Covid antibody
tests available
Beginning today and for a limited time, the American Red Cross is testing all blood, platelet and plasma donations for covid-19 antibodies, providing donors insight into whether they have been exposed to the coronavirus. At the same time, there continues to be an urgent need for blood donations as hospitals resume surgeries and treatments that require blood products.
Antibody testing will indicate if the donor's immune system has produced antibodies to this coronavirus, regardless of whether they developed symptoms. Donations will be tested using samples pulled at the time of donation and sent to a testing laboratory where they will also undergo routine infectious disease testing. A positive antibody test result does not confirm infection or immunity.
Covid-19 antibody test results will be available within seven to 10 days in the Red Cross blood donor app or donor portal. The test has been authorized for emergency use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
To protect the health and safety of Red Cross staff and donors, individuals who do not feel well or who believe they may be ill with covid-19 should postpone their donation.
Each Red Cross blood drive and donation center follows the highest standards of safety and infection control, and additional precautions – including temperature checks, social distancing and face coverings for donors and staff – have been implemented to help protect the health of all those in attendance. Donors are asked to schedule an appointment prior to arriving at the drive and are required to wear a face covering or mask while at the drive, in alignment with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention public guidance.
Upcoming blood donation opportunities include:
• Bentonville: 10 a.m.-4 p.m. June 24, McLarty Daniel Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram, 2201 S.E. Moberly Lane; 3-7 p.m. June 29, Harps Food Store, 1209 N. Walton Blvd.
• Rogers: 2-7 p.m. June 23, First Baptist Church Rogers, 3364 W. Pleasant Grove Road; 9 a.m.-2 p.m. June 29 and 30,Center for Nonprofits, 1200 W. Walnut St.
• Siloam Springs: Noon-4 p.m. June 24, John Brown University Berry Performing Arts Center, 2000 W. University St.
•Fayetteville: 11 a.m.-4 p.m. June 22 and 9 a.m.-2 p.m. June 23, Fayetteville Public Library, 401 W. Mountain St.
Information: (800) 733-2767 or redcrossblood.org.
Hope Cancer
offers support
• Free Tobacco Cessation Program: Hope Cancer Resources' certified health education specialist is available to support members of the community who are looking to quit smoking with nicotine replacement therapy and counseling.
• Emotional Support Through Cancer Battle: Hope Cancer Resources' team of counselors and social workers are supporting cancer patients and their families every day with a focus on emotional health, no matter the circumstance.
• Virtual Wellness Classes For Cancer Patients and Caregivers: The Wellness Center for Hope at Hope Cancer Resources has created a yoga and fitness class schedule via Zoom.
Information: (479) 361-5847.
Design winner
announced
The Springdale Veterans Memorial Organization has announced the results of its design competition to establish a veterans memorial in Springdale. This design competition called on all established and aspiring architects, designers and planners to participate in an open design competition for developing a portion of Springdale's J.B. Hunt Park for the purpose of recognizing and honoring those who served our great nation. More than 35 entries were received and evaluated by a panel composed of established architectural scholars, creative design professionals and experienced entrepreneurs.
The winning designs were:
• First place and winner of a $5,000 cash prize: Connor O'Shea, Hinterlands Urbanism and Landscape, Chicago.
• Second place and winner of a $1,000 cash prize: Steve Butler, PB2 Architecture + Engineering, Rogers.
• Third place and winner of a $500 cash prize: Sae Kim and David Nagahiro, CBT Architects, Boston.
Given the ongoing pandemic, SVMO canceled plans to host a public design competition reveal event. Until then, the public, design enthusiasts, aficionados and editors are invited to visit the SVMO online gallery of winners at the website.
Information: www.svmo72762.org.
Secchi Day
goes virtual
To ensure everyone's safety during the coronavirus pandemic, the "in-person" 15th annual Secchi Day Science Fair at Prairie Creek Park on Beaver Lake in Rogers that was scheduled for Aug. 15 has been canceled this year.
Instead, the public is invited to participate via an online virtual Secchi Day Science Fair 2020 with videos and photos of environmental and water education activities for local citizens and friends around the world to learn from and enjoy.
This is a work in progress. Please keep an eye on Beaver Water District's website, as well as following Beaver Water District and our partners on social media pages.
Secchi Day sampling activities will continue this year with all the necessary precautions to ensure everyone is safe. Secchi Day is named for the Secchi Disk, a black and white device lowered into the water to measure clarity.
Information: bwdh2o.org.
McGriff wins
poetry prize
Author, editor and translator Michael McGriff has won the 2021 Miller Williams Poetry Prize for his collection Eternal Sentences.
Two finalists were also named: Craig Blais for his collection Moon News and Madeleine Wattenberg for her collection I/O.
The books were selected by former U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins and will be published by the University of Arkansas Press as part of the Miller Williams Poetry Series. In addition to publication, McGriff will receive a $5,000 cash prize.
McGriff is the author of four previous poetry collections, is a former Stegner Fellow and Jones Lecturer at Stanford University, and his work has been honored with a Lannan Literary Fellowship, a New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice, a Ruth Lilly Fellowship and a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Originally from Coos Bay, Oregon, he teaches creative writing at the University of Idaho.
Blais is the author of About Crows, which won the Felix Pollak Prize in Poetry and the Florida Book Award. A finalist for the Walt Whitman Award and National Poetry Series, he is an associate professor of English at Anna Maria College and lives in Massachusetts.
I/O will be Wattenberg's first published book.
The prize and series are named in honor of acclaimed poet Miller Williams, founding director of the University of Arkansas Press and longtime professor in the UA creative writing program. Submissions for the 2022 prize are now open and will be accepted until Sept. 30 under the editorship of Patricia Smith.
Information: (479) 575-7715 or email mak001@uark.edu.
FPL wins
funding
The Fayetteville Public Library is one of three in the state to receive a $1,200 grant for public programs as part of the Lift Every Voice: Why African American Poetry Matters initiative, the Library of America has announced.
The other two are the Central Arkansas Library System Foundation in Little Rock and the John Brown Watson Memorial Library at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff.
They are among 49 libraries and institutions nationwide to receive the grants from the Library of America, a nonprofit publisher of classic American literature. The initiative coincides with the publication of African American Poetry: 250 Years of Struggle and Song, an anthology edited by Kevin Young, director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, a division of the New York Public Library.
Funding for the grant comes from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the Emerson Collective.
The Fayetteville library will be using its grant money to host poetry readings, panel discussions, an exhibition of poetry from African-American authors from the University of Arkansas Libraries Special Collections, reading groups based on the Lift Every Voice Reader led by University of Arkansas professor Constance Bailey, a poetry slam for local poets to share their work and poems, and a poetry workshop led by a local writing instructor.
Scholarships
awarded
The Writers' Colony at Dairy Hollow has introduced scholarship recipient Shonna Enzio. Enzio is a creative writing major at NorthWest Arkansas Community College and a first-generation college student. A mother and up-and-coming author, who was widowed five days before the global covid-19 pandemic, Enzio crafts the lessons she is learning about survival, grief and finding hope into essays meant to inspire readers struggling through their own loss. She is a staff reporter for the NWACC Eagle View newspaper and the assistant poetry editor for Hive Avenue literary journal.
The WCDH scholarship fund was developed in November 2019 to assist emerging writers who require financial support to benefit from a writing residency at the Colony. For information on how you can contribute to the WCDH scholarship fund, please visit the website.
To read more of Enzio's writing, visit her author's page, "Uniquely Shonna," on Facebook, www.facebook.com/Uniquely-Shonna-119568356101425.
Information: (479) 253-7444 or writerscolony.org.
Prevention
training set
The Children's Safety Center is offering free virtual child abuse prevention training from noon to 1 p.m. June 24. Join CSC Program Director Casey Atwood as she discusses how to prevent, recognize and react responsibly to child sexual abuse.
Information: Email casey@childrenssafetycenter.org.
