Lexington, KY - Recently, organizations have really latched on to claiming certain days or months for their own marketing purposes. When I was growing up, February was Black History Month and December was Christmas Month. Now, to name a few recent additions, January is Hot Tea Month and August is Hair Loss Awareness Month. Special months have gotten so numerous that warmer months, like June, have to share their days with as many as two dozen other special causes (like Ratings Awareness Month).
Special days have gotten even more absurd. There's Stop Police Brutality Day (Oct. 22), World Belly Dance Day (May 9) and I Love Nachos Day (Nov. 6). More interesting, all of these days have official Web sites where you can host your own local event.
While such novelties are great for teachers' planning books, they're also good devices when brainstorming magazine articles. I can't wait to see what sort of material we'll be able to drum up for National Talk Like a Pirate Day (Sept. 19).
While April is host to such notorious events as Irritable Bowel Syndrome Month and National High Five Day (April 17), more sensibly, it is also National Poetry Month, and Arbor Day is officially celebrated on the fourth Friday of the month, which will be April 24. I guess the organizers of Reforest the Bluegrass, where volunteers will plant thousands of trees in Shillito Park this year, scheduled for April 11, didn't want to compete with last-second Keeneland enthusiasts.
To mark this literary occasion, editor Saraya Brewer presents an accomplished survey of the writing scene in Lexington. You'll meet our current Poet Laureate, Jane Gentry Vance, whose two-year term comes to an end when Lexington author Gurney Norman will assume the role in a ceremony in Frankfort on April 24 (Kentucky Writers Day), as well as Katerina Stoykova-Klemer, host of the popular writing group Poezia. Also included in the article is a plethora of information for anybody interested in flexing their creative muscles and getting involved in all sorts of literary endeavors.
In a nod to Arbor Day, I introduce readers to certified arborist Dave Leonard, who has over 30 years of experience planting, pruning and preparing people for proper tree care. Sara Hesley, an employee with Leonard's business, Dave Leonard Consulting Arborist, Inc., has submitted an immensely valuable piece on the benefits of trees (aside from creating oxygen) as well as some tips on planting them, should you feel inclined to add one to your landscape in celebration of Arbor Day. Hesley's piece is all the more relevant given the destruction we all witnessed to our wooded friends during this recent ice storm.
As a part of our second installment of Home & Garden sections, Saraya has scoured some of the area's garden centers to see what the word on the flowerbed is regarding sustainable and resourceful gardening techniques. Most people wouldn't consider gardening to be a field where innovation grows like tomatoes on the vine, but as you will read, you can help stem the tide of many of our city's environmental problems, such as with storm water runoff, by helping out in your backyard.
Even though October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, we couldn't wait to tell you about Chad Walker and his upcoming surreal, cross-country adventure on a pink motor scooter to raise money for Susan G. Komen for the Cure. In terms of fundraising efforts, I don't think I've ever seen anything as clever, or ludicrous.
We hope you take the opportunity to get out there and enjoy some of the more unconventional holidays and events that accompany Poetry Month and Arbor Day in April - there's one for as many days as there are in the month. In the meantime, Saraya and I are in the process of organizing the first National Editor Appreciation Day.