Smith: How they fret for the folks they serve

The end may be near for the volunteer group that operates a Santa Rosa thrift store for the benefit of seniors who are shut in by disease or disability and have few options for finding help.

“I slept little last night, praying about what to do,” said Elaine-Barbara Neiswender, founder and director of the Love Your Neighbor Public Charity. She said the landlord of the warehouse store on Coffey Lane has given the volunteers 45 days to vacate.

Neiswender doesn’t blame him; the nonprofit has been unable to pay the rent since it spent money on a move to a Cleveland Avenue storefront that didn’t happen because of the eleventh-hour discovery of a leaky roof and mold.

Neiswender and the other Love Your Neighbor volunteers envision a clean, dry building. And a bit of breathing space.

CLEAN FINGERNAILS: Look who’s getting gussied up Saturday night and leaving the dog to watch after the fields or vines or livestock.

Members and boosters of Sonoma County Farm Trails will converge on Atwood Ranch in Glen Ellen for the group’s most elegant benefit dinner ever. Tickets to the all-organic Farm to Fork Fall Feast are available until noon Friday.

How’s this for Sonoma County country chic? The social hour will boast a Meet Your Farmer crostini bar, celeb chef Duskie Estes will prepare a meal from the bounty produced by Farm Trails members and avant-garde cellist Zoe Keating will perform.

It all happens in a barn, but a fancy one.

SAME TIME NEXT YEAR: Proud dad Rich Hoffman was happy to have grown daughter Janet visiting from Denver. They sat at his home in Santa Rosa and looked over old photos.

And here were two official, finish-line pictures of Janet completing marathons a year apart in Colorado and Louisiana. Rich noticed the time stamps on the pictures.

Preparing for the Boston Marathon, Janet had completed the run in Fort Collins in 3 hours, 46 minutes and 31 seconds. And the New Orleans Marathon in 3 hours, 46 minutes and 31 seconds.

Trusty and consistent, that daughter of Rich’s.

GARAGE SALES taper off this time of year, but there’s a rather special one this weekend in Rincon Valley.

Janis “JJ” Jordan and some friends collect and then sell second-hand treasures to raise money to buy Christmas gifts for 75 children living at downtown Santa Rosa’s Family Support Center shelter.

The sale happens from 9 to 4 both Saturday and Sunday at 1808 Mission Blvd.

TIM CAIN, the former Sons of Champlin sax player, will be at the Mendocino Coast’s storied Caspar Inn on Sunday for the blowout benefit tribute to James Preston.

A longtime resident of Little River, Preston had played drums for the Sons of Champlin, Norton Buffalo, Moby Grape and Bobby McFerrin. He died last summer of melanoma at age 64.

Between 2 and 10 p.m. Sunday, Cain will join an impressive bill of performers who’ll rock Caspar at a celebration and barbecue that will raise some important funds for Preston’s family.

Chris Smith is at 707-521-5211 and chris.smith@pressdemocrat.com.