Belmont University art students shared their time and talent Nov. 9 to help a local animal rescue with its largest fundraising event. More than 250 animal lovers attended the only animal-themed masquerade ball to help raise money for Agape Animal Rescue, a non-profit organization that has been fostering and finding homes for displaced dogs since 2004.

With admission, ball guests received custom animal masks made by local artists. Approximately 100 of the masks designed by art students from Belmont. The masquerade event was the biggest fundraising event in organization’s history and raised more than $30,000.

Each semester, art professor David Ribar chooses a large-scale art project for his senior capstone students to complete as part of their midterm grade.

“I was looking for a project that would stimulate and utilize their design and fine art skills, and I also wanted to reiterate Belmont’s mission of paying it forward,” said Ribar.

Agape Animal Ball committee member asked Ribar to have students help contribute to their fundraiser.

“Agape Animal Ball was built on the concept of having beautiful, one-of-a-kind animal masks. When reaching out to the community for support, Belmont, a school known for its excellence in the arts, was an obvious choice,” said Tanya Willis, executive director and founder of Agape Animal Rescue. “Fundraising events are vital to the work we do. With the support of the Nashville community, we have rescued, fostered and found incredible homes for more than 800 dogs. “

Belmont University received eight visitors from Japan in late October. The group consisted of six members of the Fujieda International Friendship Society (FIFS) and the parents of Belmont University’s Japanese language instructor Dr. Naoko Ozaki. On the Maymester Japan Trip last year, Belmont University students and faculty visited Ozaki’s hometown, Fujieda City, Shizuoka Prefecture, and the FIFS group arranged generous hospitality for them in the city and the homes of their members.  With their help, Belmont students visited Fujieda Elementary School and were welcomed by fifth graders with songs and a calligraphy demonstration. FIFS group also arranged for the Belmont group to receive a warm welcome from the vice mayor of Fujieda City.  Upon her return from Japan this summer, Ozaki stayed in touch with the FIFS members and extended an invitation for them to visit Belmont. It wasn’t long before the FIFS members decided to accept this invitation and came all the way to the United States just to visit Belmont and Nashville, Tenn.

Belmont Japanese language students and the Maymester Trip students held an “FIFS Appreciation” event and sang eleven songs in Japanese, Swahili and English. The visitors sang along and also danced with the students. The event concluded with a potluck party with the help of custodial staff who brought food unique to their home countries. The group stayed with Nashville host families in the area, visited the Nashville mayor’s office and went to the Office of the Consul General of Japan and met Consul-General Kato. The students also took the visitors to restaurants such as Cheesecake Factory and Hard Rock Café where the visitors took pictures of all-American hamburgers and large portions of cheesecake slices. The delegation was hosted at a luncheon given by Belmont’s Asian Studies department and members of the Japan Studies faculty.

Dr. Tohru Ozaki and Mrs. Atsuko Ozaki, parents of Ozaki, brought a Ryūkyū Doll to Dr. Bob Fisher and the University. This doll is from the southern part of Japan known as Okinawa today. The style and the fabric of the outfit represent those of the time Okinawa was called Ryūkyū Kingdom  from the 15^th century, and the outfit is different from Japan’s traditional kimono.

The Ozakis live in Fujieda City, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. Tohru Ozaki is one of a few elite scholars of Sumerian and cuneiform in the world. Much of his publication is studied and referenced by other Sumerian scholars. After retiring from teaching at the University of Shizuoka, he taught Sumerian, German, and French at Northeast Normal University in Changchun, China for four years.  Atsuko Ozaki has spent her career working with people with autism, helping them to be participating citizens of the community. Being back in Japan now, they are looking forward to helping the students on Belmont’s Maymester 2014 Japan Trip experience the unique culture of Japan.

On Tues., Nov. 5, the College of Pharmacy participated in a health screening exercise with Special Olympics Tennessee.  Seventy-five Davidson County Olympians, who compete worldwide in various events, were screened for athletic readiness.  College of Pharmacy faculty and students were involved in screening medication profiles of the athletes, making sure proper cautions concerning allergies, exposure to the sun, drug adverse effects and drug interactions were not an issue for these participants.  According to Joanne Drumright of Special Olympics, “The process went very smoothly, and we hope to scale up the screening, inviting athletes from a much broader area in an upcoming event.”  College of Pharmacy participants included Drs. Andy Webster and Phil Johnston along with students Marian Roufael, Razia Shamsuddin and Darrilyn Prout, all in their fourth year of study.