The Downriver Youth Performing Arts Center, better known as DYPAC, will celebrate the 20th anniversary of its founding in 1998 by Dr. Noel Jackson with a gala at 6 p.m. May 19 at Crystal Gardens, 16703 Fort St. in Southgate.
Guests at the gala, which will carry out the theme “Be Our Guest, Put Our Service to the Test,” will be served cocktails and hors d’oeuvres and visit French cuisine and dessert stations.
Theatrical performances will be presented by DYPAC members and alumni, and musical entertainment by Sarah Altenberg, Matthew Kush and Pearl Handled Necktie.
Jack Krasula, host of the WJR-AM radio talk show “Anything Is Possible!” will emcee the event, which also will include live and silent auctions and raffles.
Gala hosts will be Mishell Schutt and Jackson. Honorary chairs include John and Nancy Colina, Cindy Czarnik, Elaine Fritz, Chuck and Dee Howey, John and Jennifer Martenson and Drs. Ron and Beverly Morris.
Others are Waltraud Prechter, Patrick Smithbauer and Karen Wilson Smithbauer, Trenton Mayor Kyle Stack, Bill Jasman, Catherine Teifer, Larry and Sarah Wright and Alexander Zonjic.
Tickets for the event, $100, are available by going to www.dypac.com or calling 734-673-9507.
The Trenton Village Theatre, 2447 W. Jefferson, is the performance venue of DYPAC. Jackson is the organization’s president, and Debbie Jackson, his wife, is administrator.
Rededication is scheduled
The replacement of the World War I bronze plaque stolen five years ago from the Lincoln Park War Memorial will take place following the city’s Memorial Day parade on May 20.
Starting at 1.p.m. at White and Fort streets, the procession will continue along Fort Street to Merrill, where a rededication ceremony will be hosted by Lincoln Park VFW Post 1552.
The replacement of the plaque was made possible with funds raised by the Historical Society, said Jeff Day, curator of the Lincoln Park Historical Museum.
He said he hopes that those who have ancestors who may have served in any branch of the service during World War I will attend the ceremony. They would have been members of Ecorse Township families living in the area before Lincoln Park was incorporated in 1921, Day said.
The Historical Society has scheduled its annual dinner and election and installation of officers for May 17 at Lincoln Park High School, 1701 Champaign, between Dix and Fort Street. For tickets, $20, call 313-386-3137.
Doors will open at 6 p.m., and a buffet dinner will be served at 6:30 p.m. Curator Day will give a talk on the early history of the Ford Rouge plant in conjunction with a special exhibit scheduled to begin June 9 and continue through Sept. 1 at the museum.
Kicking off the exhibit will be a “Model A Rendezvous” marking the 90th anniversary of the auto and featuring historic cars produced between 1928 and 1932. The event will be held from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. at Community Center Park at Dix and Gregory without charge.
The museum is seeking the names of Ford auto workers who settled in this area during the plant’s early years and afterward.
On May 19, the society will conduct its annual memorial bell-ringing ceremony and dedicate eight new bricks at Lincoln Park Plaza, located on the lawn of the museum. An indoor reception will follow the ceremony, to begin at noon.
The current exhibit at the museum, which features movie props, will continue through May 30. It is a lead-in to the third annual Downriver Comic Con, to be held June 2 and 3 at Lincoln Park High School.