Area briefs

Lawrence Kiwanis Club to mark its 85th year

The Lawrence Kiwanis Club will observe its 85th birthday today.

Kiwanis International President Robert L. Moore will speak at the noon meeting of the group at the Lawrence Country Club. Kansas District Gov. Marc Potter also will attend the meeting.

The club will also work on its service project, Child Car Safety Seat Checks, from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. today at the East Heights Family Learning Center, 1430 Haskell Ave. Moore will be on hand for the checks, which are free to parents and conducted by certified car seat technicians. Parents as Teachers and Douglas County Safe Kids Coalition also are helping with the checks.

The Lawrence Kiwanis Club is the oldest west of the Missouri River. Sheila Showalter is president of the club, which was organized Nov. 28, 1919, and chartered May 20, 1920.

Sudden infant death focus of workshop

A workshop will teach family child-care providers and center-based infant-toddler care staff to avoid the dangers of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome in child care.

The workshop is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. today in the second-floor meeting room of the Community Health Facility, 200 Maine.

According to the Lawrence-Douglas County Health Department, which is sponsoring the program with Douglas County Child Development Assn., the rate of death from the syndrome in child care is more than double the expected rate based on the number of hours infants spend in child care each week. The training focuses on safe sleep practices and working with parents to understand those practices.

For more information or to register, call Douglas County Child Development Assn. at 842-9679. The workshop is approved for two hours of in-service. The fee is $3 for members of the association and $5 for nonmembers.

Kerry to help celebrate Brown v. Board event

Topeka — Add presumed Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry to the list of guests who will help celebrate the 50th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education decision.

Kerry, of Massachusetts, will attend a proclamation signing at 8:30 a.m. Monday at the Kansas Capitol.

Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, also a Democrat, invited Kerry.

President Bush will speak at the grand opening later Monday of the Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site at the former Monroe Elementary School, 1515 S.E. Monroe St.

KU sets final exams

Kansas University has announced the following final examinations:

Nayibe Bermudez, Spanish and Portuguese, “X’Vos Vision y Negociacion: La Representacion Femenina en la Decada de los Ochenta y los Noventa,” 9 a.m. today, Computer Center Auditorium.

Paul Francis Fallon Jr., Spanish and Portuguese, “Borderline Tactics: Negotiations of Community, Subjectivity, Nation and Agency in Temporal Representations in Northern Mexican Border Narratives,” 1 p.m. Friday, 3040 Wescoe Hall.

William E. Banks, anthropology, “Toolkit Structure and Site Use: Results of a High-Power Use-Wear Analysis of Lithic Assemblages from Solutre (Saone-et-Loire), France,” 2 p.m. Tuesday, International Room of the Kansas Union.

KU students awarded Self fellowships

Six students planning graduate work at Kansas University have been awarded Self fellowships.

The four-year awards cover full tuition and fees, provide a $22,000 annual stipend and include a development program for doctoral students. Madison “Al” and Lila Self of Hinsdale, Ill., created the program in 1989.

This year’s winners, hometowns and fields of study are Chadd Clary, Fort Scott, mechanical engineering; Joseph Soltys, Lawrence, mechanical engineering; Megan Williams Johnson, Columbia, Mo., biomedical sciences; Quinn Long, Columbia, Mo., ecology and evolutionary biology; Christopher Taylor, Poplar Bluff, Mo., electrical engineering and computer science; and Robert Berendt, Burnsville, Minn., pharmaceutical chemistry.