Our Lady of Grace Catholic Academy of East Moline is hosting a 500 seat Texas Hold'em Tournament on September 9, 2012 at Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish Hall, 800 17th Street, Silvis.

The entry fee is $80.00 ($60.00 to prize pool and $20.00 to Grace)

The tournament features two session of 250 players. The first session is at 12 noon and the second session is at 5PM. Projected Prize pool is $30,000, with first prize $10,000 guaranteed. The top 30 from each session will play at 9:45 for the money. The tourney will pay to the top 42 players.

Advance registration is highly recommended. Players may register at www.qcpoker.com. Pre-registering may be done on the website. The event will have a cash bar and food will also be available. Please direct questions to info@qcpoker.com or call the school at (309)755-9771.

Quad Cities through Keokuk, IA

Davenport, IA/ August 3, 2012- A massive volunteer effort to clean the mighty Mississippi is about to begin its third phase.  The Great Mississippi River Clean-up, which began as a one-day, simultaneous event now encompasses 20 cities and is growing into a summer-long campaign.  Living Lands & Waters (LL&W) will launch phase three August 11^th from the Quad Cities through Oquawka, Illinois.  This year's cleanup began on June 13^th, when volunteers gathered along the Mississippi from Saint Paul, MN to La Crosse, WI, pulling garbage out of the waters.

Originally a one day event, the Great Mississippi River clean-up has had to expand to a summer long excursion due to the overwhelming volunteer response.  In all, 2,500-3,000 volunteers are expected to take part in this year's clean-up of this iconic waterway.

The next scheduled phases of the clean-up are:

• August 11^th - Quad-Cities to Keokuk, IA
• September 15^th - Quincy, IL through St. Louis, MO.

LL&W Founder and President Chad Pregracke calls the shift a logical progression in the life cycle of this massive undertaking.  Pregracke  says, "Doing the clean up in phases will help bring our important message to more people.  And that's part of what Living Lands & Waters is all about:  bringing the health of our rivers to the attention of everyone who depends upon them, and then working to improve it."

Living Lands & Waters is a 501(c) (3) environmental organization established in 1998 and headquartered in East Moline, Illinois.  LL&W has removed more than six million pounds of trash through cleanup efforts along the Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio, Illinois and Potomac rivers since its launch 15 years ago. LL&W also coordinated flood relief efforts after Hurricane Katrina and the historic floods in Cedar Rapids, Iowa and Lake Delton, Wisconsin in 2008.

For more information or to sign up as a volunteer, please visit www.livinglandsandwaters.org.

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ROCK ISLAND, IL - On August 5th from 3:00-5:00pm, Theplace2b invites the community to an open house (1600-2nd Avenue Rock Island) and art sale to celebrate two years of service to our community's youth and their families.

Art created by our youth, as well as art donated by members of Handmade City, will be for sale at the open house. All proceeds from the sales will serve as the starting funds for our new Youth Entrepreneurial Program.

Miriam Prichard, our new associate director, will be speaking at 4:00pm about what has been happening at theplace2b recently.

Refreshments and hors d'oeuvres will be served.

Background: Theplace2b opened its doors in August 2010 to help meet the needs of the rising numbers of at-risk, displaced and homeless youth of our area. It came into being through the involvement of persons from the social services, financial supporters, concerned citizens, and religious institutions who saw the issue an opportunity and responsibility of the entire community to come together and open a center.

The first youth who entered our doors in 2010 was 17-yrs-old and came all the way from Arkansas, homeless and sleeping under someone's bed. We began helping just one youth, and from there we have evolved to helping over 100 youth in the Quad City area. We provide youth with a meal, job skills, and a safe place to hangout. For many of youth that have come in here we have provided resources to other services in our community such as housing programs and referrals to other agencies. We have been lucky to have the support of our community through donations of food, clothing, and having generous volunteers.

According to a 2011 Quad City Times Article, over 400 youth in Davenport School District and 140 in Rock Island/Milan School District were reported as homeless (9/5/11 "Counting Q-C's homeless teens hard").

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