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Martin Luther King Jr. Day is more than just a holiday; since 1994, Congress has also designated it as a national day of community service.

It's coming up Monday, and to commemorate King's legacy and address the needs of our nation, President-elect Barack Obama has launched an effort on the eve of his inauguration as part of his ``Renew America Together'' initiative. He and Vice President-elect Joe Biden and their families will be participating in service activities on Monday, and you and your family can join him, too.

Here is a list of more than 20 volunteering events in or near Torrance, or do your own search at www.usaservice.org. Listed happenings start today through Tuesday, so you can give a little piece of yourself and help out your neighborhood all weekend long. There's something for everyone -- food drives, beautification projects, environmental events and more. Several local inaugural celebration balls are listed, too.

A few of the opportunities happening today include a shore cleanup project at Redondo Beach, a Red Cross blood drive in Torrance and a youth volunteer event at Palos Verdes Peninsula High School. You can even submit your own volunteer activity, but the cutoff date to add your event is today.

"At this moment of great purpose and great promise, President-elect Obama is calling on all Americans to make an ongoing commitment to serve their communities and their country,'' said Gen. Colin Powell at a news conference. "The Martin Luther King Jr. Federal Holiday is not only a day off but also for the last 14 years, it has been a day on. It's a day to reach out to our fellow citizens in need.''

By The Associated Press

Ladies, picture this: You search for weeks before finding the perfect gown for an inaugural ball. You're thrilled; its silhouette and color are exactly what you had imagined.

Then, on the night of the fete, you spot another woman wearing the same dress.

Oh, the horror!

A new Web site, www.dressregistry.com, hopes to limit these social nightmares by allowing you to "register" the gown you're wearing to a specific inaugural ball. It includes a place to detail the color, length, designer, neckline description and other distinguishing characteristics. You can even upload a photo.

The genius behind it? A man.

Andrew Jones got the idea after his wife traveled from their home in West Palm Beach, Fla., to New York City to buy a gown for a charity ball in their hometown -- solely to avoid seeing the same dress at the event.

"I kind of put two and two together and I said, 'I think there's a way technology can help us here,' " said Jones, a 42-year-old automotive industry consultant.

The dress duplication problem has long caused anxiety among women.

Hollywood's A-list stars know their garb may end up on a magazine page -- with a side-by-side comparison to someone who wore it better. Jones cited first lady Laura Bush's "Oh, no!" moment at the 2006 Kennedy Center Honors, when she was one of four women wearing the same red Oscar de la Renta gown. Bush quickly changed into something different.

"If it could happen to the first lady, it could happen to anyone," Jones said. "With the inauguration, it just all came together in my mind. I thought it would be a great time to roll it out."

At specialty stores in the Washington area, some thought the Web site a novel idea but suggested it may not be foolproof.

"Nothing's exclusive anymore," said LaShea Green, couture buyer at Saks Jandel in Chevy Chase, Md., who had not yet heard of Jones' Web site. "I don't care how much you register, there's going to be someone (at an event) who didn't register."

So far, inaugural partygoers have registered about 100 gowns for more than two dozen official and unofficial events, including the Constitution Ball, the American Indian Inaugural Ball and the Green Inaugural Ball hosted by Al Gore. As the inaugural festivities near, the registries keep growing.

"I've had people self-registering their events every day," said Jones, adding that he's recorded some 300,000 hits and more than 10,000 unique visitors since the Web site launched Dec. 1.

My daughter has been in the public school system all of a month, and I have already spent a small fortune on things like magazine subscriptions, a school sweatshirt, an earthquake kit, PTA memberships, class pictures and teacher supplies. But then I come to work and read about budget cuts and bond measures, feel guilty for complaining and order some overpriced, shiny, retro gift wrap.

If you're feeling my pain, here are some ideas culled from PTA Web sites around the South Bay to help schools without going bankrupt yourself. By the way, these work even if you don't have kids. Pick a school in your hood, your alma mater or a mascot you like and hook them up with some corporate donations that won't cost you one extra cent.

RAID YOUR PANTRY
There are a couple of programs that may have been around when you were in school that are still going strong. You clip labels from cans of soup, cereal boxes and a bunch of other stuff and your school gets points toward buying something from some catalogs of stuff. Save them up and then send them to school with your kid now and then. I have a Ziploc baggie (the Ziploc box has points!) hanging on my fridge so they don't get lost.
If you don't have a kid to send them to school with, you can give them to a neighbor who does or drop them by the school of your choice at some point during the year. They'll take free money from anyone, trust me.

Check out these Web sites for more info:
Box Tops 4 Education
Site lists participating products, random contests to earn extra points, and other programs that give a kickback like 6% on purchases at barnes&noble.com when you buy through the "reading room."

Campbell's Labels for Education
Site lists participating products and how-to tips.

MAKE YOUR SHOPPING COUNT
eScrip
Register your credit, debit and grocery club cards and participating stores will give a percentage to the school you want to support. Macys, Vons, Pavillions and Hows are some of the biggies that participate in this program.

South Bay Galleria
You buy whatever you're going to buy anyway and then show your receipt to the guest services people to earn points for the school of your choice.

Ralphs
Register your Ralphs loyalty card and you'll earn a percentage for your school based on how much you spend per month.

Albertsons
Link your loyalty card to your school and earn some percentage of your expenditures.

Target
Register your Target credit card and get 1% of your purchases donated to the school of your choice. The Web site let's you track how much your school is getting. For example, Mira Costa High School in Manhattan Beach has 232 designated card holders and it earned about $1,750 in September. That's a pretty good kickback for buying shampoo and toilet paper.

As unemployment and the cost of living goes up, donations to charities go down. For families in need, that means school supplies may be harder to come by.

World Vision, a charity that helps children around the world, reports that donations for its annual school supply programs are way down.

In 2007 the organization helped roughly 41,000 school children by providing them with backpacks, pens, pencils, notebooks and other supplies. This year, as the economy continues to falter, that number will drop to 30,000 children. According to a press release:

At the World Vision Storehouse in New York City, backpack requests topped 16,000 this year, but just over a third of those in need will receive backpacks.
In Seattle, a faltering local economy has led to a 40% drop in backpacks for distribution.
In Los Angeles, more than 4,500 children are on waiting lists this year.
"School supplies may become luxury items for many families," says Phyllis Freeman, World Vision's Storehouse Director in Los Angeles. "The price of gas has affected families' budgets. The working poor will have a more difficult time this year. Parents are facing lay-offs or reduced salaries."

To help with donations, go to www.worldvision.org/schooltools.

Who knows what students need better than teachers? There are a couple of great Web sites where teachers can make requests for classroom items and you can fund a specific need. They're kind of like gift registries for specific classrooms.
Here are some stats to guilt you into giving, also from World Vision:

According to a recent study by National School Supply & Equipment Association, 94% of teachers buy supplies at their own expense, spending an average of $395 every school year. First-year teachers often spend more than $1,000 on supplies for students.

iloveschools.com lists eight requests from teachers in Torrance, three in Redondo Beach and 18 in Carson.

At Donorchoose.org, teachers write descriptions of projects they'd like funding for but can't get from their districts. You choose something near and dear to your heart and then fund all or part of it. For example, if you're a book lover, you might want to help Mrs. M in San Pedro get a set of books for her kindergarten class.

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Every Monday Matters
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What if everyone took the time to do something positive every week for the world instead of just grousing every time Monday rolls around?

That's part of the philosophy behind Matthew Emmerzian and Kelly Bozza's "Every Monday Matters: 52 Ways to Make a Difference" new book and Web site.

Every Monday Matters takes 52 creative but doable activities that can make a difference on a local level, and, collectively, on a much larger scale.

For example, Monday number 17's theme is "Register to Donate Your Organs," which in California is handled through the DMV and can be done via the Web at www.donatelifecalifornia.org/. Your organ donation could save the lives of eight people, and your tissue donation enhance the lives of another 50 people. Saving a life by donating a heart, lung, or kidney or allowing someone to see again through your cornea may be the most significant gift you ever give...and you may not even be aware you are giving it.

And another Monday assignment was to "thank a firefighter." If you missed it, and want to start now, here are the email addresses for our local firehouses that list them:
Torrance Fire Department
Redondo Beach Fire Department
El Segundo Fire Department
L.A. County Fire Department

And postal addresses for the ones that don't:

Hermosa Beach Fire Department
540 Pier Ave
Hermosa Beach, CA 90254

Manhattan Beach Fire Department
400 15th Street
Manhattan Beach, CA 90266

Add the authors' 50 other simple, effective ideas such as this to your Monday schedule -- or substitute your own -- and the power of the Every Monday Matters philosophy starts to become apparent. And maybe your Mondays won't seem so awful after all.

The second annual 31 cent Baskin-Robbins Scoop Night celebration is tonight (April 30) from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. You can buy up to 10 (2.5-ounce) scoops (of any ice cream flavor) per person for 31 cents each plus applicable tax. The company is partnering with the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation and donating $100,000 to the organization. For more information or to find the nearest store location, click here.

Somehow, this city girl caught a farming bug that has become her life's passion. Torrance native Judi Gerber's love of local agriculture has sprouted two blogs where she writes about the virtues of growing your own produce and organic farming and lists a treasure trove of resources for the South Bay gardener.

On L.A. Farm Girl, she lists local farms and farmers markets, and writes about the local agriculture industry.

On The Giving Gardener, Judi is trying to establish a network of local backyard gardeners who would share their extra bounty with charity groups. But she also has a very complete list of South Bay gardening events, local gardens and clubs, educational resources and garden catalogs and nurseries.

As if that weren't enough resource material to keep a gardening fiend going, she answered our questions about the best source in the South Bay to get supplies and plants, and gave her opinion on what we should be growing and what to do with all the tomatoes we're about to be overrun with. And she even told us how to get fresh milk delivered to the door, just like in the good old days.

Here's her bio:

Judi Gerber is an agriculture and garden writer who is a Torrance native. She regularly writes about California farming and organic gardening for various publications including California Tour and Travel, California Farmer, and Organic Producer magazines, and the West's agriculture weekly, Capital Press. She has a monthly garden column that appears in the Palos Verdes Peninsula News and is the author of the upcoming book Farming in Torrance and the South Bay by Arcadia Publishing to be published in September 2008.

She received a bachelor's degree from UC Santa Cruz, and a Master's Of Public Administration from Cal. State Long Beach, and is a University of California Master Gardener and has a certificate in Horticultural Therapy. She has been actively involved as a volunteer at the Torrance Farmers' Market, leads a Senior Gardening Program at the Bartlett Senior Center, and is currently a Library Commissioner for the City of Torrance.

Four children die each day as a result of child abuse, and Richstone Family Center, a Hawthorne nonprofit that offers programs throughout the South Bay, wants to help.

Spend an hour on Saturday, April 26th making a difference by participating in the 21st Annual Richstone Pier-to-Pier Walkathon . The event begins at the Manhattan Beach Pier, and participants will walk to the Redondo Beach Pier and back. (Don't worry, it's only 3.4 miles).

After the event is done, there are awards and entertainment, and along with your $25 donation, you'll receive a free T-shirt. Here is the form to fill out if you want to participate, or if you aren't a big walker, you can simply make a donation.

Talk about eco-friendly. The Santa Monica Pier's amusement park is recycling its Ferris wheel by putting it up for auction on eBay.
Opening bid starts at $50,000, which would be a steal, considering it originally cost $800,000, according to a promotional flier. Of course, the buyer will also have to spring for a base to support the thing, which will run about $135,000 from the manucaturer. And then there are shipping costs to consider for the 122,000-pound wheel. But Santa Monica to Hermosa is less than 20 miles, so how expensive could that be?

Last we checked, there were no bids, but Ferris wheel shoppers have until April 25 to make their move. Half of the winning bid will be donated to Special Olympics Southern California.

Here are some fun facts from City News Service:

• The Pacific Wheel, which originally cost $800,000, was installed at the pier’s Pacific Park amusement park in 1996. It was upgraded two years later to become the world’s first solar-powered Ferris wheel.


• Standing 90 feet tall and carrying riders 130 feet above the ocean, the wheel has had more than 3 million rides over the past 12 years, park officials said.


• People who have never ridden the wheel have likely seen it. According to Pacific Park, the Pacific Wheel has been in 105 photo shoots, 71 television commercials, 69 television shows, 28 feature films and 13 music videos.


• At night, the wheel is illuminated by 5,392 light bulbs.


• The wheel will be replaced with a $1.5 million, more contemporary Ferris wheel next month. Installation is expected to begin May 5, with a grand- opening ceremony set for May 22.

If a full-size Ferris wheel is a little out of your price range, ebay also has a Fisher-Price version, complete with 24 critters to ride it. Opening bid: 1 cent.

It may seem like the war has been going on for a long time, but think what it must be like for our men and women who are fighting in it. Whether or not you agree with the war, it's important to support our troops. At A Million Thanks you can let them know you support them with your thoughts, prayers, or emails. Take a minute to tell them how much you appreciate their sacrifices and service to our country.