CROP walk on Sunday
The Inter-Faith Council for Social Service will sponsor the organization’s annual CROP (Community Reaching Out to People) Walk on April 15 to raise money to fight hunger locally and throughout the world.
Registration for the four-mile walk begins at 1:30 p.m. and the walk will start at 2:30 p.m. at the Carrboro Town Commons. The walk, organized by the IFC and the Church World Service, will travel through the streets of Carrboro and Chapel Hill and the UNC campus. The walk raises money through sponsorships of participants.
The IFC operates a variety of community programs, including the Community House, which provides shelter to homeless men in Chapel Hill, and the Community Kitchen, which offers free meals to Community House residents and other community members.
For more information, contact Charles Williams at the IFC at 929-6380 or cropwalk [AT] ifcmailbox.org.
Carrboro residents tops in poetry
The Health Arts Network at Duke (HAND) has announced the winners of its “Write Us a Poem VIII” competition, a biannual poetry contest open to patients, families, visitors, alumnae and others who walk through the doors of Duke Medical Center. A reading by the winners and a reception will be held April 27, from 12:00 to 1:00, in Room 240 of the John Hope Franklin Center for International Studies. ItÕs open to the public.
This year’s contest drew 86 entries. First-place winner was Maggi Ann Grace for Macular Degeneration. Grace is a writer and visual artist from Carrboro. Second place went to Jay Bryan, also of Carrboro.
The winning poems will also be on display in the Mars Gallery of Duke North Hospital, April 23-30.
For additional information about the reading and reception, contact Grey B Brown, 684-6223 or brown097 [AT] mc.duke.edu.
Botanical Garden honors grounds
The North Carolina Botanical Garden will host a ceremony to honor the ground on which construction of the garden’s new Visitor Education Center will begin this summer.
The center, which will be located on the Laurel Hill Road Extension, is designed as a Platinum Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design structure, which is the highest certification given by the U.S. Green Building Council. It will provide space for school classes and horticultural therapy activities, as well as interpretive exhibits and meetings.
The student-run Renewable Energy Special Projects Committee will help construct a geothermal well system as part of the center with funds generated by a $4-per-semester student fee.
Other “green” features of the building will include photovoltaic panels that generate electricity from sunlight, rainwater cisterns and storm water “rain gardens,” clerestory windows that harvest controlled daylight and locally sourced, non-toxic construction materials.
Planetarium hosts talks
Todd Boyette, director of the Morehead Planetarium and Science Center at UNC, will discuss the planetariumÕs role in training NASA astronauts as moonwalkers at the Full Frame documentary film festival in Durham on Saturday.
Beginning in the 1960s and continuing for nearly 20 years, Morehead worked with NASA to train astronauts in celestial navigation, using the Zeiss star projector in the planetarium. Eleven of the 12 moonwalkers trained at Morehead.
BoyetteÕs presentation will follow the screening of In The Shadow of the Moon, a film by David Sington that explores the lives of the 12 men who walked on the Moon. The two-hour documentary will be shown at 5:15 p.m.
For tickets and other information about the event, visit www.fullframefest.org.
The Planetarium is also presenting a free program, “Our Vanishing Night,” at 7:30 p.m. on April 17 as part of UNC’s week-long observation of Earth Day, which is April 22.
Following the presentation is a walking tour of Franklin Street and the university campus to seek out examples of inefficient lighting. The event will conclude with a sky-watching session at the Morehead Planetarium and Science Center’s sundial, weather permitting.
Morehead will also feature light-pollution topics during its regular “Carolina Skies” programs, 8 p.m. on April 20 and 21. For more information, visit www.moreheadplanetarium.org.
Carolina songs and music featured
Musician and author Bland Simpson will provide a look at songs and music related to Carolina and Chapel Hill in a free public lecture April 19.
Simpson, a member of the Red Clay Ramblers music group and director of the creative writing program at UNC, said his lecture will be “light hearted and hardly encyclopedic.” Simpson will also perform several songs that he wrote with fellow Rambler Jack Herrick for the 1994 musical “Tar Heel Voices,” commemorating the bicentennial of the university.
Titled “Keeping Time: Two Centuries (and Counting) of Tar Heel Tunes and Songs from the Southern Part of Heaven,” the lecture will begin at 5:45 p.m. in the Wicker Classroom of the School of Government in the Knapp-Sanders Building. A 5 p.m. reception will precede the talk. Parking is available after 5 p.m. in the Knapp-Sanders deck at no charge.
TPC, Pa’lante to collaborate
The People’s Channel and Pa’lante, a local Spanish-language youth media organization, announced a new partnership this week that they say will enable the organizations to expand outreach and collaboration.
Under the agreement, The People’s Channel will manage Radio Pa’lante, a youth-produced Spanish-language music and public affairs program that airs Fridays on WCOM. In addition, both organizations will create a smoke-free policy in support of El Pueblo’s youth advocacy campaign, No Fumo.
“It’s difficult for a small nonprofit like Pa’lante to achieve all our goals on our own,” said Laura Wenzel, director of Palante. “Now, TPC provides Pa’lante’s infrastructure, and Pa’lante provides TPC with entree to both radio broadcasting and the Latino community.” Pa’lante works to promote integration between Latin American immigrant and established communities in the county by training youth to produce entertaining, informative media.
“This fits with our goal of expanding into other types of media as well as extending our collaboration with the Latino community,” said Chad Johnston, executive director of The People’s Channel.