Archive: Around Town

The Southern Cayuga School District and surrounding community are busily planning activities, including a June ceremony featuring Marion Blumenthal Lazan, co-author of Four Perfect Pebbles, to celebrate the arrival of the Anne Frank tree sapling granted to the school district by The Anne Frank Center USA.The sapling, which has been in quarantine to ensure its health, is now in Southern Cayuga and soon will be planted at the school.

The district has scheduled a planting ceremony during the school day on Friday, April 12 for all students and staff.   To correspond with the planting ceremony, the Aurora Free Library and the Hazard Library have announced that this year's book for the Southern Cayuga Community Read is Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl.  There will be a book discussion on Wednesday evening, April 10, starting at 7 PM in the Emily Howland Elementary School Library.

On Wednesday evening, June 12 at 7:00 PM, a tree dedication ceremony for the community will be held in the Southern Cayuga High School auditorium.  The guest speaker will be Marion Blumenthal Lazan, a child Holocaust survivor.  Four Perfect Pebbles is a memoir of her childhood experiences during World War II.  In 2003, Marion's Triumph, a documentary of her story, was produced with narration by actress Debra Messing.

The ceremony will include an instrumental piece composed by Southern Cayuga alumna, Kathryn Stiadle, currently a freshman at Bucknell University, to be performed by community members and high school students.  Southern Cayuga students across a number of grade levels will perform Peace Cantata by Baruch Whitehead of Ithaca College.  Afterward, all are invited into the Emily Howland foyer to view an interactive art structure created by third and tenth grade students.

Coinciding with the ceremony, the Southern Cayuga High School will display The Anne Frank Center USA traveling exhibit entitled, "Anne Frank: A History for Today," in its lobby from May 6 to June 14.   In Auburn, the Cayuga Museum's exhibit, "They Stood Up: Civil and Human Rights in the Finger Lakes," will run from May 3 to Sept. 20.  In addition, on Thursday, May 30, the Genoa Historical Association will hold a Military Exhibit and Reception featuring WWII memory talks at the Rural Life Museum located in King Ferry.  The Association is also planning to host a community event with Marion Blumenthal Lazan on Thursday morning, June 13, time and place to be announced.

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