I Love America

It is about time to celebrate our country’s independence! So on July 4th, if you are in College Station, head to 13th annual College Station Noon Lions Club’s “I Love America” Celebration right around the corner from the Rudder Jessup B&B at the George Bush Presidential Library and Museum. 


From 9:30am to 8:30pm the museum will be open with FREE admission for everyone all day. Historical characters will be mingling with the crowd to pose for photographs and answer questions about their distinguished careers. Bring lawn chairs, picnic baskets and blankets, and arrive early!

Live entertainment will include singer Kathy Ross and Jason Adams as Elvis. There will also be a performance by the Brazos Valley Symphony Orchestra , presented by H-E-B.



Schedule of Events:
7 a.m.: Fourth of July 4K Fun Run, Veterans Park and Athletic Complex (Free event for serious runners, families; strollers welcome, no bikes)

9:30 a.m. George Bush Presidential Library and Museum opens (Free admission all day)

4:30 p.m. Barbara Bush Drive closes; free shuttles begin to museum from West Campus Parking Garage and Reed Arena; handicap parking in Lot 41

5 p.m. Concession stands open and entertainment begins outside the Bush Library and Museum;
-All tickets are $1 each, tickets for concessions are required and can be purchased on-site;
-Concessions include snow cones, ice cream from Schwan's, Slovacek Sausage, beverages from Bryan Coca Cola, free watermelon and more;
-Entertainment includes historical characters and inflatable games;
-Picnics, coolers and lawn chairs are welcome, but please no glass containers or pets

5:30 p.m. Live performance by Kathy Ross

6:00 p.m. Presentation of Colors, national anthem, and F-16 flyover

6:30 p.m. Live performance by Kathy Ross

7:45 p.m. Live performance by Jason Adams as Elvis

8:30 p.m. Bush Library and Museum closes

8:45 p.m. National Anthem

8:50 p.m. Live performance by the Brazos Valley Symphony Orchestra, presented by H-E-B.

9:45 p.m. Laser light show by Nu-Salt Laser Light Shows International begins. Watch a demo video here.



According to the press release: All times and events are subject to change and are weather dependent. Please NO PETS or GLASS CONTAINERS.

Links:
Information about free parking and shuttles

Master of Ceremonies for the event is K.O. of 104.7 The Mix

Event partners:
College Station Noon Lions Club
George Bush Presidential Library and Museum
Texas A&M University
the City of College Station
104.7 The Mix.


Event sponsors:
Arts Council of the Brazos Valley
Brazos Valley Symphony Orchestra
City of Bryan
KAMU
Astin/Winkler Charitable Trusts
Texas Commercial Waste
RDM

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Off to go stock up on some hot dogs to celebrate the 4th...

And remember about our New Student Conference Special!

Sam Houston Sanders Corps of Cadets Center

Last night we had a very special guest stay with us. We were honored to host an active US Marine. It is always an privilege to meet those who are so sacrificially serving our country. Our most recent guest currently resides in Camp Lejeune, NC, with his wife and we want to thank Joseph and Kristen for their patriotism and commitment to our country.

Joseph and Kristen both attended Texas A&M, and Joseph was a member of the Corps of Cadets so I’m sure he visited the Sam Houston Sanders Corps of Cadets Center on campus. The Corps Center is located on the east side of the University Center Parking Garage and is open on Monday through Friday from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM, and on special event weekends, such as game days and Parent's Weekend.

Since opening on November 2, 1992, the Sam Houston Sanders Corps of Cadets Center has allowed visitors to experience the Corps of Cadets through a  museum that is home to thousands of Aggie artifacts and a library with over 3,000 military research volumes.

The Metzger-Sanders gun collection is the most famous exhibit. This collection is nationally known and continously used for historical research. And that exhibit is just one of more than 60 found at the Corps of Cadet center! Plus there are over 600 photographs and thousands of pieces of memorabilia are on display. In the midst of the memorabilia, there are exhibits dedicated to various university-wide traditions, including the 12th Man, Silver Taps and Muster, as well as some of the Corps' most cherished traditions, such as the Aggie Band, Final Review, Fish Drill Team, Parsons Mounted Cavalry and Ross Volunteers.

If you are interested in the military, the Corps, or just A&M in general, please pay a visit to the Sanders Corps of Cadets center.

Also, join me in thanking anyone you know or meet in the military for serving our country...

You may have missed...
New Student Conference Special
University Summer Performance Series

Appelt Aggieland Visitor Center

We have met so many new faces at the B&B this summer thanks to New Student Conferences, and it is so exciting to be able to greet these new Aggies and their families as they prepare to transition to Aggieland. In light of the fact that A&M has a huge campus, and that it is hard to navigate if you don’t have a clue where you are going, I thought I would highlight the Appelt Aggieland Visitor Center this week.


The visitor center’s services include: tours, videos, exhibits and visit coordination with other campus groups. They are located on the first floor of Rudder Tower in the Memorial Student Center Complex.

To all our new Aggies I highly suggest taking a campus tour. When you take a campus tour you take a guided 90-minute walk through main campus. With an overview of academics, history, traditions, and campus life at A&M, this tour is the heart of every campus visit. All of these tours begin at the Appelt Aggieland Visitor Center.

Hint: If you take one of these tours
#1 Wear good walking shoes
#2 Remember that this is Texas and it’s hot, dress accordingly
#3 Bring water!

For other information about planning your visit to campus, visit these websites.  
http://visit.tamu.edu/visits/
http://visit.tamu.edu/planning/

Visitor Center’s Hours:
Monday - Friday: 8 am – 5 pm
Saturday: Closed, except on game days
Sunday: Closed

Now, I’m off to go try and beat the heat...

And for all of you who are the class of 2015 and headed to Aggieland, don’t forget our New Student Conference Special.

And for anyone in Aggieland don’t forget:
University Summer Performance Series 2011

Texas A&M Sports Musuem

Texas A&M University  has winning tradition, especially of late, in athletics.  A&M’s titles so far this year include: Men's Outdoor Track & Field - National Champions 2011, Women's Outdoor Track & Field - National Champions 2011, Women's Basketball - National Champions 2011, Men's Tennis Doubles- National Champions 2011, and Equestrian - Western Team National Champions 2011. A&M is bringing in the trophies. So to highlight the athletic program I thought I would tell you about the Texas A&M Sports Museum that is right around the corner from the Rudder Jessup B&B.

I came to A&M as a girl who was raised in an Aggie family never even imagining going to another school, but I think that even if I wasn’t raised an Aggie this school would’ve drawn me in with its homey atmosphere, friendly demeanor, and rich traditions. This museum highlights those things. It will help you see that nothing beats the excitement of standing amidst the 12^th Man in Kyle Field. It will give you a respect for the revelry of the historic Aggie Bonfire, and it will bring to life the resounding yells of the student body.

Fittingly, the museum is located in the Bernard C. Richardson Zone at Kyle Field. Using photos, film, artifacts, and computer databases for interactive displays, this museum presents the story of A&M’s men’s and women’s varsity sports. Plus this experience is free of charge for all visitors to campus.

The Texas A&M Sports Museum has the distinction of being the nation's only all-sports museum funded primarily by former athletes.

When visitors come into the "Zone" they will enter a large lobby area, common to both the museum and the 12th Man Foundation, which features rotating exhibits focusing on sports at Texas A&M University. From there, visitors can enter the museum. The Spirit of Aggieland is the thing they see upon entering. This includes a donor wall and introductory exhibits to the Sports Museum. Visitors will experience several different exhibits in the Museum including the Timewall, Legends Gallery, Sport-by-Sport Perimeter Displays, and Interactive Computers.

Hours of Operation:

Monday-Friday: 9am-5pm

Saturday: 9am-Kick-off (Football Home Games Only)

I'm off to get ready to root for our baseball team in the College World Series...

Don't forget our New Student Conference Special

And coming up:
Special Olympics Equestrian
University Summer Performance Series

The Heart Truth® Red Dress Collection and First Ladies Red Dress Collection.

*information modified from this article

Since October of 2010, the George Bush Presidential Library and Museum's Ansary Gallery has had 12 celebrity red dresses and 13 First Ladies’ red dresses on display. This dress collection is called "The Heart Truth® Red Dress Collection and First Ladies Red Dress Collection.”

The Organization: The Heart Truth® is a national awareness campaign for women about heart disease sponsored by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

The Dresses: From the Red Dress Collection Fashion Show, held annually in New York City, the Red Dress Collection is a compilation of twelve dresses worn by Dara Torres, Lee Ann Womack, Danica Patrick, Valerie Bertinelli, Paula Zahn, Robin Roberts, Christie Brinkley, Heidi Klum, Allison Janney, Vanessa Williams, Felicity Huffman, and Katie Couric.

From the 13 Presidential Libraries of the National Archives and Records Administration, this collection, originally initiated by The Heart Truth® Founding Ambassador Laura Bush, the First Ladies' Red Dress Collection highlights some rarely seen gowns, including a dress belonging to Jacqueline Kennedy. Other featured First Ladies also include Lou Hoover, Eleanor Roosevelt, Bess Truman, Mamie Eisenhower, Lady Bird Johnson, Pat Nixon, Betty Ford, Rosalynn Carter, Nancy Reagan, Barbara Bush, Hillary Clinton and Laura Bush.

Other Components: There will also be educational interactives and information about heart related issues such as high blood pressure, stroke, diabetes, obesity and healthy lifestyles. These were birthed out of an unprecedented partnership with the Texas A&M Health Science Center. Visitors will enter an emergency room bay and learn how to resuscitate a heart attack victim. Another station will teach how to hear heart and breath sounds. There will also be risk screenings for diabetes, body mass index, and heart disease due to smoking.

This exhibit is available for viewing from now until August 14, 2011. For the hours of operation and admission costs click here.

Next time you are in College Station, book a room at Rudder Jessup B&B and then drive the 6 minutes to George Bush Library and check out this great collection!

I’m off to go do some cardio to get my heart pumping…

BenchMARKING the Arts

In celebration of 40 years of arts advocacy in our area, the Arts Council of theBrazos Valley  is presenting BenchMARKINGthe Arts. We at Rudder Jessup are excited to see this presentation of different facets of our community through art work on benches found around the area. We want to encourage our guests to visit these benches so that they can see and appreciate the generosity of bench sponsors, and the talent of professional artists around the Brazos Valley. All proceeds from the program support the ACBV and their operations and programs, as well as local artists.


Read with caution, here comes Emilee's opinion section:

My top 3 benches are:

1.  #17 “Hill Country Heaven”

Location: Birdwell &Wright Dentistry

Sponsor: William R. Birdwell, DDS

Artist: Scott McDermott

 

Why I like this: I love driving around the Hill Country and seeing the tall grass infused with blue bonnets. So this bench just really grabbed me. I love its raw depiction of one of my favorite scenes and how this bench represents this area so well.

2. #2 “The Fantastic Alchemy of Life”

Location: BV Museum of Natural History

Sponsors: Becky & B. Don Russell in Loving Memory of Bernice & Paul Crawford

Artist: Jason Hancock






Why I like this: When looking at the brochure, this bench jumped out at me with its realism. Two of my favorite things, books and trees are depicted on this bench. I could just crawl inside this picture and curl up under that tree and read all day.

3. [picture] #10 “Modern Mondrian” 

Location: GLP Technologies

Sponsor: GLP Technologies
Artist: Greta Watkins








Why I like this: In general I steer more towards traditional and vintage things, so I surprised myself when I like this modern art bench. But the great hues of green and red, along with the wonderful variation in block shapes really drew me towards this bench and I couldn’t resist putting it on my top 3 list.

So, on your next visit to the Bryan College Station book a room at the Rudder Jessup B&B, grab a map, and go explore to see what our local artists have in store for you as they go about representing the Brazos Valley.

Excuse me as I am off to cover the margins of my to do list with my now inspired doodles…

Don’t forget our New Student Conference Special!

Special Olympics Equestrian

Not only does the Brazos Valley offer a variety of interesting people, but we have many great venues to hold events in. The Rudder Jessup B&B is a great place to host luncheons or showers, but we can’t accommodate a slew of horses and riders like the Brazos County Expo can.

The Expo offers three venues for hosting small and large-scale events. One of those events coming up is the Special Olympics Equestrian games on June 17-19. These games include: Drill Team, English Equitation, Western Equitation, Working Trails, Team Relays/Unified Sports Relays, Dressage, Showmanship, Western Riding, Pole Bending, Barrel Racing, Figure 8 Stake Race and Prix Caprilli events.

As listed on their website, the mission of Special Olympics Texas is to provide year-round sports training and athletic competition in a variety of Olympic-type sports for children and adults with intellectual disabilities, giving them continuing opportunities to develop physical fitness, demonstrate courage, experience joy and participate in the sharing of gifts, skills and friendship with their families, other Special Olympics athletes and the community.

Now, why am I sharing this information with you? I’m sharing this information to tell you about the opportunity we all have to volunteer at this event. No, this is not my usual entertainment focused blog entry, but I think that volunteering at this event could be a vastly more rewarding use of your time than another event I have written about. So are you ready for Summer Games 2011?

The Special Olympics stance on volunteers is that without their dedication, the athletes would not be able to compete to their fullest abilities or experience the joys that come from participating in Special Olympics. Every volunteer with their own gifts and contributions makes a difference whether they are coaching or serving refreshments.

So what would you be doing? Well, if you just volunteer for this event you would probably be operating as a runner, work crew member, escort, awards volunteer, or something else of that nature. You will be enabling parents and coaches to focus on the athletes and helping to make the event a smooth process.

Or you can join the 44,000 other Texans and volunteer year-round. Special Olympics Texas provides year-round training and competition for athletes across Texas, which means you can participate all the time! 

Click here to look for your Special Olympics Texas Area Office.

Sign up to volunteer and book a room at Rudder Jessup so you can recharge and refuel after day one, so you can head to day two at the top of your game!

I’m off to go research what all these events are so I will not be out of the loop come June 17^th…

For more information:

BrazosCounty Expo FAQs
BrazosCounty Expo Calendar
SpecialOlympics Texas Summer Games Information  
SpecialOlympics Volunteer Roles

You should also check out:

Classic Film Series
StarlightMusic Festival
University Summer Performance Series 2011

And don’t forget our New Student Conference Special!

Classic Film Series

We are fortunate to have had George H. W. Bush choose to build his Presidential Library in our community. There are so many events happening this summer at the library and I will highlight some of those on this blog. For a full schedule of events please go check out the George Bush Presidential Library and Museum's website.

The first event I will highlight will be not just a singular event, but a series! It caters to all you classic film buffs, or maybe not even buffs, but anyone who enjoys a throwback movie every once and a while. The Bush Library and Museum, and the Bush Library Foundation are presenting the Classic Film Series!

If you are in the Brazos Valley as a guest of Rudder Jessup B&B on any of these three dates, you don’t want to miss these movies! This will be better than going to the theatre, because these are free of charge! Also, beverages (courtesy of Bryan Coca Cola Bottling Company), and popcorn are going to be available at no cost. These refreshments will be available in the lobby in the hour preceding the start of each movie. All films are shown just six minutes away from the B&B at the Annenberg Presidential Conference Center's Hagler Auditorium, unless otherwise noted, and a speaker introduces each film. Just like at Rudder Jessup B&B, parking is free and plentiful. For more information, please call Tracy at (979) 691-4014.

Here is the Film Schedule and Rundown:

I'm No Angel

June 9, 2011, 7 p.m.

(1933, 87 minutes, Color)

Directed by Wesley Ruggles

The bold Tira works as dancing beauty and lion tamer at a fair. Out of an urgent need of money, she agrees to a risky new number: she'll put her head into a lion's muzzle! With this attraction the circus makes it to New York and Tira can pursue her dearest occupation: flirting with rich men and accepting expensive presents. Among the guys she searches the love of her life, from whom she only knows from a fortune-teller that he'll be rich and have black hair. When she finally meets him, she becomes a victim of intrigue.

 How to Marry a Millionaire

July 14, 2011, 7 p.m.

(1953, 95 minutes, Color)

Directed by Jean Negulesco

Three New York models (Marilyn Monroe, Betty Grable and Lauren Bacall) set up an apartment with a mission: They plan to use their looks, charm and talent to catch and marry a trio of millionaires. The gold-digging dames’ outrageous man-hunting scheme does attract wealthy candidates, but, love and money don’t appear to coexist; all three women must choose between the extremes.

Charade

August 4, 2011, 7 p.m.

(1963, 113 minutes, Color)

Directed by Stanley Donen

Cary Grant starts as Peter, who may or may not be a flimflam man who aids the recently widowed Regina (Audrey Hepburn) in her mission to recover a fortune hidden by her late husband. But three sinister crooks (Walter Matthau, James Coburn and George Kennedy) – who’ll stop at nothing – also covet the loot. A cast of legendary stars has chemistry to burn in director Stanley Donen’s suave comedy with an Oscar-nominated score by Henry Mancini.

I’ve had Charade on my Hulu queue for months now, but I think I’ll wait to go watch it on a big screen. Cary Grant cannot be shown on too big of a screen! I haven’t seen nearly enough of his movies, and this series will be a good dose of Mr. Grant since he is not only in Charade, but I’m No Angel as well. I suggest you visit College Station, see these films, and then come collapse into one of the plush beds here at Rudder Jessup B&B to dream yourself back in time into an old film scenario. The next morning you can wake up relaxed, refreshed, and ready for breakfast (which we happen to be pros at). Plus these movies would be a nice supplement to the activities offered by the University for new Aggies taking advantage of our New Student Conference Special. Give me a reason why you shouldn’t come!

Personally, I’m off to go see how many other Cary Grant movies I can add to my Hulu queue…

Other events coming up:

June 4- Starlight Music Festival
June 6- University Summer Performance Series 2011