• U.S. Rep. Ander Crenshaw is the speaker at Jacksonville Area Legal Aid’s Equal Justice Awards reception tonight at The River Club. This year’s reception will honor local defense attorney Henry Coxe, who will also speak at the event.
• Amanda Holmes, special projects and grants manager for Lutheran Social Services Second Harvest Food Bank of Northeast Florida, said the food bank received more than $80,000 from the Jacksonville Jaguars’ Taste of the NFL Celebrity Dinner. The national Taste of the NFL dinner held during the Super Bowl is expected to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars more. Last year’s dinner in Houston raised more than $820,000, according to the Super Bowl Host Committee president Mike Kelly.
• Nina Waters has been elected president of The Community Foundation, replacing Andre “Andy” Bell III, who stepped down to become president emeritus and senior fellow at the Foundation.
• The Jacksonville Symphony Youth Orchestra is holding auditions Dec. 14 from 4-8 p.m. at the Nathan H. Wilson Center for the Arts, FCCJ South Campus. Audition requirements are available online at www.jaxsymphony.org/jsyo. To schedule an audition, contact Deirdre Dam at 354-9251.
• The Women Business Owners of North Florida are hosting a holiday party this week and lending a hand to Hubbard House. Jingle Mingle is scheduled for 6-8 p.m. Wednesday at Simon’s A Wine Bar. Volunteers from Hubbard House’s Career Closet will be there to accept donations of gently used business attire. Cost for the party is $20 per person.
• Former Rogers Towers attorney Kurt Dunkle will be ordained as an Episcopal priest on Sunday. He’s been through the seminary and has been working at the Cathedral downtown.