Jeff Silver, local AllState businessman, presents a check to MaryAnne Metheny, CEO of Hope House, on behalf of AllState Foundation. In 2012-2013 alone, AllState Foundation has provided over $19 million dollars to nonprofit organizations that local AllState volunteers nominate.

Six Lee’s Summit R-7 School District high school seniors were recently named April Optimist Students of the Month by the Lee’s Summit Breakfast Optimist Club. The club honors six seniors each month for outstanding scholarship and citizenship.

Visitors are invited to Downtown Lee’s Summit’s Farmers Market Spring Celebration from 7 a.m. to noon, May 11, at the corner of Second and Douglas streets. The free celebration includes live entertainment, craft activities for children, balloon animals, face painting and more. A “pop-up art show,” called the Lexicon of Sustainability, a photography exhibit of 24 photographs taken by Douglas Gayeton, also will be featured. Each image includes handwritten notes regarding sustainable food and aims to define principles of sustainable food systems. The exhibit is made possible by Cultivate KC. For more information, visit cultivatekc.org.

A Lee’s Summit girl will benefit from the generosity of others after being awarded a grant from Watermark for Kids.

The Lee’s Summit Symphony is celebrating its 10th anniversary with a special concert at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts.

More than 50 children participated in “Take Your Child to Work” day April 25 at Lee’s Summit Medical Center. Teen volunteers, professionals from the hospital and the Lee’s Summit Fire Department lead groups of children visiting stations to learn about health care professions including emergency/trauma, cardiovascular, surgical, and rehabilitation care. Pictured Adrian Collins, David Jensen, Raleigh Wallace, Joshua Untch, Taralynn Bailey, Raef Campbell, J.T. Spaeth, Hali Parker.

Lee’s Summit residents are on the move…walking, jogging, riding bikes, getting fit. Just look around and you will see. Families are walking and riding bikes in parks and on multi-use trails. People are running more errands on foot or on their bikes. Group rides are leaving from the local coffee shops, bike shops and pizza shops. Call it active transportation, getting in shape, going green or just having fun.

With the deadly terror attack in Boston still fresh in their minds, Christians from multiple denominations will gather at Lee’s Summit City Hall to pray for the nation at noon on May 2.

Lee’s Summit Parks and Recreation is hosting several sports camps for children this summer including softball, baseball and indoor soccer all taking place in June.

Temperatures fell below freezing April 24, making a chilly morning for the handful of vendors who came to the Downtown Lee’s Summit Farmers Market. Carrie Nichols and her daughter Audrey, 18 months, bundled against the cold as they sold with Nichols’s father Stanley Schrock. They barely needed a cooler for the chemical-free ground beef from Timberline Farm at Garden City. They also take orders for whole beefs or portions and arrange the processing for customers.

StreetFound Entertainment and Downtown Lee’s Summit Main Street present a unique theatre experience on the streets of Downtown Lee’s Summit called “Cellular Cenes,” with two performances on April 26. The audience literally will follow the story of two young people and their quirky budding relationship.

We’re in the throes of a graying revolution. Every 7.5 seconds, someone is turning 60 years of age, and it will continue for some time to come. The 65-74 age group will grow 49.3 percent over the next 10 years. As a point of reference, the 18-40 year segment will increase just 3 percent over the same period.

Chamber awards scholarships to high school seniors

March 1928

Demolition of the Waid’s restaurant is underway April 24 at the Summit shopping center. The site on NW Oldham Parkway is to be a Freddy’s Frozen Custard & Steakburgers.