• A benefit for Planned Parenthood Advocates of Oregon’s Lane County Legislative Action Team will be from 6 to 8 pm Thursday, May 9, at the Granary Pizza & Nightclub, 259 E. 5th Ave. in Eugene. Local entertainment from Grrrlz Rock!. Cost is $15 at the door or $13 in advance. Find the event on Facebook at wkly.ws/1gw.
• Education candidates will speak and answer questions at the City Club of Eugene at noon Friday, May 10, at the Hilton, lobby level. Candidates for the boards of LCC, 4J and ESD are expected. $5 for non-members. See cityclubofeugene.org.
• The 14th annual Million Mom March will begin at 2 pm Sunday, Mother’s Day, May 12, at the EWEB Plaza. After some short speeches, including one by Mayor Kitty Piercy, the group will walk down the bike path about a mile to the Owen Rose Garden for cookies. The march, led by a bagpiper, is intended to draw attention to the need for gun safety and “responsible gun legislation now.” Email mmm@efn.org or call 344-9343.
• CycloFemme is an international Mother’s Day ride that unites riders, regardless of gender, age, ethnicity or bicycle preference to share in the joy of riding bikes. Meet at 1:30 pm, May 12, at the Owen Rose Garden, 300 N. Jefferson St. for the ride that begins at 2 pm. The flat 6-mile ride goes along Eugene bike paths and streets, but is not expected to conflict with the Million Mom March nearby. Contact emma.e.newman@ci.eugene.or.us or call 501-0356.
• The Conversations On the Forest series is back and the next will be from 7 to 8:30 pm Monday, May 13, at the Axe and Fiddle, 657 E. Main St. in Cottage Grove. Topic this month is “Oregon Forests, Oregon Economies” with former Lane County commissioner Rob Handy, Roy Keene and colleagues. Email rob@robhandy.com
• Health Care for All Oregon-Eugene met at EWEB this week to plan for a group bus trip to Salem Monday, May 13, to lobby for HB 2922 and attend the hearing at 1 pm that day. Cost of joining the bus trip is $10. The bus will leave at 8:15 am and be back in Eugene before 5 pm. Email ruthduemler@comcast.net or patbitner@gmail.com for more information or to get on the mailing list.
• The parent group that’s working to get District 4J’s 3X5 schedule delayed is now called 4J Parents for Learning Effectiveness and Accountability (4J PLEA) and is ramping up efforts to publicize its views. A social media website is at meetup.com/Eugene4JParentGroup and PLEA will hold its next meeting at 7 pm Thursday, May 12, at the Unitarian Universalist Church, 13th and Chambers. Meanwhile, two or three 4J Board members are holding informal conversations on a variety of topics around town from 4 to 5 pm on Fridays. The next will be May 10 at Edgewood Elementary School, 577 E. 46th Ave., followed by May 17 at the Arts & Technology Academy, 1659 W. 22nd Ave.
• A forum on racism, called “Looking at Lane County,” will be at 6 pm Friday, May 24, at Tsunami Books, 2585 Willamette, Eugene. Organizers say this will be “an honest panel discussion about the state of racism locally” with presentations from several organizations and a question and answer section. Topics will include prisons, profiling, racism and building community responses.
• A panel discussion on "Alleviating Poverty — Practical Applications of Microfinance Focused on Indigenous Communities" will be from 6 to 8 pm Thursday, May 9, at Lillis 245 on the UO campus. Focus will be on micro-finance in indigenous communities within Moldova, Chile, Uganda, and nine other countries. Panelists will include Ghena Russu, Todd Engelsen, Ignacio Krell, Alison Guzman and Ron Severson. One of the organizers is MAPLE (Microdevelopment for the Alleviation of Poverty through Learning and Entrepreneurship), started by UO students in 2008, now a non-profit organization that works to alleviate poverty through microdevelopment.