Local musicians Josh Rzepka and Scott Stein will perform a concert at Tangier March 3 at 9 p.m. The concert features all original music performed by Rzepka, Stein and their bands, as well as students from Firestone and Copley high schools. Proceeds from the event will be donated to the music programs of Firestone and Copley High Schools.

Recent winner of the 2011 AAAA (Akron Area Arts Alliance) Rising Young Star Award, Rzepka, an '02 graduate of Firestone High School, will be joined by his band as well as students from Firestone's jazz band performing original compositions from his two CDs "Into the Night," and "Midwest Coast."

Stein, an '01 graduate of Copley High School, will perform original compositions with his band as well as with students from the Copley High School choral program. Stein is currently based in New York City, where he performs with numerous bands and works as an accompanist and music director for numerous choral ensembles.

Attention nonprofits: if you want to make an impact on your donors and with your planned giving programs, it helps to be edgy, said Viken Mikaelian, founder of plannedgiving.com.

Some nonprofits center their missions on emotional stories and issues, and Mikaelian recommends shaking up the potential donor a bit, using anger, empathy or other emotions to stir up passion for your organization.

“You’ve got to have an edge in your marketing,” said Mikaelian, who also has published “Planned Giving Tomorrow,” a marketing resource for planned giving geared toward nonprofit and fundraising professionals. “The more you push, the more you are going to pull.”

Mr. Zub’s chef Micah Townsend loves movies. In fact, every dish in his restaurant is named after a film or film character. Now his newest creation, The Akron Film Burger, is available to the public.

The sandwich was created in honor of the 2011 Akron Film+Pixel Festival (formerly the Akron Film Festival), which will take place at the Akron Art Museum (1 South High St., Akron, OH) Oct. 6 through 9.

“We try to use our vast knowledge of modern and independent films to create a memorable experience to go with our fresh food,” said Townsend. “This is a great sandwich, and we want customers to associate it with our local film festival.”

A nationally recognized landscape designer from Akron has been selected to participate on a panel of experts called the “Ground Crew.” Sabrena Schweyer, APLD, co-owner of the Akron-based firm Salsbury-Schweyer, Inc, has joined six garden authorities to answer questions in a weekly Cleveland Plain Dealer column.

“Ask the Ground Crew” explores community questions about garden and landscape plants, pests and best practices for creating and maintaining outstanding outdoor spaces in the Northeast Ohio region. Schweyer, the Ground Crew’s only professional landscape designer, is a recognized expert in sustainable residential landscape design.

The Association of Professional Landscape Designers (APLD) recently named Akron landscape designer, Samuel L. Salsbury, as a Fellow at its annual International Landscape Design Conference in Cleveland. The Fellow membership was presented to Salsbury for demonstrating a mastery of design exemplified by the creation of significant projects that have advanced the art, stewardship and social responsibility of landscape design; and for demonstrating a significant commitment of time and energy to the advancement of the APLD and the profession.

Putting fresh, local, sustainably grown vegetables on the table of everyone in our community is the aim of an organization called City Fresh.

City Fresh is a Cuyahoga County nonprofit program of the New Agrarian Center that supports the creation of a sustainable local food system in Northeast Ohio. Founded by Brad Masi, the program was meant to address the needs of those who are most at-risk within our community.

The New Agrarian Center is committed to building a stronger and more sustainable regional food system in Northeast Ohio: a food system that promotes health in the broadest sense of the word -- healthy land, healthy communities, healthy individuals and a healthy economy.

Akron-based Packard Institute hits the trail June 11

Working with adolescents who have substance abuse problems can be an arduous journey for any practitioner. But Raynard Dean Packard’s recovery space will encompass mountains, winding trails and wildlife rather than plush couches and doctors.

Packard, CEO and director of Akron nonprofit counseling agency the Packard Institute, and his recovery group of adolescents and young adults will hike the Appalachian Trail starting June 11, an excursion that celebrates the transitions of the young participants.

“By transitions, I mean staying clean and sober could be one,” said Packard. “But we have other kids who are overcoming some astonishing barriers in life, whether it’s poverty or abuse within the family or post traumatic stress disorder, or a combination of these things.”

Harvest Home women gather to make handbags for residency program

When Tracy Brown gets together with other women for the Lydia's Purse program, it brings her back to the days when she used to sew with her grandmother.

Brown, a resident of the Harvest Home women's shelter, meets with volunteers and others weekly to pore over patterns, thread and sewing machines to create handbags for the residency program, which is the women and children's division of Haven of Rest Ministries. And during this time, the line between homeless resident, volunteer and staff blur into a truly communal experience.

“We get to know each other; everybody’s not alone,” said Brown.

Beacon Journal managing editor discusses growing up in Akron in the 1960s, 1970s

Doug Oplinger grew up in the 1960s in Springfield Township, in a working class neighborhood whose place in the Akron area was neither racially nor politically secure. To illustrate Akron’s view of Springfield during this time, a local newspaper headline about the Springfield Spartans beating Akron’s Central High School in a basketball playoff game read: “Hicks beat Central.”

At the Summit County Historical Society’s recent annual meeting, Oplinger, managing editor for the Akron Beacon Journal, delivered a moving speech, at times fighting back tears as he candidly discussed the political and sociological climate in the ’60s and ’70s, from the infamous Kent State University shootings to the area’s strained race relations, whose coverage led to him receiving a Pulitzer Prize.

Akron dance experience and lunar phenomenon mingle for an enigmatic evening

When someone asks you to cover a piece on a group of women in Akron who get together to dance with no boys, no booze and no judgment, you have to be intrigued. Then when they tell you that they dance to homemade music mixes with no teacher, no talking and not even looking at one another, you have to wonder what you have gotten yourself into!

Dance Dance Party Party (DDPP©) is a national organization of women with regional clubs in cities such as New York City, Chicago and even Toronto. It caters to women of all ages, shapes and sizes who want to come to a safe and comfortable environment to dance without the pressure or awkwardness of dealing with men in the bar or nightclub scene. One wears what makes you happy, whether it is a gym outfit or dressed up for a Friday night. This club asks for a donation of $2 to cover the studio rental and snacks were available for under $1.