Oak Ridge Today

Free community school focuses on waste disposal management

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Natalie Landry

Natalie Landry

Three Community School evening seminars on the topic of waste disposal management will be held at the Oak Ridge Unitarian Universalist Church beginning Tuesday, September 15.

The second and third seminars are scheduled for the following Tuesdays, September 22 and September 29. All seminars will be held from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., and free child care will be provided. The church is located at 809 Oak Ridge Turnpike.

The League of Women Voters of Oak Ridge and Tennessee Citizens for Wilderness Planning have partnered to offer these seminars, a press release said. The Community School is made possible by a $20,000 Community Involvement Fund grant awarded to the Oak Ridge League by the New Mexico Community Foundation, and funded through the U.S. Department of Energy. A portion of the grant helped to fund an environmental program focusing on children at the ORUUC Rainbow Camp in June. [Read more…]

UT Arboretum Society presents urban forestry program Aug. 25

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The University of Tennessee Arboretum Society is sponsoring a lecture on the “Knoxville Urban Forestry Program” on August 25 from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the UT Arboretum’s Program Shelter at 901 South Illinois Avenue in Oak Ridge.

The program will be presented by Kasey Krouse, City of Knoxville urban forester, who will discuss the City of Knoxville Urban Forestry program and its attempt to move from a reactive to a proactive urban forestry program. He will also discuss proper pruning, planting, mulching, tree selection, and other arboriculture practices that are pertinent to an urban forestry program. The presentation will conclude by touring trees around the arboretum and discussing some of the issues they face in an urban forest, a press release said.

As the urban forester for the City of Knoxville, Krouse is responsible for the expansion, protection, and maintenance of the city’s urban forest and implementing the city’s Urban Forest Management Plan. [Read more…]

New patient appointments available at Free Medical Clinic

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Free Medical Clinic

The Free Medical Clinic now has appointment openings for new patients from Anderson, Morgan, and Roane counties.

To qualify for free medical care at the clinic, patients must live in one of the three counties, have no medical insurance of any kind (no private insurance, no TennCare, no Medicare), and have a household income at or below 200 percent of the federal poverty level. The chart below shows the income criteria to be seen at FMC: [Read more…]

Oak Ridge Rotary Club helps hometown, the world

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Elaine Bunick and Adolf King and Ghanaians

Elaine Bunick and Adolf King, members of Rotary Club of Oak Ridge, are pictured with Ghanaians in the village where they led the medical and educational missions. (Submitted photo)

 

The Rotary Club of Oak Ridge is helping its hometown and communities in the world.

The club contributed $2,500, which was matched by a Rotary District 6780 grant, yielding $5,000 that financed the renovation of a room in the Oak Ridge Boys and Girls Club building. Anne Dunthorn, the club secretary and grant writer, helped Jennifer Pettyjohn, the chief and special officer of the Boys and Girls Clubs of the Clinch Valley, identify a District 6780 matching grant and prepare and submit the winning application.

Elaine Bunick, club member and endocrinologist in Oak Ridge, spearheaded the successful medical and educational mission in late July in the eastern African nation of Ghana. More than 1,800 patients in the village of Nkonya-Wurupong received medical treatment and used, or will use when needed, $250,000 worth of anti-malarial and other medications. [Read more…]

TORCH Brew Review, a beer-tasting fundraiser, on Aug. 29

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TORCH Brew Review

Photo from the Brew Review on Sept. 12, 2014, by Margaretanne Ingle.

 

Trinity Out-Reach Center for Hope, or TORCH, has its Second Annual Brew Review on Saturday, August 29. It’s a one-of-a-kind fundraiser in Oak Ridge.

The Brew Review is scheduled for Saturday, August 29, from 7 to 11 pm, at St. Mary’s Catholic School Gymnasium at 323 Vermont Avenue in Oak Ridge.

The evening will include beer tasting, finger foods, and live music, a press release said. Guests can mingle with their food and beer, dance to live music and/or enter the Corn Hole Tournament.

The bands performing are The Portals, Rhiannon, Jack Russell and the Terriers, and Ridge City Ramblers. [Read more…]

Hitchcock to be celebrity bartender in fundraiser for Free Medical Clinic

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Echo Bistro and Wine Bar

Submitted

For lovers of exotic mushroom fare, Echo Bistro and Wine Bar is the place to be on Thursday, August 20, from 4:30-8 p.m.

Celebrity bartender, Anderson County commissioner, and mushroom aficionado Whitey Hitchcock will bring an assortment of morel, chanterelle, lobster, and other personally foraged mushrooms to Echo to be transformed into a wild mushroom offering by Chef Seth Simmerman. The bar will feature Whitey’s chanterelle-infused libations, complete with Turkish apricot garnish.

Half the mushroom sales and all of the bartender tips go to the Free Medical Clinic of Oak Ridge, which serves surrounding counties as well as Anderson County. [Read more…]

CASA seeks volunteer advocates in Anderson County

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By CASA of the Tennessee Heartland

Kids Count Data 2015 has just been released. This data revealed that there were 160 confirmed cases of child abuse and neglect in Anderson County alone. As a result, 277 Anderson County children were in DCS custody last year.

Because of the growing problem of abuse and neglect in our community, CASA of the Tennessee Heartland is seeking volunteer advocates for its Anderson County program. CASA of the Tennessee Heartland recruits, trains, and empowers volunteers to advocate on behalf of abused and neglected children in juvenile court.

Our Court Appointed Special Advocates gather information, recommend services, and advocate for each child to be placed in a safe and permanent home as quickly as possible. A CASA volunteer may be the only consistent, adult presence in a child’s life. Because a CASA focuses on one family at a time, a child with a CASA volunteer is more likely to find a safe, permanent home, more likely to be adopted, and less likely to be bounced from home to home. [Read more…]

United Way announces $1.2 million goal for 2015 campaign

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Naomi Asher

Naomi Asher

By United Way of Anderson County

Under new leadership and with renewed focus, United Way of Anderson County announces a goal of $1.2 million for the 2015 fall campaign. The announcement comes as UWAC is ramping up for the campaign kickoff later in August with a full roster of community and fundraising events.

As with previous years, the funds from this year’s campaign will support the agencies working hard in our community to improve the quality of life of our friends and neighbors.

UWAC has been working to re-establish relationships with the people and businesses of Anderson County after the departure of former leader Rick Morrow in March of this year. However, Executive Director Naomi Asher and the UWAC board of directors are working to maximize the impact of this year’s campaign. [Read more…]

ORHPA will celebrate 70th anniversary of end of WWII with special showing of historic movie

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The Beginning or The End

A historic Ed Westcott image of the original showing of the movie, “The Beginning or the End”—The Story of the Atomic Bomb and Oak Ridge. (Submitted photo)

 

A 70th anniversary celebration of the end of World War II will feature a special showing of the historic movie “‘The Beginning or the End,’ The Story of the Atomic Bomb and Oak Ridge.”

The celebration has been organized by the Oak Ridge Heritage and Preservation Association. It’s scheduled for 3 p.m. Saturday, August 29, at the Historic Grove Theater at 123 Randolph Road in Grove Center.

The program will include the presentation of the flag by the Volunteer State Honor Guard, patriotic music by the Oak Ridge High School Ensemble, and the special recognition of all veterans, a press release said. Also, a special proclamation will be presented to the Y-12 National Security Complex recognizing 70 years of supporting our nation’s freedom, the release said. [Read more…]

Community Mediation has fall training for volunteer mediators

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Community Mediation Services Banner

Community Mediation Services of Anderson County has early fall training for those interested in becoming a volunteer mediator.

“You will learn new skills while you help others,” a press release said.

“CMS’s four mediation programs make very real differences in the lives of youth and families in our community,” the release said. “Our mediators say amazing things happen at the mediation table when people arrive to discuss often difficult issues and leave with a solution they have all agreed upon.”

Training for Basic Mediation Skills is scheduled for Friday, August 21, from 5-9 p.m. and Saturday, August 22, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. [Read more…]

Free Medical Clinic Bash on Saturday features dance contest, auctions

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Hit Men

Performers in the Hit Men band are, from left, Mark Akers, Bob Andres, Alan Keck, Pat Andres, and Uwe Lueth. They will perform at the Free Medical Clinic Bash on Saturday, Aug. 8, at the Parish Life Center of St. Mary’s Church. (Submitted photo) 

 

Tickets are still available for the FMC Bash, the annual fundraiser for the Free Medical Clinic of Oak Ridge, which will be held from 5 to 10 p.m. Saturday, August 8, in the Parish Life Center of St. Mary’s Church.

It will include a catered dinner, music by the Hit Men (a Knoxville rock and pop dance band), a Celebrity Dance Contest, silent auction (80 items), and live auction conducted by the entertaining Bear Stephenson.

Live auction items include a four-day vacation in a beach condo near St. Augustine, Florida; North Carolina barbecue dinner for 12; an Indian dinner for eight; a walnut jewelry box, hand-made earrings (sterling and mother of pearl) by Frederick Duclos; a fly-fishing package; a wine cooler; and Cajun dinner.

Couples who have entered the Celebrity Dance Contest are Sharon and Brian Annis, Naomi Asher and Jim Dodson, Tom Beehan and Kay Brookshire, David and Sandy Bradshaw, Gene Caldwell and Dottie Thompson, Keys Fillauer and Scott Hinton, Judy Gooch and Michael Shrader, and Austin Keathley and an amazing “secret” dancer. [Read more…]

OREPA has events in Oak Ridge, Knoxville on 70th anniversary of WWII bombings

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Ralph Hutchison

Ralph Hutchison

The Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance has a series of events in Oak Ridge and Knoxville this week on the 70th anniversary of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, during World War II.

The events will recall the bombings and address present-day nuclear weapons production, a press release said.

The events kicked off with an evening with Gar Alperovitz, author of “The Decision to Drop the Atomic Bomb,” at the East Tennessee History Center in Knoxville on Sunday and continued on Monday with faith leaders speaking about the bomb in Market Square in Knoxville.

They continue today (Tuesday, August 4.) Here’s the schedule: [Read more…]