Rollergirls, Apps And Bling
The Kruth Talks
By Amber Kruth
Starlight Skatium
The old Curry’s Video (once a Safeway grocery) building on College Avenue near downtown Fayetteville has undergone a complete renovation and will open soon as the Starlight Skatium. A super sound system and clusters of mirror balls will enhance the 10,000-feet of maple floor flat track. The Skatium is currently hiring DJs, floor guards, concession attendants and party hosts. Drop by 612 N. College Ave. between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. weekdays to apply.
New Home
The Starlight Skatium will be the new home of the NWA Rollergirls. The Arkansas Killbillies and the Backwood Betties will kick off their third season on Jan. 23. Season tickets are $50, which gets you into all home bouts, VIP seating, a signed league photo and 10 percent-off all NWA roller derby merchandise.
BBBling
The Fayetteville Advertising and Promotion Commission gave $20,000 to the newly founded Bikers, Babes & Bling Festival scheduled on July 15-17. This event has raised much controversy about the purpose of having a separate women’s biker festival and how wise it was to fund this cause. Notably, every year when BBBQ (“for boys”) comes around there’s always controversy. This July, restaurants and hotels will surely rejoice and it will benefit future funding of such events, since 1 percent of all local hotel, motel and restaurant tax is credited to the A&P Fund. Proceeds of BBBling are proposed to benefit women and children-oriented charities. Have a cause you’d like to promote? A&P meetings are at 2 p.m. the second Monday of the month at the Fayetteville Town Center.
Apple Apps
Almost 10,000 ideas for apps are submitted to Apple each day. Recently, two were chosen that were created locally. Scott Bedwell, a Bentonville High School senior, created My DJ, which works within iTunes and shuffles songs at random, playing clips from 10 to 90 seconds. Philip Zweig of Fayetteville created the board game Wordigo (like Scrabble or Bananagrams) in 2003, which is now available as an Apple app. The Wordigo creator has gone a step further and will donate his full proceeds (70 cents an app) to the NWA Food Bank through Dec. 25.
Trees Among Us
The Arkansas Forestry Commission has $395,000 in Urban and Community Forestry Assistance Grants to facilitate Ice Storm 2009 recovery and restoration.
Fayetteville received more than $80,000 and Springdale more than $54,000 to assess the overall damage sustained by the January ice storm and plant new trees. A variety of oak, maple, dogwood, evergreen, hickory and pine — most about 7-feet tall — will rejuvenate state parks and city streets.
New Goodwill
A new Goodwill Store opened Dec. 3 at 3157 W. Sunset Ave. in Springdale. It’s an impressive 10,000 square feet that serves as a retail shop, donation center and job center.
