Clients in the News – March 2013

Here’s a wrap-up of what some of Avalon’s clients have been up to lately:

• In early March, John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts President Michael M. Kaiser announced programming for the 2013-2014 season. As usual, with theater, jazz, the National Symphony, the Washington National Opera, ballet, modern dance, and family programming, and more, there’s something for everyone at the Kennedy Center! Season highlights include musicals like Disney’s The Lion King and Sister Act, the International Theater Festival, the Bolshoi Ballet, One Mic: Hip-Hop Culture Worldwide, and Renee Fleming: American Voices.  To see a list of all performances, visit the Kennedy Center’s website.
• Have you seen the American Horticultural Society’s new website? Of course, it’s chock full of the gorgeous photos of gardens and landscaping that you’d expect. But you must also check out AHS’s Travel Study program, which includes domestic trips like Historic Homes and Gardens of the Colonial South, and international destinations like Gardens of the Northern Italian Lakes, and Gardens of Southern Spain. Also the new listing of gardening books recommended by AHS, as well as descriptions of AHS’s Youth and Nature programs, and its spectacular setting for weddings and events. The new website is here!
• Check out the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s new website, with a whole host of ways to get involved, and learn more about keeping our kids safer. From online safety to reasons child victims stay silent…to new developments in how to search for missing autistic children…to the recent Safe to Compete summit on protecting child athletes from sexual abuse…to new, inventive ways that law enforcement and NCMEC are helping find lost or exploited children…this website brings together the state-of-the-art technological, educational, and commonsense ways we can all work to keep kids safer.
• I’m writing this in the midst of a historic week for LGBT people, and people who believe in fairness. This week, the Supreme Court is hearing oral arguments on two cases related to marriage equality, which will decide whether same-sex couples will have the same freedoms as everyone else under the law. In an email to supporters, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Executive Director Rea Carey rallied the troops to attend 60 Task Force events around the country this week, as well as outside the Supreme Court. Carey wrote in her email: “Every event moves us one step closer to equality…and show[s] the nation freedom means freedom for all, including same sex couples.” For more on these two historic Supreme Court cases, go to the Task Force’s website.