The Community Education Center, a non-profit and community based arts center in West Philly, needs your help. All you need to do is click a button. If enough of us do that the center will receive a $50,000 grant.

The voting is part of Kraft Foods/Maxwell House Drops of Good Community Houses grant competition. The CEC is one of 10 locations across the country vying for a $50,000 grant. Five will get the grants and the CEC is currently fifth in the voting by a fairly slim margin. Go to this page to vote. They will ask you for your e-mail address to make sure that you are a real person (don’t worry, no marketing) and then you’re done.

Rebuilding Together Philadelphia is helping with the grant. The community online magazine Flying Kite has a nice feature today on CEC Executive Director Terri Shockley.

Here is the CEC’s video pitch for the competition:

Gladiators will battle it out in Penn Museum‘s Warden Garden on Saturday as part of “Gladiator Day,” which will also include a talk by Harvard Latin professor Dr. Kathleen Coleman (and consultant on the Russell Crowe film “Gladiator”) on “The Virtues of Violence: Gladiators, Beasts, and Public Executions in Ancient Rome.”

The event will run from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Gladiators from the Ludus Magnus Gladiatores (The Great School of the Gladiator) will fight every hour beginning at 1 p.m. In between bouts they will give workshops on weapons used back in the day. Wannabe gladiators can make their own helmets at the family craft table.

Dr. Coleman’s talk begins at 2:30 p.m.

The gladiator extravaganza is in conjunction with the museum exhibition Worlds Intertwined: Etruscans, Greeks and Roman. Admission to the museum is $10 for adults, $7 for seniors, $6 for students and children and free for children under 6 and PennCard holders.

Neighborhood residents can get an update of what’s in store for Baltimore Avenue this summer during the Cedar Park Neighbors annual board election meeting on Monday beginning at 7 p.m.

The meeting will be held at the Calvary Center for Culture and Community at 48th and Baltimore. The center will open at 6 p.m. for voting, which will continue until 7:30 p.m. Results will be announced at the end of the meeting.

Scheduled speakers include:

• Leah Pillsbury, Capital Campaign Coordinator at Mariposa Food Co-op.

Leah will talk about Mariposa’s expansion project.

• Vince Whittacre, co-owner of the Gold Standard Cafe and member of the Baltimore Avenue Business Association.

Vince will talk about new businesses and the proposal for outdoor seating on Baltimore Avenue.

• Algernon Allen, owner of Elena’s Soul and Cedar Park Neighbors board member.

Algernon will talk about upcoming events on Baltimore Avenue, including Jazz in the Park.

• Maureen Tate, Baltimore Ave Conversation Project volunteer

She will provide a summary of the Baltimore Avenue Conversation and possible next steps.
 

Three Easter egg hunts are on tap in the neighborhood on Saturday.

• Malcolm X Park – The 20th Annual Easter Egg Hunt at Malcolm X Park is Noon- 3pm. It’s a free event with drill team, face painting, line dancing, DJ. Volunteers are needed to help out with the set-up. Call Helen at 215-476-0983 or just show up and enjoy!

• St. Mary’s at 3916 Locust Walk will host a hunt for children 13 years and under at 4 p.m. rain or shine. Please bring your own basket. Light refreshments will be available for adults. For more information call 215-386-3916.

• Children up to 8 are invited to Clark Park “B” for a hunt hosted by Renewal Presbyterian Church also at 4 p.m. For more information call 215-727-7200.

• The “Great Egg Hunt” will be at the Walnut Street West Library (40th and Walnut) at 1 p.m.

The First World Theatre Ensemble will stage a performance of “Sojourner” on Saturday at The Rotunda (4014 Walnut St.) to help raise money for the Community Education Center (3500 Lancaster Ave.) and the The Paul Robeson House (4951 Walnut St.), two important West Philly-based cultural institutions.

The play features Zuhairah McGill as the abolitionist and women’s rights activist Sojourner Truth. Born into slavery in Swartekill, New York as Isabella Baumfree, Truth escaped with an infant daughter in 1826 and became one of the first African American women to win a court case against a white man when she sued to have her son returned from a slaveowner in Alabama.

The performance begins at 7 p.m. General admission tickets are $25. Tickets for students and seniors are $15. Tickets can be purchased online at: https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/168495 or at the door one hour before the perfomance.

Wednesday is supposed to be sticky (about 80 degrees we’re told) and thunderstormy. Since the public school kids are home this week for spring break, a cool event might be The Boy Who Cried Bully, a free performance put on by the Walnut Street Theatre’s touring company at the Lucien E. Blackwell West Philadelphia Regional Library (52nd and Sansom).

Here is a description of the play from the Walnut Street Theatre website:

“Meet Nate, a typical third-grader with a love for telling tall tales. Nate’s biggest problem is Sam, a fifth-grade bully who has it in for him and his friends. Thankfully, Bob the Bully-Buster visits to teach Nate’s class what they can do to identify and prevent bullying in school. Based on the classic Aesop’s fable, The Boy Who Cried Wolf, this honest, funny and engaging production looks at stretching truths and accepting differences.”

The performance begins at 4 p.m. on Wednesday and is suitable for kids K through 5th grade. For more info call the library at 215-685-7424.