People, Places & Events

‘Sounds of Cedar Creek’ to feature woodwind quintet
Special to The Monitor
SEVEN POINTS–The Endowment Fund is pleased to announce the second in a series of concerts benefitting The Library at Cedar Creek Lake.
The “Sounds of Cedar Creek” 2009 concert series next event opens at 7 p.m. Saturday, March 7, at the Main Place Theatre in Seven Points.
Performing that night will be The Ken Krause Woodwind Quintet from the Dallas area.
Musicians are Kenneth Krause, who holds the position of principal clarinet with the Richardson Symphony Orchestra and is a member of the Dallas Opera Orchestra.
He has performed with the Fort Worth and Dallas Symphony Orchestras and has performed for the last ten years with the Breckenridge (Colo.) Music festival.
Debra Johnson, flute, holds the position of principal flute in the Richardson Symphony Orchestra.
She is also very active as a freelance musician throughout the southwest, and soloist for the National Flute Association.
Kelli Short is principal oboist for the Richardson Symphony Orchestra.
She also plays with the Fort Worth Symphony, the Texas Chamber Orchestra and the Dallas Wind Symphony, and she is an active freelance musician in the Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) area.
Marty Spake is a busy DFW freelance bassoon player originally from Arizona.
He received his master’s degree from SMU in Dallas.
Marty has been a member of the Dallas Wind Symphony since 1994, played in the East Texas Symphony Orchestra and is currently principal bassoon of the Richardson Symphony.
Marty played contra-bassoon for the Dallas Opera, plays in numerous performing groups around DFW and is orchestra teacher for several area schools.
Brian Brown plays the French horn as principal with the Richardson Orchestra and is an active freelance musician. He maintains a private teaching studio.
The repertoire for March 7 at the Main Place Theatre includes Mozart, Beethoven, Haydn, Handel, Debussy, Arnold, Ibert and Farkas.
A champagne reception is offered immediately after the concert.
The Endowment Fund is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization created separately from The Library at Cedar Creek Lake to support this vital community asset.
Donations and charitable annuity gifts to the Endowment Fund generate a growing and steady interest income stream in support of the programs of The Library at Cedar Creek Lake.
Tickets and sponsorships will be available at The Library of Cedar Creek Lake in Seven Points, (903) 432-4185.
Tickets are $50.

Severe weather program set for March 2
Special to The Monitor
CANTON–The 2008 storm season in north Texas was one of the more violent in recent history.
Thirty four tornadoes were reported across the area, and destructive windstorms, large hail and deadly flooding all made appearances in our area.
The toll on life and property was significant, with many casualties and damage in the tens of millions of dollars.
The bulk of the 2009 severe weather season is fast approaching.
Are you ready for whatever this year has in store?
Do you have a severe weather plan at your home and your workplace?
Can you recognize the clues that suggest large hail, flash flooding, or a tornado is possible?
Do you want to become part of the severe weather warning system in your county?
As part of its area-wide weather preparedness campaign, the National Weather Service in Fort Worth will answer these and many other questions at the Skywarn severe weather program from 7-9 p.m. Monday, March 2.
The program will be held in Canton at the Van Zandt County Sheriff’s Office/Justice Center Training Room, and will be held in partnership with Van Zandt County Emergency Management.
The 2009 program will discuss thunderstorm formation, severe weather production, and features associated with severe storms.
The presentation will also review tornado formation and behavior, non-threatening clues which may be mistaken for significant features, and safety when thunderstorms threaten.
The program will discuss spotter operations and recommended reporting procedures.
The two-hour presentation will be in multimedia format, featuring numerous pictures of storms and nearly 25 minutes of storm video clips.
“We have some new material in the 2009 spotter training program,” Warning Coordination Meteorologist at the Fort Worth NWS Gary Woodall said.
“We will present the information in the form of a checklist for the attendees to utilize. Most of the storm photos and video clips are different this year.
“We have reworked many of our graphics. We’ll have more identification cases, and we’ll discuss the operational aspects of storm spotters in detail,” he added.
The fundamental purpose of the spotter training - and of the storm spotter network as a whole - remains unchanged.
“We could not do our job as well as we do without storm spotters. Radar is a great tool, but it only tells us part of a storm’s story. Spotter observations complement the electronic data we use to analyze storms.
“The combination of spotter reports and radar data gives us the best possible picture of the storms and what’s going on inside them,” he said.
The program is free and open to the public.
“By coming to this program, you will learn a lot about thunderstorms,” Woodall said.
“Even if you don’t become an active storm spotter, you will learn about how storms work and the visual clues you can identify when storms are in your area.
We will discuss severe weather safety tips. This will better prepare yourself and your family for the threats that storms pose,” Woodall said.
The Van Zandt County severe weather program is one of over 40 that the
Fort Worth NWS Office will conduct between January and early April.
The National Weather Service in Fort Worth provides forecasts, warnings, and weather services for 46 counties in north and north-central Texas.
For more information on severe weather and the National Weather Service, visit the Fort Worth Forecast Office’s website at http://www.weather.gov/fortworth .