Jeff Karr, Emily’s dad (Emily works at the Baum Center), is bringing his band to the Outer Banks for our enjoyment.

They will appear Kelly’s Outer Banks Tavern on Sunday Jan 22 at 4 p.m. There will also be a silent auction and when you buy a $5 ticket, you will be automatically entered into a drawing for a wine tasting (for 12 at “Trio,” native Vine’s new location in Kitty Hawk. For tickets or more information call Gail Sonnesso, GEM executive director, at 480-3354 or visit Emily at the Baum Center or visit the band’s website at  www.morecowbelltheband.com. 

A potluck luncheon for seniors will be held at the Baum Center this Friday, Dec. 2, at 10 a.m.

There will be jazz and tap dancers performing in addition to musical entertainment. Please bring a covered dish.

Dare Hospice, in collaboration with Gallop Funeral Services and Twiford Funeral Homes, invite you to attend the 10th annual memorial service on Sunday, December 11, from 2-4pm in The Gallery at The Roanoke Island Festival Park. The group will be honoring your loved one with ritual and remembrance. You will be in the company of others who have lost loved ones whether it is a new loss or long ago. Participants will support each other as they navigate these holidays without their partner, parent, child or friend.

Resources on loss and grief will be available. Light refreshments will be served and a time of gathering so that you may connect with others who are on a similar journey through grief. It is a sharing time, a comforting time, a time of re-assurance. It is recognition of your loss and a celebration of the life of your loved one. You will leave with a token of remembrance.

For more information about the memorial service or hospice services, please contact the Dare County Department of Public Health’s Dare Hospice Nursing director, Ellie Ward, at (252) 475-5034.

The 108th celebration of powered flight will be held at the Wright Brothers National Memorial in Kill Devil Hills Saturday, Dec. 17, beginning at 8:30 a.m. Each year the highlight of the event is the featured military flyover. Military aircraft, weather permitting will make a low pass over the Wright Monument at exactly 10:35 a.m., which was the time if the Wright brothers first flight in 1903. There will also be a separate fly-over by civilian planes later in the day. In addition, the event will feature a wreath laying ceremony in which descendants of those who witnessed the first flight lay wreaths at the marker where the flight occurred.

The first United States Navy ace, Lieutenant David Ingalls, will be inducted into the First Flight Shrine at this year’s event. A portrait of Ingalls will be unveiled and hung in the Paul E. Garber First Flight Shrine. The keynote address will be given by the director of the Joint Staff at the Pentagon, Vice Admiral William E. Gortney of the United States Navy. A historical account of the Wright brothers’ first flight will be given by National Parks Service historian, Darrell Collins.

The 2011 event marks the 100th Anniversary of United States Naval Aviation. After successfully landing an aircraft on a ship for the first time in January 1911, the United States Navy ordered its first aircraft on May 8, 1911. That naval aircraft’s maiden flight was on July 1, 1911 by Lieutenant Ted Ellyson, Naval Aviator #1. The first Navy ace and 2011 inductee into the First Flight Shrine, Lieutenant David Ingalls, downed five planes and a balloon in World War I, and was the only Navy ace from that war.

Each year a ceremony is held on December 17th to commemorate an achievement that changed the modern world. On December 17, 1903 Orville and Wilbur Wright completed the first powered flight near Kitty Hawk in what is now the town of Kill Devil Hills. The annual ceremony includes local and national dignitaries, military officials, school children, and others who are passionate about aviation. A military fly-over, the induction of a historical figure from aviation into the First Flight Shrine, and the laying of a wreath at the boulder marking the site of the first flight are all included in the annual celebration. It is an inspiring event in celebration of a historic accomplishment.

Wright Brothers National Memorial Park entry fees are waived for the morning of December 17, so attending the ceremony will be free of charge. For more information about his year’s event, visit the event page on Facebook at www.facebook.com.FirstFlightCelebration.

The 3rd annual Hatteras Connection seafood dinner to benefit the Hatteras Island Food Pantry and Hatteras Meals, Inc. will be Tuesday, December 6, at the Hatteras Village Civic Center. The menu includes local fish, seafood chowder, roasted potatoes, cole slaw, corn bread, iced tea, and dessert. Tickets are available for a $10 donation, and guests also are asked to bring one non-perishable food item or personal care product to the dinner for the food pantry. Meals will be served between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. Hatteras Island commercial fishermen and charter-boat captains are donating fish for the dinner. A team of local chefs, with support from talented home cooks and bakers, will prepare the food.

Last year the event raised nearly $2500, and collected more than ten fish boxes of items that helped stock the shelves at the food pantry for the winter season. Tickets will be sold in advance until December 4, and are available at Island Convenience in Rodanthe, Dare Building Supply in Waves, Sun Realty in Avon, Buxton Village Books, Frisco Rod and Gun, and Oden’s Dock in Hatteras. For the convenience of “off-island” guests, reservations can be made by contacting Susan West, Hatteras Connection coordinator, at ridgeroad@earthlink.net or 252-995-4131. (Courtesy www.obxCommonGood.org)