Digest

Chess tournament open to ages 6-12

By Times Staff Writer
Published September 27, 2007

BROOKSVILLE

A Champion Chess Youth Chess Tournament will be held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday at the Jerome Brown Community Center, 99 Jerome Brown Place, off Darby Lane.

The tournament is open to youths ages 6 to 12. The cost is $5 per participant.

Trophies will be awarded to the first- and second-place players.

Registration is requested before 5 p.m. Friday at JBCC.

Champion Chess is a nationwide chess teaching organization. The organization plans to start a weekly teaching chess club at JBCC.

The club will be offered 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays, Oct. 9 to Dec. 11; the cost is $80, which includes a textbook.

For more details, contact Francis Croft at 799-6503 or 584-2533.

Come meet artist, have wine, cheese

A wine and cheese artist's reception for pastelist Lynn Simone will be from 7 to 9 p.m. Oct. 3 at Easy Street Home Decor, 838 E Jefferson St.

Visitors will have a chance to meet the artist and view her realistic animal portraits, florals and landscapes.

Simone is the historical and publicity chair for the Spring Hill Art League and, most recently, designed the logo for the Hernando County Fine Art Council's Taste of Jazz brochure.

Admission will be free. For information, call 848-0177.

Master Gardeners' plant sale Oct. 6

The Hernando County Master Gardeners will host a fall plant sale from 9 a.m. to noon Oct. 6 at the Hernando County Cooperative Extension Service, 19490 Oliver St., off U.S. 41, just north of the county fairgrounds.

There will be hundreds of plants for sale, including trees, shrubs, ferns, ground covers and perennials. All plants have been specifically grown to tolerate local climate conditions, and have been propagated and grown by the Master Gardeners.

The 2008 Master Gardener Calendar will be sold for $3 each.

All proceeds will be used to maintain and grow the Hernando County Master Gardener Program. For information, call 754-4433.

Accomplished soprano to perform Sunday

A concert of arias and popular musicals with noted soprano Suzanne LaCroix is planned for 2 p.m. Sunday at the Brooksville Woman's Club, 131 S Main St.

LaCroix, who has performed at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City, is also a local nurse.

She will perform selections from operas, Broadway musicals, French and German Leider and jazz popular standards.

Accompanying her on the piano will be Joni Whitehead, who has taught music in local schools for 20 years and accompanies various chorales.

The concert is sponsored by Unitarian Universalist Church in the Pines. There will be refreshments after the concert. Plants from the Spring Hill Garden Club nursery will also be available.

Tickets are $10 and can be purchased in advance or at the door. Proceeds will benefit Gulf Coast Conservancy and the Spring Hill Garden Club's Nature Coast Botanical Gardens.

For tickets or information, call John Henry Hill at 584-7712.

Tickets now available for annual banquet

The Hernando County branch of the NAACP will host the 2007 Freedom Fund Banquet fundraiser at 6 p.m. Oct. 13 at Brooksville Elks Lodge 2582, 14494 Cortez Blvd.

A soul food dinner will be catered by Just Ribs. Entertainment will be provided by Class Act - Richie G. and Stan Prinston.

The speaker will be attorney Darryl Ervin Rouson, who is the immediate past president of the NAACP's St. Petersburg branch.

Tickets are $40 each. For tickets or information, call Ida at 683-4203, John at 796-4032, Sharon at 683-7766 or Janice at 799-0202.

WEEKI WACHEE

Opera in the 1920s topic of lecture

Academia Hernando will continue its lecture series on the Roaring '20s, also known as the jazz era, from 10 a.m. to noon Monday at Nativity Lutheran Church, 6363 Commercial Way.

Monday's lecture will be presented by Scott Tilson, an opera singer and teacher, who will discuss innovations in opera.

The cost is $7. Call Arnold Silver at 796-2855.

The series will also include:

- Oct 8 - Silver will discuss the literary scene, particularly Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald and the Harlem Renaissance.

- Oct. 15 - Peter Tush, assistant curator of the Dali Museum, will discuss modern art.

- Oct. 22 - Harriet Deer, a professor at USF, will discuss development in films.

- Oct 29 - A bus trip to the Dali Museum and St. Pete's Art Museum (free to those who subscribed to the entire lecture series).

- Nov. 5 - Dr. Dan Mauriello will discuss advances in medicine.

- Nov. 12 - David Rabson, a professor at USF, will discuss "Storm Clouds Ahead: The Depression at Home and the Rise of Fascism Abroad."

- Nov. 26 - A free concert for subscribers.

SPRING HILL/WEEKI WACHEE

Biblical speaker to address two meetings

Carol Kent, a popular international biblical speaker and former radio show co-host who has regularly been seen as a guest on Focus on the Family, will speak at two upcoming Christian women's group meetings.

Kent, who is from Lakeland, is the author of numerous books and is the president of Speak Up Speaker Services, is the founder and director of Speak Up with Confidence seminars, and recently founded the nonprofit organization, Speak Up for Hope, which benefits families of incarcerated individuals.

Kent's theme will be "A New Kind of Normal." She will be the featured speaker at the following events:

- After 5 Connection "Harvest Moon Dinner" meeting, 6:30 to 8 p.m. Oct. 8 at the Heather Golf and Country Club, 7406 St. Andrew's Blvd., Weeki Wachee. The cost is $10. Music will be provided by Fred Leftridge.

Reservations are required by Oct. 4. Call Maisie at 596-0335 or Joanna at 686-2002.

- CWC Women's Connection's "Fall Extravaganza" silent auction and ladies luncheon, noon to 1:30 p.m. Oct. 9, Silverthorn Country Club, 4550 Golf Club Lane, Spring Hill. Doors open at 11 a.m.

The silent auction will include baked goods, plants and used items; funds raised will benefit Stonecroft Ministries.

The cost is $12.50. Reservations are required by Oct. 5. A free nursery is provided with advance requests.

Call Dolores at 799-3735 or Barbara at 796-5216.

[Last modified September 26, 2007, 20:37:59]