The South Yuba River Citizens League will hold its 12th Annual Great Yuba Cleanup and Restoration Day on Saturday, Sept. 19.

Each year, volunteers haul out tons of old tires, mattresses and even junked cars from area watersheds. Items found have included bus seats, an old ditch tiller and a sofa.

This all-day event includes the volunteer clean-up and restoration project from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., followed by festivities at Bridgeport in the South Yuba River State Park.

SYRCL is the designated regional coordinator for western Nevada County as part of the 25th annual statewide California Coastal Cleanup Day. Thirty five sites on the Yuba and Bear rivers and Wolf and Deer creeks will be coordinated by SYRCL as clean-up locations for this year’s event.

“The South Yuba alone receives about a half-million visitors a year, and not all of them ‘leave no trace,’ SYRCL Executive Director Jason Rainey said. “With the diminished — perhaps eliminated — capacity of the state to manage the South Yuba parklands, this is a particularly important time to gather on behalf of our river.”

in 2008, 658 volunteers at 34 sites in the Yuba and Bear river watersheds and Deer and Wolf creek watersheds collected 16,318 pounds of trash and 3,240 pounds of recyclable items along 92 miles of river and creek waterways.

Volunteers must pre-register to participate and can do so at http://www.facebook.com/l/834f2;www.yubariver.org.

The free picnic lunch for volunteers will be provided courtesy of Sunsmile Farms, Living Lands Agrarian Network, SPD Market, California Organics, Sopa Thai, Broad Street Bistro, The Fix, Matteo’s Public, Flour Garden Bakery, Carl’s Jr., Summer Thyme’s Bakery, Mother Truckers, Natural Selection and Safeway.

“We simply couldn’t clean up the tons of trash each year without all this community support,” said Miriam Limov,

Public celebration at 12:30 p.m. Saturday After lunch the public is invited to a celebration of the 10th anniversary of SYRCL’s successful campaign to protect the South Yuba River through state Wild and Scenic designation.

The party will include amplified, peddle-powered music by the Ginger Ninjas and other local talent, volunteer appreciation, the Haute Trash fashion show, a New Belgium Brewery beer garden, a raffle, prizes and other surprises.

The party will start at 12:30 p.m. and last until sundown. Guests are asked to bring low-back chairs, blankets, plates, cups and utensils.

Event sponsors are Nevada City Self Storage, New Belgium, Wild Mountain Yoga Center, BriarPatch Co-Op, California State Parks, B & C True Value, Anderson Physical Therapy, Sierra Solar Systems, Wolf Creek Wilderness, Mountain Recreation, Tour of Nevada City, South Yuba Club, Young’s Carpet One, Xtremely Green and The Union.

Contributed by Paul August, local singer and writer

I just happened to talk to one of the peace center folks at the Grass Valley Street Fair. This grew into a conversation of one of my ideas: a musical marathon: “Give Peace a Chance.” Sing for world peace.

Lily Marie liked the idea and connected it to a celebration of the International Day of Peace. She invited me to a brain storming session at the Nevada County Peace Center, 316 West Main Street, which is directly next to the Center for the Arts in Grass Valley.

They liked it. Peace Day fell on a Monday so we planned the event for the day before, Sunday Sept. 20th. At first, I thought we’d sing all day and into the night. I once organized reading marathons at Oakland High when I was in the Bay Area. My Advanced Placement English Literature kids began reading at 4 pm on a Friday afternoon and actually continued until 10 pm on a Saturday night. 30 hours.

Could we do the same? Well, no. Reality set in. Venues, talent, sound systems, a stage and volunteers became too complex with too little time. We scaled back to a sunrise to sunset event and finally settled on 10 am to sundown.

Lily added the acclaimed film: “The Singing Revolution” that shows how songs, not swords, saved a country from take-over. We added food, PeaceArt and the front porch for spontaneous talent.

As of now, we have a schedule of about a dozen entertainers between ten and twilight. We’ll have a stage in the backyard and a sound system from Foggy Mountain Music where the John Lennon bus showed up last Saturday afternoon. Melissa Seibold donated the poster art work.

Since this is a free family event, all the performers are donating their time and expertise. Some are even donating their CDs to be sold with proceeds to go to the Peace Center to pay for the “Give Peace a Chance” event.

Here’s the lineup for Sunday Sept.20th.

10 am Ty Smith

11 am Dakota Sid

12 noon Molly Roth, Michael Gregory, Paul August

1:00 pm Cool Hand Uke (Dan Scanlon)

2:00 pm The World Brotherhood Choir from Ananda

2:20 pm The Legend of the  Sunburst Bandits

Afternoon MC: Mikhail Graham

3:00 Dave Hatch

4:00 Kelly Fleming

5:00 Peter Wilson

6:00 Hummingbird (Valerie Lowe)

6:30 The Peace Center Singers

The Front Room:

10:30 – 12:15 Fil m: The Singing Revolution

12:15 – 12:45 Sharon Joy Jahdoda

1:00 — 2:00 To be announced

2:00 – 3:45 Film: The Singing Revolution

4:00 – 4:30 James May

4:30 – 6:15 Film: Singing Revolution

While working on this schedule, I found that there are many talented performers willing to perform for a good cause. This is truly a unique area for artists and musicians.

For further information contact 273 4030 or ncpeace@sbcglobal.net

Mindworker By Paul August Buy at cdbaby

This whimsical rock album blends uproarious tunes with a satirical social comment on school boards, bureaucracts, teachers and students.