TODAY’S HIGHLIGHTS

The Puryear Detachment, Marine Corps League, will host a dinner commemorating the 242nd birthday of the U.S. Marine Corps

on Friday in The Palladium at the Coosa Valley Fairgrounds, 69 E. Church St., at 6 p.m. The dinner will feature the traditional cake cutting ceremony and the reading of the official order of the Second Continental Congress creating the Marine Corps on Nov. 10, 1775. Lt. General Willie Williams, Ret., of Huntsville, Alabama, will be the guest speaker. General Williams served in numerous command positions and was responsible for worldwide supply and logistics during the height of the Iraq War. As Deputy Assistant Commandant, General Williams was essentially third in the chain of command at Marine Headquarters in Washington, D.C. The deadline for reservations is today.

Call Everett Stewart at 706234-8603 for reservations. The cost is $20 for League members and $25 for non-members. For more information call Charles

Graves at 706-346-0181. The Berry College Jazz Ensemble will present “A Night of AfroCuban Jazz” at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday in the Ford Auditorium at Berry College, 2277 Martha Berry Highway. The ensemble, directed by Director of Jazz and Percussion Studies John David, will perform pieces by Dizzy Gillespie and Tito Puente. Drummer and percussionist Frankie Quinones will be performing as a guest artist. The concert is free and open to the public.

The Shorter Chorale of Shorter University

will open its 50th anniversary season with a Be Not Afraid concert Friday at 7:30 p.m. in the sanctuary of Second Avenue Baptist Church, 823 E. Second Ave. The performance will include selections from Palestrina and Schütz as well as contemporary composers. The Chorale will collaborate with School of Fine & Performing Arts Dean John Reams, a clarinetist, to perform Anthony Maglione’s “O Thou Great Power in Whom I Move.” The concert is free and open to the public.