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Erie PA News and Events for NFL Draft Day, Saturday April 28, 2007
Augustus Allen III, who was recently fired by the EMTA (Erie Metropolitan Transit Authority, the bus company), was arrested for making terroristic threats after he said he’d shoot the place up. Three adults and one juvenile in Erie have been arrested for threatening to repeat the Virginia Tech massacre.

Erie native Billy Blanks is relocating his Sherman Oaks fitness center to Westlake Village. The new 11,000 sq ft fitness center will include a day care center, boutique, weight room, locker room, sauna, showers and a large area for the Billy Blanks Foundation, which supports at-risk, low-income children and women through scholarships and emotional support programs.
Timothy J Flanagan was sworn in as president of Framingham State College on Friday. Flanagan became the school’s 15th president in August, but was not sworn in until yesterday’s investiture. Flanagan received his BA from Gannon University in Erie, PA, followed by an MA and PhD from the State University of New York at Albany.
Lawrence M Meckler, executive director of the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority said “We’re doing a great job attracting travelers from Southern Ontario, Rochester and Erie (PA).” The year-to-date flier count stood at Buffalo Niagara International Airport was up 5.7 percent from the first three months of last year.
It was a pitchers duel in game one of a three-game set at Prince George’s Stadium Friday night, but the Erie SeaWolves came out on the short end as they fell in their second consecutive game by a final of 3-2 to the Bowie Baysox.

Cat Nation Fanciers, the local Erie Cat Fanciers’ Association club, holds their 18th annual All Breed Cat Show Saturday April 28 10 am to 4 pm and Sunday April 29 9:30 am to 3 pm at the JMC Ice Arena, 423 West 38th St in Erie. Admission is $5 per person or $4 with a donation of cat food to Because You Care, the rescue organization dedicated to the welfare of small animals.
Diane Fox: UnNatural History exhibition is now open at the Erie Art Museum in the Museum’s Annex Gallery, 423 State Street. UnNatural History is an exhibit about exhibits, comprised of photographs of dioramas in natural history museums in the United States and Europe. The photographs are all deliberately the same size and are framed in shadow boxes, in order to enhance the viewer’s feeling that they are viewing cases in a natural history museum. “This exhibit is intended to make people think about why museums create life-like scenes using taxidermic animals to evoke often distant and occasionally dangerous moments in places,” said Fox. “What impulse drives viewers to go to these curious exhibitions in the first place?” In her photographs of dioramas, Fox reveals they way we reproduce a world of which we have limited physical knowledge in an attempt to make it more tangible, safe and believable. Examples include a buffalo stampede at the Milwaukee Public Museum and a pair of nuzzling zebras at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh. According to Fox, these works allow the viewer to contemplate “the real and the unreal, the versions of the life portrayed and the actuality of death, the inherent beauty of the animals within their fabricated environment and the understanding of its invention.” Ultimately, Fox says, we question whether taming the natural environment through artistic methods raises or dulls our awareness and our understanding of how we might work to save it. Fox’s opening reception and gallery talk are scheduled for Friday, June 29 at 7 pm at the Erie Art Museum Annex. The exhibition runs through July 15.
“Dead Man Walking” wraps up it’s run today at the Gannon University Schuster Theatre. For more information or tickets call (814) 871-7494.
John Kanzius and Dr Steven Curley will be holding an informational symposium on the Kanzius cancer treatment on April 28 at 7pm at the Mercyhurst College Mary D`Angelo Performing Arts Center. Tickets are $10 with all proceeds helping to fund continued research. For more information call Mercyhurst at (814) 824-3000. Preliminary research at both the Anderson Center and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center has shown promising results. The next step, if federal approval is granted, would be testing on human patients. Three testing centers are envisioned, including one in Erie PA.
The Mercyhurst College Sportsmedicine Student Association will sponsor a 5K (3.1-mile) Run/Walk on Saturday, April 28, to benefit Connor Geddes, the 14-month-old son of Pete Geddes, Mercyhurst’s director of athletic maintenance, and his wife, Carrie. Born with a severe heart defect, Connor received a heart transplant at just 13 days old, and proceeds from the run will help defray some of Connor’s medical expenses. Registration is at 9 a.m. and the race begins at 10 at the athletic center. Cost is $15 to register, although runners are encouraged to seek sponsors. Student organizers are suggesting that runners ask for pledges of $5 to $10 per mile. Participants can register on the day of the race or in advance by contacting Sportsmedicine department director Brad Jacobson, bjacobson@mercyhurst.edu.
KillerWolf Films will hold auditions for “Fist of the Vampire” on Saturday April 28 from 3-8 pm at the Erie Playhouse Rehearsal Hall, 919 State Street in Erie, Pa. Sides will be provided and it is preferred that all auditioners have no script material before the audition date and that all auditioners read cold. HOWEVER, if you want to prepare a monologue etc, please feel free to do so. The monologue could be anything you desire (comedy, horror, drama….whatever you like). Filming dates are Saturday July 14 through Sunday July 22, with a premier this fall.
On Saturday, April 28, Penn State Behrend will host its annual Undergraduate Student Research Conference from 8 to 11:30 am. The conference will have a record number of 172 students participating from 10 western Pennsylvania colleges and universities, including Gannon, Penn State Behrend, Allegheny, Edinboro, and Mercyhurst, plus Grove City College, Penn State Altoona, Penn State DuBois, Penn State Shenango, and Westminster College. The conference is sponsored by Penn State Behrend and the northwest Pennsylvania chapter of Sigma Xi, an international, multidisciplinary research society, and will be held in Nick Building and Roche Hall, both of which are part of the college’s School of Science complex. Student presentations are from 8 am and 11:30 am, and are free and open to the public.
Reservations are still being accepted for April’s Executive Coffee Talk. Please join yep! (Young Erie Professionals) for insight from Dr Andrew Landor, Associate Vice President for Technology and Communications at Edinboro University will lead a roundtable discussion on community leadership and professional development. He will share some of his own professional journey, including defining moments and mentors who helped him become one of our community s most respected leaders. He will also share personal philosophies on leadership and answer your questions. The presentation will take place on April 30 at 5:30 pm at the Mary Porreco Hall (Building 1) at the Edinboro University in Erie, The Porreco Center. Seating is limited, please RSVP to Amy Price or call (814) 454-7191.
“Darkness Visible,” a dramatic play that follows men forced to work in the crematorium at Auschwitz, will receive a staged reading by Penn State Behrend faculty and students on Wednesday, May 2. The event will begin at 7:30 pm in the college’s Studio Theatre and be followed by an open discussion. Both are free and refreshments will be provided.
The Erie Art Museum Contemporary Music Series presents Rani Arbo and Daisy Mayhem in concert on Friday, May 4, 8 pm in the Erie Art Museum’s Annex, 20 East 5th Street. Tickets are $12 for non-members, $10 for Museum and JazzErie Members and $6 for students and seniors.
The Seventh annual Black Bass Workshop, sponsored by Pennsylvania Bass Federation, the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission and a host of other agencies, and fishing and conservation groups, is set for May 4 at the Tom Ridge Environmental Center in Erie. Professional angler Joe Balog will present a program on the latest techniques for catching smallmouth Bass in Erie. A limited attendance fishing outing is scheduled slated for May 5. The workshop is open to the public. For more information, call 814-833-7424 or e-mail lwoznicki@state.pa.us.
The Chautauqua-Lake Erie Wine Trail will host a “wine and cheese weekend” May 5-6, with 15 wineries participating.
After four years of work on land and at sea, Daniel Barnard’s full 10 movement “Requiem for a Sailor” will be publicly sung in its entirety for the first time on Sunday, May 6. “Requiem” grew out of research undertaken after Barnard, a member of the music faculty at Penn State Erie, The Behrend College, decided to create the first major musical effort that honors Erie’s maritime heritage. To underscore the piece’s celebration of community, Barnard invited the voices of the Behrend College Choir, the Erie Philharmonic Chorus, the Edinboro University Chamber Choir, the Harbor Creek High School Choir, and soloists from Mercyhurst College to perform the 40-minute work under his direction. Fittingly, the concert will take place in the H O Hirt Auditorium of the Erie Maritime Museum, 160 E Front St. A composer lecture with Barnard will begin at 3:30 pm, to be followed by the performance at 4 pm; both are free and open to the public.
The Salvation Army in Erie will be celebrating National Salvation
Army week starting May 14. Throughout the week The Salvation Army will have several events ongoing to bring attention to the Erie Community of the many services and programs they provide. One of the major events that week will be the Kettles for Kids campaign. The recognizable Red Kettles will be located at numerous entrances of the Millcreek Mall. All proceeds from this fund-raising event stay in the Erie area, which will allow them to send less fortunate children to summer camps. The Salvation Army is looking for members of the community to help with this campaign by volunteering their time and standing with the Red Kettles. The Camp for Kids campaign kicks off on Monday, May 14 and continues through Saturday, May 19. They offer 2 separate shifts for individuals; they encourage large groups and organizations that have many volunteers to take a location for the entire day. Should you have any questions, please contact Dan Hanson at The Salvation Army at (814) 454-6497.
The Tragically Hip play the Warner Theatre in Erie, Pa on May 18. Reserved seat tickets are $31.50.
Penn State Behrend’s popular College for Kids returns this summer with over 150 weeklong classes to educate, entertain, and inspire young people ages 6 to 18. College for Kids courses begin June 11 and continue through August 10, with the exception of Fourth of July week. Classes are organized by age and held during morning or afternoon sessions, with before- and after-care available for an additional fee. Returning classes include past favorites in guitar, golf, knitting, word processing, PowerPoint, model rocketry, acting, sign language, and scrap booking instruction; World War II history, “Engineering MythBusters,” and “Dinosaur Discovery.” New courses this year: “Storm Chasing 101” taught by WJET-TV meteorologist Tom Atkins; two finance classes, “Kids and Money” for the younger student and “Show Me the Money” for teens; “Let’s Cheer,” “Conversational Spanish,” “Introduction to Chess,” “Star Wars and the Roman Empire,” “Crafts from the Beach,” “Space Camp: Return to the Moon,” and an investigation of the paranormal called “X-Files.” “We also have a very special opportunity this year for kids ages 12 to 18—a chance to paint a mural on the fountain in Perry Square under the direction of local artist AJ Noyes,” Mary Trott, College for Kids program coordinator, noted. “Because of the significance of this community service project, this will be one of the rare College for Kids classes that meets for a full day.” Perry Square fountain painting will take place the week of July 23. For artists not old enough to participate in the mural project or unable to commit to a full-day class, Noyes also will teach College for Kids courses in hand-sewing and beading, craft painting, nature drawing and painting, and portrait drawing. Costs vary by course but start at $70 per weeklong class. Before- or after-class supervision is available for an additional $10 per week. Schedule and registration information will be distributed through area schools and also is available by calling 814-898-6212 or clicking here. Mail and online registration will begin in early May. Participants are encouraged to register early for best class selection.
Posted by Dennis at April 28, 2007 8:09 AM





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