Oak Ridge Today

Alexander to visit Oak Ridge, Knoxville, Johnson City this week

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U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander

Lamar Alexander

U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander will visit Oak Ridge, Knoxville, and Johnson City this week. The senator’s stops on Thursday include the Oak Ridge National Laboratory Manufacturing Demonstration Facility on Cherahala Boulevard in Knoxville and the Rotary Club of Oak Ridge.

The visits start at the Johnson City on Wednesday, where Alexander will deliver remarks at the Upper East Tennessee Chamber Luncheon and will be presented with the Spirit of Enterprise Award, which recognizes members of Congress who consistently cast votes that help businesses create jobs, a press release said.

Also Wednesday, the senator will visit Rocky Fork to commemorate the completion of efforts to protect the largest unprotected tract of land in the Southern Appalachians, the press release said. The Conservation Fund, the U.S. Forest Service, and the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation will host the event to celebrate the final transfer of land for inclusion into the Cherokee National Forest. [Read more…]

New Zumba Gold Session starts Sept. 1 at Oak Ridge Senior Center

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A new fall session of Zumba Gold begins September 1 at the Oak Ridge Senior Center.

“Come celebrate the start of this new session with an Aloha Luau!” a press release said. “Try the first class for free and get a good cardio workout while dancing to great Latin music. Learn to tango, salsa, mambo, and cha-cha-cha along with some hip hop and oldies mixed in as well.”

Participants who are 50 or older can bring a guest that is under 50. Classes are held on Tuesday and Thursday evenings at 6 p.m. Classes are $4 each after your first one for free.

“Come join the fun and dance!” the press release said. [Read more…]

3M presents Supplies4Nonprofit Organizations

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3M Supplies for Nonprofit Organizations

Pictured from left to right above are Mike Swisher, Boys and Girls Club of Tennessee Valley; Annie Cachiero and Cande Seay, Aid to Distressed Families of Appalachian Counties; Anderson County Chamber President Rick Meredith presenting awards; Charlotte Bowers, Habitat for Humanity of Anderson County; Janet Wood, Emory Valley Center; David Erb, Boys and Girls Club of Tennessee Valley; and Terry Allen, Anderson County Rescue Squad. (Submitted photo)

 

Nonprofit organizations serving Anderson County have received a grant from the Annual 3M Supplies4Nonprofit Organizations product donation program, or S4NPO, in partnership with Good360.

The photo above was taken at the Anderson County Chamber of Commerce’s annual Community Services Coffee in August. Pictured from left to right are Mike Swisher, Boys and Girls Club of Tennessee Valley; Annie Cachiero and Cande Seay, Aid to Distressed Families of Appalachian Counties; Anderson County Chamber President Rick Meredith presenting awards; Charlotte Bowers, Habitat for Humanity of Anderson County; Janet Wood, Emory Valley Center; David Erb, Boys and Girls Club of Tennessee Valley; and Terry Allen, Anderson County Rescue Squad.

Copyright 2015 Oak Ridge Today. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Labor Day concert at A.K. Bissell Park on Monday

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Oak Ridge Community Band July 4, 2014

Photo by Larry Perry

 

The Oak Ridge Community Band will perform its last outdoor concert of the summer at A.K. Bissell Park next Monday.

The concert starts at 7 p.m. Monday, September 7. There is no admission fee, and the public is encouraged to bring lawn chairs or blankets for outdoor seating, a press release said. Cool refreshments will be available.

“Attendance at the Community Band’s concerts this summer has been large due to outstanding programs, and the band directed by Dale Pendley and assistant conductor Lisa Michaels have still another excellent performance planned for Monday evening featuring as special guests the Dixieland Band, the Community Band Choir, vocalist Deidre Ford, and former mayor Tom Beehan, who has been narrator at the previous summer concerts and will once again appear in this role for the Labor Day program,” a press release said. [Read more…]

Reminder: ORHPA celebrates 70th anniversary of end of WWII with special showing of historic movie

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The Beginning or The End

A historic Ed Westcott image of the original showing of the movie, “The Beginning or the End”—The Story of the Atomic Bomb and Oak Ridge. (Submitted photo)

 

Reminder: A 70th anniversary celebration of the end of World War II will feature a special showing of the historic movie “‘The Beginning or the End,’ The Story of the Atomic Bomb and Oak Ridge.”

This movie was Hollywood’s first attempt to tell the fascinating story of the creation of the world’s first atomic bomb in the massive, top-secret Manhattan Project. The movie was originally released in 1947, just two years after the end of the war. It stars Brian Donlevy, Robert Walker, and Tom Drake.

The celebration has been organized by the Oak Ridge Heritage and Preservation Association. It’s scheduled for 3 p.m. Saturday, August 29, at the Historic Grove Theater at 123 Randolph Road in Grove Center.

“We wanted to honor those who perished in WWII, our great veterans, Manhattan Project and Cold War workers, and the world-changing Y-12 plant on this anniversary,” said Mick Wiest, president of the Oak Ridge Heritage and Preservation Association. “It’s important to remember and be grateful.” [Read more…]

Free community school focuses on waste disposal management

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Natalie Landry

Natalie Landry

Three Community School evening seminars on the topic of waste disposal management will be held at the Oak Ridge Unitarian Universalist Church beginning Tuesday, September 15.

The second and third seminars are scheduled for the following Tuesdays, September 22 and September 29. All seminars will be held from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., and free child care will be provided. The church is located at 809 Oak Ridge Turnpike.

The League of Women Voters of Oak Ridge and Tennessee Citizens for Wilderness Planning have partnered to offer these seminars, a press release said. The Community School is made possible by a $20,000 Community Involvement Fund grant awarded to the Oak Ridge League by the New Mexico Community Foundation, and funded through the U.S. Department of Energy. A portion of the grant helped to fund an environmental program focusing on children at the ORUUC Rainbow Camp in June. [Read more…]

UT Arboretum Society presents urban forestry program Aug. 25

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The University of Tennessee Arboretum Society is sponsoring a lecture on the “Knoxville Urban Forestry Program” on August 25 from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the UT Arboretum’s Program Shelter at 901 South Illinois Avenue in Oak Ridge.

The program will be presented by Kasey Krouse, City of Knoxville urban forester, who will discuss the City of Knoxville Urban Forestry program and its attempt to move from a reactive to a proactive urban forestry program. He will also discuss proper pruning, planting, mulching, tree selection, and other arboriculture practices that are pertinent to an urban forestry program. The presentation will conclude by touring trees around the arboretum and discussing some of the issues they face in an urban forest, a press release said.

As the urban forester for the City of Knoxville, Krouse is responsible for the expansion, protection, and maintenance of the city’s urban forest and implementing the city’s Urban Forest Management Plan. [Read more…]

New patient appointments available at Free Medical Clinic

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Free Medical Clinic

The Free Medical Clinic now has appointment openings for new patients from Anderson, Morgan, and Roane counties.

To qualify for free medical care at the clinic, patients must live in one of the three counties, have no medical insurance of any kind (no private insurance, no TennCare, no Medicare), and have a household income at or below 200 percent of the federal poverty level. The chart below shows the income criteria to be seen at FMC: [Read more…]

Oak Ridge Rotary Club helps hometown, the world

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Elaine Bunick and Adolf King and Ghanaians

Elaine Bunick and Adolf King, members of Rotary Club of Oak Ridge, are pictured with Ghanaians in the village where they led the medical and educational missions. (Submitted photo)

 

The Rotary Club of Oak Ridge is helping its hometown and communities in the world.

The club contributed $2,500, which was matched by a Rotary District 6780 grant, yielding $5,000 that financed the renovation of a room in the Oak Ridge Boys and Girls Club building. Anne Dunthorn, the club secretary and grant writer, helped Jennifer Pettyjohn, the chief and special officer of the Boys and Girls Clubs of the Clinch Valley, identify a District 6780 matching grant and prepare and submit the winning application.

Elaine Bunick, club member and endocrinologist in Oak Ridge, spearheaded the successful medical and educational mission in late July in the eastern African nation of Ghana. More than 1,800 patients in the village of Nkonya-Wurupong received medical treatment and used, or will use when needed, $250,000 worth of anti-malarial and other medications. [Read more…]

TORCH Brew Review, a beer-tasting fundraiser, on Aug. 29

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TORCH Brew Review

Photo from the Brew Review on Sept. 12, 2014, by Margaretanne Ingle.

 

Trinity Out-Reach Center for Hope, or TORCH, has its Second Annual Brew Review on Saturday, August 29. It’s a one-of-a-kind fundraiser in Oak Ridge.

The Brew Review is scheduled for Saturday, August 29, from 7 to 11 pm, at St. Mary’s Catholic School Gymnasium at 323 Vermont Avenue in Oak Ridge.

The evening will include beer tasting, finger foods, and live music, a press release said. Guests can mingle with their food and beer, dance to live music and/or enter the Corn Hole Tournament.

The bands performing are The Portals, Rhiannon, Jack Russell and the Terriers, and Ridge City Ramblers. [Read more…]

Hitchcock to be celebrity bartender in fundraiser for Free Medical Clinic

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Echo Bistro and Wine Bar

Submitted

For lovers of exotic mushroom fare, Echo Bistro and Wine Bar is the place to be on Thursday, August 20, from 4:30-8 p.m.

Celebrity bartender, Anderson County commissioner, and mushroom aficionado Whitey Hitchcock will bring an assortment of morel, chanterelle, lobster, and other personally foraged mushrooms to Echo to be transformed into a wild mushroom offering by Chef Seth Simmerman. The bar will feature Whitey’s chanterelle-infused libations, complete with Turkish apricot garnish.

Half the mushroom sales and all of the bartender tips go to the Free Medical Clinic of Oak Ridge, which serves surrounding counties as well as Anderson County. [Read more…]