st. charles | The Gateway Outdoor Summit returns in November with nationally recognized speakers and a new grant program designed to jumpstart community-focused outdoor recreation projects. Last held in 2019, the free one-day summit—Friday, Nov. 22 at the St. Charles Convention Center—will explore how the greater St. Louis/bi-state region can be more proactive in creating access to outdoor recreation and benefit the local economy. Keynote speaker Lesford Duncan, executive director of the Outdoor Foundation, will explore the evolving landscape of outdoor recreation and discuss how strategic initiatives, such as Thrive Outside St. Louis, are promoting new ways of engaging with the outdoors and fostering a love for nature across diverse communities. The summit “is our region’s opportunity to celebrate what’s been achieved in outdoor recreation, imagine what’s possible and talk about how we get there,” says event organizer Brad Kovach. The summit kicks off an expanded Gateway Outdoor Expo weekend. The expo will run Nov. 23 and 24 at the convention center and is an annual consumer show featuring more than 200 exhibit booths for outdoor retailers and service providers, kids activities, product demos, food and drink. As part of the revamped summit, event organizer River City Foundation will award one-time micro-grants of up to $5,000 for community-focused outdoor recreation projects designed to benefit our region. The foundation’s advisory board will review grant applications and score for need, feasibility, sustainability and relationship to the foundation’s mission—to promote outdoor-oriented activities, accelerate equitable outdoor initiatives and expand outdoor recreation opportunities in our region. Deadline for applications is Nov. 1. The first round of micro-grants will be awarded at the summit. The application process is open now and instructions are at rivercityfdn.org/micro-grants.
the metro
In the early 1960s, when I was growing up in the suburbs of various eastern cities—Philadelphia and Baltimore were my two hometowns when I was in kindergarten and elementary school—it was no big deal to trick-or-treat at nearby houses with your siblings and maybe a few other witches and devils. We were never accompanied by adults in those halcyon Halloween days. But when my kids were growing up in the 1990s, their mom and I always came along. The world had gotten much creepier—and I don’t mean those ghoulish set-ups where idiots in hockey masks chase you around with noisy but toothless chainsaws. Nowadays, ‘trunk-or-treat’ rules. It’s a good bet your kids will be safer getting their goodies at a designated spot in the neighborhood, perhaps the school or church parking lot. And at least two popular area attractions have taken that idea and run with it. The St. Louis Aquarium at Union Station started its event Sept. 13, and it winds up, natch, on Oct. 31. (Early it ain’t, when you consider that big-box stores were selling inflatable pumpkins, ghosts and other seasonal characters over the summer.) Pirates & Pumpkins is designed for landlubbers, me hearties. The aquarium will be decorated with pirate-themed scenes, including a ghost ship with smoking, booming cannons. Guests will enjoy all of the aquarium’s hands-on, hands-wet animal encounters plus take a self-guided tour through a highly themed wonderland of pirate treasure caves and grottos. Intricately carved pumpkins will be everywhere. Aquarium admission required. And there will be one special day, Trick Or Track, for costumed kids to trick-or-treat at the National Museum of Transportation in South County. No, not Halloween. About two weeks earlier: Oct 19 at 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Then, in the evening, there’ll be activities including a miniature train ride in the dark beginning at 7 p.m. Doors open at 5:30 p.m. Both events require ticket purchases to enjoy.
ladue
Two notable author events are coming up at the Clark Family Branch of our county library. Even if you can’t attend the Oct. 3 presentation in person, it sounds like the book is one to consider adding to the stack on your bedside table: Why We Remember: Unlocking Memory’s Power to Hold on to What Matters by Dr. Charan Ranganath. He’ll be in conversation with Dr. Zach Reagh, an assistant professor of psychological and brain sciences at Washington U. A pioneering neuroscientist and psychologist, Ranganath radically reframes the way we think about the everyday act of remembering. Weaving pop-culture examples with formal research—while drawing on his life as a scientist, father and child of immigrants—Ranganath unveils the hidden role memory plays throughout our lives. He teaches at the Center for Neuroscience and Department of Psychology and is director of the Dynamic Memory Lab at the University of California at Davis. For more than 25 years, he has studied the mechanisms in our grey matter that allow us to recall events, using brain imaging techniques, computational modeling and studies of patients with memory disorders. Then, if thriller fiction is more (or also) your taste, mark the calendar for Oct. 8 at 7 p.m. for Just Another Missing Person, the latest from New York Times bestselling novelist Gillian McAllister. In her latest, a missing person case unravels deeper, darker secrets that lead a detective to an impossible moral choice. McAllister is also the creator and co-host of the “Honest Authors” podcast.
chesterfield
Retired shoe exec Clay Jenkins calls St. Louis a “little big town,” and his wife Lynn smiles in agreement. That is, while Chicago may be the City of Big Shoulders and New York is the Big Apple, the Gateway City is All Heart. Jenkins, who retired from the Private Label Group of Brown Shoe/Caleres in 2020, is still wearing out a lot of shoe leather (well, soles of rubber, generally) on behalf of Nashville nonprofit Soles4Souls, which helps people, and communities, lift themselves out of poverty by putting new or refurbished shoes on their feet and clothes on their backs. “Shoes need hands,” says Clay, and the Chesterfield couple has dedicated themselves to providing that hands-on attention here as well as in Atlanta, Toronto, Nashville, Haiti, Honduras and beyond. They’ve witnessed the gratitude and boosts in self-esteem when they can replace beat-up, even mismatched footwear on kids. Statistics show that better shoes boost school attendance, as well as graduation rates. Soles4Souls started in 2006 as a disaster-relief response following catastrophes such as the tsunami in southeast Asia and Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf. “We’ve all lived a million lives since then,” says Clay. Lynn, pictured with Clay at an Atlanta shoe distribution event in January, has also been on the ground in Latin America, specifically Central American countries including Guatemala, places where poverty is beyond our comprehension. Of course, there is dire need in the metro, too. A modest donation, say $20, will put a pair of brand-new shoes on someone’s feet. This mission could not be accomplished without corporate supporters and partners, says Clay. “Caleres is a huge part of this,” he emphasizes. Anybody else can play a part: Look in your closet—any gently used shoes, or some you’ve never worn, in there? Growing youngsters still have shoes that no longer fit? And what to do with all those Crocs? Famous Footwear or DSW retailers will accept footwear that’s still in pretty good shape. And Zappo’s will cover the shipping costs. Then, you could mark your calendar for Nov. 7 to enjoy light snacks and hors d’oeuvres while rubbing shoulders with Clay and Lynn and the Soles4Souls CEO from 5 to 7 p.m. at Meadowbrook Country Club. There’s no cost. You’ll also hear from Dr. Deidra C. Thomas-Murray, director of students-in-transition, homeless and foster care liaison for St. Louis Public Schools. Nearly 14,000 kids in the metro are unhoused. For more info or to get involved locally, visit soles4souls.org/stlouiskids.
