Sunday, Apr. 20, 2008

Community Briefing

NATIONAL DAY OF SILENCE: Local high school Gay-Straight Alliance groups and the Stanislaus PRIDE Center will mark this year's National Day of Silence with two consecutive evening events at the King Kennedy Center, 601 N. Martin Luther King Drive in Modesto. Both events will be at 6:30 p.m. The cost is $2 for students and $5 for adults. Thursday, the traveling youth performing arts group, YouthAware, will perform its new play, "Outspoken." There will be a post-show question-and-answer session with the cast and director. Friday, a GSA-led "Make Some Noise Rally" will take place. The rally will feature students from local high schools, who will bring a close to National Day of Silence activities. The event is sponsored by Stanislaus PRIDE and the King-Kennedy board of directors. National Day of Silence is a student-led day of action in which concerned students, from middle school to college, take some form of a vow of silence to bring attention to name-calling, bullying and harassment experienced by gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender students and allies. This year's events will be in memory of Lawrence King. Police say the California eighth-grader was shot and killed Feb. 12 by a classmate because of his sexual orientation and gender expression.

POKER RUN: The Stanislaus Mobilehomeowners-Advocates will have a motorcycle poker run Saturday to raise money for the group's efforts to get rent control ordinances in the county. The cost is $20, which includes the poker run, a barbecue dinner, music and dancing. Entrants must be at least 21 years old. Pins will be given to the first 200 entries. The event will take place at 10 a.m. at Nino's Place,

5219 McHenry Ave., Modesto. For more information, call Lynda Rigney, 524-6711.