Footwear handout event help needed
Volunteers are being sought to help distribute new shoes and socks to more than 400 preregistered children Friday at the Wetherington Boys and Girls Club as part of a Samaritan's Feet International event.
The event, which also involves washing each child's feet, will be 3:30-6 p.m. at the Boys and Girls Club, 1212 Jim Wetherington Place. It is being held in conjunction with the Martin Luther King Jr. National Day of Service observance this week.
A similar event is scheduled to take place in Springdale on Feb. 2.
Volunteers already signed up for Friday's event include North Little Rock police officers and members of the North Little Rock High School football team.
The event is sponsored by Paula Juels Jones and Robin Juels Most. Those who want more information or wish to volunteer may contact Jones by email at paulajuelsjones@gmail.com or by phone at (501) 944-1887.
Samaritan's Feet International, a nonprofit humanitarian aid organization, will provide more than 400 pairs of shoes and socks to the youths. The feet-washing is meant to recognize the 1.5 billion people who become infected with parasitic diseases transmitted through contaminated soil, according to a Samaritan's Feet news release.
Last year, the organization distributed more than 2,200 pairs of shoes at such National Day of Service events nationwide, according to the news release. More information on the organization is available online at SamaritansFeet.org.
Maritime museum visitors up in 2015
Despite closures during Arkansas River flooding around Memorial Day and Christmas, the Arkansas Inland Maritime Museum on North Little Rock's downtown riverfront had an increase in visitors in 2015 over the previous year, according to museum figures released by the city's Convention and Visitors Bureau.
There were 20,921 visitors to the Maritime Museum, just under a 4 percent increase over its 20,166 visitors in 2014, according to the figures released last week. Visitors who signed in represented all 50 states and 56 foreign countries.
The museum, just east of the Main Street Bridge, is home to the World War II-era Razorback submarine and added the Pearl Harbor-surviving Hoga tugboat in late November. The museum site was host to the statewide Pearl Harbor Memorial observance Dec. 7 in conjunction with the Hoga's arrival.
High river levels in the spring and late last month caused the museum to be closed a total of four weeks, losing scheduled visits by 14 school groups, four overnight stays and two birthday parties, according to the museum figures.
For the year, there were 14,524 individual admissions to the museum and 2,764 attendees for special events. Other attendees were counted from among youths who were part of 85 school groups, seven birthday parties and 132 overnight stays on the submarine.
RV park year-end figures released
The city's Downtown Riverside RV Park recorded 5,169 reservations in 2015, according to the Convention and Visitors Bureau.
Stays averaged 2.73 days, with an annual income of $295,383 reported to the bureau. The RV park is just east of the Interstate 30 bridge.
Reservations in December averaged 4.38 days from among 232 stays that month, according to bureau figures released last week.
Metro on 01/17/2016