UAB Briefs: LOCAL 2019 set for June 15 at the Alys Stephens Center
Welcome to another installment of UAB Briefs.
In this weekly online feature, we keep track of interesting people and events on campus.
In a little over a week, attendees can celebrate the coming of summer by attending the annual LOCAL festival on campus.
UAB has lots of camps for the kids this summer.
And a cancer researcher has been awarded a much-needed grant.
Know people, places and programs on the UAB campus that deserve a mention? Email jchambers@starnespublishing.com.
GOING LOCAL
The Alys Stephens Performing Arts Center at UAB will host its sixth annual LOCAL festival — a free, outdoor, family-friendly event — on Saturday, June 15.
LOCAL 2019 is billed as a celebration of everything Alabama, including music, food and other products.
This year’s festival will begin at 5 p.m. on the ASC’s Engel Plaza.
The entertainment includes performances by Ingrid Marie at 6 p.m., singer-songwriter Evan Pezant at 7 p.m. and headliner Act of Congress at 8 p.m.
Food trucks announced so far include City Bowls, Eugene’s Hot Chicken, Pazzo Big Slice Pizza and The Heavenly Donut Co.
There will also be nearly 20 vendors, offering everything from paper products and jewelry to crafts, clothing and prepared foods.
There were about 25 vendors and a kids zone, which included face painting, a balloon artist and art activities, at last year's LOCAL.
The Alys Stephens Center is located at 1200 10th Ave S.
For more information about LOCAL 2019, including a list of vendors, call 975-2787 or go to alysstephens.org/events/local-2019.
SUMMER FUN
Numerous UAB departments are gearing up to host summer camps for children in 2019, giving them a chance to have a lot of fun while also developing skills they can carry into adulthood.
And the kids who take part can benefit in a variety of ways, according to Dr. Candice Dye, assistant director of the UAB Department of Pediatrics Residency Program.
“Meeting other children and engaging with them in play and learning are beneficial to a child’s growth and development,” Dye said in a UAB news release.
If a camp encourages children to be active, it “helps them from becoming ‘couch potatoes’ during summer break,” she said,
There are also some “specialty camps” in particular areas, such as theatre or sports, that can give “a child an outlet to explore their interest,” Dye said.
There are unique, participatory camps at UAB this summer covering chemistry and materials engineering, as well as pre-law, criminal justice, crime solving and preventing cyber crime.
ArtPlay will offer visual arts camps where children can learn about drawing, painting, sculpture and crafts.
There will be a symphonic band camp and two musical theater camps where students will put on their own productions of either “Legally Blonde” or “101 Dalmatians.”
At the UAB Rec Camp, students can swim, climb an indoor rock wall, take fitness classes and play other sports and games.
For a complete list of camps with details about registration, go to uab.edu/summer.
CANCER GRANT
A third-year fellow in the UAB Division of Pediatric Hematology and Oncology will continue his cancer research using a new grant from the St. Baldrick’s Foundation, the largest private funder of childhood cancer research.
Dr. Aman Wadhwa received a grant for $195,000 from the foundation, according to a UAB news release.
He will use the grant to look at a possible link between the body composition of children with cancer at the time of diagnosis with chemotherapy-related side effects and survival.
“This grant will assist us greatly in completing our studies within the next two years,” Wadhwa said in the release.
The grant will help him examine factors that increase the risk of treatment-related side effects in children battling cancer, particularly hematologic malignancies.
St. Baldrick’s seeks is to provide the money needed to train early career scientists in the pediatric cancer field.
Upon completion of his fellowship in June, Wadhwa will continue serving in the Division of Pediatric Hematology and Oncology and will also be an instructor at the UAB Institute for Cancer Outcomes and Survivorship.
For a complete list of institutions receiving this year’s grant, visit stbaldricks.org.