Chris Smith: Santa Rosa to fly rainbow flag above police/fire station

A flag-raising Saturday in Santa Rosa could be hugely comforting to a portion of the population possibly leery of encounters with people in uniform.

Everyone’s invited to gather at 9:30 a.m. for a ceremony to hoist the rainbow flag, an emblem of the LGBTQ community, outside the city’s police department and central fire station on Sonoma Avenue.

An organizer, Police Sgt. Christopher Mahurin, recalls a 2018 news account of a study that found Santa Rosa ranks No. 2 among American cities with the highest rate of same-sex married couples.

“We want to make sure they are supported and celebrated not only by the city but by the Police Department,” Mahurin said.

To promote Saturday’s event, Mahurin and four other SRPD employees who identify with the LGBTQ community - Officer Kelsea Nelson, records supervisor Sean Wall, field evidence technician Kris Capeheart and dispatcher Schuyler Hardesty - posed for a photo labeled “Serving With Pride.”

At 9:45 a.m., police and fire employees will raise the rainbow flag. It’s to remain up throughout June, which is Pride Month.

The Sonoma County Pride Parade is set to kick off at 11 a.m. Saturday at Fourth Street and Mendocino Avenue.

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BLUE MOON, the ice cream, has come to Fort Bragg for a very specific reason: to encourage parents to read to their kids.

Say what?

There is a moon theme to an effort by the Rotary Club of Fort Bragg to get parents of kids newborn to age 6 to improve their odds of success in school and life by reading aloud to them for 15 minutes a day.

The campaign asks parents to pledge to read to their children daily from the new moon on June 3 to the full moon June 17. Activities kick off at the Fort Bragg Library at 10:30 a.m. Saturday with moon-related projects and reading aloud about the moon by Rotary members.

To add to the fun, Nancy Bennett of Cowlick’s Ice Cream has created a flavor big in Wisconsin and America’s northern heartland: Blue Moon. A Chicago Tribune story described Blue Moon ice cream as “Smurf-blue, marshmallow-sweet and tasting remarkably like Froot Loops.”

Scoops of Blue Moon are among the prizes in a drawing open to parents who promise to read to their little ones daily from new moon to full. For more on Read Aloud for 15 Minutes, email jsparks@mcn.org.

Blue Moon is on sale at Cowlick’s through mid-June. If you have a scoop, I’d love to know what you think.

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NICK BALLINGER was a give-you-the-shirt-off-his-back sort hailed by some lower Russian River residents as the unofficial mayor of Guerneville.

Ballinger tended bar most everywhere along the river, most recently at Guerneville’s Appy Room.

Shock and pain rippled through the area days ago as word spread that Ballinger took his own life.

A celebration of that life is set to begin at 1 p.m. Saturday at the Blue Heron bar and restaurant in Duncans Mills. Hosting friends of Ballinger ask folks to bring along $20 to help cover the costs and also something for the Ballinger Box of Memories. Advised dress is Converse Chuck Taylor sneakers and the Giants, Raiders, Warriors, Sharks, Manchester United and Graton Boys gear that so pleased the mayor.

You can reach Staff Writer Chris Smith at 707-521-5211.