Orange County Section

We are excited to announce that the OCACS is once again a finalist for the 2011 ChemLuminary Award for Outstanding Event for the General Public Using the Yearly Theme and for Outstanding On-Going National Chemistry Week Event!

The recipients will be announced at the 242nd ACS National Meeting in Denver, CO this fall. Our section will be displaying a poster highlighting both of these events, so please stop by on Tuesday, August 30, if you are in Denver, and support the OCACS.

A special thank you to our Education Committee for their stellar work each year to educate the Orange County community on the power of chemistry!!

In addition, the OCACS Education Committee has been hard at work in 2011 to help Orange County celebrate the International Year of Chemistry! In a spark of pure inspiration, they put together an exciting program for kids to take place at local libraries.

The inaugural program kicked off on June 23 at Stanton Library and it was a roaring success! Thirty kids were there to participate in the hands-on demonstrations and chemistry information. Lindsay Klick from the library deserves a hearty thanks from the OCACS for hosting us.

The schedule is as follows:

7/13: Fountain Valley (7PM, 48 kids)
7/13: West Garden Grove (4PM, 40 kids)
7/19: Villa Park (10:30AM, 48 kids)
7/20: La Palma (3PM, 48 kids)
8/2: El Toro (4PM, 48 kids)
8/11: Costa Mesa-Dungan (2PM, 48 kids)

If you work with a library or have connections with a local library who is not on this list but who may want to host a demonstration, please contact Carol Grimes at cgrimes@gwc.cccd.edu. Right now, we are set to teach some chemistry to more than 300 kids this summer!

As always, you can contact me at sthompson@buchalter.com or OCACSChair@gmail.com.

Sandra Thompson, PhD
2011 Chair, Orange County Section, American Chemical Society