It will be a truly global event with participants from many of the 54 countries that make up the Commonwealth of Nations, along with visitors from across the world. The public is invited to join the fun — for all ages.
The uniquely British game of cricket will take center stage in an exhibition match. Young visitors will also get a chance to play other traditional games that British, Canadian, Australian and Indian children play.
Ladies are encouraged to don their finest millinery and sample afternoon tea. Girls may become princesses for a day and art lovers will be treated to Celtic music, Indian singing and dancing and international performances. Culinary adventures will be offered from each continent and a beer tent will sample unique brews. Entertainment competitions under a “Commonwealth’s Got Talent” theme will add unique representative performances.
The festival marks the once-in-a-century celebration of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II’s 60-year reign. The 2012 British jubilee celebrates her accession to the thrones of seven countries upon the death of her father. The queen also serves as head of state for 15 Commonwealth realms in addition to the United Kingdom. Many of these nations are former members of the British Empire and include Australia, New Zealand, Canada, South Africa, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Jamaica, Antigua and Barbuda, Belize, Papua New Guinea, St. Christopher and Nevis, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Tuvalu, Barbados, Grenada, Solomon Islands, St. Lucia and the Bahamas.
Queen Victoria in 1897 is the only other monarch in the histories of Britain, Canada and other Commonwealth realms to have celebrated a royal Diamond Jubilee.
The event is being hosted by the Atlanta-based Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Festival committee assembled from Commonwealth members across Georgia. John Curran and Sarah Gilbert are helping coordinate the local organizers. Entry fee is $10 per car at the gate.
All proceeds will go to the queen’s Diamond Jubilee Trust Fund and will be distributed to the queen’s designated charities worldwide.
Information: (770) 601-5324 or visit www.jubileetribute.org.
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Lost Oasis, the annual summertime fundraising party for Fernbank Museum of Natural History in DeKalb County, is set for June 9 and will celebrate its 20th anniversary.
Fernbank’s Artemis Guild, a fundraising group of young professionals, have chosen a Roaring ’20s theme for the supportive evening. It will include a speakeasy atmosphere, music, dancing flappers, specialty cocktails and delicious cuisine along with a silent auction and prize drawing.
The highlight will be the recognition of Northsiders Cara Isdell Lee and her husband Zak Lee, who have been passionate about Fernbank’s educational mission and vision to positively shape the lives of young people.
“My parents are founding members and as a young girl I accompanied them for Fernbank’s opening day festivities in 1992. Today, my son is as captivated as I was two decades ago,” Cara Isdell Lee said. “We visit frequently and love Fernbank Forest and all the wonderful exhibitions, films and children’s programs that are a window to our world. Fernbank is everything our family believes in, and we want to support the museum and build its future.”
Co-chairs Ellie and Josh Morris and Adrian Smith invite partygoers to celebrate the cultural vigor and glamour of the ’20s by wearing festive outfits and joining in the celebratory fun.
The guild’s energetic young professional members dedicate funds from the annual event to Fernbank’s children’s education programs.
Tickets and information: (404) 929-6404 or visit www.fernbankmuseum.org.
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A festival environment at the Georgia World Congress Center’s International Plaza in downtown Atlanta will start the Take Steps for Crohn’s & Colitis 2-mile walk June 9. Registration begins at 4 p.m. and the walk starts at 5 p.m.
Food, children’s activities and music provided by POW Entertainment will set the scene to give voice to patients who often suffer in silence with debilitating digestive diseases. Participants taking steps and making donations are encouraged to make lots of noise and be heard!
Sandy Springs residents Natalie and Jon Rosenthal are chairing the 2012 Atlanta fundraiser. Walk manager Grace Murphy encourages participants, businesses and families to register as teams and join the boisterous fun.
One in every 200 Americans suffers daily with Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis. Throughout the year, Take Steps events across the nation enable patients and their families to join with local communities to build visibility and awareness about these digestive diseases while raising critical funds.
More than 80 cents of every dollar raised through the local Take Steps events goes directly to fund research and patient programs in the Atlanta community. The nonprofit Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation is volunteer driven and dedicated to finding the cure for Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis with the mission to not only cure, but to improve the quality of life of children and adults affected by the diseases.
Information: (404) 982-0616 or visit www.cctakesteps.org/atlanta.
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CHRIS Kids, a DeKalb County-based nonprofit serving Georgia’s abused and neglected children, is hosting its annual Premiere Party June 9 at Mason Murer Fine Art in south Buckhead.
A silent auction will raise funds and a socializing summertime cocktail party will introduce the good works of the professional staff and volunteers of CHRIS Kids.
De rigueur dress is white to celebrate the goal to unlock the potential of Georgia’s youth and strengthen families by providing a hand up, not just a hand out, through integrated services.
Co-chairs are Brent Garner and Vandy Beth Glenn. Funds raised at the event are specifically designated to the CHRIS Kids Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Questioning Fund.
The name CHRIS Kids is an acronym that represents its core values: Creativity, Honor, Respect, Integrity and Safety.
In 1981, the Junior League of Atlanta, in collaboration with the Menninger Foundation, established CHARLEE (Children Have All Rights-Legal, Educational, Emotional) to serve abused and neglected youth in metro Atlanta. The agency began with three group homes to serve children in foster care with mental health and other therapeutic needs. Later, the name changed to CHRIS Homes and eventually became what it is today, Georgia’s first nonprofit specialized group homes for children and youth with behavioral and emotional challenges who could not thrive in foster homes.
Tickets and information: (404) 564-3458 or visit www.chriskids.org.
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Four prominent business leaders from metro Atlanta will be honored as Father of the Year during an awards dinner June 14 at the InterContinental Hotel in Buckhead. Proceeds from the affair will benefit the American Diabetes Association to support research, education and advocacy initiatives.
The special fundraising recognition started in 1999 when the association partnered with the National Father’s Day Council to host a series of local award dinners across the nation.
Since then panels from locally based Father’s Day Council members select family dedicated men from 20 individual cities each year to recognize the outstanding strength, commitment and love they exhibit as fathers. These men have not only attained success in their chosen field or business endeavors, but carved out time to teach and mentor their children while also becoming good citizens and proud members of their communities.
The formal 2012 ceremonial dinner will salute these four superior Atlanta fathers: Craig Kaufman, president of Kaufman Realty Group; Randall M. Kessler, partner with KS Family Law; Robert “Bob” Stargel Jr., vice president of global nonwovens at Kimberly-Clark; and Gary P. Stokan, president and CEO of the Chick-fil-A Bowl.
Atlanta members on this year’s selection committee are: Atlanta City Council member Michael Julian Bond, Dr. Terry Golden of Piedmont Hospital, Etta Pittman of the Georgia Institute of Technology, artist Harriet Karesh, Peter Wasserman of Alliance Fund Advisors, Michael Stovall and Autumn Burton, both of ESC, plus last year’s chair, Marc Ratnowsky.
Errika Mallett of Executive Business Solutions is this year’s event chair.
Diabetes affects nearly 26 million children and adults nationwide. More than $25 million has been raised to date from Father of the Year affiliated events to support programs for research, prevention and cure and to deliver services to people affected by diabetes.
Tickets and information: (404) 320-7100, ext. 3080 or visit www.diabetes.org/foty.
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For the second year the Swan Coach House Gallery in Buckhead is featuring an annual “Summer Swan Invitational: Contemporary Southern Pottery and Handmade Objects” exhibit, June 7 through Aug. 11. The gallery, located on the Atlanta History Center campus, will be transformed into a “shop” showcasing an amazing array of pottery and handmade objects created by artists from Georgia and the Southeast.
Repeating last year’s plan, shoppers can take home pieces the day of purchase rather than having to wait until the end of the exhibition.
Selections run the gamut of finely crafted functional pottery for cooking and serving to containers and vases for arrangements for display and even beautiful ceramic birdbaths. Artists ply their talents in wood, metal, glass, sculpted clay, formed paper and fibers to create unique three-dimensional objects, some of which can be wall mounted. Outside the gallery Mike Esslinger, a metal sculptor from the North Georgia Mountains, will fill the grounds with his imaginative and playfully executed outdoor pieces.
“We will be replacing and adding new works throughout the run of the show — so you may want to come several times to discover new pieces,” said curator Marianne Lambert.
Sarah Kennedy, a Forward Arts Foundation member, is sponsoring the invitational exhibition. An opening reception the evening of June 7 will be hosted by these other foundation members: Betty Edge, Margaret McRae, Sally Nunnally, Peaches Page, Dean Smith, Sophie Smulders, Karen Spiegel and Laura Spearman.
The nonprofit foundation administers the Swan Coach House Gallery, Gift Shop and Restaurant. Proceeds from sales and special events support the visual arts in Atlanta.
Information: (404) 266-2636 or visit www.swancoachhouse.com.
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