This community events calendar is the place to find fun activities and things to do throughout Lewis County, including Centralia, Chehalis and beyond.

Loss of a home, whether through financial difficulties, divorce, illness, or natural disasters like wildfires, is a widespread and growing problem affecting all of us. Often thought of as only an urban problem, homelessness also occurs in suburban and rural areas throughout Washington State. What are the historical roots of homelessness, and what lessons can we learn from them? What are the common meanings of home to us, and how can we apply those meanings to our responses to homelessness in our communities?
In this talk, author and professor Josephine Ensign leads audiences through a values clarification exercise that includes individual writing time. Professor Ensign will share her research on the history of homelessness in her hometown of Seattle, along with discussion of what these stories can teach us about the contemporary crisis of homelessness throughout our state and country.
Josephine Ensign (she/her) is a professor at the University of Washington in Seattle. Her scholarship and practice as a nurse practitioner focus on trauma-informed care and health inequities for people marginalized by poverty and homelessness. She experienced homelessness herself as a young adult. Ensign is the author of several books including Skid Road: On the Frontier of Health and Homelessness in an American City, a 2022 finalist for the Washington State Book Award. Her latest book, Way Home: Ways Out of Homelessness, is forthcoming from Johns Hopkins University Press.
Ensign lives in Seattle.
Care & pruning of rose bushes does not have to be intimidating or difficult. Join us to learn some basic rose care and how to prune for healthier, happier blooms.

Dr. J H Roundtree (Mary Borst’s father) opened the first pharmacy in Centralia, “J H Roundtree’s “Drugs & Medicines in Centralia, WT (Washington Territory). Our 2 pm talk will be on who he was, where he was educated and his influence in our community. All are welcome to join us. Tour this wonderful historical site and bring friends/family.

February 7th – November 6th 2024: 1st Wednesday of the month
$250 for all 10 classes, $130 for a 5-class series, or $30 per class
6 pm – 8 pm PST
Grow Your Own Produce is a 10-class monthly series taught by permaculture expert Marisha Auerbach. Each class features seasonally relevant information about planning, growing, maintaining, and harvesting food from your own vegetable garden.
Each month, the class is designed to help you maximize your yields and efforts in the garden by providing an overview of key activities to engage in at the right time each month from February through November. We meet on the first Wednesday of each month through Zoom. Before the class meeting, participants will receive a collection of handouts supporting the key topics for the month with a garden checklist for the month ahead. We will discuss different subjects that are pertinent to the garden that month using slides and the month’s handouts as references. There will be ample time each class session for questions. After each class, participants receive a video of the class and a pdf of the slides.
Marisha Auerbach has spent many years observing and interacting in her garden and in the gardens of the greater Pacific Northwest bioregion. She has been growing most of her own produce year ‘round for over the past decade. To learn more about Marisha, please visit her bio page. This is the 11th year that Marisha will be offering the workshop series.
2024’s Schedule of Classes:
Wednesday, February 7: Planning, Design, & Framework
Wednesday, March 6: Indoor Seed starting, Early Season Plantings, & Perennial Vegetables
Wednesday, April 3: Cole Crops, Greens, & Soil Building
Wednesday, May 1: Warm Season Crops, Edible Flowers, & Attracting Pollinators
Wednesday, June 5: Maintenance & Harvest
Wednesday, July 3: Berries, Herbs, & Water Catchment
Wednesday, August 7: Seed saving & the Winter Garden
Wednesday, September 4: Putting up the Harvest
Wednesday, October 9: Garlic, Cover Crops, & Compost
Wednesday, November 6: Nourishing Soups, Wildlife in the Garden, & Planning for the Coming Year

Jean Bluhm is our Guest Speaker for May and will share about the rest of the Borst Family and community in her books: Joseph Borst Family Tree (1564 – 2022); The Borst Home Guide; Book 3 People who lived in … Borst Home Museum; and, Book 4 The Borst Museum Expanded. A deeper Look into the Past (on how the buildings help us see our past). Jean is always a pure delight.
Timberland Regional Library and the Capital STEM Alliance at ESD113 welcome you to our third Moving Forward Together virtual summit on Thursday, June 6, 2024, from 4:30-6:00 pm. Our focus will be on childcare – an issue that affects employers, families, educators, and communities throughout the Capital region.
Our Keynote speaker, Gary Burris of the Child Care Action Council, will kick off the event, followed by a panel discussion around family-friendly workplaces, child care recruitment and retention, and universal access for families. Attendees will come away with information about:
Childcare deserts and how they affect working families
Childcare provider training, recruitment and retention issues
How family-friendly workplaces can contribute to employee retention and a positive culture
We hope you will join us for this informative event!
Panel speakers include:
Shelly Willis Executive Director of Family Education and Support Service
Melody Furze Early Learning Education Specialist and Child Find Coordinator at ESD11
Mary Rulewicz, Early Learning Coordinator – Timberland Regional Library
Regular maintenance of your garden tools will make them last for seasons of gardening. Sharp tools help to keep your plants healthy and disease free. Come and learn with the experts!

Why Celebrate the our Independence Day? Who Signed the Declaration of Independence? How did they see celebrations for future generations? Flags of
our fledgling nation and Flag Etiquette … Songs of our beginning …
4th of July is on Thursday this year … Go see a parade in your community, enjoy a
picnic or BBQ … Enjoy your freedom with friends and family, readying for our 250th upcoming celebration.
Now is the perfect time to plan and plant for a year-round vegetable garden that will produce through fall and spring. This workshop will teach you what to plant and how to rotate garden space all without a greenhouse.