• Learn to Read Jacksonville’s Third Annual Alphabet Affair “Celebrating the Cinema” will be held at 6:30 p.m. Friday at The Haskell Company on Riverside Avenue. Food, dancing and a costume contest are on the agenda for the evening presented by nelnet. For information, call 399-8894, ext. 13.
• The Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University Choir will perform Monday at 7:30 p.m. in the Ezekial Bryant Auditorium on the North Campus of Florida Community College at Jacksonville at 4501 Capper Rd. The 40-member group is billed as “South Africa’s first multicultural university choir” and is directed by Junita Lamprecht-van Dijk. The choir’s Florida tour is sponsored by Blue Cross Blue Shield and the Jacksonville Sister Cities Association. Admission is free.
• No time like the present: According to a poll conducted in April by the American Red Cross and Harris Interactive, only 7 percent of the population has taken what the Red Cross considers the three steps necessary to prepare for a disaster like a hurricane: get a kit that contains three days of supplies, make a plan in case you have to evacuate your home and be informed. The poll also revealed 90 percent of Americans who have a disaster kit feel prepared, but only 28 percent have a kit; 69 percent of people living in hurricane-prone areas don’t have a disaster kit; and 60 percent of households have a pet, but only 37 percent have a disaster plan for the pet. An on-line tutorial is available at www.redcross.org/beredcrossready.
• Mayor John Peyton will host the 16th annual Mayor’s Environmental Luncheon this Friday at the Main Library. Six local environmental groups will present awards to individuals and organizations that have made contributions to the environment. Registration begins at 11:30 a.m. and lunch will be served at noon. Tickets are $20 and are available by calling Ruby Tucker at 630-3692. Tickets will also be available at the door based on attendance.
• The film “The Devil’s Backbone” will be shown at the Museum of Contemporary Art Jacksonville tonight at 7 p.m. in the museum’s auditorium. The film is being shown as a part of “MOCA’s Summer Cinema.” The museum will also be open for June’s Art Walk.
• Kesler Mentoring Connection will kick-off its “Drive For 5” campaign at 10:30 a.m. Thursday at The Haskell Company inside the Riverfront Cafe. This is an annual program designed to partner with Jacksonville’s corporate community and encourage employees to sign-up to mentor children.
• Next week’s Jacksonville Economic Development Commission meeting has been rescheduled and moved. They’ll meet on June 28 at 9 a.m. in the 8th floor conference room of the Ed Ball Building on Hogan Street.
“If you don’t do it excellently, don’t do it at all. Because if it’s not excellent, it won’t be profitable or fun, and if you’re not in business for fun or profit, what the hell are you doing there?”
– Robert Townsend