The Minnesota Department of Human Rights (MDHR) in partnership with the Chaska Human Rights Commission, the Carver County Library and the Beacon Council presents a Training Showcase on the Minnesota Human Rights Act in the workplace on Thursday, Sept. 23.

Registration begins at 8 a.m., with the conference beginning at 8:20, and ending at noon.

The Chaska Lions Club is conducting an eyeglass and cell phone drive.

The club is asking that the public donate used eye glasses and inactive cell phones (no accessories or chargers) at its drop sites at the Chaska Library on Fourth Street or Cooper’s County Market at 710 Walnut Street.

The Chaska High School Homecoming is just around the corner.

A few of the key events include:

Coronation:

What: The Homecoming King and Queen will be crowned. Hot chocolate will be available for sale.

When: 7 p.m., Monday, Sept. 20

Where: City Square Park gazebo in downtown Chaska

By Forrest Adams

Frewoine Nerea said she came to the United States from Ethiopia in 1998 for a better life.

“There’s a lack of opportunity where I came from,” she said.

After living in Florida and Michigan, she came to Minnesota in 2005, moved into an apartment in St. Paul and got a job in that city as a family worker for a non-profit organization.

Chaska artist Sarah Hanlon has a new show under the working title “Aesthetic Latitudes, Part 2” showing through the month of September at the Waconia Library, 217 South Vine Street.

The show, which comments on consumerism and the environment, features found items and traditional art techniques.

Pictured is her work “Glitz,” employing items such as foil food wrappers, bottle and jar lids and thrown-away plastic necklaces. Hanlon will give a talk on her artwork at the library 6:30 p.m., Sept. 21.

Calling all foodies, cooks and would-be cooks: whatever your skill level in the kitchen, become a master just in time for the holidays at the Taste of Home Cooking School show, presented live at Prior Lake High School in Savage on Saturday, Nov. 6.

Taste of Home has been hosting cooking schools since the 1950s. This event is the first time the national company has presented the cooking school in the Twin Cities area. It is sponsored by Southwest Newspapers and Prior Lake-Savage Area Schools Community Education.

Jeans Day for Charity, promoted as “an ongoing, fun method for raising funds for nonprofits while boosting employee morale,” is being planned for the Greater Southwest Metro Area of the Twin Cities.

Jeans Day is spearheaded by Southwest Newspapers, a multimedia company that serves the Twin Cities southwest suburbs with seven community weekly newspapers (including the Chaska Herald), three shoppers, a large number of informational websites and a growing array of specialty and niche publications.

The Minnesota Landscape Arboretum AppleHouse opened Sept. 1.

Located 1.5 miles west of the Arboretum entrance on Highway 5, at the intersection with Rolling Acres Road, the AppleHouse offers a changing inventory of apples, including many University of Minnesota introductions, including Honeycrisps.