Smith: Another use for those eclipse glasses, a fundraiser and premature zin

Harry Richardson was the first hereabout, so far as I know, to ponder aloud what one is to do with eclipse glasses that in and around socked-in Santa Rosa didn’t even get used when the moon totally blocked the sun Monday.

Marty Dekay-Bemis has an answer.

The Santa Rosa woman has taken the initiative to collect eclipse glasses and get them on their way to schoolchildren in South Africa and Asia, so they’ll be ready for safe viewing of solar eclipses in 2019.

Marty has enlisted the help of Bernie Schwartz, the ray of sunlight who operates downtown Santa Rosa’s California Luggage. Bernie invites folks to drop off their eclipse glasses at his shop on Fourth Street.

He and Marty will get the specs to Astronomers Without Borders, who’ll figure out how to get them to kids overseas. The organization’s president, Mike Simmons, sees a golden opportunity to donate something worthwhile to schools in developing nations with no money for science education.

If it’s easier, mail your eclipse glasses to a partner of Astronomers Without Borders: Explore Scientific, at 1010 S. 48th St., Springdale, AR 72762.

But Bernie stands ready to take them off your hands.

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FOR COACH STEVENS: Yet another terrible blow has struck Ryan Stevens, the father of four and former Spanish teacher, wrestling coach and mentor to many at Sebastopol’s Analy High.

Amid his treatment for metastasized melanoma, Ryan, who’s 38, was hit just recently by a transient ischemic attack and several strokes. At present he’s alert but quadriplegic and unable to speak.

Members of the Analy and broader community are rallying to help provide for him and his wife, Jaradel, and the kids, in a couple of ways.

A pasta feed and gathering called “Take it to the Mat” will happen at the school from 5 to 8 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 31. The cost is $10 for adults, $5 for kids. There will be a bake sale, too.

Analy’s Back to School Night occurs that same day, so if you take part in the benefit for the Stevens family, prepare to park a ways from the campus.

There’s also a crowdfunding appeal at gofundme.com/helpstevensfamily.

Ryan has accomplished much and touched many lives since he began wrestling his brothers, Jimmy and Tyson, at age 5, became a champion at Rancho Cotate High in Rohnert Park, earned his Eagle Scout, served a two-year mission in Uruguay with the LDS Church and became a teacher and coach.

You can believe that he and Jaradel, who married in 2003, are thankful for all that’s being done for them.

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EARLY HARVEST: It occurred to Jake Bilbro, owner and winemaker at Healdsburg’s Limerick Lane Cellars, that the kids were being uncustomarily quiet while he and his wife, Alexis, enjoyed dinner at home with Arista Winery owner Mark McWilliams and his wife, Jennifer Habecker McWilliams.

Then the young’uns burst in to show what they’d been doing.

Demonstrating what they’d learned from their folks, they’d picked and heaped a wagonful of not-quite-ripe grapes from Limerick Lane’s 107-year-old zinfandel vines.

Jake grimaced but shares on Facebook and Instagram, “I can’t say that deep down I wasn’t proud of these little vintners.”

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