Jerry Winters, retired chief lobbyist for the Tennessee Education Association, will discuss the challenges facing public schools, with an emphasis on corporate “reforms,” during “Lunch with the League” on Tuesday, a press release said.
Winters will be the featured speaker at the meeting, which starts at noon in the Social Hall of the Oak Ridge Unitarian Universalist Church. His presentation is titled “Surviving the Attacks on Public Education.” [Read more…]
Lee Curtis
A Tennessee tourism official will be the featured speaker at a Thursday night meeting of the Oak Ridge Heritage and Preservation Association.
Lee Curtis is program development director of the Tennessee Department of Tourist Development, where she has worked since 1990, a press release said.
It said Curtis’ responsibilities include overseeing and developing the Tennessee Civil War Trails program and serving as the department’s heritage tourism contact. On Thursday, she will discuss the Civil War Trail Marker program in Oak Ridge, the press release said. [Read more…]
Pictured above from left are Gene Caldwell, Jennifer Enderson, Leo Sain, and Dottie Thompson. (Submitted photo)
UCOR, the federal cleanup contractor in Oak Ridge, recently donated a second installment pledge of $20,000 to the Emory Valley Center, a press release said.
In 2010, UCOR pledged to Emory Valley Center fundraising co-chairs Gene Caldwell and Dottie Thompson that it would donate $100,000 during the next five years to help build a new center.
“We believe in the importance of the work done to help so many people at Emory Valley Center,” UCOR President Leo Sain said in the press release. [Read more…]
Volunteers are needed for Habitat for Humanity’s sixth annual National Women Build Week.
Locally, Habitat for Humanity of Anderson County will partner with Lowe’s and the Associated Construction Women to repair a woman-owned home on Saturday, May 11. [Read more…]
Deirdre Barrett, right, is pictured above with Alice Feldman, Linda Young, Anne Garcia Garland, and Margaret Gottshall. (Submitted photos)
The Oak Ridge Public Schools Education Foundation presented a check for $81,000 to the Oak Ridge Schools at the Foundation’s award ceremony Friday evening. The funds will be used to provide a variety of educational materials in each of the city’s seven public schools.
Oak Ridge National Laboratory Director and Foundation Chair Thom Mason told an audience of more than 150 attending the event that the gift was part of the Foundation’s “Making a Critical Difference” campaign that provides teachers small grants for teaching tools not available in the city’s education budget. Mason said that, since the program began in 2004, the Foundation has awarded a total of more than $408,000 to dozens of teachers in every grade. [Read more…]
The Oak Ridge Breakfast Rotary Club and Altrusa recently selected the winners of the 2013 Literacy Award Grants. Pictured above from left are Janet Swift of Altrusa, Emily Spahr of Clinton Elementary School, Sheila Michels and Zabrina Minor of TORCH, Jill McMaster of Roane Imagination Library, Linda Dalton of Oak Ridge Preschool, Doris Doherty of ADFAC, Rhoni Basden of Girls Inc., Kat Hall of Norris Middle School, Brenda Thornburgh of ORBRC, and Melinda White of Oak Ridge Preschool. (Submitted photo)
The Oak Ridge Breakfast Rotary Club and Altrusa recently awarded roughly $19,000 in 14 literacy grants to 10 organizations.
The grants are awarded based on a competition that is judged by a committee of Rotarians and Altrusans, a press release said. Winners are celebrated during March of each year when Rotary International observes Literacy Month.
The total presented in the 2013 literacy grant awards was $18,987. [Read more…]
Past District Governor and Zone 30 Coordinator Karen Wentz, right, presents a check for $7,500 from the Oak Ridge Peace Forum to Rotary Foundation Chair Wilf Wilkerson, left, and Rotary International President Sakuji Tanaka at Duke University. (Submitted photo)
The Oak Ridge Peace Forum has donated $7,500 of its net proceeds to the Peace Centers Endowment of The Rotary Foundation.
“The Rotary Peace Centers offer an avenue for extending peace activities throughout the world through its growing cadre of Peace Fellows,” said Fred Heitman, chair of the Peace Forum planning committee, which decided in early April to make the donation.
The Oak Ridge Peace Forum is sponsored by Rotary District 6780, which is now led by District Governor Jack Bailey of Oak Ridge.
More than 250 people attended the Peace Forum on March 9 in Pollard Auditorium. The planning committee consisted mostly of representatives of three Rotary clubs in Oak Ridge. [Read more…]
The Allstate Foundation recently made a $1,000 contribution to ADFAC on behalf of local agent David Erb. Pictured from left are Erb, ADFAC Executive Director Annie Cacheiro, and Cande Seay, ADFAC vice president and development committee chair. (Photo submitted by ADFAC)
The Allstate Foundation recently made a $1,000 contribution to Aid To Distressed Families of Appalachian Counties, a press release said.
The contribution was made through the Allstate Agency Hands in the Community grant program in honor of local agent David Erb in recognition of his volunteer work with the agency. Erb serves on the ADFAC Development and Public Relations Committee and is an active member of the “Dine and Donate” Committee, which is a new event that is replacing ADFAC’s “Feed The Need,” the press release said. [Read more…]
Tom Hilton, 2012-2013 campaign chair, left, with outgoing United Way of Anderson County Board President Jimmy Stone, who accepted the No. 1 Company Campaign Award on behalf of Oak Ridge National Laboratory. (Photo courtesy of D. Ray Smith)
Donations to the United Way of Anderson County were down this year, and on Thursday, officials cited challenges in the federal contracting community, including the July 28 security breach at the Y-12 National Security Complex and the later departure of security contractor WSI.
There was also an end to federal stimulus money, a freeze in federal budgets and salaries, and a new consolidated contract to manage Y-12 and the Pantex Plant near Amarillo, Texas, which could result in the departure of B&W Y-12, said Rick Morrow, UWAC executive director.
The United Way of Anderson County had hoped to raise $1.4 million in the fiscal year that ended March 31, but volunteers and staff members fell short of that, collecting $1,277,771. [Read more…]
Doug Berky will be the featured entertainer at Celebration of the Young Child at the Children’s Museum of Oak Ridge on Friday. (Submitted photo)
Doug Berky—a physical theater performer using comedy, mime, masks, juggling, and storytelling—will be the featured entertainer for the Celebration of the Young Child at 10 a.m. Friday at the Children’s Museum of Oak Ridge.
Young children and their families are invited to join in the celebration from 9 a.m.-1 p.m. A puppet show on safety, make-and-take crafts, a kids’ movement class, a Scholastic book fair, and health and nutrition activities will also be part of the celebration. Adele Roberts will lead storytelling and puppet fun, with stories based on her series of children’s books, which includes “The Adventures of Sammy the Skunk.” Children will make dinosaurs, sunflowers, and noodle necklaces to take home. [Read more…]
It’s been a challenging year, and the United Way of Anderson County is scaling back its annual meeting this year and reducing expenses.
The campaign results from 2012 will be announced at an annual meeting at 7:30 a.m. Thursday at the Children’s Museum of Oak Ridge, a UWAC member agency. The meeting is open to the public with advance reservation. It will include a brief networking and continental breakfast, followed by the annual business meeting and campaign recognition. [Read more…]
At front left are Vada Oberlin and Secretary Shirley Auble of SARG presenting a check to Julie Armes of the Oak Ridge Animal Shelter. In back are President Jack Archer, Secretary Jan Baker, Police Chief James T. Akagi, Vice President Sara Moore, ORPD Capt. Mike Uher, Linda Gonda, and Lt. Robin Smith. (Submitted photo)
Shelter Animal Rescue Group recently presented a $10,000 check to the Oak Ridge Animal Shelter from an auction last year, and SARG is getting ready for this year’s auction. It’s scheduled for Friday.
The $10,000 check was from the 2012 Paws for Life Gala Auction. The funds are going to assist the shelter with updating and creating a clinic area to do exams, shots, microchipping, and other general exams. SARG will also use the funds to help some animal owners with surgical and medical needs for their pets, a press release said.
This year’s gala auction is at 6 p.m. Friday at the DoubleTree Hotel in Oak Ridge. The press release said the gala will benefit many programs that help hundreds of dogs and cats in Anderson County. [Read more…]
