Orlando’s has grown to be one of the biggest catering operations in St. Louis, and through the generations, the one thing that hasn't changed is family.

A reverence and respect for water is a universal theme, found in cultures from ancient Greece to the remote Pacific Island of Vanuatu. The ritual significance of water spans across the globe to include the Native American rain dance, Christian baptismal font, the gleeful splashing of the Songkran water festival of the Dai New Year and the solemn funeral pyre on the Ganges. Learning to manage water, whether it is a lot or a little, is an important part of our shared community. Well-handled water can be cleansing, refreshing, energizing. Out-of-control water has the power to drown and destroy, to wash away with time even the greatest of mountains.

Often thought of as a game for the privileged, PGA REACH flips that generalization of golf on its head. PGA REACH serves underprivileged youth by working to increase their academic—and ‘Beyond 18’ life—success.

Stories: Winning Juliet focuses on the new girl at a high school who runs into unexpected animosity and resentment by some established ‘popular’ students when she decides to audition for the female title role in the school’s production of Shakespeare’s tragedy, Romeo & Juliet.

MAY

World-class artists are once again coming together for Sing for Siteman, a one-night-only performance to support cancer research for Siteman Cancer Center.

When Annie Seal’s daughter was 15, she was diagnosed with an eating disorder. After intensive, comprehensive treatment, she has fully recovered, and is now a junior in college. But there is not always a happy ending for those with this complex illness. For 20 percent of them, it’s a fatal disease, Seal says.

It's getting closer…soon, St. Louis will be hosting the top senior professional golfers in the world.

Story: Jane Eyre, orphaned at an early age, is taken in by her mother’s brother and his family. After his death she is subject to ridicule and abuse by her aunt and cousins, and ultimately dispatched to the Lowood School for Girls at age 10. Living conditions at the institution are squalid, and many of Jane’s classmates die in a typhus epidemic.

Story: It’s the early 1920s, and Rose is determined to make her mark in show business. Not as an entertainer on the vaudeville circuit exactly, but rather as an impresario who knows what’s best for booking agents and small-time venues in the many cities she visits with her two daughters, Dainty June and Louise. Rose pushes her children to extreme limits in her efforts to make the younger of the two, June, a bona fide star.

Depending on your age, this time of year can mean many different things. It can mean time to plant your garden or hose off the patio furniture. It can mean time to swimsuit shop or time to make your summer travel plans. However, if you are a high school junior or senior, this time of year means one thing and one thing only: prom. Now, I know what you’re thinking. Some of us spent prom night at home watching horror movies, eating Mint Milanos, and dreaming about how much Tom would regret not asking me after I make my first billion creating a social networking website…theoretically speaking. Nevertheless, most kids that age, whether in groups or on dates, go to their high school prom. It is the 'date' aspect that I now find interesting.

Grand Center Inc. will be presenting its annual Visionary Awards to six area women on May 13 at The Sheldon. Ranging from theater to music and every art form in-between, these women are making a difference in the St. Louis artistic community—and they don’t plan on stopping any time soon.

I will be brief. It was all I could do to stomach the last seven or eight Twilight movies—at least it seemed like that many. Now, author Stephenie Meyer brings us The Host. Instead of vampires, we have aliens; and instead of…well, that’s about it.

April

Thank you for the great spread in LN for our Change Begins with Me exhibition opening. You have been wonderfully supportive and we couldn’t be more pleased with the impact. You are the best. (2/8/13 issue, p. 7)

He began his career on the local high school stage and is now an award-winning Broadway star. Since his early days growing up in South St. Louis, Norbert Leo Butz has found great success on Broadway, as well as in film and television. Even with a busy schedule that includes the lead role in next month’s world premiere of Big Fish in Chicago, Butz remains close to his roots. In May, he will return to St. Louis to headline a benefit concert for The Angel Band Project, a nonprofit that uses music to encourage healing and empathy for survivors of sexual violence. The Angel Band Project was created following the murder of Butz’s sister, Teresa Butz, in 2009. With the first show on May 8 at The Sheldon sold out, a second show has been added for May 9 at the 560 Music Center. Recently, Butz took a few minutes to speak with Ladue News about his career and the concert.

Eight-year-old Katelyn Vaser is proof of the difference the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s Gateway Chapter (LLS) has made in St. Louis. Three years ago, when she was diagnosed with a typically adult form of cancer—B cell lymphoma—her parents were blindsided. “When we took her to the hospital, my wife and I had no idea she had cancer,” says Katelyn’s dad, Dan Vaser. “So we were scrambling for information.” That’s when they found LLS. “At the time Katelyn was diagnosed, it had spread to most of her major organs and her nervous system,” he explains. “We relied on the LLS website, where there was a lot of informational support. And the more information I had, the better I felt.” 

Caroline Kennedy will be in town next Wednesday, April 3, for the ninth annual Family Read Night at St. Louis County Library headquarters to discuss her new book.