The Garden City Telegram
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Weekend includes leaping, literacy
Published 2/28/2008 in News : Area coverage
By EMILY BEHLMANN
ebehlmann@gctelegram.com
Garden City residents can leap into March this weekend with family events that focus on frogs, reading and community resources.
Lee Richardson Zoo on Saturday will be celebrating the day after "leap day" with the Year of the Frog Fest, a free festival designed to educate people on how to be "amphibian friendly," according to zoo Curator of Education Andrea Smith.
The event fits with what the Association of Zoos and Aquariums have declared to be the Year of the Frog. The association picks one animal each year on which to focus special attention.
According to the AZA Web site, frogs were chosen because they're becoming extinct as a result of habitat loss and degradation, climate change, pollution and the infectious disease chytridiomycosis. AZA is calling upon member zoos and aquariums to help conserve frog populations through breeding programs, the association states.
The local festival is scheduled from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday in the Finnup Center, 312 E. Finnup Drive, and the adjacent zoo grounds. It will include games, activities and crafts for children and adults.
The event is being organized jointly by the zoo and the Garden City Recreation Commission.
Also on Saturday is another new event to the county, a community fair that will showcase resources Finney County has to offer in areas like youth opportunities, family services, child safety, health services, immigration issues, prevention programs and education.
The community fair, to be held in conjunction with USD 457's Literacy Carousel, will run from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday at Garden City High School, 1412 N. Main St.
Organizer Janie Perkins, the school district's supplemental programs coordinator, said the fair is for all area residents, regardless of whether they have children in the school district.
In addition to booths from various community groups, the event will include presentations on local agencies, plus higher education opportunities including Garden City Community College, the University of Kansas, Kansas State University and Fort Hays State University, Perkins said. Some presentations will be in Spanish.
The fair's keynote speaker will be Kevin Honeycutt, a workshop leader and graduate of Ottawa University who will be discussing keeping families safe online. His 20-minute presentations will be at 10 a.m., noon and 2 p.m.
The simultaneous Literacy Carousel offers children's activities like storytelling, puppets and free books, with a pirate theme for some events.
Other events this weekend include:
n The 41st Annual Garden City Community College Intercollegiate Rodeo, with public performances at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, plus 1:30 p.m. Sunday, all at the Horse Palace indoor arena on the Finney County Fairgrounds. Tickets will be sold at the gate and cost $6 for adults, $4 for children ages 6 to 12, or $20 for an entire family.
n A reception to open a new exhibit at Garden City Community College's Mercer Gallery, featuring Garden City comic book artist and freelance illustrator Jeff Blascyk. The reception is from 1 to 3 p.m. Sunday at the gallery, in the west wing of the Pauline Joyce Fine Arts Building on campus, 801 Campus Drive. The exhibit will continue through March 16, and admission is free.
n Opening of the traveling exhibit "Apron Chronicles: A Patchwork of American Recollections" from 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. Sunday at the Stauth Memorial Museum in Montezuma. The exhibit, which runs through April 13, puts together vintage aprons with stories and portraits of the people who wore them.
n A bone marrow drive from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday at Bible Christian Family Life Center, 1501 E. Mary St. The effort to add potential donors to a national registry is part of Garden City High School senior Brittany Talbott's Buff Project, a requirement for graduation. Donors must be ages 18 to 60. Joining the registry requires a cheek swab.
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