MIRIAM FOUNDATION’s Annual Spring Friendraising Event takes place from 5 to 8 p.m. Saturday, April 25, right after Earth Day. Appropriately, its theme is “Green, Groovy and Growing” — hence the Green, Groovy because it is a party and Growing because of Miriam’s expanding services. The event, at the Zodiac in Neiman Marcus at Plaza Frontenac, will combine appetizers and cocktails with socializing and raffle items such as Cardinals tickets, a helicopter ride and a tour of the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center with lunch and scientist Q &A. Guests also receive a goodie bag with earth-friendly natural products. For reservations at $35 per person call Laura Derickson at 314-962-6059. Proceeds benefit the Miriam School Annual Scholarship campaign.

Almost 100 years ago a group of Jewish women chartered the Miriam Lodge, United Order of True Sisters and eventually acquired a lovely piece of property in Webster Groves, where a number of programs were operated. In 1956, the Miriam School was established, and since 1962 its focus has been to serve children with multiple learning disabilities. The original U.O.T.S Lodge has been replaced by the Miriam Foundation, which operates both the school and the Miriam Learning Center for children with learning disabilities. For families unable to pay for these services, the scholarship fund takes up the slack.

LIFE SKILLS, now in its 45th year of helping people with developmental disabilities live and work in the St. Louis area, will hold its fifth annual Walk, Run and Roll event on Saturday, April 25 at the Tower Grove Park Pool Pavilion. Corporate teams, families and individuals are invited to walk, run or roll on skates, wheelchairs, strollers and wagons for pledged donations. Call 314-567-7705 or visit www.lifeskills-stl.org for more details. Life Skills can use all the financial support it can get. Currently, it helps more than 1,500 adults and teens to live in their own home and to find and keep a job.

FOOD FIGHT – A MUSICAL COMEDY FOR WAIST WATCHERS makes its Midwest debut on April 15 at the Playhouse at Westport Plaza. Food Fight was written and produced by Alan Jacobson, an experienced actor, teacher, coach director and producer who has performed in theaters around the country. The show’s 24 pop tune parodies are all about love/hate relationships with food, dieting and exercise. The four leads sing, dance and “fight’ their way through various battles with food, exercise and body image.

Tickets for Food Fight, which runs through May 24, are available by calling 314-534-1111, online at www.metrotix.com and at The Playhouse at Westport Plaza box office.

A CHORUS LINE, the Pulitzer Prize- and Tony Award-winning musical that opened on Broadway in 1976 and ran for nearly 15 years, is hands-down my favorite play. It closed in 1990 after a record 6,137 performances. A Chorus Line was revived and reopened in October 2006 to rave reviews and packed houses.

The show is coming to the Fox Theatre for a two-week run from May 12-24. Usually I try to find a Jewish connection whenever I write about a subject, and although I think A Chorus Line has a humanitarian/Jewish theme, its success is very much due to the work of two great Jewish talents: composer Marvin Hamlisch and lyricist Edward Kleban. Tickets are available at the Fox box office, by calling 314-534-1111 and www.metrotix.com.

SOME PEOPLE ARE REMEMBERED for their good deeds or bad, or for their charitable, artistic or scientific contributions.

Not so my friend Blanche Goldstein, who died a few weeks ago. Blanche will be remembered for her warmth, her beauty and her caring for her friends.

Blanche had a glorious smile and a disposition to match it. She was a party girl in the best sense and injected any occasion with her joie de vivre. She will be missed.