10-14-2011 Oct. 23 celebration set for All-America City designation

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p�spV Ty g�� 4 � U d W rencc y 1565 Office of the Mayor NEWS RELEASE October 14,2011 1:00 PM Contact: Mikki Dobski, Director of Communications&Special Projects, 235-5855 or 876-1564 Oct. 23 celebration set for All-America City designation A community celebration of South Bend's All-America City designation will take place at 3:30 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 23 at the Palais Royale, 105 W. Colfax Ave. Admission is free. The event will feature a live performance by the Pathfinders Drum Corps of the Berean Seventh-day Adventist Church in South Bend as well as brief presentations by each of the three award-winning projects. The Pathfinders Drum Corps,which mixes drumming and movement and is directed by Herbert Henley Jr.,was featured in two public performances during the 2011 All-America City Awards in Kansas City,Mo. South Bend was selected June 17 as an All-America City for 2011,winning the nation's oldest and most prestigious community award,often described as"a civic Oscar."A national panel of jurors chose South Bend and nine other cities from among 26 finalists. South Bend's application highlighted three projects, and its 60-member delegation included representatives of each of these groups: • Revitalization of the Northeast Neighborhood, in which neighborhood residents,the City of South Bend,the University of Notre Dame and other key partners redeveloped the area near campus. (This effort recently received the National League of Cities' 2010 Gold Award of Municipal Excellence.) • Transformation of the former Engman Natatorium, a public facility that was a landmark of segregation, into the Indiana University South Bend Civil Rights Heritage Center,into a symbol of hope and opportunity as part of the city's museum campus. • Development of 2120 STARS,a grassroots effort among a coalition of parachurch agencies, student volunteers and others to create a peer-to-peer intervention effort to reduce high-school dropout rates.