Improve Eating Habits If Only For The Benefit Of Valentine Sweetheart

Imagine a romantic Valentine’s Day dinner for two with someone you love: Classical music plays softly in the background. Tall taper candles illuminate roses on the table and the sparkle in your eyes. You reminisce about the funny way you met, recall your neurotic first date - and review the number of fat grams as you eat dinner …

Hey, it’s the ‘90s! And if you expect to live a long, healthy life with your loved one, isn’t it about time you start taking this low-fat lifestyle to heart?

The Heart Institute of Spokane’s 1996 Food Plan booklet contains 29 pages of more than 45 low-fat recipes, quick meal ideas, tips to improve eating habits, fat substitutions and healthy shopping tips.

Also available are Heart Month Calendars, which lists events and programs by specialists who stress adopting healthier lifestyles through good nutrition, stress control and exercise.

The calendars and food plans are free and available at any Tidyman’s store or the Great Harvest Bread Company, 2530 E. 29th. Or call The Heart Institute, 625-3000.

More food for thought

Community Colleges of Spokane Foundation and Perkins Restaurant, Division and Trent, will team up Monday to raise money for students scholarships.

Perkins Restaurant will donate half of that day’s profits above $2,000 to the CCS Foundation’s Touch the Future Scholarship fund.

“This is a fun way that alumni and local people can create scholarships for needy and deserving students,” said Jennifer Roseman, director of communications and development. “With the help of local supporters, this could give our scholarship fund a tremendous boost. We truly appreciate Perkins’ generosity.”

And, still discussing food …

Target teamed with Hershey to donate nearly 95,000 Teddy bears nationwide for children in emergency situations.

For every package of Hershey Kisses brought by Thursday, the chain store will make a donation to Helping Hugs, a program which provides paramedics with toys to give to children.

In its fifth year, Helping Hugs is a partnership between Target, National Association of Emergency Medical Technicians and Hershey Chocolate U.S.A.

A heart of another kind

Family-a-Fair will present its first Workplace Award to the employer who demonstrates the biggest heart through policies and programs which support working parents.

This award calls attention to workplaces that offer employers opportunities to advance their careers and still enjoy good family lives.

Employees may nominate their workplace through a questionnaire which evaluates employer policies against the following criteria: pay and benefits, opportunities to advance, and child/family care flexibility.

Award certificates will be presented in each category based on the number of employees.

There are also prizes for employees who submit the nominations. A panel of six business leaders and community advocates will judge the nominations.

Author Judith Viorst will present the awards and prizes at an April 19 luncheon at the West Coast-Ridpath Hotel.

Love that old house

Cheney Cowles Museum invites the public to fall in love with houses of a bygone era by attending the seventh annual Old House Workshop series, Feb. 13, 20 and 27.

This year features the Arts and Crafts Movement and its world-wide and local impact.

On Tuesday, museum director Glenn Mason will introduce the movement’s philosophy, successes, failures and influences. And Seattle designer Ron Thomas will illustrate its decorative arts and interior furnishings.

On Feb. 20, slides compiled by the museums’s Historic Prevention Committee will illustrate everyday craftsman architecture. Two Spokane couples will discuss a bungalow rehabilitation modified for today’s lifestyles, and a new home based on designs by California’s Greene and Greene.

The Feb. 27 program will feature Paul Duchscherer, a San Francisco interior design historian and author. He will explore the bungalow phenomenon from inside out. His book, “The Bungalow: The American Arts and Crafts Home,” will be available for purchase.

Cost for the Workshop series is $21 per person or $40 per couple. Admission to singe lectures is $8, space permitting. Call 456-3931 to pre-register.

America by Design

Coinciding with the Old House Workshop will be Wednesday evening’s video 7:30 p.m. showing of “The House” at the Cheney Cowles Museum.

“The House” is part of a five-part series, “America By Design,” which examines our country’s unique heritage of innovative design. It demonstrates how design has affected the nation’s political, social, economic and technological history.

The Wednesday Night Program Series is free and open to the public; donations are welcome.

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