Monday January 26, 2026
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For the second year, Metro Parks and Recreation is creating a “Wish Tree” in Joe Creason Park for visitors to share their future hopes and dreams for themselves, their families and the world around them.
Those wishing to participate are encouraged to travel to Creason Park to visit the tree, a Dogwood tree directly in front of the Metro Parks and Recreation Administration Building, located off Trevilian Way across from the Louisvile Zoo.
“Last year we had more than 500 tags attached to the tree by the end of the process,” said Seve Ghose, director of Metro Parks and Recreation. “That inspired us to do it again this year, and we’re looking forward to seeing Louisville residents express their positive vision for the future.”
Tags for the tree and pencils will be provided on site, but those who participate are encouraged to bring anything they wish to create the tags.
Participants can tie them to the tree’s branches from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. beginning today and continuing through Friday, December 30. At the close of that time period, the wishes will be collected and sent to the Imagine Peace Tower in Reykjavik, Iceland, as well as shared on social media.
The Imagine Peace Tower is an outdoor work of art conceived by Yoko Ono in honor of her late husband, the musician John Lennon, and symbolizes her continuing campaign for world peace dedicated to his memory.
Additionally, Metro Parks and Recreation will be hosting an open house at its headquarters, located at 1297 Trevilian Way, on Wednesday, December 14 from 5-7 p.m. Light refreshments will be served, and Metro Parks employees will be on hand to give tours of the Creason Administration Building (Collings House).
Citing Louisville’s reputation as an international model city of compassion, Mayor Greg Fischer is calling on citizens and businesses to celebrate the season of giving by helping break the world record for the most toys collected for Toys for Tots in a 12-hour period.
Louisville set the record last year, with 6,223 toys collected during the annual Holiday in the City.
The toy collection, sponsored by the Marine Corps Reserve Toys for Tots Program, Margaret’s Moving and Storage, WLKY and Louisville Downtown Partnership, will take place on Thursday, Dec. 1 at Louisville’s Holiday Square, located in the plaza at Fourth and Jefferson streets. From 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. that day, all are encouraged to bring new, unwrapped toys to Marines Corps League members who will be collecting them, near the city Christmas Tree at Holiday Square.
“The holiday season is a time of giving, and in this city of compassion, our true goal is not collecting the most toys, but spreading the most joy among the children of Louisville.”
The Toys for Tots collection is the first in a weekly event featuring a local charitable organization, part of Holiday in the City’s goal of spreading compassion throughout the city.
Holiday in the City has expanded upon the festive history of Louisville’s seasonal traditions to showcase downtown as a year-end destination. As part of Holiday in the City, the plaza at Fourth and Jefferson streets has been transformed into a Holiday Square, featuring an ice-skating rink and the city Christmas tree.
Visitors can travel from Holiday Square and follow the Gum Drop Trail to the Holiday Market, hosted by Fourth Street Live! featuring chalets that sell unique-custom gifts, holiday decorations, sweets and more.
Local businesses along the Gum Drop Trail – a path identified by sidewalk decals that run from Market Street, through Fourth Street Live! to Broadway – will offer special discounts and deals. Shoppers who collect three Gum Drop discounts from these local businesses can enter into a weekly drawing for prizes, which include gift cards, Louisville swag and more.
Holiday in the City is made possible with support from LG&E, MainSource Bank, Fourth Street Live!, Louisville Convention & Visitors Bureau, Ford/UAW, Beam Suntory, MetroPCS, Hyatt Hotel Louisville, 400 West Market, USA Image, WLKY, Outfront Media, 106.9 Play, Louisville Magazine and The Courier-Journal.
For more information on the Marine Toys for Tots program, visit www.louisville-ky.toysfortots.org and follow them on Facebook or on Twitter.
The State Board of Elections on Tuesday, Nov. 22, certified vote totals from the Nov. 8 general election and issued certificates of election to candidates who received the highest number of votes, completing the official administration process of the statewide election. Detailed official results are available at GoVoteKY.com.
Approximately 1.95 million Kentuckians, 59% percent of registered voters, cast ballots in the general election, said Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes, Kentucky’s chief election official.
“Our election administrators – more than 15,000 across Kentucky, including the State Board of Elections, county boards of elections, county clerks, and precinct election officers – are the backbone of this process, and again, they led a successful election,” said Grimes. “I am deeply grateful for their hard work and dedication to ensuring our elections run efficiently and fairly.”
Grimes announced that the Meeting of Presidential Electors will be held on Dec. 19 at 11:30 a.m. at the Supreme Court Room in Frankfort. The electors cast the official votes of Kentucky for President and Vice President of the United States.
The Kentucky Election Integrity Task Force also met Tuesday to review the administration of the election. The members, which include U.S. Attorney’s offices, the FBI, the Kentucky Attorney General’s office, and Kentucky State Police, said the high-profile election was largely free from issue or problems. Law enforcement officials are currently reviewing election complaints they have received to determine which may merit further investigation. Grimes chairs the task force, which she brought together for the first time in 2012.
Pursuant to Kentucky law, the Office of the Attorney General will randomly select six counties in which it will conduct a post-election audit. The drawing was scheduled for last Tuesday.
The State Board of Elections led a post-election meeting of the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) Advisory Committee to assess current voting processes and discuss possible improvements. Kentucky is one of the few states in the nation which conducts regular meetings in accordance with the federal voting law passed in 2002.
“I have been a committed advocate for making sure every Kentuckian – especially those with disabilities – are able to cast their ballots independently and in private,” said Grimes. “Voting is a cherished right, and I’m proud to help preserve it for all citizens.”
Grimes continues to push for legislation that would make it easier for persons who qualify by age, disability, and illness to vote absentee in-person. The proposal enjoys the support of disability advocates and has the recommendation of the HAVA Advisory Committee.
Mayor Greg Fischer announced today that His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama will return to Louisville in April 2017. And to spotlight the significance of the visit, the 22nd annual Festival of Faiths will move to April 19-24 and culminate with talks by the Dalai Lama.
The Mayor, joined by 2017 Festival chairman Owsley Brown III, made the announcement during a press conference today at the George Garvin Brown Garden, 415 W. Muhammad Ali Blvd.
The title of the 2017 Festival is “Compassion: Shining like the Sun.” His Holiness the Dalai Lama will deliver talks on universal human values and nonviolence at the Yum! Center on Sunday, April 23, and at a large youth event on Monday, April 24.
The visit is being planned by several local organizations involved in the city’s compassion initiatives, including the Mayor’s office, the Center for Interfaith Relations, Drepung Gomang Center for Engaging Compassion, and the newly formed International Center for Compassionate Cities.
Since taking office in 2011, Mayor Fischer has helped champion a city-wide campaign for compassion, including his Give a Day week of service, Compassionate Louisville and the Compassionate Schools Project. He has been a longtime supporter of Louisville’s signature interfaith event, the Festival of Faiths, and worked with the Festival’s Brown, as well as Jefferson County Public Schools Superintendent, Dr. Donna Hargens, to launch the Compassionate Schools Project here in 2015.
The Festival of Faiths is a nationally acclaimed interfaith event of music, poetry, film, art and dialogue with internationally renowned spiritual leaders, thinkers and practitioners. It is designed as a platform for holding conversations on meaning in a time of multiple crises of meaning; and respecting the essential union between thinking globally and acting locally.
Theologian Richard Rohr calls the Festival “the Sundance of the Sacred,” and the Huffington Post included it among America’s top 7 spiritual travel destinations. www.FestivalofFaiths.org
Drepung Gomang Center for Engaging Compassion, a Tibetan Buddhist dharma center, hosted His Holiness in Louisville in 2013. Under the Dalai Lama’s advice and guidance, DGCEC’s Compassion Education Center provides presentations, workshops, retreats and classes that inspire everyday people to grow loving-kindness and deep compassion in the movement from understanding to personal engagement. Programming is based in universal human values using inclusive, non-religious and inter-religious language. www.DrepungGomangUSA.org
The International Center for Compassionate Cities (IC3) will launch with the 2017 visit. The IC3 will serve the ever-growing global community of cities that have signed the Charter for Compassion by providing tools to measure compassion, resources to help implement compassion-based city programing and a space to share stories. Overall, the center will serve to amplify compassion in cities around the world.
The site of today’s press conference announcing the 2017 visit was steps away from Merton Square, the historic site of Thomas Merton’s 1958 epiphany in downtown Louisville. He wrote of that event: “[I]n Louisville, at the corner of Fourth and Walnut [now Muhammad Ali Blvd.] … I was suddenly overwhelmed with the realization that I loved all those people, that they were mine and I theirs. … There is no way of telling people that they are all walking around shining like the sun.”
Merton was a Trappist monk who is world renowned as a Christian writer, social critic and interfaith pioneer. In 1968 Merton met with the young Dalai Lama and forged an important kinship that continues to “shine like the sun.” Merton wrote that he felt “a real spiritual bond” with His Holiness. The image of the two at this 1968 meeting hangs over the door at the Center for Interfaith Relations.
Even today the Dalai Lama often speaks about Merton as THE Christian monk who broadened his understanding of the profound commonalities between traditions. His Holiness commented in a New York Times opinion piece in 2010: “The focus on compassion that Merton and I observed in our two religions strikes me as a strong unifying thread among all the major faiths. And these days we need to highlight what unifies us.”
More details about themes and programming, as well as ticketing, for the April event will be released in January 2017, and news and updates will be posted on the www.FestivalofFaiths.org and www.DalaiLamaLouisville.org websites.
Mayor joins national experts, universities, employers at Ali Center on Dec. 9
Registration is now open for Power Forward, a workforce and education summit that brings together national and local experts, schools, universities and employers to collaborate on a more productive transition between education and career – helping create a stronger pipeline of talent for Louisville-area employers.
The event is Friday, Dec. 9, 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at the Muhammad Ali Center. Registration is free at kentuckianaworks.org.
Power Forward is presented by KentuckianaWorks, 55,000 Degrees and Greater Louisville Inc. and funded by the JPMorgan Chase Foundation.
Mayor Greg Fischer, who has set goals for talent attraction and raising the education attainment and skills level in Louisville, will present at the start of the summit, and close with a challenge to the community.
Keynote speakers will include:
- Peter Cappelli, the George W. Taylor Professor of Management at The Wharton School and Director of Wharton’s Center for Human Resources at the University of Pennsylvania,
- Dr. Kate Ziemer, Vice Provost of Curriculum of Northeastern University, which has transformed from an urban commuter university into a top-50 national university partly on the strength of a comprehensive co-op program.
Additional breakout sessions and lightning and TED-style talks will feature an eclectic lineup of presenters and topics.
Light refreshments begin at 8:30 a.m., and lunch will be provided.
Christi’s Cafe Celebrates 10 years as a Great Local Business on Dixie Highway
In November 2006, Christi Druin took a chance and opened a small business on Dixie Highway. From that day forward, Christi’s Café has developed a great reputation for its home cooking and friendly service for the people of Valley Station.
On Monday, President David Yates (D-25) and Councilwoman Cindi Fowler (D-14) will honor Christi’s Café with a proclamation and a thank you for her continued success as a small businesswoman in Southwest Metro Louisville.
“Christi’s Café is a great example of how small businesses drive the growth of our local economy,” says Yates. “For that reason, we are proud to honor Christi Druin and her dedicated employees for their contribution to making this locally owned and operated business a success.”
Druin is a graduate of Valley High School and the mother of six.
Two years after she started Christi’s Café, she was able to expand and purchase a familiar place along Dixie Highway that was once noted for its food served to the people of Valley Station.
“Everyone has a favorite place to eat and Christi has never forgotten where she came from. She makes her business feel more like a place where you go to meet your family and friends,” says Fowler. “She is successful because she cares about people.”
Christi’s Café is located at 12810 Dixie Highway which has a history for the people of Valley Station. When Druin bought the building, it was the location of a closed upholstery shop. Back in the 1950’s and 1960’s, the building was the location of Scotties Restaurant which was a local favorite along Dixie Highway.
On Monday November 14th, President Yates and Councilwoman Fowler will visit Christi’s Café at 1:00pm to bestow the proclamation and offer their congratulations on her tenth anniversary of operation.
To learn more about Christi’s Café, go to: http://christiscafe.com/
photo: Gregory H. Revera
Although the technical name for the phenomenon is the perigee-syzygy of the Earth-Moon-Sun system, we can simply call it a Supermoon for short.
A supermoon is when a full moon (or a new moon) occurs during the celestial object’s closest approach to the Earth during its elliptical orbit. As you might expect, this results in the moon appearing larger than usual in the sky.
The Moon’s distance varies each month between approximately 357,000 kilometers and 406,000 km (222,000-252,000 miles) due to its elliptical orbit around the Earth. A full moon at perigee appears visually larger by up to 30% and shines 30% more light than one at its farthest point, or apogee.
While the phenomenon occurs around once every 13 months, the supermoon that we will witness tonight, however, is extra special in that the Moon will be the closest to Earth that it has been since 1948. It’s closest approach, which which will occur at 6:23 a.m. on Monday, the moon will pass within 348,400 km (216,486 miles) of theEarth’s surface – approximately 22,000 miles closer than average.
Although there will be more opportunities to witness another supermoon in just over a year, the next time that it will be this close will be in 2034, so be sure to get out and see it in the early morning hours. The weather is predicted to only be partly cloudy overnight, so there should be ample opportunity to get a good view.
