Looking for local activities to keep yourself occupied this winter? Try the following list of events before the weather decides to become nasty again!

25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee
Avon Players Community Theatre presents the zany musical comedy, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee opening Jan. 13 and continuing on weekends through Jan. 28.

Six young people in the throes of puberty, overseen by grown-ups who barely managed to escape childhood themselves, learn that winning isn’t everything and that losing doesn’t necessarily make you a loser.

The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, written by William Finn and Rachel Sheinkin, is a hilarious tale of overachievers’ angst chronicling the experience of six adolescent outsiders vying for the spelling championship of a lifetime. The show’s Tony Award winning creative team has created the unlikeliest of hit musicals about the unlikeliest of heroes: a quirky yet charming cast of outsiders for whom the spelling bee is the one place where they can both stand out and fit in at the same time.

Avon Players’ production is directed by Steve Woznicki of Royal Oak and features Steve Andridge of Rochester, Laura Eich of Clinton Twp, Tim Falk of Armada, Chase Kiefiuk of Macomb, Kim Monterosso of Shelby Twp, AlissaBeth Morton of Rochester, Pamela Plewa and Lori Smith of Shelby Twp, and Johannah Steinbrecher of Warren. Audience members will also have an opportunity to B-E-E a contestant and test their spelling prowess onstage during the performance.

This musical is rated PG-13 for strong language and mature themes and situations. It is not recommended for children.

Friday and Saturday performances are at 8 p.m. and Sunday performances are 2 p.m. Ticket prices range from $16- $18 and may be purchased at our box office in person, by phone at 248-608-9077 or online at www.avonplayers.org. Student, Senior, and group rates are available.

For tickets or for more information call the box office at 248-608-9077 or visit www.avonplayers.org.

The Avon Players Theatre is located at 1185 Washington Road, in Rochester and is a 501(c)3 non-profit community theatre serving Oakland and Macomb counties since 1947.

Author of ‘Detroitland’ to Speak at the Rochester Hills Public Library
Local historian and journalist Richard Bak will discuss his latest book Detroitland: A Collection of Movers, Shakers, Lost Souls, and History Makers from Detroit’s Past. on Thursday, Jan.19 at 7 p.m. at the Rochester Hills Public Library. Bak has assembled many of his award-winning historical features, all originally written for such periodicals as Hour Detroit, Detroit Monthly, and Michigan History and now updated and expanded for this collection. Bak relives the scandals, mysteries, catastrophes, triumphs, and celebrations that have rocked Detroit. He also introduces readers to the heroes, criminals, stars, and regular people who lived through these events, or in some cases, set them in motion. After the presentation, books will be available for purchase.

Registration is required and open to those with a Rochester Hills Public library card.

To register go to the Events Calendar at www.rhpl.org or call 248-656-2900. The Rochester Hills Public Library is located in downtown Rochester two blocks east of Main Street off of University Drive on Olde Towne Road. For more information, call 248-650-7124.

Financial Seminars at the Rochester Hills Public Library
The Rochester Hills Public Library is pleased to present two financial seminars this winter with Rick and Ken Bloom. The seminars will be held from 7-8:30 p.m. Monday, Jan. 9 and Wednesday, Feb. 1.

Today’s Baby Boomers will likely live much longer in retirement than past generations and need more money to fund their post-working lifestyle. On Monday, Jan. 9, Rick Bloom, a financial columnist for the Observer and Eccentric newspapers, will discuss the “new” retirement that Baby Boomers need to prepare for and the need to have growth in their retirement portfolio to maintain a retirement lifestyle that can keep up with the rising costs of health care and other necessities.

Retirees often have more than one source of retirement income, but it can be difficult to determine which funds to tap into and how they can minimize their tax bill at the same time. On Wednesday, Feb. 1, Ken Bloom, an attorney and tax specialist, will discuss the strategy retirees can use when withdrawing funds for retirement, including understanding the required minimum distribution rules and how to factor in other sources of income such as Social Security benefits or pensions.

Registration is required and open to those with a Rochester Hills Public library card. To register go to the Events Calendar at www.rhpl.org or call 248-656-2900.

The Rochester Hills Public Library is located in downtown Rochester, two blocks east of Main Street off of University Drive on Olde Towne Road. For more information, call 248-650-7124.

Martin Luther King Day Service in Rochester
Experience the Martin Luther King Day Service at 3:30 p.m. Jan. 8 at St. Paul’s Methodist Church, in Rochester. The Rochester Community Schools and Rochester Area Minister’s Association have co-planned a wonderful service with full choirs, guest speakers and visual presentations to honor the message and life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Paint Creek Unitarian Universalist Congregation’s former minister, The Rev. Carol Huston, backed the official recognition of Martin Luther King Day in Rochester over 15 years ago.

Reverend Leonetta Bugleisi has been the coordinator of this service for the past six years. Jenna Barba will perform a solo piece. Chris Hall, PCUUC’s choir director, will direct the choir.

Robert Bruttell will provide the keynote message. Bruttell was born in Detroit in 1948, grew up in the City of Detroit and the City of Eastpoint. He attended Sacred Heart Seminary high school and college during the tumultuous years of 1966-1968. The Civil Rights Movement, the War in Vietnam, civil unrest in Detroit and the assassination/murders of national leaders affected and helped inform and mold his life.

Paint Creek Center for the Arts Announces Group Art Show
The Paint Creek Center for the Arts is presenting a group show featuring works by four exceptional artists Jan. 20-Feb. 17. Evelyn Bachorski-Bowman, Lynn Galbreath, Cristin Richard and Sioux Trujillo all work in different media, with distinctive, personal approaches to their respective materials.

Evelyn Bachorski-Bowman of Milford earned her Master of Fine Arts degree at Wayne State University. Over the course of her career, Bachorski-Bowman has taught figurative sculpture, worked as a medical sculptor and as an automotive Chief Designer at Ford Motor Company. She now focuses full time on her studio art. Her sculpture series Portraits of a Soul is a group of emotive sculptures that uses raw, textured plaster and encaustic to depict the emotional state of her subject.

Lynn Galbreath of Bloomfield Hills teaches painting, drawing and design at Oakland University. She earned her Master of Fine Arts degree at Wayne State University. Galbreath has been awarded a number of grants and awards, including a Creative Artist Grant from the Arts Foundation of Michigan and an Individual Artist Grant from Michigan Council for the Arts. She has exhibited her work nationally and internationally. For this show, Galbreath will present drawings from two bodies of work. Eccentric Objects is an ongoing series of mixed media drawings on mylar, set within three dimensional constructions. Talk is a series that utilizes graphite, gold leaf and metallic markers on paper, with associated found objects. Both series reference humanitarian and social issues the artist is concerned with.

Cristin Richard of Detroit is a graduate of the College for Creative Studies. She recently completed a residency and solo show at La Découpe in Paris, France. She has exhibited her work extensively in solo and group shows. Richard was nominated as a Kresge Eminent Artist in 2008. She works primarily with hog and sheep casings, creating wearable sculptures and installations that draw on her interest in fashion and the body. Her translucent dress sculptures manage a fine balance between tough and ethereal, eerie and graceful. In discussing her work, she says the skin-like medium becomes a loaded metaphor which speaks to the human condition, while creating an underlying narrative on materialism and over indulgence.”

Sioux Trujillo (Detroit, MI) earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the College for Creative Studies. She has worked in the Detroit art community for 13 years, as an artist and administrator. Trujillo has received numerous awards and grants for her mixed media works, and was awarded the Joyce Fellowship for Emerging Leaders of Color. She is a 2009 Kresge Artist Fellow and the recipient of a Michigan Educational Grant. Sioux has exhibited her work nationally and internationally and is instrumental in bringing artists and communities together through her work as Assistant Director of community + public arts: Detroit. Her work for this show is a fiber based installation that incorporates multi-colored threads, felt, and fiber objects.

Join the Paint Creek Center for the Arts in celebrating these four accomplished artists at an opening reception Friday, Jan. 20, from 7-9 p.m. Admission to the opening and the exhibit are free and open to the public.