Children’s Museum Gala features beach theme ‘Surf’s Up!’

 

“Surf’s Up!” at the Children’s Museum of Oak Ridge, where the 20th annual Gala will feature a beach-themed evening with dinner and entertainment and an oceanographer from 6-9:30 p.m. on Friday, December 3.

The event will have a little STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics) mixed in with entertainment by area youth, dinner from Calhoun’s, a costume contest, and auctions. Leslie England, TNBank senior vice president of retail banking and a rock singer with the band Jada Blade, will emcee the event.

The School of Rock’s house band will entertain with beach tunes as guests arrive for the Gala. The Knoxville school offers performance-based music lessons for youth to age 18, and its musicians have performed live at such venues as Bonnaroo and Lollapalooza, as well as local venues including the Tennessee and Bijou Theatres. The band at the Gala will feature youth on guitar, bass, keyboard, drums, and vocals.

The Oak Ridge High School Choral Ensemble will bring back memories with a medley of Beach Boys tunes, including “Surfin’ USA,” “Little Old Lady from Pasadena,” “Kokomo,” “Surf City,” and “Don’t Worry Baby.”

Matt Sieger, of Knoxville, will bring his DJ skills and soft-volume beach music as the crowd enjoys dinner from Calhoun’s. Later in the evening, guests are invited to dance to the DJ’s higher volume beach tunes. By day, Sieger is a deputy project director for the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility, the group that builds and runs the supercomputers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. At home, his DJ hobby led him to convert his basement to a night club, dance studio, and movie room, with lights, a smoke machine, and big sound.

Children’s Museum will present the Selma Shapiro Friend of the Child award that evening to Sandra Berry, a longtime volunteer and supporter of the Children’s Museum.

Clinton auctioneer Bear Stephenson, of Stephenson Realty and Auction, will once again donate his skills to lead the live auction, featuring an Echo Show 15, a Cinderella carriage necklace from Karen’s Jewelers, a Ft. Loudon Lake cruise, a Mauviel copper stew pot, a private wine class at Total Wine, pottery by Bill Capshaw, and more. The event will also feature a silent auction.

 

Contributing to the science side of the seashore theme will be world class oceanographer Leslie Smith of Knoxville. The guest speaker, whose career has led her to help people understand how environmental damage and climate change is impacting oceans and beaches. Smith works with international ocean observing programs, helping to connect scientists who can contribute research data with programs that can use the data to broaden their impact. Her talk is entitled “Approachable Ocean: Promoting Access and Facilitating Understanding of our Blue Planet.”

Tickets to the Gala are $125 per person. A table for eight may be purchased for $800. Tickets may be purchased at https://handbid.app.link/cmorgala21. If you can’t attend, you may donate at http://bit.ly/givetocmor. Call Beth Shea at CMOR at (865) 482-1074 or email her at [email protected] to learn more about Gala sponsorships or for more information.

The Museum has stressed COVID-19 safety while operating during the pandemic and is committed to providing a safe in-person event. To comply with new state legislation enacted on November 12, the Museum, an entertainment venue, is asking Gala guests to voluntarily provide one of the following: proof of a negative COVID-19 test no more than 48 hours before the event, proof of COVID-19 antibodies, or proof of vaccination. Your ticket confirmation will include information about how to provide this, either before the Gala or at check-in. This information will be kept strictly confidential and shredded immediately after the event.

This press release was submitted by Kay Brookshire.

More information will be added as it becomes available.

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