o What: Sweetheart Desserts & Valentine Concert, featuring five acts, to benefit the Veterans Community Garden in the Orchards area.
o When: 3 to 8 p.m. Saturday.
o Where: Gaiser Student Center, Clark College, 1933 Fort Vancouver Way, Vancouver.
o Information: www.clarkcountyvetscourt board.org/events.html
A garden to help veterans — and to help them assist hungry families — will get a boost from a Valentine’s Day concert at Clark College.
Saturday’s event in Gaiser Student Center on the Clark campus, 1933 Fort Vancouver Way, features five acts scheduled to perform from 3 to 8 p.m. Proceeds will go toward the Veterans Community Garden project in the Orchards area.
o What: Sweetheart Desserts & Valentine Concert, featuring five acts, to benefit the Veterans Community Garden in the Orchards area.
o When: 3 to 8 p.m. Saturday.
o Where: Gaiser Student Center, Clark College, 1933 Fort Vancouver Way, Vancouver.
o Information:www.clarkcountyvetscourt board.org/events.html
The garden project is supported by the nonprofit group that works with the Clark County veterans court. A special therapeutic court, it emphasizes rehabilitation of veterans who qualify for the program.
“One person fell on hard times and couldn’t pay union dues. That’s not something the county would do; the nonprofit did,” said Darvin Zimmerman, the founding presiding judge of the veterans court.
The garden, expected to have its first crops this summer, will be a resource for vets that also can help the community.
“It’s therapeutic, and people love gardens,” said Zimmerman, who founded and coordinates the nonprofit Veterans Court Board.
“The gardens will let vets in the therapeutic court work off sanctions and fines,” Zimmerman said. “Extra produce will be donated to families of needy vets, and then to the food bank. Cowlitz County has inmates tending a garden right by the courthouse and they donate the harvest to food banks.”
The site will include raised beds that can be tended by veterans with mobility problems.
The garden plot is inside Mabry Center, a county corrections work-crew facility just northeast of Padden Parkway and Northeast 117th Street.
Saturday’s performers are:
• 3 p.m.: Art Miller.
• 4 p.m.: Eric John Kaiser.
• 5 p.m.: Amber Sweeney.
• 6 p.m.: Norman Sylvester.
• 7 p.m.: The Ricky Lee Jackson Band with Shawna Quade.
The concert includes desserts and beverages.
Advance tickets are $25 at Beacock Music, Hazel Dell Animal Hospital, all Riverview Bank branches, and at www.clarkcountyvetscourtboard.org. Tickets at the door are $30.
