Nationally-recognized spokesperson for early childhood mental health, Dr. Charles H. Zeanah, Jr., will speak to the Baton Rouge community at a free Distinguished Speaker Series session hosted by Academic Distinction Fund (ADF) on Tuesday, April 3, 2012, Registration 4 - 4:30 p.m., Program 4:30 – 6:00 p.m. at the Renaissance Hotel, 7000 Bluebonnet Blvd. ADF is a major collaborator among schools, businesses, and the community and acts as a catalyst for private sector leadership in advancing public education in East Baton Rouge Public School System (EBRPSS).

Dr.

Mayor-President Melvin L. “Kip” Holden and his wife Lois will celebrate the Mayor’s Annual Family Bike Day on Saturday, March 31, by leading a bike ride along the recently completed segment of the Mississippi River Levee Bike Path. The ride will begin at BREC’s Farr Park and take bicyclists along the levee bike path from Farr Park to Skip Bertman Drive at LSU and back.

Family Bike Day is held each year as part of the Mayor’s Healthy BR Initiative, and is open to bicyclists of all ages free of charge.

Participants should plan on arriving about 9 a.m. at Farr Park on River Road just south of Brightside Lane. The annual “Blessing of the Bikes” will be held at the Farr Park Bike Path Pavilion at 9:30 a.m., followed by the official dedication for the recently completed section of the Mississippi River Bike Path at 9:40 a.m.

Mayor Holden and the city’s First Lady will then lead cyclists for a ride along the new 9,500-foot-long section of the Levee Bike Path between Farr Park and Skip Bertman Drive. The project, which was funded in part by a $980,000 federal appropriation arranged by U.S. Sen.