The Around Dublin Team is happy to report that this year’s Dublin Pride Week Volunteer Day activities qualify for Disney’s “Give a Day. Get a Disney Day.” Program. Volunteer Day will be on Saturday, April 24th, from 8:00AM to 12:00 noon. The City of Dublin still needs over 300 volunteers to help out with Senior Assistance, School Beautification, and Tree Planting Projects. Disney is only accepting one million volunteers for this special offer.

Disney’s “Give a Day. Get a Disney Day.” is a program that celebrates and inspires volunteerism. Disney is working with HandsOn Network to promote amazing volunteer opportunities in local communities everywhere. As a way of thanking volunteers for their good work, Disney will give a free ticket good for one day admission to a Walt Disney World® or Disneyland® theme park.

HandsOn Network, the volunteer-focused arm of Points of Light Institute, is the largest volunteer network in the nation and includes more than 250 HandsOn Action Centers that reach more than 83% of the nation’s population. These affiliates act as community hubs—places where people can get connected, get involved, and make change happen in their communities. HandsOn Network focuses on helping people plug into volunteer opportunities in their local community, helping nonprofit organizations manage volunteer resources, and developing the leadership capacity of volunteers.

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As one of the oldest animal welfare organizations in the United States, the East Bay SPCA has been concerned with animal welfare for over 135 years. It has been providing shelter, health care, and adoption services for unwanted animals since 1874. The East Bay SPCA is committed to finding homes for adoptable cats and dogs, providing affordable veterinary and spay/neuter services, and educating the public on responsible pet ownership. It serves Alameda and Contra Costa Counties and operates two Adoption and Education Centers, two Spay/Neuter Surgery Centers, and a full-service Veterinary Clinic. The East Bay SPCA’s facility on Gleason Drive in Dublin, CA, houses both an Adoption Center and a Spay/Neuter Center. Many wonderful animals are currently waiting for the right home in the Dublin facility.

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On February 10, 2010, Regent Properties unveiled the new site plan for Phase II of Sorrento at Dublin Ranch to current residents at the Sorrento Clubhouse in Dublin, CA. Commonly known as Sorrento East, the second phase of the Sorrento project is approved for 694 homes similar to the 432 homes in the first phase currently being built and sold by Toll Brothers. Regent Properties is processing an Amendment to the approvals that will reduce the overall unit count by 113 to 581 homes, increase the number of neighborhoods from five to six, and provide better parking. The parking ratio for all the detached homes in Sorrento East will be at least 3 spaces per unit. Certain elevations in select neighborhoods will even offer private driveways. Three of the six communities will feature “lifestyle yard spaces” that range in size from 200 square feet up to 730 square feet. All homes will be either two stories or three stories, but no master bedroom will be on the third floor.

Neighborhoods 6, 7, and 8 will be the three Sorrento East communities with “lifestyle yard spaces.” The 102 detached homes in Neighborhood 6 are located in the Northwestern corner of Sorrento East. Ranging from 2,275 square feet to 2,920 square feet in size, these homes will offer yard spaces from 200 square feet up to 730 square feet. Neighborhood 7 will be to the East of Neighborhood 6 and to the North of the future Kolb Elementary School. The 95 detached homes in Neighborhood 7 range from 1,695 square feet to 2,860 square feet in size, and they offer yard spaces from 300 square feet up to 500 square feet. Bisected by the pedestrian corridor that includes the bridge connecting Sorrento East and Sorrento West over Grafton Street, Neighborhood 8 will be to the South of Neighborhood 6 and to the West of the park. Neighborhood 8 will have 138 detached homes ranging from 1,610 square feet to 2,105 square feet in size. These homes will also feature yard spaces from 240 square feet up to 340 square feet.

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Art IS Education is an annual showcase of youth arts learning in Alameda County in March during National Arts Education month. It is an opportunity for students to share with their community what they are learning in and through the arts. In honor of the 10-year anniversary, the Alameda County Arts Commission, in partnership with the Alameda Office of Education, has coordinated featured events within each of the five districts of the Alameda County Board of Supervisors.

The Bankhead Theater is host to a special evening, Champions for The Arts: A Celebration of Our Regional Arts Heroes, honoring community art heroes and showcasing music, performing and visual arts by students from Livermore, Pleasanton and Fremont. Shakespeare’s Associates’ Board Chair, Dr. Philip Manwell, will be honored as part of this celebration. Dr. Manwell is being recognized for his significant contributions to the arts in the community.

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Springfield Montessori School will be opening its new campus in Dublin, CA, May 2010. The Dublin campus is located at 5100 Brannigan Street, in Dublin Ranch, with easy access to and from I-580 and I-680.  In close proximity to both Fallon Middle School and John Green Elementary School, this new campus has been designed to replicate Springfield Montessori’s award-winning architectural design in Walnut Creek, CA. The programs, curriculum, and operating model will be patterned after the highly successful and well respected Walnut Creek campus.

Springfield Montessori School subscribes to the Montessori Teaching Philosophy. Developed by Dr. Maria Montessori (1870-1952), this philosophy emphasizes and promotes excellence in Early Childhood Education by creating a culture that is conducive to learning, helping students develop physical and mental order as well as “Inner Discipline,” providing an environment and materials that will meet the multifaceted developmental needs of the students, and teaching students to help themselves through the processes of independence, responsibility, socialization, and grace, and courtesy.

Springfield Montessori owes much of its reputation to the dedication of its highly motivated teaching staff. Springfield Montessori teachers are well trained in the Montessori Philosophy and possess thorough knowledge of the various stages in a young child’s social, cognitive, physical, and physiological development.

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Marakana is a privately-held company based in San Francisco, CA. Since 2001, Marakana has been helping IT professionals get better at what they do by providing an extensive range of training services on open source software solutions and agile practices. The Around Dublin Blog is teaming up with our friends at Marakana to offer our readers a 10% discount on any course from their extensive training catalog. To qualify for this discount, simply type “Around-Dublin-Blog” when prompted for the coupon code during the course registration process.

The idea for Marakana started with a Craigslist ad. A local non-profit in San Francisco was looking for a technical instructor to help teach some Java classes. This non-profit’s mission was to bridge the Digital Divide by helping underprivileged youth, minorities and women get into high-tech jobs. The classes would be fully booked within hours of their announcements. Encouraged by the overwhelming demand and the success of the participants, the founders of Marakana started offering open source training to corporations and governments. Today, Marakana provides open source training all over the world with a focus on enterprise open source.

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Norman Rockwell's Boy Scouts of America by Joseph Csatari on Amazon.com

Boy Scouts from Dublin Troop 905 will install new signs to help visitors identify the drought-tolerant plants in the Dublin San Ramon Services District (DSRSD) water-conserving demonstration garden on Tuesday, February 16, from 3:30PM to 4:30PM. The demonstration garden is located at 7051 Dublin Boulevard, Dublin, CA 94568. Founded in 1953, DSRSD serves 145,000 customers, providing potable and recycled water service to Dublin and Dougherty Valley, and waste water collection and treatment to Dublin, south San Ramon, and Pleasanton (by contract).

Troop member David Hoff, 17, a junior at Dublin High School, is managing the project to earn Eagle Scout rank. Troop 905 has met in a utility building at the DSRSD office since 1993, and its members helped plant the original garden in 1995. DSRSD refurbished sections of the garden in 2008, but it was unable to replace signs that had deteriorated with age due to budget cuts.

For his Eagle Scout project, Hoff worked with DSRSD staff to measure the half-acre garden and identify 21 species of drought-tolerant groundcovers, shrubs, and trees. He developed an inexpensive, water-resistant design for the signs and recruited fellow Scouts to construct and install them. SignPro and Lucky Pizza, both of Dublin, donated products or services to the project.

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Share the Love Tin

Chocolate gifts for Valentine’s Day are a traditional sign of love and affection, and this year Bittersweet Origins, the Bay Area’s bean-to-bar chocolate maker, has a full array of its own chocolate collections and special gift packaging ready for your special Valentine sweetheart. The delicious, high quality chocolate gifts by Bittersweet Origins range from $4.95 to $34.95 and are available at Bittersweet Café’s three Bay Area locations in San Francisco, Oakland, and Danville, California.

The Share the Love Tin offers a quarter pound each of Mint Mix (Dark Chocolate Holland Mints, Dark Chocolate Peppermint Shortbreads) and Fruit and Nut Mix (Dark Chocolate Dried Strawberries, Dark Chocolate Cherries, and Dark Chocolate Pistachios), Solid Milk Hearts and Solid Dark Chocolate Hearts. The Mint Tin includes Dark Chocolate Holland Mints and dark chocolate Peppermint Shortbreads, while the Fruit and Nut Tin features Dark Chocolate Dried Strawberries, Dark Chocolate Cherries, and Dark Chocolate Pistachios.

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The City of Dublin, CA, is proud to present the Sixth Annual Winter Concert Series. The second in the series is “Valentine’s Day Concert & Dessert.”

Sunday, February 14, 2:00PM

Dublin Heritage Center
Old St. Raymond’s Church
6600 Donlon Way
Dublin, CA 94568

Spend your Valentine’s Day with a double treat—listening to beautiful, romantic ballads by guitarist John Clarke while enjoying sumptuous desserts and refreshments. John Clarke specializes in Spanish and Classical guitar music and has been wowing Bay Area crowds for a number of years. He is a fixture in San Francisco, playing often at Pier 39 and Ghirardelli Square. John is sure to provide a romantic setting for this special occasion.

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