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Carol Ray presented her own works of art in a show entitled Recycled Art at the Washington Public Library during the month of September. Carol has previously displayed pieces of her work combined with other artists, but this was her first lone venture. Her artistic style for this show was just as the title conveys, works reinvented to a new art form. After all, this is the age of recycling. Her show depicted pieces of art in various forms cut or torn and rearranged to present a new way of looking at the piece. Carol's recycled art keeps the eyes and minds of her audience fresh with interest.

On Saturday, Sept. 21, Jean Frazer participated in a barn quilt painting activity at the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library, sponsored by Barns & Brews in Mount Vernon. The quilts are painted on exterior grade aluminum using high gloss professional grade enamel sign paint, so they can be hung outside without further treatment. Participants were able to choose a quilt design in advance, which was drawn on by Barns & Brews. It was then a simple task to remove sections of the stencil as needed to do the painting. The finished quilt will be hung on Jean's house.

Jean Frazer was at Missouri Star Quilts in Hamilton, Missouri, from Sept. 25-28, working with the Days for Girls group. Missouri Star Quilts selects a service project to sponsor each year during their anniversary celebration, and allows the volunteers to use their sewing center and sleep in their retreat center. Days for Girls increases access to menstrual care and education by developing global partnerships, cultivating social enterprises, mobilizing volunteers, and innovating sustainable solutions that shatter stigmas and limitations for women and girls. Days for Girls provides safe, beautiful, washable, and long-lasting alternatives girls can count on month after month - along with vital health education. More than 1.5 million kits have already been distributed in more than 150 countries. Approximately 20 individuals from DFG groups throughout the country worked for three days sewing the components of the kits, with the goal of 1000 kits by the end of the weekend. In addition, Missouri Star shoppers were encouraged to volunteer for an hour or more to sew or pack kits. It was a very busy few days, but also a lot of fun and the goal of 1,000 was met!

Donna Orris celebrated her birthday in the Town Center on Wednesday morning with family, friends and neighbors. Donna provided the treats to share.

Classics Et Cetera for Thursday, Oct. 3 included the overture to 'Treemonisha” by Scott Joplin; Prelude in C Major by Johann Sebastian Bach; 'Romanian Rhapsody” by George Enescu; 'Di quella pira” from 'Il Trovatore” by Giuseppe Verdi; 'Shoutin' Liza Trombone” by Henry Fillmore; 2nd Movement of Symphony No. 6 ('Pathétique”) by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky; 'The Serenade” a march” by Victor Herbert.

Russian Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) wrote his Symphony No. 6 ('Pathetique”) during his 53rd year. The symphony is shot through with subjective emotion and deals with an implacable fate haunting his life. About the finale, the slow movement, he wrote, ' … the finale is DEATH - the result of destruction.” It was his symphonic masterpiece. Written between February and the end of August 1893, it premiered on Oct. 28. Just over a week later, on Nov. 6, 1893, Tchaikovsky died, probably of cholera.