Bluffton University will host its annual Academic Awards Forum at 11 a.m. Tuesday, April 24, in Yoder Recital Hall. The event is free and open to the public.
Students to be honored include graduating seniors in the Honors Program, C. Henry Smith Scholars and Pi Delta inductees, as well as departmental award recipients, who are recognized as distinguished senior scholars.
Denise Durenberger, assistant professor of business at Bluffton University, will host a panel discussion on entrepreneurship and business incubation on Friday, April 20. Free and open to the public, the colloquium will begin at 4 p.m. in Stutzman Lecture Hall in Centennial Hall.
The Bluffton University Gospel Choir will present "A Night of Praise" beginning at 6 p.m. Saturday, April 21, in Yoder Recital Hall. The performance is free and open to the public; a free-will offering will be taken during intermission to help offset concert costs.
The 65-voice choir, which comprises campus and community members, will be accompanied by 21 instrumentalists. Among them is drummer Wesley Sellers, the brother of Dr. Crystal Sellers, the assistant professor of music at Bluffton who formed the choir in 2010 and remains its director.
A Rally Point youth center summer camp chicken barbecue dinner benefit is planned from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., Sunday, April 22, at the Pandora Community Center.
The menu includes one-half chicken, prepared by John Schlumbohm, green beans, apple sauce, butter roll and drinks. Desserts are extra.
Tickets are $7 and area available in advance or at the door. Contact Ruth Herron, 419-296-5550 for tickets.
The Bluffton Community Preschool will hold an open house from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m., Tuesday, April 24, in its home at First Mennonite Church, Bluffton.
The Preschool is a kindergarten-ready program for 3 and 4 year olds. Classes are held two or three days a week for 2.5 hours each session.
The open house enables parents and caregivers to meet the director, teachers, aids and current parents.
Students in next year's program must be 3 or 4 by Aug. 1, 2012. The school is in the lower level of First Mennonite Church, at the corner of Jackson and Church streets.
Wendell Miller announced his retirement from Bluffton schools at the end of this school year. His retirement is action required at Monday's Bluffton school board meeting.
In addition to Miller's retirement, the board will be voting on a host of contracts, including certified, non-certified and supplemental for the 2012-13 school year. Also on the agenda are next year's class fees.
The meeting is at 7:30 p.m., in the elementary media center. The nine-page agenda is an attachment at the bottom of this story.
