Lake Highlands iReporter

The Lake Highlands area orchestra club is preparing to host a fundraiser garage sale on Saturday, April 21 to benefit all current and future orchestra students in Lake Highlands High School and feeder schools. Maintaining an orchestra is expensive - music, instruments and repair - so the orchestra is looking to the community for help.

The orchestra hopes to expose students to orchestral music but needs financial support in order to purchase instruments, keep them well-maintained, send students to competitions and put on great performances for family, friends and the community. Best of all, orchestra students will build relationships and hone skills that will last a lifetime.

To make the garage sale fundraiser a success, the orchestra is asking for the community to donate any unused or gently used goods. The orchestra hopes everyone will help pitch in, even if they don't personally have a child in a school orchestra. To donate items, contact Stacey at 214-507-5007.

It seems like there a race of some sort nearly every week at White Rock Lake but the one taking place this weekend is special. The White Rock 5K, happening on Saturday, April 14, is a race that was originally thought up to support and benefit Dallas police officers in need.

This year is the third iteration of the White Rock 5K, which has raised nearly $20,000 for officers. The race begins at Winfrey Point and winds through the Peninsula Neighborhood. There will also be a 1K for the kids to have fun with. So come out to White Rock Lake on Saturday and support the men and women who protect the neighborhoods and residents of Dallas.

As children, many girls dream of being princesses while boys imagine themselves as gallant knights. And for one day, kids can fulfill their fantasies at the SMU Meadows Museum during Family Fun Day. As part of the exhibition "The Invention of Glory: Afonoso V and the Pastrana Tapestries," families will be transported back to the medieval times.

The Family Fun Day is taking place on Saturday, April 21 from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Families will feel like they really have gone back in time, as there will be troubadours, jesters and dancers (all portrayed by SMU arts students) milling around outside, as well as a display of jousting from acting students. There will even be falconers on hands from American Hawking.

Inside the museum, children will have the opportunity to create knight and princess crafts, search for arts treasures in a scavenger hunt and take an exciting, hands-on look at real armor that is used by contemporary sword-fighters with Schola St. George Medieval and Renaissance Swordsmanship.

And since this event is happening during lunch, princesses and knights get free treats. Ruthie's Rolling Cafe and Green House food trucks will also be on hand at the event to serve food.

The Marine Science Consortium handed out a handful of prestigious internships to some of the brightest students across the entire United States, and one of them went to one of Lake Highlands High School's very own. LHHS Junior Patrick Mahurin is one of six recipients of the Marine Science Consortium's annual eight week summer internship program.

Mahurin will be traveling to the Marine Science Consortium on Wallops Island at the beginning of summer. Wallops Island is located on Virginia's eastern shore, between the Atlantic Ocean and ecologically important Chesapeake Bay.

Earning the internship was no easy task for any of the recipients. Mahurin had to complete a rigorous application and interview process. The interviewers were mostly focused on his academic excellence, interest in marine biology and eagerness to work in an outdoor environmental education setting. While at this internship, he will work alongside program staff to provide environmental education programs, attend college level classes and develop his own research or legacy project.

"We are extremely proud that Patrick was chosen for this internship," said Dr. Brenda Prine, director of the College and Career Center at Lake Highlands High School. "This will be an important contribution on his journey to become a marine biologist."

To learn more about the Marine Science Consortium, check out their website.

Photo courtesy of Kelley Hurst

With several accidents, incidents and crimes occurring on trains and train platforms in past few months, it's understandable that frequent DART passengers are worried for their safety. So, beginning Friday, April 6, passengers can now text the DART police if there is an emergency aboard a train.

Riders will be able to connect to DART Police via text messaging by sending a short message with the keyword "dartpolice" to 41411. However, DART Police are quick to point out that this new tool is not a replacement for emergency calls.

Instead, they're for transit customers that are either hearing impaired, do not wish to make a phone call or something else that makes them uncomfortable while on the DART.

DART Police also believe that this new texting tool will be more popular with younger adult and teenage customers that prefer texting over talking.