Oak Ridge Today

First Presbyterian offers free meals, groceries on May 13

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First Presbyterian Church will provide a free meal and bag of groceries to food-insecure guests who drive by the church between 5:30 and 6 p.m. on Thursday, May 13.

The church’s monthly Welcome Table community meal program plans to supply each guest with a hot meal consisting of taco soup, Fritos chips, fresh fruit, and brownies or cookies, a press release said.

In addition, a bag of groceries with the ingredients for a family meal at home will be delivered to each car, the press release said. [Read more…]

International fusion energy project to be discussed

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David Rasmussen

 

An international fusion energy project that involves Oak Ridge National Laboratory will be discussed in an online meeting on Wednesday, May 19.

The featured speaker will be David Rasmussen, the leader of the technical integration of the U.S. contributions to the international fusion project, which is under construction in France and known as ITER.

Rasmussen’s areas of responsibility have included the ITER plasma heating and fueling systems, a press release said. He has been a plasma research scientist at ORNL since 1981. He has more than 35 years of fusion and plasma science experience in diagnostic measurements and the technology development needed for magnetic confinement fusion and other plasma technology applications, the release said. Rasmussen received a Ph.D. in applied science, specializing in plasma physics, from the University of California at Davis in 1981 where his graduate work was a study of inertial laser fusion wave plasma interactions.

The May 19 talk is hosted by ORION, an amateur science and astronomy club based in Oak Ridge. The talk is scheduled to begin on Zoom at 7 p.m. May 19, and it is open to the public. If you are interested in joining, the Zoom meeting ID is 885 2873 5960, and the passcode is 716689. Alternatively, you can follow this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88528735960?pwd=KzY4bnBHcjlhTzg3L3pOcjY0TFovUT09. [Read more…]

Impacts of nuclear war to be discussed

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Alan Robock

 

A climate science professor at Rutgers University will discuss how nuclear war could affect the climate and humanity during a virtual meeting in Oak Ridge on Tuesday, May 18.

Alan Robock will be the featured speaker at the virtual monthly meeting of Friends of Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The meeting will be open to the public, and it is scheduled to begin at noon Tuesday, May 18.

Robock is a distinguished professor of climate science in the Department of Environmental Sciences at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. His FORNL talk is titled “The Climatic and Humanitarian Impacts of Nuclear War.”

The Zoom link (meeting ID) can be found by clicking on the lecture title on the home page of the new FORNL website at www.fornl.org and then clicking the link just below the title on the talk’s descriptive page. [Read more…]

USRowing Southeast Youth Championships in Oak Ridge this weekend

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SIRA-Regatta-April-17-2016-6
Rowers, officials, and referees are pictured above during the 2016 SIRA Championship Regatta in Oak Ridge on Sunday, April 17, 2016. (File photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

The USRowing Southeast Youth Championships will be held Saturday and Sunday at Melton Lake Park in Oak Ridge.

More than 400 entries will be racing in the qualifying event for the Youth National Regatta for youth and teenaged rowers, a press release said. Trophies will include:

[Read more…]

MEDIC Blood Center has emergency need for blood

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The MEDIC Regional Blood Center has issued an emergency appeal for blood donors.

Products donated through MEDIC help community members in East Tennessee and Southeastern Kentucky.

MEDIC Regional Blood Center said it has an immediate, critical need for O positive, A positive, A negative, and B positive blood types. MEDIC said it has a low inventory of B negative blood type.

“There continues to be a regional blood shortage in East Tennessee and Southeastern Kentucky region,” the emergency appeal said. “MEDIC’s O positive inventory level has been critical for weeks.”

[Read more…]

Rotary Club, ORHS football players team up to promote literacy

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Darren Osborne (Submitted photo)

 

Oak Ridge Wildcats football players and head coach Joe Gaddis recently took part in a virtual reading project in partnership with The Rotary Club of Oak Ridge and Oak Ridge Schools Preschool. Here is how the project began, a press release said.

The Oak Ridge Schools Preschool had a need for additional books and supplies. They also needed volunteers to read to their students. The Rotary Club of Oak Ridge learned about the need and devised a plan to help. Rotary members purchased age-appropriate books and additional supplies for the school. Because of COVID-19, they were unable to visit the Preschool to read with the students, so club members videoed themselves reading those books to share with students, the press release said. Then, the Club decided to present the opportunity to the ORHS Wildcats football team. They eagerly accepted. [Read more…]

Teresa Robbins named NNSA Production Office field office manager

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Teresa Robbins

NPO serves as the federal oversight organization for the Pantex Plant and Y-12 National Security Complex

The National Nuclear Security Administration has named Teresa M. Robbins as field office manager for the NNSA Production Office, or NPO. NPO serves as the federal oversight organization for the Pantex Plant in Amarillo, Texas, and the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. 

Robbins served as NPO deputy manager for the past six years, and she has more than 29 years of experience in nuclear facility operations, engineering, safety analysis, maintenance, and risk analysis at U.S. Department of Energy sites.

[Read more…]

Education Foundation awards more than $100,000 in grants to Oak Ridge educators

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Pictured above is a 2020 grant ceremony for Oak Ridge High School Spanish teacher Abigail Hoshall, “Improving Language Reading Comprehension Skills Through Engagement.” (Submitted photo)

 

The Oak Ridge Public Schools Education Foundation awarded more than $101,000 in grants to Oak Ridge teachers on Wednesday, during teacher appreciation week.

“Regrettably, due to COVID-19 concerns, there will not be an awards ceremony again this year,” a press release said.

However, the Education Foundation partnered with Oak Ridge Utility District and Millborne Bakery to deliver cookies for all staff in each school during Teacher Appreciation Week. The Foundation said it wants to honor and recognize the 2021 grant recipients in Oak Ridge Schools as follows: [Read more…]

Little Free Art Museum in Oak Ridge encourages visitors to take art home

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Nancy Starr with her Little Free Art Museum in Oak Ridge on Wednesday, May 5, 2021. (Photo courtesy Explore Oak Ridge)

The diorama has small visitors, and the museum is making a call to area artists for submissions to display to passers-by.

With Mother’s Day coming, the tiny visitors of the Little Free Art Museum are viewing art photos of primate mothers with their babies. Below the hand-made gallery is a sign that reads “See a Little Art … Take a Little Art … Share a Little Art.”

Nancy Starr created the museum in April at the end of her driveway on Cascade Lane in Oak Ridge. She said that the museum is her adaptation of a similar little art museum in Seattle, which was inspired by little free libraries that dot neighborhoods across the country, a press release said.

“Light bulbs flashed in my mind,” Starr said, recalling when she heard about the little art museum. “I just loved it. I had this perfect spot where people were walking by.”

[Read more…]

Roane State radiology lab named in tribute, memory of donors

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The radiology lab in the Coffey/McNally Building on Roane State’s Oak Ridge Branch Campus now has an official name: the Mary Alice and Wallace Casnelli Radiology Lab. A plaque on the wall outside the lab bears the couple’s names and was recently dedicated. (Submitted photo)

By Bob Fowler, Roane State staff writer

The radiology lab in the Coffey/McNally Building on Roane State Community College’s Oak Ridge Branch Campus now has an official name: the Mary Alice and Wallace Casnelli Radiology Lab. A plaque on the wall outside the lab bears the couple’s names and was recently dedicated.

The Casnelli’s estate included a $250,000 endowment for the lab administered through a partnership of The Trust Company of Tennessee and Roane State Foundation, and it’s been “put to excellent use,” according to Dr. Julie Hall, director of the community college’s radiologic technology program.

The gift “made it possible for us to buy equipment for the lab that normally would be outside of our reach,” Hall said. It also will fund professional development options for radiologic technology staff, she said.

Each year, four students in the program are also awarded scholarships from the endowment.

[Read more…]

Roger Miller will seek re-election as general sessions judge

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Roger Miller

Judge Roger A. Miller will seek re-election to a second eight-year term as General Sessions Court Judge, Division II, in Oak Ridge.

Miller was elected to be one of the two general sessions judges in Anderson County in 2014 after practicing law for 16 years in Clinton, a press release said.

A lifetime resident of Anderson County, Miller graduated from Clinton High School in 1980. Prior to practicing law, he served as an EMS paramedic for 13 years with the Anderson County Ambulance Service and Methodist Medical Center. Miller was the first full-time paramedic employed in the Methodist Medical Center Emergency Room in the mid-1990s, the press release said.

Miller obtained an associate degree in applied science from Roane State Community College before obtaining a bachelor’s degree in the social sciences. He obtained his law degree from Samford University’s Cumberland School of Law in 1998, the press release said.

[Read more…]

Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce names Sassy Pants small business of the month

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Sassy Pants Sweets and Treats, located in Security Square in Oak Ridge, was recently named the Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce’s Small Business of the Month. The award is sponsored by Enrichment Federal Credit Union. Pictured from right to left are Christine Michaels, Naomi Asher, Katy Watt, Sassy Pants owner Sheri Hartzog, Craig Peters, and Whitley Myers. (Submitted photo)

Sassy Pants Sweet & Treats is the inaugural winner of the Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce’s Small Business of the Month for May 2021.

The award, sponsored by Enrichment Federal Credit Union, is awarded every month to a member of the Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce. Businesses with 50 or fewer employees are eligible to receive this designation. To be considered, the establishment must have been in business for three or more years and show active involvement in the community and/or the chamber.

According to the nominator, “Sassy Pants moved and expanded operations at the beginning of the pandemic. They have done an amazing job staying engaged with the community and surviving during a time when other longer-established businesses were unable to stay open. They have fought hard to grow their business over the past year. I think this is worthy of being nominated as a small business of the month!” [Read more…]