East Bay

01:00 AM EST on Wednesday, December 1, 2004

REGIONAL

Toys for Tots collection: The Rhode Island Blood Center is teaming up with Toys for Tots through Dec. 13 to assure that underprivileged children in Rhode Island are remembered during the holiday.

Blood donors at all the donor centers are being asked to bring new and unwrapped toys to the centers which will then be distributed to Toys for Tots, a program run by the Marine Corps.

The Aquidneck Center in Middletown, at 700 Aquidneck Ave., in the Polo Center Plaza, is open Tuesday and Thursday from 12:30 to 7:30 p.m., Wednesdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturdays from 8 a.m. to noon.

Donors are asked to call (1-800) 2832-8385, ext. 383, to make an appointment to donate.

BARRINGTON

Senior Center activities: The Barrington Senior Center has issued its newsletter for this month. Highlights include a holiday decorating day Friday at 12:30 p.m. Center members are asked to help trim the center's tree and decorate. Also, gift certificates are available for lunch, bingo and activity club trips. A holiday shopping trip is planned for Dec. 7 when the senior van will travel to Wal-Mart, Kohl's, Target, TJ Maxx and Home Goods. Call the center to sign up. The van will pick up participants at their homes.

This month's coffee hour discussion, Dec. 8 at 9:30 a.m., will be presented by Donna Merrell, from Orchard View Manor, who will speak on state surveys and nursing home ratings. She will explain how they get rates and what a rating means. Those interested in attending are asked to sign up in advance.

There will be no bingo Dec. 9 because of the center's holiday gala, or on Dec. 23 because the center will close at 12:30 p.m. that day (after lunch). The center will also close Dec. 24 and 31 for the entire day.

Nutrition classes will begin tomorrow and be held each Thursday from 10 to 11 a.m. for three weeks. Topics include "Flu and Cold, Facts and Wive's Tales," Dec. 2; "Coffee and Tea, Histories and Mysteries," Dec. 9 and "Chocolate, Benefits," Dec. 16.

Blood pressure checks will be conducted tomorrow from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. and Dec. 16 from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m.

For those interested in a variety of cookies for the holidays, the cookie club offers the chance for participants to share among one another. Participants sign up at the desk for the type of cookie they will make and everyone will share a dozen with each other.

The center will host a holiday party Dec. 22 at 1 p.m. Included will be a performance by the chorus and the band will play. There will also be refreshments at intermission.

A program highlight is band music Wednesdays from 1 to 3 p.m. Members are welcome to join in line dancing, singing or just enjoying listening to the music played by the volunteer band. Coffee and soda are offered at intermission.

This month's Silver Screen Classic at the Showcase Cinema will be held next Tuesday at 1 p.m. and feature White Christmas with Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney and Vera Allen. Tickets are $1 each for the movie and refreshments. Sign up for senior van transportation, which leaves by 12:30 p.m.

The activity club will host a holiday party Dec. 9 at the West Valley Inn. Tickets are $18 per member and the meal choice is stuffed boneless chicken with walnut dressing, three baked stuffed shrimp or junior prime rib. All are served with garden salad, macaroni, rice pilaf, green beans, coffee/tea and chocolate mousse for dessert. There will also be music, door prizes and favors. Full payment is due by Friday. The bus will leave from Town Hall at 12:45 a.m.

BRISTOL

Christmas meeting: The Sons of Italy, Leonardo da Vinci Lodge, will hold its Christmas meeting tomorrow at 7 p.m. in the Mount Carmel Parish Center, State Street. There will not be meetings in January or February.

Used book sale: Roger Free Library, 535 Hope St., will hold a used book sale Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Rogers Free Library Annex (next to the library). This is a "buck a bag" sale in which buyers buy a bag for a dollar and fill it up.

LITTLE COMPTON

Community bands forming: The Little Compton Community Center is interested in sponsoring a community band for adults and high school students as well as a separate junior band for young people in grades four through eight. The bands would hold regular rehearsals and march and play at community events. The center also hopes to make affordable lessons available to anyone who might be interested.

High school students and adults from Little Compton and the surrounding communities who are interested in becoming involved in a community band are invited to call the Community Center with their name, contact information and type of instrument played. A band leader is needed for the adult community band.

Students in grades four through eight, from Little Compton and the surrounding communities, who either already play an instrument or who are interested in learning to play an instrument are encouraged to call the center to sign up for the junior band. The junior band will be lead by musician and teacher Gary Nitkin. Weekly rehearsals are expected to take place in the evening at Wilbur & McMahon Schools. A modest fee will be charged. Semi-private lessons will also be available prior to or following rehearsals at affordable prices. Final details will be determined based on the number of students participating. Interested parents should call the Community Center with their child's name, age, contact information and instrument played. The Community Center can be reached at (401) 635-2400.

MIDDLETOWN

Presentation on South Asia: The Middletown Public Library, The Rhode Island Council for the Humanities and the Friends of Middletown Public Library will present "Understanding South Asia with Kenneth Kurze" Dec. 13 at 7 p.m. at the library, 700 West Main Rd.

In 2001-02, India and Pakistan appeared headed for war, this time with nuclear weapons. This presentation will examine the reasons behind this, starting with a look at the people, the demographics and the religions of the region. This will lead to analyzing the 1947 Partition, the Kashmir Problem and a focus on the strengths and weaknesses of India and Pakistan. Additional subjects will include relations with the United States, Indian democracy and unity and the role of the military in both countries. A brief look at other smaller nations in South Asia will finish the presentation.

Kurze spent 29 years as a U.S. foreign service officer with the Department of State. His experience was primarily in South Asian Affairs and he spent four years in India and three years in Nepal. He also had a detail to the Peace Corps' India Program in Washington and as deputy director in Morocco. He speaks Hindi, Urdu, German and French.

NEWPORT

Holiday open house: The Newport Historical Society will host its annual holiday open house tonight from 5 to 8 at Colony House, Washington Square. The public is welcome to enjoy festive music, view antique toy exhibits, tour the upstairs by candlelight and make an ornament to take home.

New to this year's event will be the exhibition of a large furnished dollhouse from the collections of the Newport Historical Society. At 7:30 p.m., the Swanhurst Chorus Chamber Singers, a group of 16 vocalists from throughout the region, will perform traditional holiday a cappella music. Other local musical groups will also perform throughout the evening. Home-baked goods, including some treats made using early recipes in the collections of the Newport Historical Society, will also be available.

Grant received: The International Yacht Restoration School, a school and center for maritime preservation based in historic Newport, has received a leadership gift for the restoration of the 1831 Aquidneck Mill Building. A grant of $100,000 from the Alletta Morris McBean Charitable Trust (San Mateo, Calif.) will help the school toward a 2005 target start date on the project. The restoration of the mill building, a 30,000-square-foot structure on the school's campus, will quadruple the school's facilities.

Newport resident Dominic Varisco spearheads the Mill Building Restoration Committee, which includes Newporters Jan Slee, Pieter Roos and Lyn Comfort.

The Aquidneck Mill, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, was acquired in 1995 in the hope of restoring the building for future school use. A growing demand for the school's full-time program in classic yacht restoration has created more urgency to expand facilities: the current class size reflects a 35 percent increase over last year's student body.

Working with Newport Collaborative Architects, the building will be open to the public and will include classroom and workshop space, a visitor's center and display gallery, an assembly hall for lectures, a library, a retail shop, and staff offices. The projected budget is $5.8 million. The physical restoration of the structure is slated to take two years.

The school is open year-round to the public. For more information, visit www.iyrs.org.

House tour postponed: The Parents Association of St. Michael's Country Day School in Newport has announced that the Neighborhoods of Newport House Tour will not be held in April, for what would have been its 11th year. A popular event in Newport's spring calendar of events, the tour, which traditionally takes place on the last Sunday in April, will resurface in 2006.

St. Michael's school is in the final phase of a $5-million capital campaign, with less than $1 million left to raise. In a letter sent out recently to the parent body at the school, the president of the Parents Association said: "we feel it will be best to focus our springtime energy on reaching our Capital Campaign Goal."

Entirely volunteer organized and run, proceeds from the tour have paid for numerous programs at St. Michael's over the years, from a computer lab, continuous computer upgrades, playground equipment, field trips and assemblies, equipment for the school's drama and music departments, and team sports uniforms.

Fans of the event (more than 8,000 have attended over the years) can keep in touch with the house tour and find out about Neighborhoods of Newport 2006 by going to the St. Michael's home page, www.stmichaelscountryday.org and clicking on Neigborhoods of Newport.

PORTSMOUTH

Financial Aid Night: Portsmouth High School, Education Lane, will hold a Financial Aid Night for juniors and seniors and their parents tonight at 7 in the school's cafeteria. David Deblois, of the Rhode Island Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators, will make the presentation. The evening will conclude by 8:30. Refreshments will be served.

The program will include an overview of the financial aid process and a step-by-step guide to filling out the Financial Aid Form. In addition, representatives from local banks and a tuition management company will be on hand to provide additional information to parents. Financial Aid Forms will be available.

For more information, call Elizabeth Gomes at the school's guidance department, which is sponsoring the event, (401) 683-2139.

TIVERTON

Holiday gift fair: The Tiverton Four Corners Arts Center, 3852 Main Rd., will hold its annual Holiday Gift Fair Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Local artisans and vendors will sell items such as handmade pottery and baskets, lavender products, jewelry, homewares, painted wood, handmade boxwood and mixed green wreaths, artisan cheeses, homemade marshmallows, locally baked breads, coffee and other goodies. Admission is free, donations are welcomed for the art center.

Grant awarded: The Tiverton High School Community Service Program was the recent recipient of a $1,000 State Farm Good Neighbor Service Learning grant administered by Youth Service America. This grant helps underwrite youth service projects for National Youth Service Day April 15-17. As one of 100 State Farm Grantees, Tiverton's project was chosen out of over 650 applicants from across the nation, because of the high school's leadership, commitment to community service and dedication to the spirit of volunteerism.

This award will allow students to opportunity to explore homelessness in depth by fostering learning and service in this area of interest. In addition these grant funds will allow a new tradition to begin at Tiverton High School: National Youth Service Day.

WARREN

Awards received: IMAGO, A Gallery of Art and Fine Craft, would like to announce that its artist members, Linda Di Frenna, Norman Petersen and Kristen Street, received the Award of Merit and DeDe Kennedy received the Juror's Choice Award in the Attleboro Museum's Annual Member's Juried Exhibition. Susan Butler was also accepted in the juried exhibition.

IMAGO was established in August last year as a nonprofit organization to promote the visual arts in Warren. The founding artists' long-term goal is to provide on-going exhibitions, classes and workshops, as well as a place to showcase the arts in Warren.

The gallery is located on the ground floor of the Cutler mill complex at Child and Cutler streets. For more information, call IMAGO during regular gallery hours at (401) 245-3348. The new gallery hours are Wednesday through Sunday, noon to 5 p.m.