Oak Ridge Today

Oak Ridge Breakfast Rotary, Altrusa present literacy grant awards

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Oak Ridge Breakfast Rotary and Altrusa Literacy Award Grants

The Oak Ridge Breakfast Rotary Club and Altrusa recently selected the winners of the 2013 Literacy Award Grants. Pictured above from left are Janet Swift of Altrusa, Emily Spahr of Clinton Elementary School, Sheila Michels and Zabrina Minor of TORCH, Jill McMaster of Roane Imagination Library, Linda Dalton of Oak Ridge Preschool, Doris Doherty of ADFAC, Rhoni Basden of Girls Inc., Kat Hall of Norris Middle School, Brenda Thornburgh of ORBRC, and Melinda White of Oak Ridge Preschool. (Submitted photo)

The Oak Ridge Breakfast Rotary Club and Altrusa recently awarded roughly $19,000 in 14 literacy grants to 10 organizations.

The grants are awarded based on a competition that is judged by a committee of Rotarians and Altrusans, a press release said. Winners are celebrated during March of each year when Rotary International observes Literacy Month.

The total presented in the 2013 literacy grant awards was $18,987. [Read more…]

Oak Ridge Peace Forum donates $7,500 to Rotary Peace Centers

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Oak Ridge Peace Forum Donates to Rotary Foundation

Past District Governor and Zone 30 Coordinator Karen Wentz, right, presents a check for $7,500 from the Oak Ridge Peace Forum to Rotary Foundation Chair Wilf Wilkerson, left, and Rotary International President Sakuji Tanaka at Duke University. (Submitted photo)

The Oak Ridge Peace Forum has donated $7,500 of its net proceeds to the Peace Centers Endowment of The Rotary Foundation.

“The Rotary Peace Centers offer an avenue for extending peace activities throughout the world through its growing cadre of Peace Fellows,” said Fred Heitman, chair of the Peace Forum planning committee, which decided in early April to make the donation.

The Oak Ridge Peace Forum is sponsored by Rotary District 6780, which is now led by District Governor Jack Bailey of Oak Ridge.

More than 250 people attended the Peace Forum on March 9 in Pollard Auditorium. The planning committee consisted mostly of representatives of three Rotary clubs in Oak Ridge. [Read more…]

Allstate Foundation donates to ADFAC on behalf of local agent, volunteer

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ADFAC and David Erb

The Allstate Foundation recently made a $1,000 contribution to ADFAC on behalf of local agent David Erb. Pictured from left are Erb, ADFAC Executive Director Annie Cacheiro, and Cande Seay, ADFAC vice president and development committee chair. (Photo submitted by ADFAC)

The Allstate Foundation recently made a $1,000 contribution to Aid To Distressed Families of Appalachian Counties, a press release said.

The contribution was made through the Allstate Agency Hands in the Community grant program in honor of local agent David Erb in recognition of his volunteer work with the agency. Erb serves on the ADFAC Development and Public Relations Committee and is an active member of the “Dine and Donate” Committee, which is a new event that is replacing ADFAC’s “Feed The Need,” the press release said. [Read more…]

House committee passes bill to set up Manhattan Project National Park

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U.S. Representative Chuck Fleischmann

Chuck Fleischmann

A U.S. House of Representatives committee on Wednesday unanimously approved legislation to establish a Manhattan Project National Historical Park that would include sites in Oak Ridge and Hanford, Wash., and Los Alamos, N.M.

The Manhattan Project was a top-secret federal program to build the world’s first atomic weapons during World War II.

The legislation stalled in the last session of Congress, but it has been reintroduced this session. [Read more…]

Drop off unused medication on Saturday

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There are currently few safe and convenient ways for consumers to dispose of unused prescription drugs, but on Saturday at the Earth Day Festival, the community will be able to drop off unused prescription medication, a press release said.

Nearly all unused pharmaceuticals enter either our solid waste system or sewage system. Neither disposal method is environmentally sound. These medications, when flushed down the toilet, pass through our sewage treatment plants, which are generally not designed to screen for these chemicals, the press release said. Pharmaceuticals discarded in landfills can seep into the surrounding groundwater table. [Read more…]

Roane State official to discuss financial aid during AAUW meeting

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A Roane State Community College official will discuss financial aid for college students in a noon meeting on Monday at the Oak Ridge Unitarian Universalist Church.

Tina Long is financial aid director at the college. She will discuss financial aid during a general meeting and luncheon of the AAUW, Oak Ridge Branch. [Read more…]

Earth Day festival to feature dog jumping competition, kids’ activities, recycling, exhibitors

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Dock Dogs at Earth Day Oak Ridge

Alex, a Weimaraner skilled at long distance jumping and speed retrieval, catches a football during a DockDogs competition in Oak Ridge during the 2012 Earth Day Festival.

The Sixth Annual Earth Day Festival in Oak Ridge this weekend will feature a jumping competition for dogs, a kids’ race and bicycle rodeo, and shoe collection and recycling drives.

It will also feature more than 60 exhibitors and live music. It’s scheduled from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at the Oak Ridge Civic Center.

The popular dog jumping competition debuted in Oak Ridge last year. It’s the Smoky Mountain Dock Dogs “Spare the Big Air Challenge,” and it features a 26,000-gallon swimming pool and four events: Big Air, Extreme Vertical, Speed Retrieve, and Iron Dog. It starts at 4 p.m. Friday at A.K. Bissell Park and ends at 5 p.m. Sunday. [Read more…]

‘Talk is Cheap’ on Saturday to feature ‘down-home wit,’ wisdom, laughs

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An event organized this weekend by the Clinton Rotary Club and Timely Topics will feature “down-home wit and wisdom, with lots of laughs along the way,” a press release said.

It’s called “The Talk is Cheap Tour,” and it features Jim Claborn, Bill Landry, Sam Venable, and Elizabeth Rose.

It starts at 7 p.m. Saturday at the Ritz Theater in Clinton. General admission tickets are $15, and VIP tickets are $25. The VIP tickets include preferred seating and a reception at the Clinton Civic Center to meet the performers and friends, the press release said. [Read more…]

United Way donations down after security breach, contractor changes

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United Way of Anderson County

Tom Hilton, 2012-2013 campaign chair, left, with outgoing United Way of Anderson County Board President Jimmy Stone, who accepted the No. 1 Company Campaign Award on behalf of Oak Ridge National Laboratory. (Photo courtesy of D. Ray Smith)

Donations to the United Way of Anderson County were down this year, and on Thursday, officials cited challenges in the federal contracting community, including the July 28 security breach at the Y-12 National Security Complex and the later departure of security contractor WSI.

There was also an end to federal stimulus money, a freeze in federal budgets and salaries, and a new consolidated contract to manage Y-12 and the Pantex Plant near Amarillo, Texas, which could result in the departure of B&W Y-12, said Rick Morrow, UWAC executive director.

The United Way of Anderson County had hoped to raise $1.4 million in the fiscal year that ended March 31, but volunteers and staff members fell short of that, collecting $1,277,771. [Read more…]

Children’s Museum to host Celebration of the Young Child on Friday

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Doug Berky

Doug Berky will be the featured entertainer at Celebration of the Young Child at the Children’s Museum of Oak Ridge on Friday. (Submitted photo)

Doug Berky—a physical theater performer using comedy, mime, masks, juggling, and storytelling—will be the featured entertainer for the Celebration of the Young Child at 10 a.m. Friday at the Children’s Museum of Oak Ridge.

Young children and their families are invited to join in the celebration from 9 a.m.-1 p.m. A puppet show on safety, make-and-take crafts, a kids’ movement class, a Scholastic book fair, and health and nutrition activities will also be part of the celebration. Adele Roberts will lead storytelling and puppet fun, with stories based on her series of children’s books, which includes “The Adventures of Sammy the Skunk.” Children will make dinosaurs, sunflowers, and noodle necklaces to take home. [Read more…]

UT Arboretum Society plant sale this weekend

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UT Arboretum Society Plant Sale

The University of Tennessee Arboretum Society plant sale is Saturday at the UT Arboretum on South Illinois Avenue, and there is a members-only plant sale Friday evening. (Submitted photo)

The University of Tennessee Arboretum Society will hold its annual spring plant sale on Saturday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the UT Arboretum on South Illinois Avenue. The “Members Only” sale will be on Friday from 5 to 7 p.m. Memberships may be purchased at that time.

The Society will be offering plants with colorful foliage or flowers. Selections will include crape myrtle, vitex, encore azalea, hardy gardenia, hydrangea, and loropetalum. [Read more…]

United Way will announce 2012 campaign results in annual meeting Thursday

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It’s been a challenging year, and the United Way of Anderson County is scaling back its annual meeting this year and reducing expenses.

The campaign results from 2012 will be announced at an annual meeting at 7:30 a.m. Thursday at the Children’s Museum of Oak Ridge, a UWAC member agency. The meeting is open to the public with advance reservation. It will include a brief networking and continental breakfast, followed by the annual business meeting and campaign recognition. [Read more…]