Second annual arts festival to benefit National Down Syndrome Society

The festival, which will include an art show, silent auction and concert, was created last year in honor of former DAC member and Wake Forest junior Margaret (Meg) Hudson, who died in fall 2003 from a rare heart and lung condition.

All proceeds from the festival will go to the National Down Syndrome Society.

The gallery show will kick off the event at 5 p.m. in the Beethoven Gallery next to Brendle Recital Hall in Scales Fine Arts Center. Admission is free and light refreshments will be served. Students, faculty and guest artists will exhibit artwork. Several pieces will then be auctioned off at a silent auction.

At 7 p.m., a concert featuring a variety of performance groups will be held in Brendle Recital Hall. Admission to the concert is $3. Additional donations will also be accepted throughout the evening.

The concert will include a performance by Innuendo, a Wake Forest a cappella group; piano music by Louis Goldstein, a Wake Forest music professor; vocal and piano music by Wake Forest senior Alexis Rejeski; vocal and guitar music by Wake Forest senior Heather Edwards; and a bo staff (a five to six-foot wooden stick used in martial arts) demonstration by Lindsay Donohue and her brother Jeremy, who has Down Syndrome.

The DAC is a student club at Wake Forest whose purpose is to increase awareness of physical, intellectual and sensory disabilities throughout the Wake Forest community and its surrounding areas through information, educational events, advocacy projects and services.

The mission of the National Down Syndrome Society is to benefit people with Down syndrome and their families through national leadership in education, research and advocacy.

For more information about the festival, contact Deanna Lepore at 336-758-8085. For information about the National Down Syndrome Society, visit www.ndss.org.