The Oak Ridge Fire Department will unveil a new Safe Haven Baby Box on Wednesday, June 12. It will be a place where mothers can safely and anonymously drop off their newborn babies during a crisis, a media advisory said.
The baby box has been installed in honor of Baby Wyatt, a newborn whose body was found wrapped in an oversized T-shirt along the banks of Melton Hill Lake on March 26, 2020, the advisory said. His identity remains unknown.
[Read more…]
Charlotte Blake Alston, Bil Lepp, and Josh Goforth will entertain this weekend at the Flatwater Tales Storytelling Festival at the Historic Grove Theater in Oak Ridge. (Submitted photo)
The Flatwater Tales Storytelling Festival kicks off Friday at the Historic Grove Theater in Oak Ridge with three nationally-known storytellers sharing tales and music that will make you laugh, sing, and learn as you listen.
The storytellers are Charlotte Blake Alston, Josh Goforth, and Bil Lepp.
“All three use the power of storytelling to entertain and educate audiences, with hilarious, exaggerated tales or with true stories that shed light on cultures and historic events,” a press release said.
At 7 p.m. Friday, Alston will tell the inspiring story of the Six-Triple-Eight, the first all-Black Women’s Army Corps battalion assigned to military duty in Europe during World War II. She received a standing ovation after telling the story at the 2022 National Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough. [Read more…]
Members of the Flatwater Tales Storytelling Festival team gather in this year’s festival t-shirts. They are, from left, seated, Pat Postma, Matt Tucker, Liz Tucker, Becky Dodson, and Ram Uppuluri. From left, standing, are Vanessa Spratling, Martha Hobson, Kay Brookshire, Charles Crowe, Judy Wilson, Ray Smith, Sue Byrne, and Mark Watson. (Photo by Linde Mills)
Volunteers from civic, charitable, and business organizations throughout the community are planning to welcome three renowned storytellers to Oak Ridge for the June 7 and 8 Flatwater Tales Storytelling Festival at the Historic Grove Theater.
Members of the three Oak Ridge Rotary Clubs are taking lead roles in the Flatwater Tales team planning the festival, which originated in 2018 as a community project led by Emily and Charlie Jernigan, Pat Postma, and Martha and David Hobson.
This year, Sue Byrne and Martha Hobson are co-chairing the Flatwater Executive Committee. Others on the Executive Committee are Lydia Birk, treasurer; Charles Crowe, leading the revenue team; Becky Dodson, heading the promotion team; and Pat Postma, secretary who is also on the performances team with Liz Tucker and Matt Tucker.
The storytellers coming to Flatwater Tales are Charlotte Blake Alston, Josh Goforth, and Bil Lepp. [Read more…]
The Clinch River Chapter of Trout Unlimited will have a Kids Fish Free Day on the Clinch River in Norris on Saturday, June 8.
It’s open to all children ages 3-16, and admission is free, a press release said. Registration is necessary so that organizers can plan for food. Visit the Chapter’s website http://crctu.org/ and scroll down on the home page to the KFFD registration form.
Children will be fishing, tying flies, riding in boats, eating hot dogs, and signing up for door prizes from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday, June 8. The event will be at the Miller Island boat access on the Clinch River in Norris. [Read more…]
From “EM Update” newsletter
Long vacant parking lots at the former K-25 site at Oak Ridge were full again on a recent Saturday afternoon as retired employees gathered for a first-ever reunion.
“There are some folks here that I have not seen since I retired,” said Bob Merriman, who began working at the K-25 site in 1963. “It’s amazing to be able to visit with them and to see them still doing well.”
What started as a plan to host a small picnic quickly turned into much more.
“I said we’ll have it down here at Turtle Park in Oak Ridge, but I think I’m going to open it up to all K-25 workers,” said Pam Toon, an event organizer who started work at the site in 1987. “When I did, massive amounts of people signed up.”
[Read more…]
Submitted
Drones, a manufacturing simulator lab, and hands on meteorology are among the classroom projects that United Cleanup Oak Ridge (UCOR) will fund through its 2024 mini-grants. UCOR awarded $45,000 in mini-grants to fund 41 projects for East Tennessee K-12 teachers in 29 schools. The grants support projects in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), as well as related classes.
With this year’s awards, UCOR has given a total of $395,000 to fund STEM and STEM-related projects since 2012.
“STEM education is an important part of both our community outreach and our workforce development program. It’s exciting to read the grant proposals and see all of the projects teachers are doing to expose students to future STEM careers,” said UCOR Community and Education Outreach Coordinator Shannon Potter.
This year’s mini-grants went to elementary, middle, junior high, and high schools and included projects such as:
[Read more…]
Workers have finished cleaning up after demolishing the Low Intensity Test Reactor at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
The work was done by cleanup contractor UCOR for the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management.
Workers finished the tearing down the Low Intensity Test Reactor and disposing rubble and debris last fall, achieving a federal environmental management priority that year, according to the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management.
“However, the reactor vessel remained on the building’s footprint until it could be shipped for final disposition offsite,” DOE said in its “EM Update” newsletter.
[Read more…]
Oak Ridge Playhouse is closing out its 81st season of shows with an exciting revamp of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s beloved masterpiece, “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat,” a press release said.
It’s one of the most enduring musicals of all time, and the Oak Ridge Playhouse will offer seven performances between Friday, May 10, and Sunday, May 19.
“From dreams to destiny, this is the extraordinary story of Joseph,” the press release said. “Witness his meteoric rise from favored son to betrayed brother, from prisoner to right-hand man. Blessed with prophetic dreams and one very colorful garment, experience Joseph’s dazzling journey like you’ve never seen before.
[Read more…]
Two representatives of Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee and the Cumberlands will be featured at Lunch with the League in Oak Ridge on Tuesday.
The two representatives are Mary Michelle Gillum and Paula Trujillo. Gillum is the director of the Legal Aid Society’s Low Income Taxpayer Clinic, also known as the Tennessee Taxpayer Project, and Trujillo is an outreach community paralegal of the Tennessee Taxpayer Project.
Lunch with the League is scheduled from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tuesday, May 7, at the Oak Ridge Unitarian Universalist Church at 809 Oak Ridge Turnpike.
“All are welcome to bring their lunch or purchase a boxed lunch for a nominal fee,” a press release said. “Coffee and tea will be served. The presentation will begin at noon.”
[Read more…]Victory and pollinator gardens at the Children’s Museum of Oak Ridge will be open to the public on Saturday, June 1, the Manhattan Project National Historical Park said.
The gardens will be open from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. June 1 for the Seeds of Victory Program, the park said in a newsletter.
[Read more…]
The summertime tennis court dances organized by the Manhattan Project National Historical Park start in two weeks.
The first dance of this summer is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. Thursday, May 16, on the Jackson Square Tennis Courts. They continue monthly on the third Thursday.
“The park recreates the open air tennis court dances held during the Manhattan Project to entertain the
75,000 war workers and their families contained within America’s Secret City (Oak Ridge),” a newsletter said. “The dances are an all-ages event, and all are encouraged to participate. Featuring swing music
from the 1940s, you might get bit by the jitterbug out on the court.”
The League of Women Voters of Oak Ridge will host a Brown Bag Lunch with the Legislators on Friday.
The session is scheduled to start at 12 p.m. Friday, April 26, in the Social Room of the Oak Ridge Civic Center at 1401 Oak Ridge Turnpike.
Tennessee Lieutenant Governor Randy McNally, Senator Ken Yager, and representatives John Ragan and Monty Fritts have been invited to bring those who attend up to date on what’s happening in the Tennessee General Assembly, a press release said.
[Read more…]