Smith: Sonoma County Jail inmates color for the wife of slain Steve Carter

At the Sonoma County Jail on Friday night, 10 women inmates gathered for the voluntary Lotus Project, a program of mindfulness taught by the good people of Friends Outside.

The instructor at one point asked the inmates to color in a picture of a lotus flower, “holding in your heart someone you want to surround with empathy or compassion.”

They quickly agreed that one woman was foremost on their minds. They colored the lotuses while imagining Lokita Carter, the Middletown woman whose husband, Steve, was supporting her struggle against breast cancer when he was shot to death and the couple’s dog wounded last week on a Marin hiking trail.

Kate Jenkins of Friends Outside seeks now to get the lotuses to Lokita.

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ONLY RAIN could have made it a greater challenge for Redwood Gospel Mission chief Jeff Gilman and his crew to temporarily shut the downtown Santa Rosa homeless shelter and have it tented for what was to be three days of pest eradication.

Amid great effort to arrange other shelter for the 80 or so men who typically sleep at the mission, someone sneaked onto the grounds under cover of darkness and opened the fumigation tent while attempting to steal a bicycle. So the two-story shelter and life reconstruction center at Sixth and Wilson streets had to be re-sealed and gassed for two additional nights.

Now the Gospel Mission is as ready as it can be for El Niño.

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CAKE ON THE COURT: Age doesn’t much bother the fellows who meet regularly at Santa Rosa’s Howarth Park bright and early to play tennis and solve the troubles of the world.

The other morning, the guys dawdled a bit longer after their games to pop some sparkling cider and slice into a birthday cake.

That very day, Ralph Harms turned 80, Don Greene’s odometer flipped to 91 and Dave Browne played for the first time as a 94-year-old.

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HOP ON THE BACK: Life evidently had become quite a bummer for Jamie Bianchini of Santa Cruz when he and a friend set out to pedal the world on a tandem bike in 2002.

When an injury forced the friend to quit, Bianchini continued alone on the bicycle intended for two. He tells in a book of having his life dramatically altered as he pedaled through about 80 countries, inviting perfect strangers to mount up and ride with him for a while.

On Monday in Petaluma, Bianchini will have the bike with him when he appears at the Aqus Cafe to talk about his transforming journey and his book, “A Bicycle Built for Two Billion.” There’s a reception at 6 p.m. and he’ll speak at 7.

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FILIPINO HISTORY runs deep and proud hereabout. On the 50th anniversary of the Delano grape strike, local Filipino-Americans invite us to an afternoon of stories and recollections - and traditional food from the Philippines.

It happens from noon to 4 p.m. Oct. 17 at the Veterans Memorial Building in Santa Rosa. The food will be available through the noon hour.

Speakers at “Many Voices, One Message,” hosted by the Filipino American National Historical Society of Sonoma County, include Greg Sarris of the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria, farm worker and activist Johnny Itliong and the historical society’s national president, Mel Orpilla.

And there will be film: “Delano Manongs: Forgotten Heroes of the United Farm Workers,” by Emmy-winning producer Marissa Aroy.

More details at www.fanhssonoma.org.

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ROOTS IN GUAM: There was a reunion of student leaders at SRJC and the current student body president, Joshua Jared Graham-Pinaula, got to talking with the president from 40 years ago, Greg Champion.

Champion mentioned that upon graduating from the JC he moved to Guam because his mother was born there.

“Guam!” said Graham-Pinaula. “My dad’s from Guam.”

Who knows, the pair of presidents’ next reunion may be in Hagåtña.

Chris Smith is at 521-5211 and chris.smith@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @CJSPD.