Downtown art piece slated for unveiling

A new piece of downtown art to commemorate the city’s sesquicentennial will be unveiled Thursday.

The Lawrence Arts Commission will host an unveiling ceremony for “Freeform” at 11:30 a.m. Thursday at the southwest corner of Sixth and Massachusetts streets.

A reception will be held at City Hall immediately following the unveiling. The work, which celebrates the city’s first 150 years, was created by artist Stephen Johnson.

Ottawa

Sculpture project may progress quickly

With much of the steel now ready to be worked, members of the Ottawa Main Street Assn. expect rapid progress on a sculpture project to create models of four former downtown buildings.

The project, titled “The Former First Ladies of Ottawa,” will place steel replicas of the buildings east along the city’s North Main Street near the bridge over the Marais Des Cygnes River. The sculptures also will double as a fence, said Mary Ellen Haynie, of the association.

Regional artist Kelvin Schartz, of Celestial Ironworks in Lawrence, helped the group acquire the steel sheet supplies. The Ottawa Rotary Club recently donated $5,000 to augment funding from the city of Ottawa for the project.

Education

LHS student shines in French competition

Lawrence High student Jordan Crice received a 1st place state ranking and a 10th ranking nationally in the 70th annual Le Grand Concours, a national French language competition.

More than 103,000 students from across the nation competed in the 2005 event sponsored by the American Association of Teachers of French. Students were evaluated on their written, oral and listening comprehension skills.

Essay contest

Lawrence High student wins state honor

Lawrence High School student Brenna Daldorph is the 2005 student essay competition winner for The Kansas World Trade Center, a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting and facilitating international trade through education, communication and research.

The competition was open to all full-time high school students in Kansas.

Brenna received a $500 prize. In addition, Lawrence High School will receive a Global Simulation Workshop for 20 to 50 students and/or teachers. The workshop is an interactive game that helps individuals understand and solve regional and global problems.