Oak Ridge Today

B&W Y-12 donates $10K to Children’s Museum

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B&W Y-12 Check Presentation to Children's Museum

B&W Y-12 Public Affairs Manager Jud Simmons discusses ongoing projects with Mary Ann Damos, executive director of the Oak Ridge Children’s Museum, in the museum’s environmental center and gardens. (Submitted photo)

B&W Y-12 recently donated $10,000 to the Children’s Museum in Oak Ridge. The funds will support the museum’s programs, including its planned Healthy Living exhibit.

“B&W Y-12’s support has been invaluable to the museum,” said Mary Ann Damos, the museum’s executive director. “The financial donations have helped us provide more and better services to the area’s children, but the hands-on donations of manpower also have been helpful.”

B&W Y-12 employees and their families have donated their time and skills on various museum projects for the past 10 years, including painting, planting, and repairs and maintenance to the museum’s heating and air conditioning system. [Read more…]

Reminder: Summer camps ongoing

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There are still opportunities to enroll your children in summer camps.

The Summer Camps section on Oak Ridge Today includes information on upcoming summer camps at First Presbyterian Church of Oak Ridge, Children’s Museum of Oak Ridge, Continuous Threads Sewing Studio, and the City of Ridge.

Summer camps at The Children’s Museum

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Children will learn through play as they explore cultures, shape clay, experiment with science, become paleontologists, create in the garden, the kitchen and on canvas, and more at Imagination Station Summer Camps at the Children’s Museum of Oak Ridge.

The summer camps, from June 10 through August 2, offer activities for children ages 3-5 in preschool classes and for children entering grades 1 through 7. Clay camps with professional clay artist Sherrie Carris will be offered throughout the summer for children ranging in age from 3-16.

The week-long camps are offered Monday through Friday each week, with no camps during the July 4 holiday week. Morning camps are from 9 a.m.-noon and afternoon camps are from 1-4 p.m. Preschool camps are mornings only. A free sack lunch and active play time are provided for campers staying all day. [Read more…]

Preschool and clay camps offered at Children’s Museum

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Preschoolers will be detectives, pirates, and international artists in Imagination Station Summer Camps at the Children’s Museum of Oak Ridge. Children of all ages will learn to create with clay, making nature-themed items, gifts for the holidays, and more during Clay Camps.

The Preschool Camps, from early June through August 2, offer activities for children ages 3-5 in morning sessions from 9 a.m. to noon. Clay Camps with professional clay artist Sherrie Carris will be offered throughout the summer for children ranging in age from 3-16.

Carris, the museum’s resident clay artist, owns and operates Carris Pottery with her husband Tom. She received her bachelor’s degree in fine arts from the University of Texas and her master’s and master’s in fine arts from the University of Iowa. She has more than 35 years’ experience as a clay artist.

The week-long camps are offered Monday through Friday, with no camps during the July 4 holiday week and no Clay Camps July 22-26. Morning camps are from 9 a.m.-noon and afternoon camps from 1-4 p.m. Each camp is specifically created with age-appropriate activities that are aligned with a child’s developmental stages. A free sack lunch and active play time are provided for campers staying all day. [Read more…]

Children’s Museum hosts Wonderful Wednesdays

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Mark Young

Magician Mark Young will be featured at Wonderful Wednesday at the Children’s Museum of Oak Ridge on June 19. (Submitted photo)

The sleight-of-hand tricks of a magician will be featured at Wonderful Wednesday, from 11 a.m.-noon June 19 at the Children’s Museum of Oak Ridge. Mark Young will bring his entertaining magic show to the museum, delighting children with his magic tricks.

Young was a professional magician for 20 years, working in such locations as the Big Red Boat cruise line of Walt Disney World, Cypress Gardens in Florida, and Opryland in Nashville. The magician began learning tricks as a child in Oak Ridge and has entertained children and adults at past museum events. [Read more…]

Lavender Festival returns to Jackson Square on Saturday

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Lavender Festival

Celebrating all things herbal in Oak Ridge, the Lavender Festival returns to Historic Jackson Square on Saturday. It’s the festival’s 15th year, and it’s scheduled from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday.

The free festival features food and music, and close to 100 vendors. They will have plants and herbs, and products related to gardening, cooking, health, and aromatherapy, in addition to fine art and crafts. There will also be booths for children, with crafts, a dinosaur exhibit, and street performers.

Festival-goers can sample foods made with herbs from 9 to 11 a.m. and watch a grilling-with-herbs demonstration by Market House chefs beginning at 1 p.m. Live music will be performed by local musicians throughout the day. Informative presentations and workshops will be held from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. inside the CapitalMark Bank and Trust building next to the playhouse. [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…]

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…]

Moscow Nights perform at Children’s Museum International Festival Saturday

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Moscow Nights

Moscow Nights (Submitted photo)

Moscow Nights, an ensemble of energetic musicians from Russia, will be featured performers at the International Festival on Saturday, Feb. 16, at the Children’s Museum of Oak Ridge. Moscow Nights’ concerts offer audiences an entertaining glimpse of Old Russia through music, humor, song and dance, inviting audience participation.

Festival goers will experience entertainment, crafts and cuisines from cultures around the world at the family friendly event, with musical entertainment on stage throughout the day. Participants will dine on international cuisine, children will make international crafts to take home, and all will visit booths displaying crafts and traditions from world cultures.

[Read more…]

Children’s Museum offers winter classes

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Pottery, art, and music will entertain children and adults in classes at the Children’s Museum of Oak Ridge in February.

Pottery classes, taught by professional clay artist Sherrie Carrie, will be:

[Read more…]

Children’s Museum offers arts, crafts on Super Saturdays

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Children are invited to join in Super Saturdays at the Children’s Museum of Oak Ridge, offering arts and crafts along with fun and games. Programs are from 2:30-3:30 p.m. in the Music Room.

Super Saturday programs are free with admission, and some may include a materials fee. Super Saturday programs will be:

[Read more…]

Children’s Museum Gala features Jamaican dinner, steel drums

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Vere Henry

Vere Henry, arranger and director of Carib Sounds, from the Caribbean island of Antigua. (Submitted photo)

The 11th annual gala at the Children’s Museum of Oak Ridge on Dec. 7 will feature the flavors and rhythms of Jamaica.

The evening will feature a steel drum band, a Jamaican meal, auctions, the Oak Ridge High School Chorus, and an ORHS String Quartet.

The gala, which starts at 6 p.m. Friday, Dec. 7, will benefit the Children’s Museum. This year’s theme is “Jamaica: Rhythm ‘n Paradise,” a press release said.

Guests will be entertained by the steel drum band Carib Sounds and island dancers, the press release said.

[Read more…]