe Serbaroli says.

The debate was eventually quelled by a fundraising drive led by the late, famed puppeteer Lettie Schubert and her husband Gage. In reaching out to potential donors, the Schuberts wrote that the painting “presents a dramatic view of the mountain and its upland meadows as they were in 1914. The serene stateliness of this beloved southern Marin area is perfectly captured in the peaceful grandeur of Serbaroli’s composition.” 

Their “Serbaroli Restoration Committee” raised the more than $4,000 necessary to restore the painting, drawing financial support from the likes of William Kent III, Lucretia Little, Judith Serbaroli, then-Mill Valley Mayor Ivan Poutiatine, the Tamalpais Conservation Club, the Mill Valley Fall Arts Festival Association and many more.

Joe Serbaroli, 60, says he always had a strong sense of his grandfather’s artistry, but not his legacy. When his own father was getting older in the early 2000s, he began peppering him with questions about his grandfather, who died in 1951 at the age of 70.

“I didn’t want that legacy to get lost,” he says.

Serbaroli, who was born in Rome in 1881, lived and worked in Mexico for seven years until 1913, when the revolution there forced him to flee. With the help of Congressman William Kent, who played a critical role in the creation of Muir Woods National Monument, Serbaroli moved to San Rafael.

His prominent work isn’t limited to the 94941. He’s credited with the 14 “Stations of the Cross” paintings at Saint Raphael Church in San Rafael that were recently restored. He painted the entire interior of the Church of Saints Peter in Paul in San Francisco’s North Beach neighborhood, with the help of his daughter Judith.

And he worked for the architect Julia Morgan on the interior of William Randolph Hearst's castle at San Simeon before he headed off to Hollywood, where her did portraits of actors at major motion picture studios like Warner Bros and 20th Century Fox until just before his death.

Three years ago, through a chance encounter downtown with Mill Valley Fire Department Battalion Chief Michael St. John on a day that City Hall was closed, Serbaroli was able to show off the painting to his 26-year-old daughter Elise.

“I just looked up at that painting and was amazed – here we were, the grandson and great granddaughter of the artist who painted it sitting there with Mike, looking back at history,” Serbaroli says.

Mill Valley Arts Commission's monthly celebration of local art includes a host of venues, including the O’Hanlon Center for the Arts, the Mill Valley Public Library, Robert Green Fine Arts, Terrestra, the Depot Bookstore & Café, City Hall, Gallery 291 at the Image Flow, Thompson Dorfman Partners, Famous4 and the Mill Valley Community Center, Seager Gray Gallery and the Throckmorton Theatre, where an exhibit of the late, legendary Mill Valley photographer Suki Hill's work will be on display throughout the month. Reception is Tuesday from 6–8pm at each venue. More info below.

Click here to access the First Tuesday Artwalk Guide, with a full list of artists and venues. The map below indicates the downtown venues.

A nearly 30-year-old Mill Valley tradition kicks off this Sunday with the first of Arts Commission’s Concerts in the Plaza over the next four weekends.

The event – free and open to the public on the Depot Plaza – features two bands each on the first three Sunday afternoons, with Beso Negro headlining the entire two-hour final show on Sunday, Aug. 24.

Concerts on the Plaza begins at 1 pm Sunday with the T Sisters, a trio of Bay Area sisters whose “subtle throwback aesthetic calls to mind classic trios past, from the Andrews Sisters and 1960′s girl groups to the sirens from the film O Brother, Where Art Thou? Steep Ravine, a folk-bluegrass band that draws its lyrical inspiration from Mount Tamalpais, follows the T Sisters at 2 pm.

Those who loved the soundtrack to the 2007 film Into the Wild should check out the August 10 performance of Jerry Hannan, who wrote one of the songs performed by Eddie Vedder in the film. Hannan, “a storyteller, known for his thought provoking and poignant lyrics and exuberant performances,” hits the stage at 1 pm, with flautist Matt Eakle, best known for his extensive work over the years with the likes of David Grisman and Jerry Garcia.

On August 17, rock n roll fans will get a chance to take a trip in the Wayback Machine and get a look at one of the Bay Area’s emerging, buzzworthy bands, all in the span of two hours. Beatles Flashback, a tribute to the Fab Four, kicks the day off at 1 pm, with local prodigies Matt Jaffe & the Distractions following at 2 pm. Frontman and guitarist Jaffe is joined by Terra Linda resident Alex Coltharp on drums and Novato musician Sammie Fischer on bass. The group plays a sharp brand of smart indie rock, drawing on a range of influences from the Talking Heads and Ted Leo & The Pharmacists to the Decemberists and Django Reinhardt.

Speaking of Reinhardt, Beso Negro, the final group of the Concerts in the Plaza series, has built its reputation by drawing its influence from the famed gypsy jazz guitarist and injecting it with a modern sensibility, transforming the genre “into a vibrant new beats” that is “darker, faster, more danceable, more blues, more Gypsy.” Beso Negro has been burning up stages throughout the Bay Area in recent years and its August 24 performance should serve as a fitting capper to this stretch of fantastic and free live shows  in the Depot Plaza. 

The 411: Concerts in the Plaza begins Sunday, August 3, from 1 pm – 3 pm and runs at the same times through August 24. Bring lawn chairs and your dancing shoes. Click here for more details.

We’ve had more than a week to chew and stew on the San Francisco Chronicle’s July 12 piece on our little town, “Are tech-sector newcomers elbowing out Mill Valley’s funky-arty vibe?” And after a deluge of reaction on social media and in the comments section of the article itself (450 comments and counting), we want to hear what you think about it.

Did the story get it right? Is the tech industry specifically changing Mill Valley? It seems "Mill Valley is changing for the worse" has been the theory du jour in town for years, if not decades. Is the Chronicle onto something new and different this time around?

As we see it, there’s no doubt that Mill Valley faces some huge challenges, namely in the way of traffic, housing affordability and school district enrollment. And we’re really glad the writer spoke to the likes of Mayor Stephanie Moulton-Peters and local business owners Will Hutchinson (Prooflab) and Susan Griffin-Black (EO Products) – they all provided some good context and, in Susan’s case, some Seinfeld-inspired levity.

But we were left feeling a bit underwhelmed by the piece, particularly from a “How is this really news?” perspective. Demographic changes have been occurring in the 94941 for decades – “new money” has been coming here for so long that it’s now long since “old money.” The median single-family home price in Mill Valley in April 2014 was $1.83 million, and it was nearly $1.5 million for the same month 10 years ago. And while traffic has indeed spiked in recent months, the connection of the dots between gridlock and the latest tech boom seem tenuous at best.

We would’ve loved to read a single quote from or an anecdote about a “tech-sector newcomer” who recently moved to town, or at least more than a mention of a “former venture capitalist” who was once a contestant on “ABC’s “Wife Swap.” It would’ve been nice if the premise of the article – the tech industry’s boom specifically changing Mill Valley – was supported by some evidence other than somebody who saw someone flying a consumer drone. Right?

A few other minor points of contention:

• Mickey McGowan closed his Unknown Museum in 1989, having been initially been displaced by Smith & Hawken, the gardening store that was born in Mill Valley and which shut down in 2009. You can’t blame Twitter and Facebook money for the loss – 25 years ago – of a quirky cultural institution.
• Charlie Deal, creator of the toilet-seat guitar, passed away in 2007. Not sure that occurrence can be laid at the feet of the tech industry.
• Ditto with the original Sweetwater, which closed in 2007.
• And what does a guy from Kentfield badly beating someone up while riding his bike through town have to do with Mill Valley?
  

Hutchinson perhaps said it best: “I think that the tech boom that's happening in San Francisco sends waves out in every direction, so it's impossible not to be affected by that.”

The impact of the latest tech boom is being felt virtually everywhere in the Bay Area. Mill Valley is not immune to that, better or worse. The only thing that feels unique about its impact on Mill Valley is that the history of the 94941 is more colorful and interesting than many of its counterparts.

What did you think of the Chronicle story? Tell us in the Comments below.

City of Mill Valley's annual Creative Achievement Awards will also highlight the O'Hanlon Center for the Arts, event gurus Murphy Productions, architect and former Mayor Chris Raker and longtime arts supporter Gage Schubert.

From the Mill Valley Fall Arts Festival and the Mill Valley Film Festival to hundreds of events every year in seemingly all artistic media, Mill Valley’s calendar is always chock full of reminders of the vitality of the local arts and entertainment scene.

Perhaps no single event defines that vitality – and the history that continues to inspire it – more than the Milley Awards, the City of Mill Valley’s annual chance to honor creative achievement and distinguished accomplishments in the arts. The 2014 Milley Awards, produced by a volunteer board of directors under the auspices of the Mill Valley Arts Commission, is set for Oct. 19 at the Mill Valley Community Center.

It promises to be another star-studded affair.

The 2014 honorees include legendary comedian Mort Sahl, famed author Joyce Maynard, prolific music producer Scott Mathews, architect and former Mayor Chris Raker and Murphy Productions, the event production and promotion company that has been an engine for the local arts scene for more then a decade. The O’Hanlon Center for the Arts is receiving the Vera Schultz Award for its “lasting contributions to the cultural life of our community.”

In addition, Gage Schubert, longtime local supporter of the arts and the husband of the late, great puppeteer Lettie Schubert, is set to receive the Sali Lieberman Award, a lifetime achievement award for “individuals who embody Marin Theatre Company founder Sali Lieberman's inspiration, courage and determination and who, like him, have contributed significantly to the cultural life of Mill Valley.”

Rita Abrams, best known for recording the song “Mill Valley” with her third grade class at Strawberry Point Elementary School in 1970, along with Milley Awards co-founder Abby Wasserman, will serve as emcees for the event. Abrams garnered a Milley in 1996 while Wasserman won the Sali Lieberman Award in 2009.

The Milley Award itself is a bronze statuette created by John Libberton of Sausalito. Here are brief bios of the 2014 Milley Award recipients:

Scott Mathews - Achievement in the Musical Arts

The list of artists who Mathews has produced at his Tiki Town studio in Mill Valley or elsewhere is staggering: Elvis Costello, Roy Orbison, Roseann Cash, Jerry Garcia, Huey Lewis, John Hiatt, Nick Lowe, Dick Dale and Milley Award winner Sammy Hagar. Mathews has also written songs and/or recorded with Barbra Streisand, John Lee Hooker, Keith Richards, George Harrison, Mick Jagger, The Beach Boys, Eric Clapton, Van Morrison, Bonnie Raitt, David Bowie, Steve Perry, Johnny Cash, Todd Rungren, Robert Cray, Ry Cooder, The Tubes, Jefferson Starship and Raphael Saadiq. Mathews has tallied sales of more than 35 million records sold as a producer, composer, multi-instrumentalist and vocalist.

Chris Raker - Achievement in the Visual Arts

From the Outdoor Art Club to the Marin Theatre Company, Raker has put his architectural imprint all over the local arts scene for more than 25 years. The former two-term Mill Valley Mayor’s retrofit design “deserves significant recognition as it is under-the-radar kind of preservation work that has fully impacted the community, though not necessarily seen through the naked eye,” according to the Milley Awards committee.

That preservation work is on vivid display in his Raker’s latest project, the restoration of the Mill Valley Lumber Yard in conjunction with Matt and Jan Mathews.

Joyce Maynard - Achievement in the Literary Arts

A household in American literary circles and beyond, Maynard first came to national attention with the publication of her New York Times Magazine cover story “An Eighteen-Year-Old Looks Back on Life” in the April 23, 1972 issue, when she was 19 and a freshman at Yale. In her 1998 memoir, At Home in the World, Maynard revealed the story of the relationship she had with author J. D. Salinger when he was 53 and she was 18. The memoir has since been translated into 15 languages.

Maynard has written nine novels and four non-fiction books, plus a bevy of columns, articles and essays, including a stint as a reporter and columnist for the The New York Times and as a syndicated newspaper columnist whose “Domestic Affairs” column appeared in 65 papers nationwide. 

In 2013, the Times ran Maynard’s paean to the Sleeping Lady in an essay titled, “Echoes of the Savage and Sublime on Mount Tamalpais.” After she moved to Mill Valley in 1996, Maynard frequently led day-long intensive writing workshops at Book Passage. Her novel To Die For was made into a 1995 film directed by Gus Van Sant and starring Nicole Kidman and Joaquin Phoenix, while her novel Labor Day was made into a 2013 film directed by Jason Reitman and starring Josh Brolin and Kate Winslet. Her most recent novel, After Her, is set in Mill Valley. She now lives in the East Bay.

Mort Sahl - Achievement in the Performing Arts

For the past four years, one of the most important comedians of all time has called Mill Valley home. Sahl, widely considered the father of political comedy, was the first comic to appear on the cover of Time magazine. He was the first non-musician to receive a Grammy award and, in fact, he hosted the first-ever Grammy Awards in 1959). He’s poked fun at every president from Eisenhower to Obama, and managed to maintain friendships with quite a few of them, too.

Sahl - a self-described political radical - began as a speechwriter for President Kennedy and later for President Johnson. He began performing at the hungry I music club in San Francisco’s North Beach in the early 1950s, before comedy clubs even existed. Sahl’s 1955 performance with Dave Brubeck, which was recorded and released, without Sahl's permission, and was sold as Mort Sahl At Sunset, was recently recognized by the Library of Congress as the first stand-up comedy record album.  
At the age of 87, Sahl continues to perform regularly, taking the stage at the Throckmorton Theatre every Thursday night during the theater’s year-long 19-year anniversary celebration.

Murphy Productions - Contributions to the Arts Community

Known for their successes at developing unknown venues, Erma Murphy and Daniel Patrick have created a unique and original style of producing musical events that are inclusive of a larger community.
Erma Murphy began as a local impresario in 2000, hosting a monthly musical party called First Friday at her home in Mill Valley. The evenings provided an opportunity for local and aspiring musicians to play together in an ensemble arrangement while sharing potluck, talking and dancing. Daniel Patrick met Erma at First Friday in 2001 and bonded over their love of music and community. Together, they became Murphy Productions in 2002. Over the years, they’ve produced shows all over, including the Larkspur Cafe Theatre, the Falkirk, the Belrose, he Stage Door Dance Studio, the Masonic Hall in downtown Mill Valley and the old Palm Ballroom in San Rafael. 
The company also serves as a publicity firm for the likes of Marin Open Studios, Marin Art Festival, The Mill Valley Fall Arts Festival and The Larkspur Flower and Food Festival.

Sali Leiberman Award – Gage Schubert

The Sali Lieberman Award was created by the Milley Awards Board of Directors to honor lifetime achievements of those individuals who embody Marin Theatre Company founder Sali Lieberman's inspiration, courage and determination and who, like him, have contributed significantly to the cultural life of Mill Valley.

Gage Schubert is receiving this award for his numerous contributions to the community. The list of recipients of Gage's largesse is long: Kiddo, Slide Ranch, Marin Theatre Company, Tamalpais Conservation Club, Mountain Play Association, West Point Inn, The Dipsea Race, Mill Valley Fall Arts Festival, the City of Mill Valley plus numerous other projects as well as the Milley Awards.

Schubert always sought to remain in the background, referring to himself as a "table and chair" man.  He no longer moves the tables, but is still actively involved with the Mountain Play Association. Gage and his late wife Lettie, a puppeteer and early Milley Awardee, started their community volunteering with the Alto School summer fairs and also worked to found the Scott Valley Swim and Tennis Club.  After that the community involvement never stopped.

Vera Schultz Award – O’Hanlon Center for the Arts

In 2002 the Vera Schultz Award was created to honor the achievements of organizations which embody the late Marin County Supervisor’s activism, leadership, courage and vision, and like Vera Schultz, have made lasting contributions to the cultural life of our community.

The O’Hanlon Center for the Arts, located in a sylvan setting in Mill Valley’s Cascade Canyon, offers workshops, performances, classes, discussions and events for people of all ages who desire to express themselves creatively or who simply love the arts. In an accepting and supportive atmosphere, they feel free to discover new ways of seeing and doing.  Continuing the teaching legacy of founders Ann and Richard O’Hanlon, who started the non-profit organization on their property in 1969, facilitators and teachers emphasize process over product, fellowship, and individual growth.  Professional artists and those who want to explore their creativity for the joy of it find O’Hanlon an egalitarian oasis. It is Mill Valley’s art center—where community and creativity meet.

The 411: Tickets for the Milley Awards are $75. They will go on sale in early September. 

Reading and walking at the same time aren't often a good idea – just ask the folks walking and texting in the "No Cellphones" lane on a DC sidewalk – but at the Mill Valley Public Library, the two make for the perfect combination for the Library’s 2014 Adult Reading Challenge: Steps, Lanes, and Paths. Inspired by Mill Valley’s extensive network of over 175 heritage paths dating back to the 1880s, the Library is serving up a literary expedition that encourages readers to explore new literary landscapes while becoming actively acquainted with the city that many call home.

The Adult Reading Challenge centers around a “reading map” featuring the steps, lanes, and paths of Mill Valley. The 133 steps, lanes, and paths featured on the reading map correspond to a particular reading challenge category relating to peoples, places, genres and much, much more. Participants are challenged to read one book for each path by the challenge’s end on December 31, 2014. As participants undertake the literary challenge, they are also encouraged (but not required) to explore Mill Valley and celebrate its perambulatory heritage by walking the corresponding steps, lanes, and paths on the reading map.

“It’s been a personal goal of mine to walk every step, lane, and path in Mill Valley,” said Ali Birnbach, reference librarian and organizer of the reading challenge. “I know how enjoyable and unexpectedly refreshing it can be to explore the city through its back roads, and a reading challenge seemed like the perfect way to share the experience. A good reading challenge gives participants a general guide and lets them decide how they want to approach it. This year’s theme lets you literally choose your own path(s).”
 
The breadth of categories in this year’s challenge is extensive, from “Voyages of Discovery and Adventure” and “International Female Authors” to “How Can I Help You? The Service Industry” and “An Event or Experience Your Parents Lived Through,” among many others. Categories serve as inspirational starting points and are open to readers’ personal interpretation, meaning that readers are sure to find books to spark their interest. If that wasn’t motivation enough, over the duration of the challenge participants will have chances to win fantastic prizes, including an iPad Mini. For each book read, participants will earn one raffle ticket. The more books read, the more raffle tickets earned, and the more chances to win.

The Adult Reading Challenge is open now. Adults ages 18 and older are invited to register online through the Library’s website. Registrants should then stop by the Library Reference Desk to pick up a reading map. If participants are looking for reading suggestions, librarians at the Mill Valley Library can offer book recommendations. The Library’s website also features a wide array of book lists. 

“We announced our reading challenge last Monday and we currently have nearly 100 participants,” said Birnbach. “It’s a great start to what we hope will be one of our best reading challenges yet!”

In addition to the Adult Reading Challenge, the Mill Valley Public Library offers separate summer reading programs for kids, middle schoolers, and young adults. Visit the Library’s website for more information about any of these programs. 

With current stickers set to expire July 31, City is selling new purple RSVP stickers that allow residents to park at a metered space for free for two hours.

For residents wanting to shop downtown without lugging around change for the parking meters, it’s out with the red and in with the purple.

The City of Mill Valley’s Resident Shopper Vehicle Permit (RSVP) program, which allows 94941 residents to park for free at a metered space as a way to promote downtown businesses, is nearing the end of its fourth year, with new purple stickers on sale now to replace the red stickers of the past year.

The current RSVP stickers expire on July 31. The popular program regularly sells around 3,000 stickers per year, according to City officials.

Just like the past two years, the stickers are $40 for the first two vehicles, $60 each for a third or fourth permit for 94941 residents. For residents of zip codes 94965, 94920 and 94925, all permits are $60. The city accepts check or cash at the Public Safety Building (1 Hamilton Drive) during business hours, and permits can be purchased online here.

In an effort spur RSVP sales, the Mill Valley Market offers any of its customers who spends $350 or more at the market in the month of July a $30 discount on the purchase of an RSVP sticker. Participants can bring their market receipts totaling $350 from purchases within July, along with their receipt for their RSVP sticker purchase, to the Mill Valley Market and get a $30 discount on their next purchase.

You can purchase the parking stickers various ways:

• Online
  
• Mail application and check to: MVPD, 1 Hamilton Drive, Mill Valley, CA 94941
  
• Fax application to: 415-389-4148
  
• In person at 1 Hamilton Drive (across from Hauke Park) 8-5 Monday - Thursday and 8-4 Friday
  

All RSVP stickers must be permanently  attached to the left rear driver's side bumper or lower left rear window. Stickers on vehicles not placed in the proper location will be cited and vehicles parked longer than time limit for the parking space will also be ticketed!

For more information, visit the RSVP FAQ page or call 389-4100.

The City of Mill Valley is taking its celebrated emergency preparedness efforts to the backyard – your backyard, that is. 

In an effort to spread the word about the emergency-ready gear and skills that residents already have at their fingertips, the City is hosting on Saturday, June 7 its first-ever Ready Mill Valley Backyard Campout, an exciting, fun-filled event that promises to give every member of your family a greater sense of resiliency in the face of a disaster – without feeling like homework. 

"Summer is almost here! Let's all dig out our camping gear and spend a night under the stars with our family and friends to celebrate the inaugural Backyard Campout and show off our emergency preparedness skills!" Mill Valley Mayor Stephanie Moulton-Peters says. 

The Backyard Campout has two arenas: residents can participate with other families, neighbors and friends by pitching a tent outside the Mill Valley Community Center for a night of fun-filled games, entertainment, activities, a barbecue and campfire (S’mores!) – or they can camp in their own backyards and test their resiliency from afar.

“It’s tough to prioritize the What-IF of a disaster over the What-IS of daily life,” says Mike Jacobs, the CERT training officer and vice chair of the City’s Emergency Preparedness Commission. “To make that easier for folks, we started with what people already prioritize (fun, family time and outdoor adventure) that could also be useful in a disaster … and the Backyard Campout was born.” 

Activities at the Community Center will include: 

• CERT Ride Along Relay – Join your CERT strike team leader as you deploy through an earthquake-ravaged Mill Valley, assessing building damage, communicating via radio to command and locate and assisting an injured neighbor.
• Fun games and arts & crafts, such as making (and decorating) your own first-aid kit.
• Family-friendly entertainment, including a sing-a-long and magic show.
• A host of emergency preparedness displays and info.
• Tours of Mill Valley’s newest fire engine.
• Fire extinguisher demonstrations.

While those camping in the comfort of their own backyards won’t get to experience all of the great food, activities and entertainment at the Community Center in person, we’ll provide plenty of suggestions for games and activities to make the most of this unique experience. 

The foundation of the event, according to Mill Valley Fire Department Chief Jeff Davidson, is realizing that the basic elements of camping go a long way in getting you ready to deal with the aftermath of a disaster. 

“If you can camp out at your home or at the Mill Valley Community Center for one night, you are demonstrating a level of resiliency,” Davidson said. 

Click here for more details and to register for the Ready Mill Valley Backyard Campout. 

Want to know what's happening around town? Click here to subscribe to the Enjoy Mill Valley Blog by Email!

On the heels of 2013’s “Let the Good Times Roll” theme, parade moves toward a more traditional focus, “Honoring Those Who Gave Their Lives for Freedom.” Pre-parade Pancake Breakfast and post-parade Kiddo! Carnival, Concert and Community Celebration bookend the day-long party of the year in Mill Valley.

The daunting “fashion police” will be out in full force as usual at the Mill Valley Memorial Day Parade on May 26, and this year they won’t just be looking to issue citations for "don'ts" like jean shorts, leather fanny packs and sockles.

Be warned: the 2014 edition of the parade is all about breaking out your red, white and blue duds.

The biggest day-long party of the year in the 94941, the Memorial Day Parade, along with the pre-parade Mill Valley Volunteer Firefighters’ Association’s Pancake Breakfast and the post-parade Kiddo! Memorial Day Community Celebration (see below), are taking a traditional turn this year. In response to calls from veterans to make the event more traditional, the I Love a Parade Committee is building the parade around the theme of “Honoring Those Who Gave Their Lives for Freedom.”

“It makes sense, especially to remind the children of Mill Valley what this holiday is all about,” said Larry “the Hat” Lautzker, head of the I Love a Parade Committee that runs the event. “We had gotten a bit too far left of what the event is all about. This year, we’re going to be more inclusive of that. It’s a somber day and we’ve kind of disregarded that element of it for a while.”

In addition to fellow committee members Clifford Waldeck and Paul Moe, a subcommittee consisting of longtime prominent local residents Jim Wickham, Stephanie Wickham-Witt, Larry Moss, Chris Raker and Susan Cluff has focused on incorporating a more traditional theme into this year’s parade.

“Break out the Red White and Blue, build wondrous floats, great window displays and show our kids and country how creativity and working together help to create amazing results,” Lautzker said.

Organizers have scheduled a ceremony prior to the parade to honor soldiers from Mill Valley who died during war. The ceremony will be held at Lytton Square, the tree-laden island that splits Throckmorton Ave. between Miller and Corte Madera avenues into two. The island is named for Lytton Barber, Mill Valley’s first WWI casualty.

Lautzker said that while the parade will be much more inclusive of Mill Valley’s original Memorial Day Parade, it won’t lose the community party spirit that has been so evident over the past decade. The parade, which begins at 10:30 at Old Mill School and runs down Miller Avenue to Tam High, regularly draws more than 6,000 spectators each year, and includes more than 60 participants. 

Applications to enter are now available online, and must be received by May 23. Entry fees are $75 for commercial entities and $35 for nonprofits.

Mill Valley Volunteer Firefighters' Association Pancake Breakfast

When the Mill Valley Volunteer Firefighters Association launched its annual Pancake Breakfast nearly 20 years ago, John Thompson, Fred Martin, John McClure and Bob Hughes, among others, cobbled together a bunch of portable grills, coolers and propane tanks and prepared to serve up a Memorial Day breakfast for a few hundred people.

And then 800 showed up. And hundreds more showed every year after that, with volunteers serving up some 1,500 to 2,000 plates each and lines forming around the block outside the Mill Valley Fire Department’s downtown station on Corte Madera Avenue.

The massive event is set for 7 a.m. to 11 a.m. on traffic-free Corte Madera Ave. in front of City Hall and outside the fire station with pancakes, eggs, sausage, juice and coffee.

As the Pancake Breakfast has continued to grow over the years, one aspect of it has gone largely unnoticed: the event’s organizers have created quite a mobile kitchen setup that would come in handy in the event of a catastrophic event like a massive wildfire or earthquake, says Mill Valley Volunteer Firefighter Ron Vidal.

“We feed nearly 15 percent of Mill Valley’s population in four hours on that day,” Vidal says of the Pancake Breakfast. “We’re building resiliency and the ability to do a mass feeding if we’re ever in that situation.”

In addition to showcasing an impressive mobile kitchen, the Pancake Breakfast is also the biggest fundraiser of the year for Mill Valley’s volunteer firefighter program. The Mill Valley Fire Department took shape more than 120 years ago as an all-volunteer organization, beating out some fires with wet potato sacks and renting space to store its gear.

“You keep the department strong by continuing to develop that volunteer pool,” Vidal says. “The program creates a candidate pool for the hiring needs for Mill Valley and departments all over Marin and the Bay Area.”

Volunteer program officials estimate that it costs about $4,000 to properly train and equip an active duty firefighter and the group hopes to raise between $10,000 and $15,000 at this year’s event.

Kiddo! Memorial Day Community Celebration

When the float riders, school bands, dignitaries and a bevy of youth groups head to the Mill Valley Community Center after the parade, they’ll have a plenty of fun in front of them.

That includes the final day of the four-day Carnival, which begins Friday at noon and wraps up at 5 p.m. Monday. With more than 15 rides, from the Berry-Go-Round and Tune Train for little ones to the Sizzler, Zipper, Tilt-A-Whirl and Texas Tornado, are being provided by Sacramento-based California Carnival Company. 

After an eight-year hiatus, the Carnival was revived in 2012 as part of the 30th anniversary party for Kiddo. The event has become the centerpiece of Memorial Day weekend on the property around the Community Center and Mill Valley Middle School.

Advance $20 ticket books are available in the Kiddo! office at the Mill Valley School District from May 19 May 22 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. and on May 23 from 9 a.m. to noon. Advance tickets will also be sold outside the Mill Valley Community Center during the week leading up to the Carnival – times TBD. Ticket books are $30 once the carnival begins. Books may be turned in for a one-day wrist band for unlimited rides. Food and games are extra.

Aside from rides, the Community Celebration features food from the likes of Piazza D'Angelo, Beth's Community Kitchen, Nothing Bundt Cake, among others. And as in year's past, a Concert on the Green, sponsored by the Sweetwater Music Hall & Cafe, will keep attendees dancing throughout the afternoon.Local prodigies Matt Jaffe & the Distractions get things started at noon, followed by Lebo & Friends, fronted by Lebo (Dan Lebowitz), a founding member of ALO. Melvin Seals & the JGB headline, playing the music of the late and legendary Grateful Dead guitarist Jerry Garcia.

The 411: The annual Mill Valley Volunteer Firefighters Association’s Pancake Breakfast takes place from 7 a.m. to 11 a.m. on traffic-free Corte Madera Ave. in front of City Hall and outside the fire station with pancakes, eggs, juice and coffee. Fees are $7 for adults and $5 for kids with all proceeds to benefit the Mill Valley Volunteer Firefighters Association to equip a new batch of volunteer recruits.

The Mill Valley Memorial Day Parade begins at 10:30 at Old Mill School and runs down Miller Avenue to Tam High, regularly draws more than 6,000 spectators each year, and includes more than 60 participants. Applications to enter are now available online, and must be received by May 23. Entry fees are $75 for commercial entities and $35 for nonprofits.

The Kiddo! Memorial Day Community Celebration runs from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. Monday. The four-day Carnival is Friday 4 p.m. to 10 p.m., Saturday and Sunday from 12 p.m. to 10 p.m. and Monday 12 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Here's a video about from the 2014 Mill Valley Memorial Day Parade website about this year's theme:

Want to know what's happening around town? Click here to subscribe to the Enjoy Mill Valley Blog by Email!

Enjoy Mill Valley Blog is sponsored by the following local businesses:

City of Mill Valley officials, members and board members of the Mill Valley Chamber of Commerce and a residents turned out to assist the downtown portion of Mill Valley Beautification Day on Saturday, April 26. 

The volunteers, who included City Councilmembers Garry Lion and Jessica Jackson, Chamber Board Chair Paula Reynolds, Board Members Ann Aversa and Clifford Waldeck, Chamber member Gina Seaborg of CMA Mortgage Advisors, among others, dispersed throughout downtown and its array of side streets, picking up litter (ok, mostly cigarette butts) and doing some weeding to the tune of filling up more than a dozen large garbage bags.

That being said, most volunteers observed that downtown businesses have done an excellent job of keeping the areas in front of and around their respective businesses quite clean. So here's to the merchants, restaurants and businesses who treat every day like it's Earth Day! And thanks to Chamber Coordinator Katie Rodden and the City of Mill Valley for making it all happen!

Want to know what's happening around town? Click here to subscribe to the Enjoy Mill Valley Blog by Email!

It’s been called the greatest synchronized sex show on earth: A few nights after the November full moon, corals release millions of pink bundles of egg and sperm that drift to the surface in an enormous upside-down blizzard, resembling what it must be like on the interior of a shaken snow globe. Only the very lucky few have been witness to this mass spawning event in the waters of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, but on Friday, May 2nd, attendees of the Mill Valley Public Library’s First Friday event, “Sex on the Coral Reef,” will receive a front-row seat to this exotic and rarely seen world. Using gorgeous images, marine biologist Erika Woolsey will provide an inside look at coral reef ecosystems, including the annual spectacle that keeps divers and scientists traveling from around the globe.

A native of Marin, Woolsey has been living in Australia, where she is currently finishing her PhD with the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies. Her area of expertise is coral reproduction, and her research seeks to understand how warming oceans will affect the ability of coral reefs to replenish themselves and recover from disturbance, which is especially important in changing oceans. As she shows photos and shares her experiences Down Under and underwater, Woolsey will discuss the threat that climate change poses to the long-term future of coral reefs.

Often referred to as “rainforests of the ocean”, coral reefs are diverse ecosystems that cover less than 1 percent of the sea floor, yet support about 25 percent of marine species. These fragile environments are dependent upon healthy oceans to survive, and unfortunately, about 60 percent of the world’s coral reefs are under immediate threats from climate change and localized human disturbances.

“Coral spawning is truly an incredible natural phenomenon,” says Woolsey. “It’s been happening for millions of years all over the world, and no other sex event in the Animal Kingdom is this well organized. Not only is coral spawning fascinating and visually stunning, it allows coral populations to persevere. Without baby corals, we wouldn’t have adult corals that build important ocean habitats. Contemporary climate change and human disturbance are severely impacting these ecosystems, so it’s becoming more and more important to understand how young coral react in a changing ocean.”

The 411: Part of the Mill Valley Public Library’s ongoing series of First Friday events, Sex on the Coral Reef takes place May 2 at 7 pm in the Library’s Main Reading Room. A wine reception for pre-registered guests will begin at 6:30 pm. This event is free, but registration is recommended. First Friday events are open to adults and high school students only. To register, call 415-389-4292, ext. 3 or sign up online at www.millvalleylibrary.org.

Enjoy Mill Valley Blog is sponsored by the following local businesses: