The director of Anderson County’s alternatives to jail program will be the featured speaker during “Lunch with the League” on Tuesday.
The presentation by Mike Baker will focus on alternatives to incarceration and the benefits to those affected, including their families and the community. The program starts at noon in the Social Hall of the Oak Ridge Unitarian Universalist Church.
Teens dressed in costumes at the Bowl-a-Thon are, front, Delaney Adler, Lloyd Adler-Lombardi, Lois Johnson, Cora Lay, Sojia Ma, and Aaron Chason; and back, Ryan Mihealsick, Adam Bejnod, and Ross Landenberger. (Submitted photo)
The lights went out, the pins lit up, lasers beamed around the room, and the music started. It was Cosmic Bowling, one of most innovative ways to have fun in the entertainment galaxy. That was the atmosphere on a recent Wednesday afternoon at the Oak Ridge Bowling Center, where about 30 teens held a Bowl-a-Thon to raise money for the Free Medical Clinic of Oak Ridge.
Oak Ridge Bowling Center owner Len Hart provided the use of the facility, the games, and shoes without cost for the fundraiser.
“I think it’s great that the kids organized this event to raise money for FMCOR,” Hart said. “I’ve been here all my life, I know the need and think that the community needs to be more involved in supporting what they do to help people.”
The Oak Ridge Boys Club Alumni Association has their annual membership drive and kickoff party at Lincoln’s Sports Grille at 7 p.m. Friday.
The alumni have been an essential part of helping the local Boys and Girls Club of Oak Ridge during the last four decades, with recent efforts including the purchase of a 15-passenger van for transporting children to the club from school, a press release said.
Clifton Truman Daniel
In a speech later this month, the oldest grandson of former president Harry S. Truman will discuss his grandfather’s decision to use the world’s first atomic weapons at the end of World War II, a momentous decision that depended, at least in part, on work done in Oak Ridge.
Clifton Truman Daniel will also share insights about his grandfather’s life after Truman left the White House, and Daniel will discuss a family trip to Japan in 2012 for the 67th anniversary of the World War II bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan.
Daniel will be in Oak Ridge on Thursday, March 28. His speech is hosted by the Oak Ridge Heritage and Preservation Association. It’s open to the public, and tickets are $20.
Jennifer Sheehan
Charlotte Bowers
Vowing to reorganize, the board of directors of Habitat for Humanity of Anderson County has replaced a husband-wife duo that had served as longtime executive director and operated its home store in Grove Center.
Board members said they agreed last week to replace Susan Burgess-Parrish, who had been executive director for about 12 years, and Rodney Parrish, Habitat Home Store manager for about seven years.
The Parrish couple was told of the decision on Tuesday.
The 11-member board sent out a press release the same day announcing that Jennifer Sheehan, who had been Habitat’s resource development director since October, is now interim executive director. Charlotte Bowers, who had been community development coordinator for two years, is interim manager of the home store.
This month’s “Breakfast with the Legislators” will be Monday morning at the Oak Ridge Civic Center.
The hour-long breakfast starts at 7:30 a.m. in the Oak Ridge Civic Center Social Room. A free, light continental breakfast will be served.
A possible expansion of Medicaid will be discussed at an Anderson County Interagency Coalition meeting next week.
Representatives of all health and social service providers in Anderson County are invited to attend, a press release said.
The meeting will be held at the Anderson County Health Department from noon to 1 p.m. Wednesday.
Pictured above are, from left, David Samuels, Amy Long, and Robin Biloski. (Submitted photo)
The Samuels family of Oak Ridge opened up their hearts in a very big way to Emory Valley Center recently by donating a handicapped accessible van to the center. I had the opportunity to sit and talk to David Samuels, son of Garland and Marie Samuels, who donated the vehicle, and he provided me this great story.
“The van was bought by my dad for my mom, Marie, and used in her later years. We were all very familiar with the outreach of EVC, as my sister Jane was a former service recepient at EVC years ago. My mom advocated for those with intellectual disabilities; she served on the Board of ARC from the late 1980s through the early 1990s. In fact, she was chosen as the ARC Volunteer of the Year twice in the 1990s. Helping people who needed us most was just a part of our family culture growing up.
Members of the Ridge City Ramblers are, from left, Gary Coleman, Mary Tuskan, Scott Linn, Abbie Hoerner, Oak Ridge Mayor Tom Beehan and Steve Reddick. (Submitted photo)
A March 2 fundraiser that features music, a barbecue dinner, and auctions will support an organization that helps abused or neglected children in Anderson, Blount and Scott counties who are under court protection.
CASA of the Tennessee Heartland’s 10th Annual Barbeque and Bluegrass Bash is scheduled to start at 6 p.m. Saturday, March 2, at the Junior Achievement – Hollingsworth Center in Clinton.
The musicians scheduled to perform are hammer dulcimer player Allen McBride and bluegrass and Americana group the Ridge City Ramblers, featuring Oak Ridge Mayor Tom Beehan, a press release said.
Sarah Hillyer in Baghdad, Iraq (Submitted photo)
Sarah Hillyer, co-founder of Sport 4 Peace, will be the guest speaker at the Girls Inc. of Oak Ridge annual Committee of 100 luncheon on Feb. 15 at New Hope Center, 602 Scarboro Road, Oak Ridge.
The annual luncheon honors a select group of women who each contribute $100 or more to help address the growth and development of girls through programs offered at Girls Inc. The luncheon begins at 11:30 a.m. Friday, Feb. 15. Girls Inc. invites women of the community to join the committee. To become a member of the Committee of 100 and attend the luncheon, contact Carol Mullane, executive director of Girls Inc. of Oak Ridge, at  (865) 482-4475.
Moscow Nights (Submitted photo)
Moscow Nights, an ensemble of energetic musicians from Russia, will be featured performers at the International Festival on Saturday, Feb. 16, at the Children’s Museum of Oak Ridge. Moscow Nights’ concerts offer audiences an entertaining glimpse of Old Russia through music, humor, song and dance, inviting audience participation.
Festival goers will experience entertainment, crafts and cuisines from cultures around the world at the family friendly event, with musical entertainment on stage throughout the day. Participants will dine on international cuisine, children will make international crafts to take home, and all will visit booths displaying crafts and traditions from world cultures.
A plan for the proposed Southern Appalachia Railway Museum at Heritage Center, the former K-25 site. (Submitted image)
Although they had concerns about potential worst-case scenarios, Oak Ridge City Council members on Monday unanimously agreed to accept a state grant worth up to $480,000 for construction of a railway museum at Heritage Center, a project first proposed more than a decade ago.
By approving the resolution, Council also authorized the city to enter into a construction management agreement with the Community Reuse Organization of East Tennessee and Heritage Center LLC. That agreement calls for CROET and Heritage to offer the 20 percent local match required under the grant, or $120,000, as well as associated construction management services.
