Scams inspired by our popular Best of Eugene Awards are evolving. Not only are businesses and groups being offered fake Best of Eugene plaques for $150 (the real ones are free), but local businesses are now getting pitched for “Dental Office of the Year” or “Salon of the Year” and other fake accolades. These so-called awards are touted as “free” but the scammers charge big bucks for making the plaques and shipping them, if in fact they ever make and ship them at all after they take your Visa number.
We ran across another scam this week involving Craigslist for sale ads. It’s a variation on an old scam. If you include a phone number in your ad and say “text me,” you might get a text message offering to have a shipping company come to your house to pick up your stuff after you deposit a check from the out-of-state-buyer. The check clears your bank initially but bounces a few days after your stuff gets hauled away. We haven’t heard of such problems with EW classified ads.
City Club of Eugene has a new home at the Downtown Athletic Club for its Friday luncheons now that the holiday break is over, and the topic this week will be the results of the 2013 Oregon Values & Beliefs Survey with Tom Bowerman. See story in our news section this week. The DAC is at 10th and Willamette.
The nonprofit Willamette Animal Guild (WAG) Spay/Neuter Clinic has received a grant enabling the clinic to offer free S/N to free-roaming cats in the 97477
and 97478 ZIP codes. The city of Springfield has donated a headquarters for storage and recovery. Volunteers are needed to help with the program, such as coordinating transportation, responding to phone messages, caring for cats in recovery, etc. Call Norma King at 726-6697.
Jewish Events Willamette-Valley (JEW) is gearing up to celebrate another new year: The Jewish New Year for Trees is Thursday, Jan. 16, and JEW and Hendricks Park are offering a guided tree walk in Hendricks Park at noon that day. The guide for the free event is Michael Robert, who was the head gardener of the park for 25 years. JEW is also celebrating by showing Vegetative Love, a meditative movie about trees in Israel, along with Wherever You Go at the Bijou (492 E. 13th) at 2 pm Sunday, Jan. 12. The movies are part of the Eugene Jewish Film Festival, cost $5 and include a discussion after the showings. More info can be found at JewishEventsWillamette-valley.org or call 514-2571.
The nonprofit Oregon Wild is planning “winter walkabouts” on snowshoes around Oregon this month and next. Many are in the Portland region, but some are farther south. The Marilyn Lakes outing near Diamond Peak is Saturday, Jan. 11. Find details at oregonwild.org.
Nonprofits will be working together on Martin Luther King Jr. Day with a community service project. AmeriCorps members at Springfield/Eugene Habitat for Humanity will partner with Community Supported Shelters to honor King’s legacy of community service by building temporary housing for homeless community. Volunteers will build a Conestoga hut and camping structures on Jan. 20, and the structures will become part of the Eugene Safe Spot site. To help, contact Kris Redmond at 741-1707 or Erik de Buhr at 683-0836.