Mark your calendars for the second annual St. James Episcopal Church Blues on the River community fellowship event.
It will be held from 1 to 5 p.m. tomorrow and will serve as a fund-raiser for the purchase of cooking stoves for Sudan refugees.
Blues On The River 2 is open to the entire community.
Grosse Ile resident Andrew Johnson and his blues band, Howlin Mercy, along with the Rev. Phil Dinwiddie and St. James parishioners Barry VanEngelen and Frank Kohair will be cookin' the blues to raise money for the Darfur refugees.
Howlin Mercy recently played at the Wyandotte Street Fair, Memphis Smoke in Royal Oak and the 24th annual Ohio Riboff barbecue competition.
During the event, an inflatable castle for children to jump in and demonstrations presented by artists and crafters will be available around the Grosse Ile church grounds.
Refreshments will include popcorn, cotton candy, snow cones, water and soft drinks for an offering.
Bring a chair or blanket.
Since 2003, hundreds of thousands of African Sudanese have been killed in the Darfur region of Sudan.
This persecution has also driven another 2.2 million people, the majority of them women and children, into crowded camps that are scattered in arid areas with low fuel wood productivity.
Venturing outside these boundaries in search of fuel to cook their meals often ends in violence against camp inhabitants.
Almost all the Darfur refugees still cook on inefficient three-stone fires. The use of fuel-efficient stoves in Darfur also will significantly reduce the pressure on the local environment, allowing it time to regenerate.
The 2.2 million refugees need about 300,000 stoves.
For more information on the stoves and the plight of refugees, visit www.darfurstoves.lbl.gov/benefits.html.
For more information on St. James, log on to www.saintjamesgi.net.
St. James will be focusing on these stoves and the Darfur refugees as an outreach project throughout the coming year.
For more information on Blues on the River, contact St. James at 1-734-676-1727.
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