Unleash the Love
Looking for a best friend for life? Gallery 202 and Williamson County Animal Control will be teaming up Saturday, June 25 to “unleash the love” at the historic Franklin art gallery, located at 202 2nd Ave.

This special pet adoption day will run 10 am to 5 pm. Activities include vendors, live music, door prizes, and gourmet pet treats, with, of course, a sizeable number of dogs and cats on hand as well—all looking for homes and hoping for a shot at becoming your true companion.

“Kelly had the vision to showcase our wonderful adoptable animals in the best and brightest light, and Dillards has donated makeup for face painting animal faces on children,” said Debby Leddy, assistant shelter director. “We’ll have dogs and cats available for adoption that day, and the event will be held in the back courtyard of the gallery, which is a nice area with shade.”

Located in historic Clouston Hall, Gallery 202 is owned by Kelly Harwood, who will be on hand grilling hot dogs.

Leddy said the day will also provide members of the public an opportunity donate to the shelter, and that nationally known pet photographer Peter Nash will offer special photo opportunities for each donation of $100 or more. All donations are tax deductible.

June is Adopt-a-Cat Month at WCAC, with cat adoption fees reduced to $25 (regular $45). Price includes spay/neuter, rabies vaccination, feluk testing, microchip insertion and flea/tick products. Dog adoption fee is $65, and also includes vaccination plus spay or neuter.

Here is a little historic twist to the day. Clouston Hall was built approximately in 1821 by the Clouston family, who used it as a “town home” to entertain guests, including Tennessee’s three U.S. presidents; Andrew Jackson, James K. Polk, and Andrew Johnson.

If you cannot attend the event, please check out available friends at WCAC on Pet Finder: http://www.petfinder.com/shelters/TN75.html .

For more information, please contact Debby Leddy, Assistant Shelter Director at 615-595-8547 or email her at DebbyL@williamson-tn.org.

Originally posted at Brentwood Home Page

Need Summer Activities for Kids?
Well, here we are - it’s summer!

The kids are out of school and we need a plan! I know many of you have worked months to get the perfect plan in place to keep the kids productive and pleasantly busy over the summer months. For those of you who are like me, there may be some holes in the summer calendar needing to be filled. That may turn out to be a good thing!

Does your teen love tutoring? Working with kids? Gardening? Putting a smile on a stranger's face? Or do they maybe need to learn to love those things?

Maybe they could volunteer and make a difference in Nashville every day or just a few days this summer. Hands On Nashville's Youth Volunteer Corps gives teens the opportunity to explore their interests, meet new people, make our local cities a better place, and have fun while doing it.

The YVC involves a service-learning program for ages 11-18 in Middle Tennessee. The programs are a great way for clubs or sports teams to volunteer together.

If you have volunteer hours to cross off your to-do list, this is a great way to get involved. And if your teen is showing interest in social justice issues, this an easy way for teens to help address the issues they care about most, like hunger, homelessness, literacy, and the environment.

If you think you or your teens may be interested in getting involved. Here is where you start.

Step #1: Join the YVC! Click here to register.

Step #2: Volunteer. You'll be glad you did! Browse the YVC Project Calendar and sign up for an interesting project. What activity isn’t more fun with friends? Recruit your friends to join the YVC! Have ideas for a project or an issue not already being addressed? E-mail Emma@hon.org.

Step #3: Get YVC Updates. The Hands On Nashville e-newsletter, Facebook, and Twitter pages give you up-to-date info on cool new projects you won't want to miss.

"Like" them on Facebook. Follow them on Twitter.

Step #4: Ready for more? Be a YVC leader!

Check out our YVC Project Calendar for upcoming opportunities to get involved!

YVC Internships are also available. Hands On Nashville is looking for dedicated High School Juniors and Seniors to serve as Youth Volunteer Corps Interns for the 2011-2012 school year. These interns will work with reputable and diverse non-profit clients to gain experience presenting educational and skill building lessons while acquiring leadership and management skills!

Click here to download a YVC Internship application. To learn more, please e-mail Emma@hon.org.

Originally posted at Brentwood Home Page.

Tennis Community Serves
Gordon Pennington has been involved in the Middle Tennessee Tennis Family for over 25 years. Through the years, as the current and past Director of Tennis at the Green Hills YMCA, Old Natchez Country Club, Temple Hills Country club, and now a Teaching Pro with WPCR he looked for new ways to give back to his community and to support local charities and organizations that would best serve the Middle Tennessee area.

Since 1995, breast cancer has really been on Gordon’s heart. Over the years he held many tournaments to support the Susan G. Komen Foundation for the fight against Breast Cancer. Many of these tournaments have been extremely successful, but have demanded a lot of time from a lot volunteers in the tennis community.

Pennington said he racked his brain to come up with something new. Something that would be easy, yet allow the tennis community to give those dollars, once again, to charity. However, due to the recent economic downturn, he felt it was very important to provide these dollars to charity in our own community. To help the women in middle Tennessee who are directly affected with Breast Cancer. Pennington feel it is imperative that we provide help to those in our own backyard.

Because of time limitations with weekend tennis tournaments, Pennington did a lot of research for something that would produce money for our local women suffering from breast cancer, but something that would be easy for everyone to participate with.

The answer was to produce and publish a cookbook. Have you ever known anyone to give away a personal cookbook of their own or toss one out? Cookbooks have the longest shelf life of any publication.

This cookbook, which will be named WINNING SERVES - a collection of recipes from the Middle Tennessee Tennis Community, is especially designed for those in the tennis community. It will be published with a “tennis theme” that centers on the effects of breast cancer. The cookbook will be compiled of recipes from the Middle Tennessee tennis community and local friends and will feature a few local women who have suffered and survived this disease along with their testimonies.

The best part is all proceeds from the sales of the cookbook will be donated to The Tennessee Breast Cancer Coalition. You can view more information about this organization at www.tbcc.org. Pennington chose this organization because they provide local women an established Emergency Access Fund which is called the TBCC Emergency Access Fund.

Pennington encourages the tennis community to get involved.

“Your time input will be very minimal and your name will be printed in the cookbook along with the recipe you provide!” said Pennington. “Please, don’t just participate, but support this very worthy cause by purchasing several copies for your family and friends!“

The participation expiration date is July 31, 2011 and Pennington urges you not to delay. The cookbook will be published and ready to sell during Breast Cancer month in October, 2011. To submit a recipe go to – http://www.typensave.com/ / group login is -ws10iscb – contributor password is – zyqh7. Please submit your recipe as soon as possible.

The pricetag will come in uner $20 and will be a great pricepoint under $20.

“We really need everyone’s support and if you would like to sell the cookbooks, please email me with the number you know you can sell,” said Pennington. “This commitment will help provide me with a better idea of how many to print on the first printing. Your sales help will make the cause that much more successful!”

WINNING SERVES will certainly help all of us entertain friends and family with new and exciting foods, help make our holiday shopping much easier this year and most importantly, significantly help The Tennessee Breast Cancer Coalition http://www.tbcc.org/ with their fight to help women in Middle Tennessee that are struggling with this disease.

“If you would like to participate with sales or have a retail location we can display the cookbooks in please email with the amount you will need. The more we sell, the more we help,” said Pennington.

Originally posted at Brentwood Home Page.

Family Foundation Fund
Did you know that 15 million children live without their fathers in the United States? We have an epidemic of children living in fatherless homes in the United States. Our hometowns are no exception.
Twenty-six thousand of Nashville’s children have been abandoned or are neglected by their fathers. This epidemic crosses all social, economic, religious, and racial boundaries. According to research, children from single-parent homes are at a higher risk to experience challenges such as learning disorders, behavioral issues, and emotional problems.
I first discovered The Family Foundation Fund (FFF) when they received a grant from the Giving Tree in 2009. But their own giving goes back to when they were established in 1993 to address the fatherhood vacuum.
And now the Family Foundation Fund needs your help! They are raising awareness to the issues of the fatherless and celebrating fatherhood. They will host their 10th Annual 5k Run/Walk for Family and Fatherhood on June 18 at the Fontanel Mansion. You should come and celebrate family, fatherhood, and father’s day with them.
Race Day Registration begins at 6:00 a.m. However, pre-registration is strongly encouraged. The 5K begins at 7:00 a.m.
But besides a road race there is a lot of fun to be had. Stick around after the run and listen to Vince Gill's mini-concert. Hot air balloon rides are available for children 10 and under.
Proceeds from the event support the Family Foundation Fund. Registration is $25 per person and $75 per family including parents & children 17 and under until May 15. May 16 through June 3 the price will rise to $30 per person and $85 per family. Register online at http://www.nashvillesports.com/.
The FFF uses these funds to benefit many but mainly identifies boys from fatherless homes before their teen years. The boys enter a disciplined program where they are nurtured into Christ-centered manhood. Each boy is enrolled in a private Christian school and matched with a surrogate father (mentor).
The lives of fifty-four FFF sons (program participants) have been positively impacted through the work of the Family Foundation Fund. None of the program’s graduates have been involved with the juvenile justice system. Nor have any become teenage fathers. After completing high school, graduates have gone on to serve in the military, continued their education, or gone on to work.
For more information about the Family Foundation Fund or the 5K Run/Walk for Family and Fatherhood please visit http://www.familyfoundationfund.org/ or call them at 615.876.7170.

Originally posted at Brentwood Home Page.

Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt needs you

I have not been blogging since my partner Susan Leathers and I began our new business, www.brentwoodhomepage.com. I have been however writing a weekly column with the same name as my blog. I am going to begin posting my columns here and maybe blog a little on the side. Here is my latest column:
Recently, I sat down with some ladies from Friends of Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt. I was honored to hear about their organization of volunteers which is providing a multitude of services to the patients and families in all units of Children’s Hospital.
In addition to the Friends who help out at the hospital, they also host annual fundraisers for the hospital such as the “Friends and Fashion” event on March 29. Through outreach at the fundraisers, Julie Casteel, co-president of the Williamson County Chapter of Friends says she hopes that more people will become interested in working with the children and families.
“When the children are in the hospital for extended stays, the parents struggle with having to go back to work,” said Casteel. “They don’t want to leave their children alone and that is where we can help. We can come and sit with their child, play games, read to them or just walk the halls and talk.”
Casteel says another service the volunteers provide is the Friend’s Lunch Bunch. The Lunch Bunch serves over XX meals each week to families with children in one of the units. This service relieves some of the extreme financial pressure of the parents by providing meals for which they would have to pay at a restaurant or in the cafeteria.
“The Friends organization is actively recruiting new volunteers and members, especially in Williamson County,” said Linzi McConnell, co-president of the Williamson County chapter of Friends. “No matter what a person’s volunteer interest, the hospital and Friends can put a new volunteer to work. So many children here in Williamson County are treated at the Children’s Hospital that being a member of Friends is a direct way to give back to our community.”
Membership into Friends is open to anyone who has an interest in aiding patients and families who come to Children’s Hospital. Friends members aid the hospital throughout the year with a variety of activities including providing meals for families in the hospital, coordinating programs and entertainment for the patients and volunteering with various community outreach programs.
“Volunteering for Friends of Children’s Hospital is an eye-opening experience,” said Casteel. “Knowing that no child who needs its services is denied care on the basis of limited ability to pay makes one realize just how important our events and fund raising efforts are.”
If you are interested in hearing more about the Friends of Children’s Hospital, visit Friends under “Giving” at www.vanderbiltchildrens.org or contact Cindy Comperry at 615-322-4863.