Fires create challenges for those who feed Lake County’s low-income and shut-in elders

Jonathan Crooks is not too proud to ask.

“We could use some help,”? said Jonathan, an essential someone to the many elders who rely on Meals on Wheels or lunches served at senior centers in Lucerne, Lakeport, Kelseyville and elsewhere in northern Lake County.

The fires have been a perfect storm to the nutrition programs Jonathan oversees as chief of the Lakeport Senior Activity Center. Power outages and senior center closures ruined thousands of dollars’ worth of food. The emergency shutdown of the Meals on Wheels Thrift Store in Lakeport cost the charitable enterprise thousands of dollars in lost sales.

Meanwhile, evacuations and destruction from the Mendocino Complex fires have more of the region’s elders needing help with basic nutrition.

To help, we can make donations to the Lakeport Senior Activity Center. Checks can be mailed to: Lake Family Resource Center, 5350 Main St., Kelseyville, CA 95451.

Deposits to the senior center’s meals program also can be made at any Umpqua Bank branch, account No. 0162027601. And for online donations, go to the Lake Senior Activity Center’s Facebook page.

Some good news: The Meals On Wheels Thrift Store on Lakeport’s North Main Street reopened Monday after being closed since July 28. Manager Sandy Baroni said first-day-back sales were going well.

“Of course, the more the better,” she said.

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HE CAN’T SING any longer, but prolific Sonoma County performer/songwriter Blane Lyon believes he has at least one more shot at playing his harmonica with friends in front of an audience.

He’s taking that shot.

Blane expects to appear Saturday night at the HopMonk Tavern in Sebastopol. Friends are organizing a 7:30 p.m. concert to bring in some dollars for him and his family as he deals with vocal cord cancer.

He’s not able to speak, and if treatment involves a tracheotomy or laryngectomy, his days on the harmonica will be over.

But Blane can play today, and he’s eager to stand in Saturday night with featured Sonoma County reggae fusion band Sol Horizon and all the special evening’s other acts.

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MARK MILLAN HURT. The Windsor Town Council member and water-resources guru last week was riding his trail bicycle down Tahoe’s Flume Trail when he steered to avoid a family coming uphill. Mark’s front tire hit something, launching him and the bike airborne. He slammed down hard, quite horribly fracturing his right collarbone.

How fortunate that in the upward-bound family was a medical first responder who rushed over, cut apart Mark’s shirt, fashioned a sling and called 911.

Mark now is home, preparing for surgery Wednesday, then a rare spell on the sidelines.

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MONTY AT 60: Santa Rosa had just one public high school from 1874 to 1958, when Montgomery High opened.

Vikings young and old will celebrate the school’s 60th anniversary Saturday with a classic car show backdropped by old-time rock ’n’ roll and a no-host barbecue by alum Gus Lopez of Gus’ Cafe & Grill in Santa Rosa.

Organized by the school’s alumni foundation, the celebration happens from 10:30 a.m. to 2:20 p.m. in the parking lot.

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