New Harmonies: a Smithsonian Institute Exhibit Celebrating American Roots Music / A Smithsonian Institution Exhibit, by the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities on July 21—August 30, 2008 from Mon, Tues, Thurs, Fri; 10:00am—4:00pm at Jeanerette Bicentennial Museum, 500 E Main St, Jeanerette, LA. For more information call 888-942-3742 or www.iberiatravel.com.

First Baptist Lafayette will offer a 12 Step Recovery group beginning August 31 at 4:45 p.m.  The purpose of the 12 Step Recovery group is to have fellowship and celebrate God’s healing power in lives.  By applying Biblical principles participants begin to grow spiritually and have the opportunity to become free from addictive, compulsive, and dysfunctional behaviors.  The process creates peace, serenity, joy and most importantly, a stronger personal relationship with God and others.

For more information about the 12 Step Recovery program call 593-3664.

A new session of DivorceCare begins September 10th at First Baptist Lafayette  The divorce recovery support group meets each Wednesday at 6:00 PM.  Anita Melancon will facilitate the group which features nationally recognized experts on divorce and recovery topics.

Session topics include: “What’s Happening to Me?” “The Road to Healing/Finding Help” “Facing My Anger” “Facing My Depression” “What Does the Owner’s Manual Say?” “New Relationships” “Financial Survival” “KidCare” “ Single Sexuality” “Forgiveness” “Reconciliation” and “Moving On, Growing Closer to God.”

For more information about DivorceCare call 593-3664.

GriefShare is a Seminar and Support Group sponsored by people who understand the grief process and want to offer comfort and encouragement during this difficult time.  A new session of GriefShare begins September 10th at First Baptist Lafayette.  Facilitated by Joy Youngblood, the group will meet at 6:00 p.m. each Wednesday.

Each GriefShare session includes a video seminar and group discussion.  GriefShare features biblical teaching on grief and recovery topics. Videos include dramatic reenactments and real-life stories of people who have experienced the loss of someone close.

For more information about GriefShare call 593-3664.

The Chinese Ministry of First Baptist Lafayette will celebrate its 20th Anniversary the weekend of Sept 13-14.  New Heart Music Ministries of Houston will be featured guests for the weekend.  Services in Mandarin will begin Saturday evening at 7 p.m. and Sunday morning at 11 a.m. New Heart Music Ministries will also be featured in the Sunday morning worship service of First Baptist at 9:45 a.m.  A luncheon will be held on Sunday following the services.  For more information call Queenie Lau, director of the Chinese Ministry, at 232-9334.

BREC, St. Jude Medical and the Louisiana Cardiology Associates Heart Rhythm Center’s Drs. Kenny Civello and Andrew Smith will be hosting a health fair in BREC’s Womack Center Ballroom, 6201 Florida Blvd, on Sept. 11 from 6-8:30 p.m.

During the event, automated external defibrillators (AED) and the importance of using them will be discussed by two prominent cardiologists, Doctors Andrew Smith and Kenny Civello. Demonstrations of the equipment, free health screenings and information on atrial fibrillation will be available to the public. This event is free and open to the public.

An AED is a portable electronic device that automatically diagnoses the potentially life threatening cardiac arrhythmias of ventricular fibrillation in a patient. The AED is able to treat the patient through defibrillation, the application of electrical therapy which stops the arrhythmia, allowing the heart to re-establish an effective rhythm. An AED can assist in a lifesaving procedure. It can be operated by non-medical personnel acting as a First Aid responder.

For more information, please contact Dale Auzenne at 225.272.9200 ext. 556 or visit www.brec.org/healthfair.

September 19 – 21 First Baptist Lafayette will host IGNITE, the Fall 2008 gathering of college students and high school juniors/seniors from across the state of Louisiana for the purpose of worshipping and equipping. IGNITE's theme is "Vantage Point." The purpose is to inform, educate, and encourage students to process their walk with Christ in light of a Biblical Worldview. Through relevant main sessions and informative breakout seminars, students will be ignited to live as Salt and Light in a complicated world.

Worship Leaders for the weekend will be the group Addison Road and Chad Norris is the guest speaker.  Ignite is sponsored by Baptist Collegiate Ministries & the Louisiana Baptist Convention. For more information call 234-8732.

First Baptist Lafayette will host the REFRESH Women’s Conference on Saturday, September 27th.  The REFRESH Women's Conference will feature Debbie Stuart, Director of Women's Ministry at Prestonwood Baptist Church speaking on "Finding What You're Looking For" from 1 Samuel 9.  Also Martha Bailey, author of the women's devotional book "Putting My Dress-up Clothes Away: Because Big Girls Live in the Real World" will be speaking on "It's Not My Battle" from 2 Kings 6:8-18.  Shirley Coleman from Ft. Worth, Texas will be the Worship Leader.

REFRESH is September 27th from 9:00 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. Free child care for birth through 6th grade with reservations by Sept. 19th.  Tickets are $10 through September 17 and $12 after September 17.  REFRESH is sponsored by First Baptist Lafayette and Evangeline Baptist Assn.

More than 20 high-energy hit songs – from Cal’donia to Let the Good Times Roll, to Choo Choo Ch’Boogie to Is You Is or Is You Ain’t My Baby? – will rock the house when New Venture Theatre’s production, Five Guys Named Moe begins a rousing four performance run from September 25 – 28, 2008 at Independence Park Theatre located at 7800 Independence Blvd.  Show times are 7:30pm nightly and tickets are $15.00 for adults and $10.00 for students/seniors.  Originally produced by Cameron Mackintosh (Les Mis, Phantom of the Opera, Cats), the show was a smash on Broadway where it received a Tony nomination for Best Musical.

Tickets for Five Guys Named Moe, may all be made by phone at 225.216.0660 (10am to 5pm Tuesday through Friday), at the Independence Park Theatre box office (Tuesday through Friday from 10am to 5pm) or by visiting the theatre’s website at www.newventuretheatre.com.  MasterCard or Visa is accepted.

Vacherie, LA - Oak Alley Plantation is pleased to announce its Fall Arts & Crafts Festival to be held Saturday, October 18th and Sunday, October 19th, 2008 from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Saturday and 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on Sunday. We will have over 130 booths of juried artists and crafters from throughout the United States. And of course, we will have on hand original and handmade creations such as jewelry, furniture, children's clothing, ladies apparel, purses, home accessories, garden art, pottery, wooden crafts and toys, bath and body products, floral and much more. You will also find gifts and decorations for Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas. And for all those sports fans we will have plenty of LSU and Saints memorabilia!

A wide variety of delicious local cuisine will be on hand. Such dishes as, seafood pasta, chicken and shrimp-on-a-stick, crawfish Étouffée, eggplant with crawfish sauce, corn, crab and shrimp soup, turkey legs, fried soft shell crab and oyster po-boys, crab cakes, stuffed crepes with bacon and cheese or bananas and hazelnut chocolate, duck kabobs with raspberry glaze, crawfish beignets, red beans, BBQ brisket and pulled pork sandwiches and fresh hog cracklin. And for that sweet tooth: fudge demonstrations cooked in a kettle and then pour onto a marble slab to cool, pralines prepared and cooked and poured in front of you, bread pudding with praline sauce, funnel cakes, kettle corn, cotton candy and much more to excite your taste buds. Don’t forget about the lemonade stand, beer, daiquiris, Bloody Mary's and of course, our famous MINT JULEPS!

Professional Parkers hired to expedite parking

Admission to the festival (mansion visits not included) is as follows:
$5 - 13 years & over
$2 - 6 to 12 years
Free - 5 years & under

Admission to Mansion open house- 9a.m. to 5 p.m. is as follows:
$5 - 19 years & over
$2 - 13 to 18 years
$1 - 6 to 12 years
Free - 5 years & under

The Arts Council of Greater Baton Rouge Community Gallery, located at 427 Laurel Street in downtown Baton Rouge, will host the International "Birth of Coffee" Exhibition. Based on the book of the same name by Daniel and Linda Lorenzetti (ISBN: 978-0609606780), the photography exhibit chronicles the life of coffee from seed to cup.
David and Linda Lorenzetti travelled over a quarter of a million miles to five different continents in a span of five years to trace the birth and life of the 2nd most globally traded commodity (second only to oil). The duo-toned silver gelatin photographs specially processed with actual coffee celebrate the distant landscapes, cultural vitality and individual labor that infuse the coffee trade.

The exhibition seeks to bring the contributions of coffee farmers around the world into public view to facilitate a better appreciation of the world-wide morning brew.  In the Birth of Coffee, Daniel Lorenzetti and Linda Rice Lorenzetti explore coffee’s profound impact on people in coffee-growing nations.  Spanning four continents, the Lorenzettis’ eloquent text and evocative photographs capture the places where coffee is more than a popular beverage, but a force in politics, economics, and history.

Join us for these accompanying events:

At  CC’s Community Coffee HouseTM, 327 North Blvd
Friday, October 24th from 7:00 a.m. -9:00 a.m.
Book signing by Daniel Lorenzetti

At the Arts Council’s Community Gallery, 427 Laurel St.
Friday, October 24th at 6:00 p.m.
Lecture followed by a reception and book signing by Daniel Lorenzetti.

At  CC’s Community Coffee House, 7960 Jefferson Hwy
Saturday, October 25th from 8:00 a.m. - 10:00 a.m.
Book signing by Daniel Lorenzetti

The Arts Council of Greater Baton Rouge Community Gallery, located at 427 Laurel Street in downtown Baton Rouge, will host the International "Birth of Coffee" Exhibition. Based on the book of the same name by Daniel and Linda Lorenzetti (ISBN: 978-0609606780), the photography exhibit chronicles the life of coffee from seed to cup.

David and Linda Lorenzetti travelled over a quarter of a million miles to five different continents in a span of five years to trace the birth and life of the 2nd most globally traded commodity (second only to oil). The duo-toned silver gelatin photographs specially processed with actual coffee celebrate the distant landscapes, cultural vitality and individual labor that infuse the coffee trade.

The exhibition seeks to bring the contributions of coffee farmers around the world into public view to facilitate a better appreciation of the world-wide morning brew.  In the Birth of Coffee, Daniel Lorenzetti and Linda Rice Lorenzetti explore coffee’s profound impact on people in coffee-growing nations.  Spanning four continents, the Lorenzettis’ eloquent text and evocative photographs capture the places where coffee is more than a popular beverage, but a force in politics, economics, and history.

The exhibition will run from October 17, 2008- November 28, 2008.  The Arts Council’s Community Gallery is committed to offering a rich and diverse cultural experience to the Baton Rouge community through the presentation of regional, national and international artists’ work.  Learn more about the Arts Council’s Community Gallery at www.artsbr.org or by calling 225-344-8558.  Learn more about the Birth of Coffee exhibition and project at www.birthofcoffee.com.

Organized by the LSU Museum of Art. Open June 27 through November 30, 2008.

American Masters is a selection of nearly 40 paintings from the Mari and James Michener Collection at the Blanton Museum of Art at the University of Texas in Austin. Tracing the development of 20th century American painting from the gritty realism of Robert Henri to the startling pop art of Robert Indiana to the experimetnal abstraction of Alan Cote, this exhibition is a celebration of the creativity of modern American artists at Shaw Center for the Arts on 100 Lafayette St. For more information visit http://lsumoa.com.

BREC’s Bluebonnet Swamp Nature Center, 10503 N. Oaks Hills Pkwy., presents its September “Trail Time for Toddlers” program beginning Wednesday, Sept. 3 or Thursday, Sept. 4.

This program is a four-week nature session specifically designed for children ages one to five (must be accompanied by an adult). Sessions will meet Sept. 3, 10, 17 and 24 from 9:30-11:30 a.m. or Sept. 4, 11, 18 and 25 from 9:30-11:30 a.m.

Staff will provide parents/guardians and their young ones the opportunity to learn about nature through shady trail walks and themed indoor and outdoor activities. Participants will enjoy sights and sounds of the swamp, arts and crafts, story-telling, and healthy snacks.

Cost is $24 per month in-parish residents and $30 per month for out-of-parish residents. Participants must be accompanied by an adult. Pre-registration is required.

To register, or for more information, please call the Swamp at 757-8905.

BREC invites family and friends out to Farr Park’s Second Annual Fall Fest and Stick Horse Rodeo on Sept. 20 at BREC’s Farr Park, 6402 River Road.

This event is free and open to the public. Children, ages 2 to 10, are encouraged to bring stick horses and come ready to participate in the many activities Fall Fest has to offer. The gates and registration for activities open at 9 a.m.

Fall Fest will include a petting zoo, pony rides, hay rides, face painting and many games for the whole family to enjoy. Children are invited to participate in the Costume Grand Entry at 10 a.m. where children as well as their stick horses come dressed in costume. There is no fee for this contest, and prizes will be given out to the best dressed.

The Stick Horse Rodeo will begin at 11 a.m. The fee to register for this event is $5, which includes an event T-shirt. Children and their horses will participate in rodeo acts such as pole bending and barrel racing.  There will also be equestrian demonstrations by Gerry Lane Youth Riders, Zachary Christian Riders, the Peruvian Horse Club, and many more at 11:30 a.m.