The YMCA of Central Kentucky, in collaboration with 20 neighborhoods, is hosting the sixth annual Ready, Set, Go! Lexington Neighborhood Back-to-School Rallies. They will be Saturday, Aug. 6, and will provide 8,000 elementary, middle and high school students with free backpacks and school supplies.
Each neighborhood site will distribute supplies for all grade levels and offer activities, resource booths, food, speakers and entertainment.
Registration for the free supplies be 9 to 11 a.m. at each location, and backpacks will be distributed at noon. Students must be with a parent or guardian to receive supplies. All 8,000 backpacks are provided by the parent company of Kentucky Utilities.
The neighborhoods or rally sites include:
■ First Baptist Church, Bracktown, 3016 Bracktown Road.
■ Cardinal Valley, 2077 Cambridge Drive.
■ Carver Neighborhood Center, 522 Patterson Street.
■ Castlewood Park, 201 Castlewood Drive.
■ Coolavin Park, 550 West Sixth Street.
■ Duncan Park, 530 North Limestone.
■ Eastland Church of God, 2598 Liberty Road.
■ Gainesway, 3460 Milano Drive.
■ Gardenside Christian Church, 940 Holly Springs Drive.
■ Douglass Park, 726 Georgetown Street.
■ Imani Missionary Baptist Church, 1555 Georgetown Street.
■ Rock/LaRoca United Methodist Church, 1015 North Limestone.
■ Temple of Prayer, 549 Parkside Drive.
■ Pralltown, 190 Lou Johnson Way.
■ Radcliffe Marlboro Park, 561 Benton Road.
■ Spiegle Heights Park, 424 Spiegle Street.
■ William Wells Brown Community Center, 548 East Fifth Street.
■ Russell Cave Church of Christ, 1841 McCullough Drive
■ Woodhill, 457 Larkwood Drive.
Donations are needed. Drop off any of the following items at the High Street YMCA by Aug. 2: washable markers (set of 8), crayons (24 count), pocket folders, blunt-tip or regular scissors, composition notebook, pencil-top erasers, No. 2 pencils, glue sticks, composition notebooks, 1-inch binders and dividers with tabs for three-ring binders, medium point blue and black pens, highlighters with clips, and spiral notebooks.
For more information, call the United Way at 211 or LexCall at 311 or Nicola Fleming at (859) 226-0393.
New Wellington Elementary competes for funds
When the bell rings for recess this fall at the new Wellington Elementary School, some area moms hope to have a playground for the children. The women are trying to raise some money for the playground, expected to cost about $100,000, through the Pepsi Refresh Project.
The Wellington playground project is competing for a $50,000 grant.
You may vote for the project at Refresheverything.com/playgroundwellingtonelementary, or by texting 107558 to 73774. Normal message rates apply, but no purchase is necessary to vote. Voting continues through July 31.
Wellington Elementary, on Keithshire Way, will open August when the 2011-12 school year begins.
Local scout canoes in Minnesota and Canada
Naomi Clayton, 13, of Lexington attended the North Country Rock-n-Wilderness in northern Minnesota offered through Girl Scouts of Minnesota and Wisconsin Lakes and Pines Council. At the camp, young women traveled by canoe and portaged through the area of northern Minnesota known as the Boundary Waters Canoe Area and Quetico Provincial Park in southern Canada. Clayton is a seventh-grader at Sayre School and is a cadet member of Troop 894.
Down syndrome, Alzheimer's link
Fifty percent of people with Down syndrome who are 55 and older might have Alzheimer's disease. That will be the topic of a workshop from 10:30 a.m. to noon Aug. 11 at the Lexington Public Library, Beaumont Branch, 3080 Fieldstone Way. Workshop participants will have the opportunity to learn the connection between Down syndrome and Alzheimer's disease and research going on at the University of Kentucky Sanders Brown Center on Aging. Registration is required. Call (800) 272-3900.
