If you have some prescription medication that you are not planning to use, here’s an opportunity to get rid of it in a much safer way rather than letting it sit in your house or dumping it in the trash.

Tomorrow, Oct. 29, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., bring it to Health Center 3 at 555 S. 43rd St. during the 3rd National Prescription Drug Take Back Day. The event is organized by the Drug Enforcement Administration in conjunction with state and local law enforcement agencies and is being held at numerous sites throughout the nation. Nearly 4,000 state and local agencies participated in the previous two events like this one (last spring and in 2010), and collected more than 309 tons of pills.

Folks in Powelton and Mantua can drop their stuff off at the Drexel Recreation Center’s Main Lobby, 3301 Market St. For other locations please go to this page and enter your zip code.

Leaves will be falling like crazy this weekend with cold and blustery (and snowy!) weather in the forecast. If raking those leaves is in your plans, you might want to wait a week or so to get rid of them. The city’s leaf composting program begins Nov. 7.

City workers will collect leaves curbside that are in biodegradable paper bags. Just set the leaves out with your trash on your regular trash pick-up day. Leaves in plastic bags or other containers will be collected as garbage. There will be no mechanical leaf collection this year and the city will not supply the paper bags.

The maximum weight is 40 pounds per bag. Also, make sure no trash or recyclables is mixed in with your leaves.

The program will run through Dec. 16 and leaves will not be picked up on city holidays.

Bagged leaves can also be dropped off at the following locations:

• 3033 S. 63rd Street (63rd & Passyunk Ave.)
• Domino Lane and Umbria Street
• State Road and Ashburner Street

Residents can call the Streets Department’s Customer Affairs Unit at 686-5560 or visit their website. Call 3-1-1 for all City services.

This week’s featured dog is Violet, a 6-12-month old female American Pit Bull terrier mix with a gorgeous black coat.

Violet ended up at the shelter after wandering the streets of Philadelphia for a while. She was picked up by a nice police officer who was hoping she’d find her family again. No such luck! But surely there is someone out there who would love to bring her home with them.

Violet loves the staff and volunteers at the shelter because they give her attention and treats! She’s relatively easy to walk on the leash and quickly learning new tricks. She did well in her behavior evaluation, but didn’t show much interest in toys or food, she just wanted to explore and get head scratches. She showed a little too much interest in cats so she probably shouldn’t live with them in her new foster or forever home. She did well in her dog meets, they said ‘hi’ and sniffed appropriately. If you have any dogs at home, please bring them in to meet Violet to make sure it’s a good match.

Unfortunately, Violet is currently on treatment for ringworm. Ringworm is a contagious fungal condition that is easily treatable with topical medication, but it can take anywhere from a couple of weeks to a couple of months for a dog with ringworm to fully recover. Ringworm thrives on animals with suppressed immune systems (which can be caused by stress from being in the shelter), and heals more quickly on healthy, non-stressed dogs in home environments.

Violet is currently located at the ACCT shelter at 111 West Hunting Park Ave in Philadelphia. Adoption hours are 1 – 8 p.m. Monday through Friday and 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. on weekends. If you are interested in fostering, please contact nsmith[at]pspca.org or jsweeney[at]pspca.org.

A new community farm is coming to West Philly. A groundbreaking ceremony for the Community Farm and Food Resource Center at Bartram’s Garden (54th St. & Lindbergh Blvd.) is taking place today at 4 p.m. Community members are invited.

This project has come to life thanks to the University of Pennsylvania’s Agatston Urban Nutrition Initiative with the help of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society , which is providing seedlings, resources and supplies to growers. Donations from the City and other organizations also made it possible.

The new farm is going to increase the community’s access to local, organic, and affordable food.  The goal of this project is to provide a space for everyone to develop a relationship with the land.

Bartram High School students will be hired to plant, grow, harvest and sell the produce. Plans are that by next growing season, the 3.5-acre farm and resource center will have a crop field where the students will raise annual vegetables. There will also be a community garden with individual plots tended by residents, an orchard of 50 fruit trees, a 1,000-foot-long perennial berry patch and a new greenhouse to start organic seedlings.

Future plans for the farm and resource center include replacing a gravel parking lot with a food-education center, complete with a kitchen, a classroom space and a packing shed/walk-in cooler/wash station for pre-sale vegetable preparation.

Neighbors have been complaining about some folks dumping their garbage near the abandoned house at 629 S. 49th Street. We went over to check it out and here’s what we saw.

Update 2: The deadline for entry submissions has been extended until 6 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 29.

Update: Wake Up Yoga has joined the list of our sponsors and is donating a gift card (5 class card, $65 value) to one of the winners.

There are only three days left to participate in our 2011 Pumpkin Carving Contest. We are accepting snapshots of your pumpkins until 6 p.m. Friday. Please email them to: editor[at]westphillylocal.com

Many thanks to everyone who already emailed their photos. But there has to be more of you out there. So what are you waiting for? Please get to work to give yourself a chance to win one of our awesome prizes. If you haven’t bought your pumpkin yet, we hear that Milk & Honey is selling them for 4 bucks a piece.

For more information about the contest go here.