Community briefs Sept. 26, 2008

September 25, 2008 02:49 pm

— Alpaca, quilt, nature show planned locally

MERCER COUNTY — Morning Sky Farm, 480 Carpenters Corners Road, Clarks Mills, as part of National Alpaca Farm Day, will be open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.
Visitors can see alpacas firsthand and get acquainted with the fleece-producing animals.
IQ Quilters will have its 29th annual quilt show from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday in New Vernon Grange. A $2 admission will be charged for charity. Quilts by member Martha Ryan will be shown. A full-size quilt made by members will be given as a door prize. Lunch, demonstrations, country store and vendors also will be featured.
A sixth annual nature show will be 6 to 9 p.m. today, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturdayand noon to 4 p.m. Sunday at McKeever Environmental Learning Center, 55 McKeever Lane, near Sandy Lake.
Info: Morning Sky Farm, 724-253-2493; IQ Quilters, 724-376-2124 or 724-376-7771; or McKeever, 724-376-1000 or online, www.mckeever.org
Programs scheduled at Greenville Rec Center

GREENVILLE — Greenville Area Leisure Services Association has set these events in Greenville Recreation Center, 45 Alan Ave.:
• Ninth annual holiday craft show — 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Nov. 8. Vendor sites are available.
• Preschool play yard — 10:30 a.m. to noon Oct. 3, 17 and 31; Nov. 14; and Dec. 5 and 19, for 2- through 5-year-olds. Parents must attend. Class is pay as you take part.
• SilverSneakers Fitness Program — 9:30 to 10:15 and 10:30 to 11:15 a.m. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Friday’s class is YogaStretch. cost is $2 for each session if not eligible through Highmark. Medicare eligible members are those 65 and older or those deemed disabled and receiving Medicare.
• Recreational pick-up volleyball — 6:45 to 8:30 p.m. Thursdays, starting Oct. 11, for those 16 and older.
Info: 724-588-4810, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays.
Westminster College plans Bleasby Colloquium

NEW WILMINGTON — An award-winning writer will read his work during the Bleasby Colloquium at 7 p.m. Oct. 6 in McKelvey Campus Center’s Sebastian Mueller Theater on the campus of Westminster College in New Wilmington.
Gary Gildner, West Branch, Mich., is a poet, novelist and writer of short stories and nonfiction. He has been a Robert Frost Fellow at Bread Loaf Writers Conference, a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellow, a Yaddo Fellow and a McDowell Colony Fellow. His poetry has won Theodore Roethke and William Carlos Williams prizes.
Gildner will sign copies of his works following the reading. Some titles are available in Westminster’s bookstore.
Mercer County school retirees set fall meeting

HERMITAGE — Mercer County Pennsylvania State Education Association-Retired’s (PSEA) annual fall meeting will begin with registration at 9 a.m. Oct. 14 in Ballroom B of Avalon Golf & Country Club at Buhl Park, 1030 Forker Blvd., Hermitage.
Doug Bonsall, a Pennsylvania School Employees Retirement System (PSERS) consultant from Harrisburg, will present a program and answer questions on PSERS’ Health Options Program providing Medicare parts B and D and other services to members.
Walt Kuhl, a consultant with PSEA’s Health and Welfare Fund in Harrisburg, will discuss and answer questions on the dental and vision programs available to members.
Dennis Cianci, PSEA’s Midwest Region PSEA-Retired president from Aliquippa, Pa., will update members on the COLA bill and health care legislation. Door prizes and plants will be distributed.
All PSERS annuitants and newly retired educators and school services personnel can attend. Retirees from Mercer County school districts who are PSERS annuitants comprise the membership of Mercer County PSEA-Retired.
Brunch reservations: Sally Barnes, 724-981-4761 by Oct. 6. Membership info: Donna Oliver, membership chairperson, 724-981-6710; or Ed Zipay, president, 724-346-3753.
County Historical Society sets seat weaving class

MERCER — Mercer County Historical Society will host a chair seat weaving class from 10 a.m. until about 1 p.m. Oct. 25 in Helen Black Miller Chapel at the society’s headquarters, 119 S. Pitt St., Mercer.
The class will be on the traditional type of chair seat that involves weaving flat material over the four rungs chairs provided be students.
Reservations or info: 724-662-3490.
Slippery Rock University to help younger veterans

SLIPPERY ROCK — Slippery Rock University health majors on Oct. 25 will launch a Veterans with Disabilities Rock ’n Sports Program for younger veterans of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars.
The program will give disabled veterans the chance to use university facilities including the rock climbing wall, swimming pool and equestrian center.
The university received a $25,000 grant in February from the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation to create the program. Butler Veterans Administration Medical Center will connect younger veterans to the program.