PUMPKIN PATCH AT BLACKWATER UMC
Pumpkin Patch is going on now at Blackwater United Methodist Church at 10000 Blackwater Road.  All proceeds support missions.  There are games and activities for kids as well as lots of pumpkins for sale.  It is open through Monday, October 31.  Open weekdays 10-7, Saturday 10-5 and Sunday 1-5.  This Saturday, there will be hayrides, a space walk and games.  The craft show will be this Friday from 3 to 7 and Saturday from 10 to 4.

SANDY CREEK BAPTIST FALL FESTIVAL
Sandy Creek Baptist Church (22834 Liberty Road-Pride, Louisiana) will hold their Fall Festival this Friday, October 28 from 6:00–8:00 PM.  Join Us for Fun, Games, Candy, Prizes, Food and Drinks!

COVENANT CARES & FALL FESTIVAL
Covenant Community Church’s Covenant Cares and Fall Festival is this Saturday, October 29 12:00 to 3:00 PM.  There will be a New Clothes Give-A-Way (Adults – Teens – Children), spacewalks, games, candy, hotdogs and NEW CLOTHING for anyone! No strings attached!  Covenant Community Church is located at 22325 Greenwell Springs Road.  Call 261-3088 for any questions.

GRACE UPC FALL FESTIVAL
Grace United Pentecostal Church is excited to invite the community to our annual Fall Festival October 29th at 5 pm . There will be trunk or treat, inflatables, games, hayrides, and more! For information visit our website at www.graceupc.com. Thank you for not wearing scary costumes.  Grace UPC is located at 13845 Hooper Road here in Central.

BLACKWATER UMC TRUNK-OR-TREAT
Trunk-Or-Treat will be held at Blackwater United Methodist Church (10000 Blackwater Road) on Sunday, October 30th from 5-7 PM.  There will be candy, games and a space walk.  Kids from all around the community are welcome!

COMITE BAPTIST FALL FUN FEST
The staff and congregation of Comite Baptist Church invites you to join us for our annual FALL FUN FEST. FALL FUN FEST will held in the Church Gym on Monday, October 31 from 6:00–8:00 p.m. This special event is FREE and open to all children, toddlers through the sixth grade.  Lots of games for children of all ages, inflatable slide and jumper, maze, candy, snacks, food . . . and lots of fun! We hope you will come join the FUN!  Comite Baptist Church is located at 12250 Greenwell Springs Road at Flannery Road. For more information you may call the church office at 275-3382.

GREENWELL SPRINGS BAPTIST FALL FESTIVAL
Greenwell Springs Baptist Church’s Fall Festival will be October 31, 2011 from 6:00 – 8:30 pm.  The night will include hay rides, inflatable jumpers and slide, face painting, horse rides, maze, concessions and plenty of fun carnival games for the kids.   Sixth grade and younger are encouraged to wear their non-scary costumes and join in the fun!  K-Love will also be here to provide Christian music for your enjoyment.  Join us!

CENTRAL CHURCH FALL FESTIVAL
Central Church will hold their Fall Festival this Monday, October 31 from 6-8 PM.  There will be games, prizes, wagon & horse rides, candy and food.  It’s all free!  Central Church is located at 11681 Greenwell Springs, Port Hudson Rd.

VICTORY HARVEST WILD WEST FALL FEST
Victory Harvest Church @ 3953 N. Flannery Rd. invites you and your family to join us for exciting games, candy, prizes, food and fun!  Wild  West Fest Fall Festival is a safe alternative to Halloween for your children from 6:00-8:00 pm on October 31st in the parking lot at Victory Harvest. Some highlights include Fire Safe House, Candy Cannon, Giant Slide, Hay Ride, Patches the Dog, Obstacle Course & much more. It is all free. 

ZOAR BAPTIST FALL FESTIVAL
Zoar Baptist Church (11848 Hooper Road at Joor) will have their Fall Festival Monday, October 31 from 6-8 PM.  They will be collecting canned goods for the Central Food Bank.  Fun activities include magic shows by Jonathan Dupree, pony rides, games, and hot air balloon rides.  There will be food and candy, and it is all free!

Submitted by Tina Kaufman;  Photo by Pam Brown

MPD stands for Motion Picture Development. Through this program the students have learned writing, directing, cinematography, acting, and editing Motion Pictures such as Television, Digital Film, Documentaries, and more! Through the efforts of Digital Media Production House and the non-profit Louisiana Arts & Entertainment (LA&E), Producer/Director Aaron L. Williams has begun his On-Camera class that is televised weekly to offer Louisiana’s children national exposure in addition to their training.

This first group of Louisiana actors featured below have been hard at work filming 10 episodes of “The Informer” on channel 10 weekly at noon. Now it is time for this group to have some fun and join hands with the Baton Rouge Food Bank to feed families. Filming to Feed!

The cast of Louisiana actors film their last two episodes and plan of having some fun on the show while they encourage other local students to give back to the community. The Cast will be at the Mall of Louisiana under the food court for a special meet and greet on Sunday, Nov. 6^th from 1:00-4:00. The young actors are encouraging other students to collect nonperishable food items from friends and family as they collect items too. Bring your food donations to the mall on Sunday, Nov. 6^th and join the Film & Feed! The Cast will be ready to Wop, Bernie and Jump on it…..collecting food for the holidays! Come out to the Mall of Louisiana and “Shake it up” at our food drive! You may just make the next show! Visit the site at MPDkids.org.

You are also invited to come by and help the MPD Kid's Club feed families!

Back row: left to right (boys standing): Peyton Whitcomb,  Brock Kaufman (Central student),  Carter Hunt,  Benjamin Leggins,  Logan Watts,  Ben Schexnaydre,  Joshua Hodgenson,  Casey Alfutis

Front row: left to right  (girls seated): Chaislyn King (Central student),  Katie Brown,  Carol Wells,  Bailey Sacco,  Logan Guilbeau,  Ashleigh Martin (Central student),  Abigail Bernard,  Allysia Williams,  Alexandra Johnson.  Not shown: Mark Mills and DJ Mills

Come for a night of fun with our free carnival games, inflatables and even a dunking booth.  The whole family can fill up on hamburgers, hot dogs, nachos  and candy of course.  Come and sign up for your chance to win a 40” flat screen tv, Ipod Touch, Kindle, Xbox 360 with Kinect, Apple iPad 2, Kodak EasyShare Camera or many other great door prizes.  Family Fall Festival is on Wednesday, October 26th  from 6 pm to 8 pm. The church is located at 11050 Greenwell Springs – Pt. Hudson Rd. (Hwy. 64), Zachary, LA.  For information, call 654-5633. 

One registration per person please and must be presented to win a door prize. 

Submitted by EBR Parish Libraries

For more than a year, East Baton Rouge Parish Library cardholders have had the ability to download three free songs a week from the Library database Freegal.  Now, Freegal has upped that limit to five free song downloads per week. All types of music genres are offered, including new hits and old classics from the Sony Music Entertainment catalog. Genres include Cajun, comedy, classical, hip hop and more! All patrons need is their Library Card number.  To access Freegal, just visit the Library’s website, www.ebrpl.com, and click the “Digital Books + Music” tab.  You can preview a song before you download to be sure it is the tune you want. Your account re-sets every Monday, so you can download five more tunes for the week.  For more information, call (225) 231-3750.

Covenant Cares and Fall Festival

Saturday October 29 12:00 to 3:00 PM

New Clothes Give-A-Way (Adults – Teens – Children)

Spacewalks, games, candy, hotdogs and NEW CLOTHING for anyone! No strings attached!

Covenant Community Church
22325 Greenwell Springs Road

Call 261.3088 for any questions.

A Night On The Bayou featuring Troy Landry from “Swamp People” TONIGHT at the Central High Gym!  Doors open at 5:30 PM, Dinner served at 6.   Limited tickets still available- call the Chamber at 261-5818 or stop by the Chamber office on Hooper Road for tickets.  Tickets are $35 or $25 for Chamber members.

Indian Mound Baptist is having their Fall Fest this Sunday at 5 PM for ages 4 yrs through 5h grade.  Indian Mound Baptist is located at 16755 Liberty Road.  Bring your kids to join the fun!

Berean Ministries (6565 Morgan Road) will hold their Harvest Party this Friday, October 21, 2011 at 6 PM.  There will be free food and fun for the whole family.  Come and enjoy hayrides, face painting, games, bucking barrels, and more.  Call Berean at 261-1994 for more information.

Submitted by Sarah Crawford

Check out the new view – Playaway View that is! A Playaway View is a small, all-in-one video player on which children can watch and hear stories appropriate for ages 8 and under.  The players are pre-loaded with six to eight titles, taken from a vast library of items including “Arthur’s Adventures,” “Storytime Classics from Pippin,” “How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight? And Other Tales,” and more. They’re perfect for a road trip! The Library now offers Playaway Views at EVERY BRANCH for patron use! Just visit the Children’s Room. For more information, visit www.playaway.com/view.

    Central Author DeeDee Dupree (pictured above) will be among many talented local authors being recognized on October 15, 2011 between 10:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. at the Greenwell Springs Libray.  Other authors present will include Jules Haigler, Michael Ellerby, Betty Miley, June Shaw, Helen Kleinstiver, Chere Coen and Cosha Haynes.  This will be the launch of DeeDee's second book, Drew’s Descent. Her first publised book, When The Scars Heal, was accepted into Premium Status of all major ebook networks and distributions and has received four stars, or higher, on every customer review so far. This book will also be available for purchase the day of the book signing.

    DeeDee is well known in the Central Community for her work as a freelance writer for Central Speaks, as a Realtor for over fifteen years, and a board member on the CHS PTO.  She greatly appreciates all the support and encouragement she has received from the Central Community with the launch of her two books.

    DeeDee's passion is writing and she thrives on all of its complexities. She enjoys building the characters, deciding how their lives will turn out and enjoys creating the twists and turns along the way. Her first book, When The Scars Heal, focuses on the dangers of teenage drinking and driving as well as sibling rivalry, family drama and the loss of a loved one. The newest edition, Drew's Descent, focuses on a man's journey with Bi-polar disorder, as he confronts death, lust, loyalty and love. It begins with panoramic views of the exhilarating, snow capped town of Salt Lake City, Utah and ends in the lovely, culture filled beauty of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, with it's moss laden cypress trees and enticing warm weather.

    The event, Author's Row, is great way to show your support for Central's Own, Author DeeDee Dupree, as well as other Louisiana Author's. We encourage you to pick up your signed copy on October 15th.  Both books are also available as an ebook @ www.barnesandnoble.com, www.amazon.com, and www.smashwords.com for only $1.99 (good on Kindle, Nook and most available ereaders) Become friends on facebook: author.deedeedupree

    Bring a copy of this Centralspeaks.com article on October 15th to the event and receive $2 off your copy of When the Scars Heal or Drew's Descent.