ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, March 20, 1996 TAG: 9603200017
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-8 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
Women's conference
RADFORD - "Coping with Change" will be the topic for the regional conference of the American Council on Education/Virginia Identification Project for Women in Higher Education Administration (ACE/VIP). The conference is March 29 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Radford University's Heth Commonwealth Room.
All university women interested in academic administration are invited. The registration fee is $35 and includes lunch, refreshments and supplies.
Group discussions on coping with change in academia and a key note speaker from the Office of Women in Higher Education of ACE will be featured.
Call Jane Wemhoener at 831-6200.
Writer At Radford
RADFORD - Gustavo Perez Firmat came to the United States in 1960 as an 11-year-old Cuban exile. He will speak on the topic "Born in Cuba, Made in the U.S.A" on Tuesday at 8 p.m. in the Radford University Heth Hall Commonwealth Room.
Firmat's recent book "Next Year in Cuba: A Cubano's Coming of Age in America, describes what it was like to grow up caught between two cultures in a family always waiting for Castro's downfall and the return home.
Firmat is a poet, fiction writer, scholar and professor of Spanish literature at Duke University.
The lecture is part of RU's Honors Program Spring Symposium, "The Many Faces of the Americas."
Call Kathie Dickenson at 831-5324.
Senior Games
BLACKSBURG - The New River Valley Senior Games will be held at the Blacksburg Community Center on April 16.
Volunteers are needed to assist with the card game competition from 1 to 5 p.m.
People interested in volunteering should call Kemvia Adams at 382-6979. The event is sponsored by Montgomery County Parks and Recreation.
Women's Month
BLACKSBURG - Events sponsored by Virginia Tech for Women's Month include a a writer's conference, a rally and march and a 5K run.
On Friday a Women Writers Conference will be held at the Donaldson Brown Hotel and Conference Center from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Registration fee is $8 for students and $10 for non-students. Registration will continue through the day of the conference, but space is limited so early registration is advised.
On March 27, the Take Back the Night Rally and March will be held to bring community members together to protest violence against women and to promote awareness of attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors which perpetuate this violence.
The rally will be held between 7:30 p.m. and 8 p.m. on the drillfield in front of Burruss Hall at Virginia Tech. At 8 p.m. participants will march through the campus and downtown Blacksburg.
The Clothesline Project, an effort to raise awareness of violence against women will be on display during the rally and march. Decorated and color-coded shirts are hung side-by-side to educate the public about the scope of violence against women. The Clothesline Project will be displayed on Thursday, March 28 in Squires Student Center and Friday, March 29 outside the Women's Center at Virginia Tech.
Call Susan Anderson at 951-2013.
On March 30, the 1996 Women's Month 5K Run and One Mile Run/Walk will be held to benefit the Women's Resource Center in Radford. The center provides shelter for battered women and support groups for women and crime victims and witnesses.
Registration by Saturday guarantees participants a T-shirt and fees are $12. After that, registration fees are $15. Children younger than 10 can participate free of charge. Race day registration will be from 7:30 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. in the parking lot at 1800 Kraft Drive. Prizes will be awarded to the top finishers in all age groups in the 5K run.
Lectures, displays and workshops will be offered through the end of March to celebrate Women's Month.
Call the Women's Center at 231-7806 for a list of events.
Book signing
PULASKI - Teacher Sherry Vaughn and artist Ernie Ross, who collaborated on Vaughn's recently-published "Melvin's Melons" will sign copies of the book from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. March 24 at the Fine Arts Center for the New River Valley.
Copies of the 54-page book, written with young readers in mind, will be available for sale. Vaughn also wrote several original songs for it. The story and songs are also available on a cassette tape, narrated and sung by Vaughn with musical accompaniment by Johnson City, Tenn., musician Doug Dorschug. The book was published by Overmountain Press in Johnson City.
"Melvin's Melons" features an Appalachian boy who, eager for adventure, takes a trip away from his remote mountain village and encounters the "Wee'uns," who live secretly in the surrounding forests. He ends up helping them create a market for their watermelons among his own people.
The book is $5.95, and the book with the tape, $12.95. Vaughn said she wanted an audio version of her story as well as the book itself for children too young to read it themselves.
Vaughn teaches sixth grade at Dublin Middle School. Ross works at Jefferson Mills in Pulaski. The event featuring both of them at the Fine Arts Center at 21 W. Main St. is open to the public.
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