Continuum Center Fundraiser
"The Quantum Leap: Jane Jumps over the Rainbow" will be presented from 5-6 p.m. Saturday, April 21 to benefit the Continuum Center, a non-profit organization founded in 1979 to explore consciousness, human capacity and the interconnectedness of life for personal, professional and planetary transformation. The event will take place at Parade Ice Gardens, 600 Kenwood Parkway, Minneapolis. Continuum Center Director Jane Barrash hung up her skates at age 13, when she was landing double axels, but she has challenged herself to return to the ice for a 50th birthday performance and to build support for the Continuum Center, which she has served for 23 years.
Other guests hosts will include Horst Rechelbacher, founder of Aveda and Intelligent Nutrients; Steven Greenberg, producer of Funkytown; Ivan Rafowitz, president of Northern Cap and Glove; and Lynn Gordon, president of French Meadow Bakery.
The fundraising event is $15 ($10 for Continuum Center members). One hundred seats will be available for $100 rinkside (includes an 8 p.m. dinner at the Continnum Center). For tickets, call (612) 374-4948.
Celebrate Your Life
CHICAGO – For the first time in the Midwest, the Celebrate Your Life conference will be presented in Chicago in June. The event features workshops and keynote lectures with more than 20 of the country’s top bestselling authors and speakers all gathered together for a full weekend, including Marianne Williamson, Neale Donald Walsch, James Van Praagh, Iyanla Vanzant, James Redfield, Les Brown, Cheryl Richardson and Dr. Brian Weiss.
Celebrate Your Life has been an ongoing event in Scottsdale, Ariz., since 2002 and sells out very quickly every year. Due to popular demand, the event is taking on a second city, Chicago. People come from all over the world to attend the conference.
Celebrate Your Life will take place June 22-24 at the Hyatt Regency O’Hare. A pre-conference workshop will take place all day Friday, June 22, with Dr. Weiss, Van Praagh, Sonia Choquette and KC Miller. A daylong post-conference workshop with Walsch, Dr. Harville Hendrix, John Holland and Dr. Eric Pearl will take place Monday, June 25.
For discounts on early registration through April 20, or information on special room rates, contact Mishka Productions toll-free at 1 (877) 300-7352 or visit www.CelebrateYourLife.org.
Year of Tibet in Minnesota
In celebration and honor of the Tibetan community in the Twin Cities, the second largest such group in the United States, a festival entitled "2007: A Year of Tibet in Minnesota" will take place in May, featuring the Gyoto Monks of Tibet, the personal assistant to the Dalai Lama, a Tibetan Film Festival and a visit from Mrs. Jetsun Pema, sister of the Dalai Lama.
The Gyoto Monks of Tibet will be in the Cities May 11-21 to demonstrate their worship rituals, performing with flutes, horns, drums and unique multiphonic singing and chanting. The monks also are known for their intricate sand mandalas and butter sculptures, which will be created in front of live audiences at the Minnesota Institute of Art.
The keynote speaker will be the personal assistant to the Dalai Lama, Mrs. Jetsun Pema, sister of the Dalai Lama. She will be speaking at St. Catherine’s on two occasions, and a local Tibetan dance group will perform a series of traditional folk dances in costume. Like her famous brother, the 14th Dalai Lama, Mrs. Pema is known for her personal warmth and wisdom. She has taken on the task of caring for the welfare of the thousands of orphaned and destitute children who continue to flee from oppression still imposed by the Chinese government.
The 2007 Twin Cities Tibetan Film Festival will be presented May 11-13 at the Riverview Theatre in Minneapolis. The festival will showcase some of the most acclaimed movies regarding Tibet’s rich spiritual and cultural heritage, as well as its troubled political history. Proceeds will benefit the Tibetan American Foundation of MN, Society for Gyuto Sacred Arts, and the Rimé Foundation. Tickets for the 7 p.m. shows are $12; all other tickets are $10. The festival will premiere recent releases such as 10 Questions for the Dalai Lama, Vajra Sky Over Tibet, and Milarepa, as well as spiritual classics like The Message of the Tibetans, and Tibet: A Buddhist Trilogy.
Many other events at different venues, such as The Landmark Center in downtown St. Paul, will be announced closer to the event. For more information, contact Jim Seemann at 651-226-8047 or e-mail seemann@csp.edu.
Benedictine Center Events
In anticipation of the warmth and abundance of spring, the Benedictine Center is offering a workshop to help gardeners plant seeds and work with the earth in a new way. Called "Spirituality of Gardening," this workshop will be presented from 9 a.m. to noon Saturday, April 21. The cost is $25 (which includes lunch). It will be led by Cathy Scherer Stubbs, a lifelong gardener, who will help participants encounter the divine while seeding, watering, weeding, hoeing and anticipating the harvest. "The earth gives us rich images for following a spiritual path," she says, "and spring planting can tell us a lot about how to care for the land and our own spiritual growth."
The Benedictine Center also will present a new workshop to help participants express themselves and tell their stories through art and writing. "Seeing Our Lives with New Eyes: The Power of Word and Image" will be offered from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, April 21. The $50 cost includes lunch and materials.
To register for either workshop, visit www.stpaulsmonastery.org and follow the Benedictine Center link. For more information, call (651) 777-7251 or e-mail benedictinecenter@stpaulsmonastery.org. The Benedictine Center, a ministry of the Benedictine Sisters at St. Paul’s Monastery, is located at 2675 Larpenteur Avenue East in Maplewood.
Volunteers Sought
Guild Incorporated, a non-profit organization that helps people with mental illness lead quality lives in Ramsey County, Dakota County and the east metro area is seeking volunteers to assist during open hours at its Community Support Program Recovery Center. Chat, play board games, enjoy a pool game or cards in a relaxed atmosphere. Get to know a variety of people.
The CSP Recovery Center’s Open Hours occurs weekday afternoons. Teams of two volunteers can work together. Share your computer skills or teach a workshop, if you’re interested. Learn more by contacting the Volunteer Coordinator at Guild Incorporated at (651) 457-2248, ext. 36, or e-mail at volunteer@guildincorporated.org. Visit www.guildincorporated.org for more information.
Metro Paint-A-Thon: Make Their Day
The 24th annual metro Paint-A-Thon will take place August 4-5 to transform homes, revitalize neighborhoods and give hope back to the people they serve. The event gathers volunteer paint teams from civic organizations, corporations, congregations, groups of family and friends – anyone who cares about helping low-income senior and disabled homeowners to continue to live independently in their own homes.
Teams scrape, prime and paint approximately 150 homes in the seven-county metro area each year. For more information about forming a team, or to refer a low-income senior or disabled homeowner in need, contact the Paint-A-Thon office at (612) 721-8687, ext. 321, or e-mail dpope@gmcc.org. Teams should register by June 1.
The Paint-A-Thon is a program of the Greater Minneapolis Council of Churches, which operates a family of social service programs to help low-income Minnesota families.
