This might be the easiest thing you could ever do to help out an important West Philadelphia organization. A click. That’s it. There are only four days left (until June 17) to vote for West Philly’s Community Education Center (CEC) to help them get a $50,000 grant from Maxwell House. The center is competing against nine other community organizations across the country and only top five vote-getters receive the money.

During recent weeks, the CEC was fluctuating between positions 4, 5, and 6, so every vote counts. You can come back and vote every day. This week votes are hidden so it won’t be possible to know how the CEC is doing until the end. To vote, go here: http://www.kraftbrands.com/maxwellhousecoffee/drops-of-good/Pages/community-education-center.aspx

The CEC is a non-profit community based center with the focus on arts programming, music, dance and theater for people of differing backgrounds and cultures. You can read more about the center here.

Philly Beer Week is coming to an end with a bang. West Philly’s Dock Street Brewery (701 S. 50th Street) is hosting the Philly Beer Week Music Festival today, beginning at 2 p.m. The festival will feature food and beer by Dock Street and music by four local bands: Citywide Specials (2 p.m.), TJ Kong & the Atomic Bomb (3 p.m.), Bardo Pond (4 p.m.), and Da Comrade! (5 p.m.). The bands will play outside on the triangle.

Craft beer, gourmet pizza, and even cupcakes from Buttercream Cupcake Lady will be served. Also, Mariposa Food Co-op’s 50/50 raffle will be held during the festival. The festival is open to all ages and admission is free.

Honey bees have fallen on hard times in recent years. A mysterious phenomenon known as “colony collapse disorder,” where worker bees that maintain a hive suddenly disappear, has beekeepers on edge. Bees are also susceptible to all kinds of viruses and mites, not to mention pesticides. But as bee populations have decreased, the demand for locally produced honey has increased. Luckily, a growing group of Philly-based beekeepers is taking care of our local bees.

You can get a look inside the work of these beekeepers this Sunday at the Woodlands Cemetery as part of “Open Apiary Day,” a series of events across the city aimed at familiarizing folks with urban beekeeping.

In West Philly, beekeeper Daniel Duffy will discuss beekeeping at the working hives on the cemetery grounds from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.

Beekeeping has been intertwined with Philadelphia history since the 18th century. L.L. Langstroth, who is considered the father of modern beekeeping, was a Philadelphia native.

Open Apiary Day events are also taking place in Fairmount/Brewerytown and Mount Airy. The West Philly event includes a tour of the cemetery and arboretum.

Organizers are asking people to RSVP for the free event by calling 215-386-2181 or e-mailing info [at] woodlandsphila.org.

Later this month The Rotunda is hosting a June 23 screening of Queen of the Sun, a film about the disappearance of bees worldwide. The film starts at 7 p.m. and is a fundraiser for the Mariposa Food Co-op expansion.

If you need to drive toward Center City or get on the Schuylkill Expressway this weekend It might be a good idea to avoid Market Street. Drexel University’s commencement and student move-out is this weekend (they are on the quarter system so they finish a little later than other schools) and portions of Market and Powelton from 32nd to 34th will be heavily congested today through Sunday afternoon.

The university issued this warning:

Beginning Thursday, June 9 and continuing through Sunday, June 12, 2011, Drexel University will be holding its annual Commencement Ceremonies in the Daskalaskis Athletic Center located at 3300 Market Street. At the same time students will be moving out of the residence halls. As a result, there will be parking restrictions and street closures in effect from 32nd to 34th Streets and Market Street to Powelton Avenue.

Drexel Police will be assisting with traffic. Please avoid these areas if possible and seek alternate routes. Expect traffic congestion when traveling to and from University City.

Unfortunately, they won’t be more specific on exact times, so maybe it’s just better to avoid it all together. Spruce Street and the South Street on and off ramps are the way to go.

We all knew that the heat wave was going to give way to a storm at some point. Last night’s downpour and high winds knocked down trees and left many in West Philly temporarily without power.

Near 49th and Hazel a large tree crashed onto a shed, leaving a man inside trapped for about 30 minutes (see video). The man was not seriously injured.

6ABC Action News was on the scene. Below is video that includes incidents from around the city. The part about 49th and Hazel starts at about 2:20.

The farmers’ market season is in full swing now and while just about everybody knows about the Clark Park market,  many might not know about two other chances to get fresh food in West Philly going on today and tomorrow.

• The Walnut Hill Community Farm Stand

Youth growers from the Walnut Hill Community Farm (4610 Market St.) will be selling food from the farm today (and every Tuesday and Friday) after school from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. at the farm’s location, right near the 46th Street El stop.

• The African American Farmers of Operation Springplant in Henderson, NC at the 50th and Kingsessing rec center

This is a rare opportunity to meet some small-scale farmers from out of town who will be selling fruits and vegetables (from kale and sweet potatoes to apples and watermelon) who will be selling stuff not yet in season up here. Operation Springplant is made up of African American and limited-resource growers around Henderson, North Carolina. They will be selling their goods from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at 50th and Kingsessing near the rec center, where some neighborhood youths also run an urban farm. So far this is planned to be just a one-day deal. If successful, organizers say, the farmers will make return trips to West Philly.