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DANCING with the Bowling Green Stars, a fund-raising event presented by the Bowling Green Chamber of Commerce and ACT BG, the young professionals group of the chamber, was Oct. 3 at the Clazel Theatre in Bowling Green. Dancers from Julie’s Dance Studio assisted. Un-like on television’s Dancing with the Stars, this was a one night deal for fun and charity sake.

Earlene Kilpatrick, head of the BG Chamber of Commerce, and Claude Kilpatrick, Wood County Board of Developmental Disabilities, were elected the most graceful couple. Derik and Beth Utz, the Marfan Foundation, were the most romantic. Francis Scruci, superintendent Bowl-ing Green City Schools, and dance professional Ashanti King-Johnson won the People’s Choice award. Ryan Wichman, WTOL-TV, Channel 11, and Krista Evans, dance professional, won the Best of Show award.

Others who received awards included Matt Kar-affa, First Insurance Group, and Alyssa Karaffa, Bowling Green City Schools; Atonn Smeltzer, New York Life Insurance Co., and Jodie Smeltzer, Ow-ens Community College; Michelle Evans, Evans Home Loans and Evans Insurance Co., and Dan Billings, Deck-Hanneman Funeral Home.

The preliminary estimate of at least $3,000 raised benefits the Marfan Foundation for people with Marfan syndrome, a genetic disorder that affects the body’s connective tissue.

THE AFRICAN American Legacy Project of Northwest Ohio presented its 2015 Legends Weekend Oct. 2 and 3.

A hospitality reception was at the Toledo Club where guests mingled over spirits and hors d’oeuvres. Entertainers at both events included vocalist Marcia Bowen-Jones, violinist Obed Shelton, keyboardist John D. Cunningham, and bass player Wayne Harris. Proclamations were from the city and the county.

Highlighted at the reception were the 2015 Emerging Leaders: Larome Myrick, Rashieda Timpson, Kelly Westmoreland, and Jason Woodward.

Elegantly framed photos of past and present icons of the African-American community were displayed around the room at the next day’s lun-cheon at the Hilton Garden Inn. Bill Harris, re-tired, and Kristian Brown, both of WTVG-TV, Channel 13, and Charles Welch, Jr., Toledo radio veteran, welcomed everyone.

The afternoon started with the “Negro Nation-al Anthem;” prayer by Rev. Timothy V. Pettaway, and remarks from Mayor Paula Hicks-Hudson. Romules Durant, superintendent of Toledo Pub-lic Schools; George Kral, Toledo Chief of Police; and Stephanie Turner of KeyBank, also gave re-marks.

This year’s honorees are Elinor Allen, Ronald Jack-

son, Theresa M. Gabriel, John Moore, Doni Mill-er, and Ben Williams and posthumous honor-ees Dr. Frank A. Brown

and Dr. Roland A. Gan-

dy, Jr. Each received an award and a kente cloth with personalized symbols. For instance, Ms. Miller’s symbol is the fern for endurance and re-sourcefulness while Mr. Jackson’s symbol is the sword for courage and valor.

Robert Smith, African American Legacy presi-dent, thanked everyone and the community as well as numerous volunteers and sponsors in-cluding title sponsors The Blade and KeyBank.

THE University of Toledo Medical Research So-ciety, improving the human condition through biomedical science, recently held a reception in the Ottawa Hills home of Joan Bayer, a founding charter member. The newly formed group is look-ing for charter members with a minimum pledge of $25,000 over the next five years. The University of Toledo Physicans already made a $1 million gift.

Marianne Ballas, a founding charter member, said the purpose of the society is to create perma-nent endowed seed funding for research devel-oped at UT’s college of medicine and life sciences. In turn, it will help make research a focus of the university and it is an economic advantage to northwest Ohio.

Charter member Dr. Christopher Cooper, UT’s executive vice president for clinical affairs and dean of the college of medicine and life sci-ences, said, “The power of a group of folks can make it happen,” and Randy Oostra, president and CEO, ProMedica, which is a member, gets the notion of building a community.

Guest speaker was Kathryn Eisenmann, an assistant professor at UTMC who talked about her research on ovarian cancer, an understudied dis-ease known as the silent killer. She ran out of funds for the research, then the society gave $50,000 seed money which generated $75,000 from an outside agency, which can provide more opportunity to apply for a National Institutes of Health grant leading to possibly more than $1 million, said Howard Newman, associate vice president for development at UTMC.

Seen were Rita Mansour, Charles and Nancy Creech, Chuck and Jackie Sullivan, Dr. Peter White and wife Polly, Tom and Susan Palmer, Jim and Sue White, Dr. Chris Bates and wife Kar-en, Steve and Penny Staelin, and Eleanore Awadalla.

THE Perfect Blend: Hungarian-American was the theme for the 25th anniversary gala of sister cities Toledo and Szeged, Hungary, on Oct. 3 at In-verness Club.

Ann Galloway, president and founding mem-ber of the Toledo Szeged Committee, welcomed everyone. Representing Szeged was Ferenc Koc-zka, conductor and executive director of the Na-tional Theatre of Szeged. Klara Szabo, educator, with five of her students, presented the Toledo City Council with a letter from the mayor of Sze-ged.

Soprano Judit Baracskai, accompanied on the piano by Mr. Koczka, wowed the audience.

Ferenc Gulyas of Szeged performed Hungari-an folk songs and those who knew the words were tempted to sing along.

B A R B A R A H E N D E L I S T H E B L A D E ’ S S O C I E T Y E D I T O R I C O N TA C T H E R AT: B H E N D E L @ T H E B L A D E . C O M O R 4 1 9 - 7 2 4 - 6 1 2 4 .

W I T H B A R B A R A H E N D E LTHE BLADE, TOLEDO, OHIO I SUNDAY, OCTOBER 11, 2015 I SECTION G, PAGE 8

Legacy leadersS From left are SUSAN PALMER, DR. ELEANORE AWADALLA, and MARI-ANNE BALLAS at the University of To-ledo Medical Research Society reception in the Ottawa Hills home of Joan Bayer.

S ANN GALLOWAY, president of Tole-do-Szeged Committee, speaks at the event.

S U.S. Rep. MARCY KAPTUR chats with JAY WELENC of Toledo Interna-tional Youth Orchestra at the 25th anni-versary celebration.

S From left are RANDY OOSTRA, MORGAN BAYER, DR. JOHN DOONER and his wife MALA at the University of Toledo Medical Research Society reception in the Ottawa Hills home of Joan Bayer, a founding charter member.

S From left are FERENC KOCZKA, National Theatre of Szeged director, Toledo Mayor PAULA HICKS-HUDSON, and Soprano JUDIT BARAC-SKAI of Hungary at the 25th Anniversary Celebra-tion for Toledo and Szeged.

S Musician OBED SHELTON plays his rendition of ‘We Shall Over-come’ during the African American Legacy Project luncheon.

S From left are RASHIEDA TIMPSON, JASON WOODWARD, LAROME MYRICK, and KELLY WEST-MORELAND, the 2015 Emerging Leaders for this year’s African American Legacy Project Legends Weekend Luncheon.

S Performers from Julie’s Dance Studio entertain during the second annual Dancing with the Bowling Green Stars fund-raiser Oct. 3, at the Clazel Theatre in Bowling Green.

BLADE PHOTOS BY JEREMY WADSWORTH

S DERIK and BETH UTZ perform during the second annual Danc-ing with the Bowling Green Stars fund-raising event.

S TARI GEER, center, performs with an en-semble from Julie’s Dance Studio during Dancing with the Bowling Green Stars.

S ALYSSA KARAFFA performs during the second annual Danc-ing with the Bowling Green Stars.

T CLAUDE and EARLENE KILPATRICK perform during

the Dancing with the Bowling Green Stars fund-raiser.

PHOTO BY CHRISTINE WEISFELDER

PHOTO BY JOHNNIE LEE EARLY

PHOTO BY JOHNNIE LEE EARLY

W In front from left are DONI MILL-ER, THERESA M. GABRIEL, and ELINOR ALLEN, and back from left are BEN E. WIL-LIAMS, JOHN C. MOORE, and RONALD JACK-SON, the 2015 Hon-orees for the Afri-can American Lega-cy Project Legends Weekend Luncheon.

BLADE PHOTOS BY LORI KING