The Arc of the Quad Cities Area announces the Quad Cities Chamber will conduct a Ribbon Cutting Ceremony on Friday, September 21, 2012 at 1 pm at The Arc's Opportunity Center located at 5101 52nd Avenue in Moline. The Ribbon Cutting celebrates a $275,000 property reinvestment in the Opportunity Center facility. Senator Mike Jacobs of the 36 th Senate District in Illinois was instrumental in facilitating the funds on behalf of The Arc through an energy efficiency grant offered by the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity. The $275,000 investment converted the 40 year old HVAC system at the Opportunity Center into a geo-thermal system. The Opportunity Center houses day programs, community supports, and community employment services for 144 individuals
with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

The Ribbon Cutting is open to the public. Ambassadors from the Quad Cities Chamber, Senator Mike Jacobs, Board members of The Arc of the Quad Cities Area, The Arc's executive management team, staff, and individuals served through The Arc will be present.

The Arc of the Quad Cities Area serves more than 300 individuals with intellectual and other disabilities. Programs foster the highest degree of independence possible, offering residential services, developmental and vocational skills training, supported employment, and respite care. From its humble beginnings in the living room of a privately-hired teacher in 1952, The Arc has evolved to a $13.5 million non-profit which employs a staff of more than 250.

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Augustana College is excited to be hosting renowned poet Carl Phillip as part of its River Readings program.

Rock Island, IL/ Sept. 12 2012 -Augustana College will continue its River Readings program on Thursday, Sept. 20 with poet Carl Phillip. Phillips will discuss his work and career and do a free reading followed by a reception and book signing. The event will be held at7 p.m. in Wallenberg Hall inside Denkmann Hall (3520 7th Ave). Every reading is open to the public and the campus community alike.

"The River Readings gives both students and members of the Quad Cities community a chance to meet, face to face, with internationally renowned authors. It's not every day we get the opportunity to talk to someone whose work will appear in literature textbooks for generations to come." - said Dr. Kelly Daniels, River Readings coordinator and assistant professor of English.

Phillips is the author of numerous books of poetry, including Quiver of Arrows: Selected Poems 1986-2006 and Riding Westward. His collection The Rest of Love won the Theodore Roethke Memorial Foundation Poetry Prize and the Thom Gunn Award for Gay Male Poetry.  His book Pastoral won the 2001 Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry, and in 2002 he received the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award for The Tether. In 2006, he was named the recipient of the Fellowship of the Academy of American Poets.  Phillips is currently a Professor of English and of African and Afro-American Studies at Washington University in St. Louis, where he also teaches in the Creative Writing Program.  A few copies of Phillips's books, Double Shadow and Quiver of Arrows, will be available for purchase after the reading

For years Augustana has brought writers of poetry, fiction, and literary nonfiction to campus from all corners of the country to present their work in a free reading on campus.  In the past, Augustana,has invited Marvin Bell, Simon Ortiz, Gerald Stern, and Jill Essbaum to share their work.  Later in this academic year, Augustana will host fiction writers Peter Geye on Thursday, Nov. 29 and Donald Ray Pollock on Thursday, Apr. 18.

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