Oakland North TV
For one night only, Oakland’s historic Children’s Fairyland opened its magical doors to the young at heart aged 21 and over. The spell that has been cast over Children’s Fairyland for 60 years was broken: adults were allowed into the park without a child last Friday night. For three hours, close to 1,200 adults, most of them in their 20s and 30s, marauded the historic wonderland. Some visited for the first time, others for the first time in more than 20 years.
Many Oakland urban farmers raise animals for a healthier, sustainable and cheaper source of food, and their backyard farms can foster positive relationships between neighbors, according to a recent report on urban livestock practices in the city.
In vintage crocheted frills and elaborately designed hats reminiscent of early 20th century fashions, on Sunday Oakland women celebrated the centennial anniversary of the passage of women’s voting rights at Lakeside Park with a reenactment of the first suffrage parade.
Women’s Cancer Resource Center celebrated its 16th annual Swim A Mile fundraiser this weekend. Cancer survivors, their supporters, center staff and others swam laps in support of the center’s services, while spectators waved homemade signs and cheered encouragement.
A Safe Place hosted its 10th annual Walk Against Domestic Violence and Teen Dating Violence at Lake Merritt on Saturday to kick off Domestic Violence Awareness Month. In 2010, Alameda County reported over six thousand calls for domestic violence – more than two thousand of those calls involved a weapon.
Alameda County supervisor Keith Carson honored the school during its sixth annual Ready to Learn Fun Fair on Saturday. Peralta was selected as a National Blue Ribbon School last month. Tom Torlakson, California’s superintendent of instruction, nominates schools for the award that demonstrate superior achievement, especially in disadvantaged communities. Peralta, with just over 300 students, is one of only two schools to receive this award in Alameda County.
Oakland North reporters Megan Molteni and Dylan Bergeson set out to track a raccoon in observance of International Raccoon Appreciation Day. They failed spectacularly.
Hundreds of Ethiopian immigrants and their families from around the Bay Area gathered at the Ethiopian Orthodox Cathedral on Mountain Boulevard Sunday for Meskel, or the finding of the True Cross, one of the most important holidays in the Ethiopian Orthodox calendar and a national holiday in Ethiopia. Wearing snow-white linen, worshippers congregated outside the church for much of the day while others prepared food which filled the air with the aromas of East African spices, turning the church parking lot into a scene out of their home country.
On Sunday, 20 local businesses exhibited their products and services at Tilt—a contemporary wedding fair catering to, as the event’s website put it, “the creative, alternative-thinking bride or groom.”