HOW ABOUT A FREE RELAXING CONCERT THIS SUNDAY AFTERNOON:

“OCEANS 2” will present a concert on Sunday, June 29^th from 3-4 pm at the Spanish Rivier Library on Spanish River Boulevard that is free to the public, as part of the Sunday Matinee Music Series. Skip Sheffield, columnist for the Boca Raton News and Bill Bowen, writer and editor at the Palm Beach Post will perform tunes from Simon & Garfinkle, Jimmy Buffet-style music, Beatles songs and others. For more information call Lisa Mansell at 561-451-3452.

SPEND THE DAY AT A BEAUTIFUL PARK IN BOCA RATON

Have you visited our beautiful Boca Raton parks? Some have ball fields for the school age children, some present shows, both at Sugar Sands Park. At South Inlet Park you have lots of sand to sit on, beautiful direct oceanfront views, a picnic and play area. Patch Reef has a community house with classrooms and meeting rooms and ball fields. Check them all out and enjoy our local facilities. You and the family can snorkel at Red Reef Park. For a large pool, head to Meadows Park. Call for their schedules… a great way to spend a Sunday and some have picnic facilities.

Red Reef Park -561-391-5014

Sugar Sand Park – 561-347-3900

Meadows Park - 561-393-7851

Patch Reef Park - 561-997-8504

South Inlet Park - 561-966-6600

ENJOY!

COME AND ENJOY "ART AND JAZZ" ON THE AVENUE IN DOWNTOWN DELRAY

On Thursday, June 26^th from 6 to 10 pm “Art and Jazz on the Avenue” in Delray Beach will feature free events, open to the public. The New Orleans’ Second Line Band will perform at Worthing Park and feature the Chief of the Wild Tchoupitoulas, a modern-day Mardi Gras Indian tribe. Others include Strictly Business, Hook, Son of Man, Jazz Steam and Totall Kontroll. At the Old School Square’s pavilion come and watch the Southern Dance Theatre. Many restaurants, shops and galleries will offer one-night-only complimentary beverages and samplings, sales, meet-and-greet with artists, summer clearances and register-to-win contest. The Downtown Roundabout free shuttle bus will run until 11 pm. One shuttle starts at the Tri-Rail station on Congress, going east on Atlantic Avenue, another at the Delray Beach Public Library going to the beach and back. They run about every 20 minutes. For more info call 561-243-7322 or go to mydelraybeach.com. Atlantic Avenue will be closed to vehicular traffic from 4-10 pm between Swinton and SE 7^th.

NOTE: YOU MUST MOVE OVER FOR STOPPED EMERGENCY VEHICLES ON HIGHWAY

With the primary objective to save lives of law enforcement officers conducting traffic stops, a statute passed during the 2002 session of the Florida legislature requires that motorists traveling on I-95 and other Florida highways with two or more lanes traveling in the direction fo the emergency vehicle “slow down” or “move over” and out of the lane closest to the vehicle as soon as its safe to do so, when approaching an authorized emergency vehicle stopped on the highway. Drivers are required to slow to 20 miles per hour less than the posted speed limit if 25 miles per hour or greater or travel at 5 miles per hour when posted speed limit is 20 miles per hour or less.

CHILDREN'S MUSEUM HOLDS TOWNE PICNIC SATURDAY 6-21

From 11 am to 2 pm The Children’s Museum will hold what it hopes will be its first nnual picnic on the museum grounds at 498 Crawford Boulevard. There will be Dixieland Entertainment, children’s crafts, horseshoe and lawn croquet tournaments, a 3-legged sack race and free museum admission. For more information call 561-368-6875.

$500 PRIZE TO BE AWARDED FOR BEST POSTER

A call has been issued by the city of Delray Beach for submission to promote First Night 2009, re events for the evening of New Years Eve 2009, celebrating the New Year through the arts. The festival is public. Applications must be postmarked by 5 pm Friday, July 11^th. The design must be suitable for a poster and a button. Designs can be new, must be original, can be two-dimension artwork or graphic design. Artwork must be able to be downsized to about 2 ½” x 3” or 3” in diameter as the button shape may be square, rectangular or circular. Poster will be about 11”x1” with room for additional text or information that will not interfere with the artwork. The City of Delray Beach First Night 2009 Committee will serve as the selection committee. Winning criteria includes quality of artwork, experience and qualifications of artist, appropriateness of artwork to size and dimensions of button (which will serve as admittance to all events), and appropriateness to committee goals. For more information call 561-279-1380, x35.

PANDAS ARRIVE IN BEIJING FOR OLYMPICS

Eight merry pandas arrived safely in Beijing after a long journey from their damaged reserve near the epicenter of the deadly earthquake in China. The pandas arrived Saturday to spend the next six months at the Beijing Zoo on a special Olympics visit that had been planned long before the quake. If we built a Highland Beach Zoo, would they come?

LOCAL PUBLIC SCHOOLS RANK HIGH

NEWSWEEK’s May 21, 2008 “TOP OF THE CLASS” article showed the following area schools in these ranks in the top 1000 of 1400+ public high schools in the US:

Suncoast Community (Riviera Beach) is #3

Dreyfoos School of the Arts (Palm Beach) is #33

Atlantic Community (Delray Beach) is #58

Boca Community (Boca Raton) is #146

Spanish River (Boca Raton) is #196

Palm Beach Gardens (Palm Beach Gardens) #663

West Boca Raton (Boca Raton) is 675

Jupiter (Jupiter) is #859

William T. Dwyer ( Palm Beach Gardens) is #978

Public schools are ranked according a ratio devised by Washington Post Education Reporter Jay Matthews: the number of Advanced Placement, Intl. Baccalaureate and/or Cambridge tests taken by all students at a school in 2007 divided by the number of graduating seniors. All of the schools on the list have an index of at least 1.000; they are in the top 5 percent of public schools measured this way.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/39380