Thursday

The American Red Cross will take its blood drive to the Whitefish High School on Thursday, April 23, from 10:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

The Whitefish Community Foundation will hold its eighth annual nonprofit workshop on Thursday, April 23, at 8:30 a.m. at The Whitefish Lake Lodge. The workshop will focus on new requirements for nonprofits. Guest speaker will be Tony Vanorny, shareholder and director of audit with JCCS, of Kalispell. A special session on grant writing will also be held with members of the Foundation’s grants committee. The workshop is $35 and includes lunch. A $250 instant grant will be awarded to one of the participating nonprofit organizations, sponsored by the Kramer Family Fund of the Whitefish Community Foundation. For information about the workshop and to register call 863-1781 or visit online at www.whitefishcommunmityfoundation.org.

Friday

The city of Whitefish will celebrate Arbor Day on Friday, April 24, from 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. in Depot Park with live music, a raffle, arts and crafts, food vendors and educational information. The celebration will actually kick off on April 23 when Muldown Elementary School kindergarteners plant seedlings at the school. The Whitefish High School’s Environmental Club will plant trees at Soroptimist Park on April 24 at 10 a.m. Velvet Phillips-Sullivan will give a “tree blessing” at 11:15 a.m. For more information, call 863-2410 or visit online at www.whitefish.govoffice.com.

Full-day kindergarten registration at Muldown Elementary School will take place April 24 from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. A current immunization record and birth certificate is required. Parents can meet teachers and visit classrooms.

School District 44 and Head Start will offer free developmental screening for children in the district up to five years old on Friday, April 24, at the school district offices in Whitefish Middle School from 8:30-11:30 a.m. and 1-3 p.m. Children from birth to three years will receive hearing and the Denver Developmental Screening tests. Children from 3-5 will get hearing and vision checks and complete the Comprehensive Identification Process.

The Whitefish Assembly of God will hold their annual Flathead Valley Women’s Retreat at Glacier Bible Camp in Hungry Horse on April 24-26, from 6 p.m. Friday until about noon on Sunday. Guest speaker will be Rev. Jeanette Poteete, a speaker, minister and teacher of 19 years at Stockdale Christian Schools in Bakersfield, Calif. Cost is $55 for Teakettle Lodge and $65 for Glacier Mountain Lodge. Register before April 19, if possible. For more information, call 862-4039.

Lunafest, a national film festival that showcases short films by, for and about women, will come to Flathead Valley Community College Room AT139 on Friday, April 24, at 6:30 p.m. The film show will benefit the Violence Free Crisis Line, the Flathead Valley’s only domestic and sexual violence intervention and prevention organization. FVCC’s Service Learning Club and Campus Corps will host the show. Now in its eighth year, Lunafest is shown in more than 140 venues nationwide and is seen by more than 20,000 viewers, raising more than $140.000 for the Breast Cancer Fund and $250,000 for local communities. For more information, call Jill Hoxmeier at 261-9085.

Saturday

Clean The Fish will take place on Saturday, April 25, beginning with breakfast at Glacier Bank on Second Street at 8:30 a.m. Trash bags and gloves will be handed out at that time, and volunteers will be transported to designated areas. A barbecue lunch will be served at Glacier Bank at 11 a.m. Prize drawings at that time include a mountain bike for children under-18 and gift certificates for adults.

The Glacier Symphony and Chorale will present Felix Mendelssohn’s “A Midsummer Night's Dream” at the Whitefish Middle School auditorium on Saturday, April 25, at 7:30 p.m. and the Flathead High School auditorium on Sunday, April 26, at 3 p.m. The concert will feature winners of the 2009 MASO Young Artist Competition in music of Mozart, Wieniawski and Prokofiev. Admission is free for students up to age 22. David Ackroyd will narrate scenes from the play that will introduce and set the scene to Mendelssohn's great music, from the sparkling Overture to the jubilant Wedding March and the magical, fairy-inspired Scherzo. Tickets are $23 adults and $18 seniors availablein Whitefish at Montana Coffee Traders downtown and The Village Shop and online at www.glaciersymphonychorale.org.

The Whitefish Community Garden, on the grounds of the United Methodist Church, on Wisconsin Avenue, will hold an open house on Saturday, April 25, from 1-4 p.m. with information on composting, recycling, gardening in the Flathead, canning and irrigation. Raised-bed plots can be rented. A community work day will take place Saturday, May 9. For more information, call 863-9758.

Raptor biologist Byron Crow will discuss raptors and falcon research around Bigfork on Saturday, April 25, from 10 a.m. to noon at the Sitting Duck in Woods Bay. Crow will also hold a clinic for kids in which they’ll build their own bird feeders as part of the Fledgling Fun backyard biologist program. The free event is sponsored by the Montana Raptor Institute for Research & Education. For more information, call Crow at 253-1514 or e-mail byron@mtraptor.org.

The 19th annual Battle of the Arms will take place at the First and Last Chance Bar, on U.S. 93 five miles north of Eureka, on Saturday, April 25, with weigh-ins starting at 5 p.m. Arm-wrestling contestants will be divided by right or left hand, weight and gender. For more information, call 406-209-4121 or 406-889-3443.

Flathead Audubon will host the third annual Marty Cohen Stroll along the Whitefish River bike path on Saturday, April 25. This is a good field trip for all ages, including kids and grandparents. The whole path is accessible to wheelchairs and strollers. In the past, participants have seen waterfowl on the pond and riparian species in the wetland areas. Meet at 8 a.m. in the parking lot at Smith Fields, off Highway 40. Participants will return to the parking lot by 10 a.m. Call 755-3704 for more information.

Jami Belt will talk about the Glacier National Park’s Citizen Science Program at Montana House in Apgar Village on Saturday, April 25, from 4 to 6 p.m. Belt will discuss how the program engages citizens to collect baseline data about mountain goats, pikas and Clark’s Nutcrackers — three species whose habitat may be impacted by climate change. A reception will follow. There is no cost to attend but reservations are recommended by calling 888-5393.

Sunday

Alpine Kids! Theatre Project will present Disney’s “High School Musical” at the Whitefish Middle School auditorium on Sunday through Tuesday, April 19-21,with shows at 7 p.m. on Friday and Saturday and at 2 p.m. on Sunday. The stage production, directed by Betsi Morrison and Luke Walrath, is based on the Disney Channel original movie “High School Musical.” Alpine Kids! Theatre Project is an educational outreach program aimed at giving local students a hands-on theater education through performance. Tickets are $15 adults, $12 students and $7 children under-12.

Flathead Audubon will lead a bird-watching trip to Smith Lake Waterfowl Production Area on April 19. Participants might see sandhill cranes, grebes, ducks, mountain bluebirds, meadowlarks, bald eagles, ospreys and marsh harriers. Meet to carpool at the Fish, Wildlife and Parks building in Kalispell at 8 a.m. For more information, call Bob at 270-0371.

Monday

Violence Free Crisis Line will hold a Take Back The Night event at Depot Park on Monday, April 27, at 6 p.m. April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month. One in six women and one in 33 men are victims of sexual assault. Featured speakers will talk about the myths and facts of rape. For more information, call 261-9085.

Whitefish city crews will pick up naturally-occurring debris from April 27 through May 1. Leaves and grass clippings must be placed in a securely-tied bag with no animal waste. Limbs or branches should be cut to four-foot lengths or shorter and be securely bundled. Debris can be placed on the nearest boulevard or within 10 feet of a refuse container. For more information, call 863-2460.

The Flathead County Democratic Women will hold their regular monthly in the Winchester Room of the New Outlaw Inn on Monday, April 27, at 11:45 a.m. Bev Black and Pam Gerwe will present a talk about community gardens, container gardens and some of the garden projects being undertaken this spring throughout the Flathead Valley.

Tuesday

“Opera On Draft,” presented by Montana Lyric Opera, will take place at The Craggy Range Bar & Grill in Whitefish on Tuesday, April 28, beginning at 7 p.m. This month’s program is called “Learn To Sing Italian In Five Beers or Less,” with some of the most beautiful opera music ever written. Cost is $5 for ages 18-and-older. For more information, call 1-406-542-7423.

The Whitefish Library Book Discussion Group meets on the last Tuesday of each month at 7 p.m. in the library meeting room. The book for April 28 is “Thunderstruck,” by Erik Larson. Books may be available for checkout. For more information, call the library at 862-6657.

Wednesday

Clint Muhlfeld, a U.S. Geological Survey aquatic ecologist stationed at Glacier National Park, will talk about “Rainbows vs. Natives: It’s a Cutthroat Competition” in the West Glacier Community Building on Wednesday, April 29, from noon to 1 p.m. Rainbow trout, a popular sport fish, have been widely introduced into new waters. Biologists worry that mixing rainbow genes into native trout populations not only result in the loss of genetically pure trout but will undermine the natives' long-standing adaptations to the environment. For more information about this research, visit online at http://www.nrmsc.usgs.gov/staff/muhlfeld.