With the arrival of Labor Day and the unofficial end to summer, the American Red Cross encourages eligible donors to roll up a sleeve and give blood or platelets to help ensure sufficient supplies over the holiday weekend. Those who present to donate now through Sept. 9, could win one of five $1,000 American Express gift cards, and all donors will walk away with the instant gratification that they may be helping to save more than one life.

While thousands of people answered the call for blood and platelet donations issued by the Red Cross earlier this summer, an urgent need remains for platelets and types O negative, A negative and B negative blood. The summer months can be especially difficult to collect enough blood and platelet donations to keep pace with patient needs.

To help spur additional donations over the Labor Day weekend, all presenting blood and platelet donors between Aug. 31 and Sept. 2 will also receive a complimentary Red Cross T-shirt. For more information,  call 1-800-RED CROSS (1-800-733-2767) or visit www.edcrossblood.org.

On Thursday, Sept 5, at 7 p.m., Dr. Daniel M. Ogden, Jr. will present a lecture entitled “How We Got the Big Dams and the Grid” as part of the Clark County Historical Museum’s First Thursday Museum After Hours Lecture Series. Dr. Ogden will discuss the development of public power policy over the past century.

Ogden wrote his doctoral dissertation on the development of federal power policy in the Pacific Northwest at the University of Chicago in 1949. The Bonneville Power Administration was one of the five agencies he researched. From 1949 on he maintained a close watch on the development of the federal power system and in 1988 authored an extension of his dissertation to 2012, which he published as The Development of Federal Power Policy in the Pacific Northwest Volume II.

The 2013 First Thursday Museum After Hours Lecture Series Program is sponsored by the Clark County Historic Preservation Commission and by Applied Archaeological Research in Portland. Admission to the program is free to current CCHS members and active-duty and veteran military personnel; otherwise, regular admission rates apply. For further details, visit www.cchmuseum.org.

April Baer

Music will fill the air in Vancouver’s Esther Short Park on Sunday, Sept. 8, and some of that music will be in the hands of children having fun with instruments. Starting at 1:45 p.m. children will have the chance to get up close and personal with the orchestral instruments they see professionally played on stage in a “musical petting zoo.” The event is presented by Beacock Music.

The concert, featuring Awadagin Pratt conducting the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and guest artist baritone Stephen Salters, begins at 3 p.m., and is free and open to the public. Oregon Public Broadcasting’s April Baer will be master of ceremonies.

The program will feature the overture from La forza del destino by Verdi, Old American Songs by Copland, Slavonic Dances by Dvořák, some stirring gospel spirituals, and ends with Beethoven’s majestic Symphony No. 5. For more information about the “zoo” or the concert, visit www.vancouversymphony.org.

Clark Regional Emergency Services 9-1-1 & Emergency Services (CRESA) will host a “Ready Clark Expo” and open house Saturday Sept. 7, from 11 a.m to 2 p.m., along 13th St., from the Courthouse to the CRESA building, 710 W 13th St. The event is free and family friendlya and attendees are welcome to park in the county parking garage behind the Assessor’s Office.

The expo puts emergency services on display from volunteer organizations like Search & Rescue and Police & Fire specialty teams with special capability demonstrations. There will be passports for the kids and lots of emergency services booths to collect stamps. Visitors can tour the Emergency Operations Center. Free hot dogs and pizza will be available while supplies last.

For further details, visit www.cresa911.org. Interested parties can also find information on a Facebook event page here.