LOCAL/STATE The Michigan o n, September 9,
Bonsai exhibit showcases unconventional art
1996 - 3A
Students win
Summer
Hopwoods
Three University students were hon-
with Summer Hopwood Awards in
Creative Writing, while two others
were given the Marjorie Rapaport
Award in Poetry, also administered by.
the University Hopwood program.
Funded through a bequest from
University alum and Broadway play-
wright Avery Hopwood, the 59th annu-
al contest bestowed awards in fiction,
essay, poetry and drama/screenplay
writing.
*The winners for this year's Hopwood
contest are:
LSA senior Demian Linn, for his
work of fiction, "Three Stories." Linn
was awarded $500.
LSA senior Gregory Parker, for
his poetry, "Street Visions." Parker was
awarded $300.
LSA senior Michael Zilberman,
for his essay, "Windows to Paris.'
berman was awarded $500.
e winners of the Marjorie
Rapaport Award in Poetry are:
LSA sophomore Melanie Kenny,
for "Irregularity." She was awarded
$125.
LSA senior Sara Talpos, for "For
Aaron in Ballymoney." She was award-
ed $100.
Professor wins
esearch award
r excellence
Dr. Robert Williams, adjunct profes-
sor of health policy in the School of
Public Health, has received the 1996
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan
Foundation Excellence in Research
Award.
The $10,000 award is for his
research article, "The Costs of Visits to
ergency Departments," published in
the New England Journal of Medicine
on March 7. The award will support
continued research in the University
Department of Health Management
and Policy.
Agency needs
foster homes to
care for children
Can you make time in your life for a
child who needs you?
Washtenaw County Family
Independence Agency needs foster
homes to provide care for children who
have been removed from their natural
families because of abuse or neglect.
The agency needs black and white
fmilies for children of all ages, with a
4ecial need for brothers and sisters to
Splaced in the same home. Families
who understand drug abuse and sexual
abuse are needed.
Black families willing to provide
long-term foster care or to adopt chil-
dren of all ages are especially encour-
aged to help. WCFIA also needed
homes for children ages 12-18 and for
pregnant or parenting teenagers.
The agency will sponsor a foster par-
..zt-adoption training program begin-
4 g Sept. 16 from 7-9 p.m. at the
"Family Independence Agency, 22
Center St., in Ypsilanti.
Call Barbara Ford at 481-2010 for
more information.
L.A. firm sponsors
poetry contest
International Publications, a publish-
firm in Los Angeles, is sponsoring
a national college poetry contest open
to all college students in the United
States.
The top five finishers in the contest
will win cash prizes, and winning
poems will be published in
International Publications' 40th edition
of "American College Poets
Anthology." The anthology is a collec-
tion of contemporary poetry authored
' college students representing every
state in the country.
For contest rules, send a self-
addressed, stamped envelope to
International Publications, P.O. Box
44044-L, Los Angeles, Calif. 90044.
The contest's deadline is Oct. 31,
with an initial fee of $3 and an addi-
tional $1 fee for additional poems.
- Compiled from staff reports.
By Matthew Rochkind
For the Daily
Expectations for the Ann Arbor Bonsai
Society's 26th Annual Bonsai Show this past
weekend may have been nothing more than to
revisit a scene from "The Karate Kid."
But many visitors with experience in the art of
bonsai said the show took an accurate and instruc-
tional look at the craft.
John Lindsay, chair of the event, said he was
pleased to have such a large number of trees for
display. The society has more than 100 mem-
bers, some of whom work on several trees, he
said.
Founded in 1970, the Ann Arbor Bonsai Society
is a forum for members to learn about and practice
the ancient art of bonsai.
"The goal is to have something that looks like a
real tree that's shrunken," Lindsay said.
Each living work is distinct not only in shape
but in the larger pictu
bonsai artist Jack
Wikle.
A favorite tree
was a 75-year-old
Buttonwood, which
was potted eight
years ago. Its single
trunk twisted around
itself and leaned out
over its pedestal,
with a wide, circular
crown of green, oval
leaves at the top.
res it brings to mind, said
"The goal
something t
like a real tj
shrunken."
Chair of 26th Anr
Tecumseh, Mich., who, by his own account, has
"enough (trees) that I can't give an exact count."
Wikle likens his trees to growing children.
"It's a very subjec-
tive thing," Wikle
is itohave said. "You try to
encourage and
hat looks restrain the tree at the
same time. If you're
ree that's afraid of making mis-
takes you're more
likely to make more
mistakes."
- John Lindsay Although some
nual Bonsai Show bonsai sell for thou-
sands of dollars at
$10, Wikle said.
It doesn't have to be a full-time job either. "It's
purely a hobby for most of us," Society President
Dean Atkinson said.
The art of bonsai is set apart from conventional
arts such as painting and sculpting because the
trees are continually"tended to and altered by an
artist's creativity.
"A tree is never finished," Wikle said. "The hori-
zon is way out beyond us."
Matthew and Jessica Schenk, University
graduates in '93 and '92, respectively, said'the
showing of rows and rows of trees is not exact-
ly how bonsai have historically been seen in
Japan or China, but that the exhibit was no less
captivating.
"It's simply on a different scale," Matthew
Schenk said.
Wikle started his first tree more than 30 years upscale international auctions, it's not expensive to
ago. He is a nationally known bonsai artist from get into bonsai, and some trees sell for less than
Students to lend
'compassion' to
AIDS memorial
By Heather Kamins
For the Daily
More than 1,800 panels of fabric
symbolizing love, remembrance,
hope and commitment will be spread
along the floors and walls of the
Track and Tennis Building next
semester.
The Athletic Department and the
Ann Arbor Jaycees, along with sever-
al University student groups, are
preparing to bring the NAMES
volunteer for the project. "Therefore,
it is necessary to do everything we
can to educate ourselves and our
community."
The memorial quilt was originally
laid out on the Mall in Washington,
D.C., in October 1987. Since that time
almost 6 million people in the United
States have had the chance to view the
quilt, according to the NAMES Project.
The complete 45,000-panel quilt will
be on display in Washington, D.C.,
MARGARET MYERS/Daily
An Ann Arbor resident walks past construction on the corner of East University Avenue and South University Avenue, where
the new School of Social Work Building is under construction.
Campus constrctiCog whirlwInd
windsdown actlasses begin-a
Project AIDS
Memorial Quilt
to Ann Arbor
from February 6
to 9.
At monthly
quilting sessions
throughout the
fall, volunteers
will be able to
assist in the
making of
memorial panels
lost loved ones
"The purpose of
the AIDS quilt is to
educate people."
- Susan Foltin
Media chair of the Ann Arbor
Quilt Display Committee
from October
11 to 13.
Most of the
sections of the
quilt that will
cover the Track,
and Tennis
Building will
represent local
AIDS victims.
Each section
will be 12
for those who have
to AIDS, and can
More than $1 billion
spent on construction,
renovations
By Will Weissert
Daily Staff Reporter
Construction is a fact of life on free-
ways and roads, but until five years
ago it was not a fact of life at the
University.
More than $1 billion later, the frenzy
of building and renovation that has
made construction commonplace on
campus in recent years will soon come
to an end.
During this summer alone, construc-
tion crews completed projects that cost
the University about $55 million.
. "This summer has been pretty pro-
ductive - but we could have gotten a
little more finished," said University
Planner Fred Myer. "Things are pretty
much done, but they were supposed to
be all the way done by now."
Recent projects "essentially" com-
pleted were: the Angell-Haven Hall
connector, renovations to East Hall and
the Student Activities Building, and the
construction of the Media Union on
North Campus.
With the dust barely settled on
those projects, several others are now
under way, including the construction
of the School of Social Work
Building on the corner of East and
South University avenues and the
mostly completed East University
pedestrian mall near the entrance to
the Diag.
Later this year, crews expect to fin-
ish renovations on the C.C. Little
Building and complete the new
Cancer and Geriatrics Center and
North Campus's $5-million Lurie Bell
Tower.
This summer's work is part of an
unprecedented increase in construction
on campus that has cost more than $1
billion over the last five years, Myer
said.
The most notable projects in that
time have been around the Diag, includ-
ing the completion of the Randall
Laboratory, extensive renovations of
Angell Hall and dramatic moderniza-
tion of the Shapiro Undergraduate
Library.
On North Campus, the carillon,
Media Union, and new Industrial and
Operations Engineering buildings have
enlarged the campus.
Employees of the Shapiro
Undergraduate Library said the renova-
tions did more than just improve the
appearance of a building once nick-
Pair accused of Social
Security embezzlement
named for its ugliness.
"(The renovation) not only added
space, it allowed us to completely
modernize information services,"
said Barbara MacAdam, the former
head librarian of the Undergraduate
Library.
"It's a much better environment for
study and research, not just aesthetical-
ly but informationally."
But all of the rebuilding and remod-
eling of campus has left some students
dodging too many plastic orange
fences, large trucks and workers in hard
hats.
"It's annoying," said LSA junior
Jeremy Moghtader. "This University
has a demented desire to pave every-
thing."
Myer said once these major projects
are completed, the rate of construction
will slow down considerably.
"There might be some students who
will see grass in the next few years," he
said. "You will see construction contin-
ue, but not at the same pace we have
seen recently."
However, Myer said the University is
planning to use state funds to renovate
and modernize the LSA, Frieze, and
Perry buildings in the future.
Seed of Abraham
Congregation
Zera Avraham
A 1Messi anic Jewish
Synragogue
Believing that Yeshua is
The Promised Messiah
Meeting at University Reformed Church
receive information on how to make
panels on their own.
Student groups are also planning
fundraisers and commemorative activi-
ties, including films about understand-
ing AIDS and a jump-rope-a-thon
sponsored by members of the Greek
system.
"Without a doubt, these young adults
possess both the enthusiasm and energy
to assist with the many educational and
promotional activities that will sur-
round the quilt display in the year
ahead," said Athletic Department
Coordinator April Bayles.
Profits from the memorial quilt and
corresponding activities will benefit the
HIV/AIDS Resource Center (HARC),
and organizers hope to educate
University and high school students of
the danger of AIDS.
"Women our age are one of the
fastest-growing groups of people
contracting AIDS today," said LSA
sophomore Melissa Grant, who is a
square feet and consist of eight individ-
ual panels.
Susan Foltin, media chair of the
Ann Arbor Quilt Display Committee,
said the quilt visually illuminates that
HIV and AIDS can happen to anyone.
She said the quilt educates people on
the risks of contracting the disease
while teaching "compassion" and
"humanity" for the families of the
victims of AIDS.
"The purpose of the AIDS quilt is to
educate people;" Foltin said. "We want
to focus on what we think is the largest
group at risk - college and high school
students. Our focus is to educate people
and take away the stigmatism for peo-
ple who have it.
"We want to get the word out early,"
she said.
Quilting Bees to help construct pan-
els for the quilt are scheduled for the
third Sundays of September, October,
November and January from 1-5 p.m.
at Michael's Craft Store on the Ann
Arbor-Saline Road in Ann Arbor.
Everyone is welcome.
LANSING (AP) -Two Lansing res-
idents hired to distribute Social
Security checks to people with a histo-
ry of substance abuse are the subject of
an embezzlement investigation, accord-
ing to a published report.
Police and Social Security agents are
on the lookout for Johnnie Williams
and Debora Verser. Officials believe the
pair embezzled thousands of dollars
from clients while operating as the
African American Relations Reform
Coalition.
State Department of Commerce offi-
cials told the Lansing State Journal in a
story published yesterday that they never
licensed the coalition as a nonprofit
organization, which is the status required
by federal law for all outside agencies to
handle Social Security payments.
Williams, who was in charge of
keeping accounts for former alcoholics,
was jailed in December 1994, when he
was convicted of impaired driving - a
notch below drunken driving.
The newspaper was unable to contact
Williams and Verser for comment.
Their office was closed last month
and neither Social Security agents nor
police have located them.
While the police investigation con-
tinues, one Lansing man who relied on
Williams and Verser to funnel his
Social Security benefits to his landlord
is about to feel the effects of the alleged
theft.
presents
The International Scholar Account
Bank of Ann Arbor, the only locally owned and operated
bank in Ann Arbor, is pleased to offer University of
Michigan International students an account specific to-
their needs:
* Money Market Checking Account with the
highest interest rate paid in the area
* ATM card with unlimited access and NO transaction
fee regardless of location or frequency
e Free 3x5 Safe Deposit box or $20.00 credit
0
0
toward a larger box
Free Incoming Cables & Wire Transfers
Free Travelers Cheques
Free Money Orders and Cashiers Checks
GROUP MEETINGS Guild House, 802 Monroe, 8:30- !D Safewalk,. 763-5865, Undergraduate
10 n~m.Library Lobby, 8-11:30 p.m.
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