Dr. Andrea Bracikowski, director of Pediatric Emergency Medicine, says parents should be aware children are far more likely to suffer injury from a fall, or impact with an auto on Halloween than to have their candy tampered with.

The Vanderbilt Kennedy Center for Research on Human Development will host a Sibshop, an activity-based retreat for children ages 7 through 12 who have a sibling with special needs, this Saturday, Oct. 19, 2003, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The children will work with an education staff member from the Frist Center for the Visual Arts to create a unique quilt that will hang in the new Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt.

The Vanderbilt School of Nursing has been awarded two separate grants to deliver online emergency preparedness programs to healthcare professionals around the country.

The works of nationally renowned artist Laura Craig McNellis will be displayed in the Courtyard Gallery of the Nashville Public Library, 615 Church Street, Oct. 10 through Dec. 31, in an exhibit co-sponsored by the library and the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center.

Seeking a more "sleep-friendly" environment, sleep experts at Vanderbilt Medical Center are taking a novel approach for providing sleep studies. In a first for Nashville and Middle Tennessee, Vanderbilt has opened the first hotel-based sleep center in the Marriott at Vanderbilt University. The state-of-the-art sleep laboratory utilizes regular hotel rooms, slightly converted to monitor sleeping patterns.

Margaret Giannini, M.D., F.A.A.P., a world-renowned advocate for people with disabilities, will speak at the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center for Research on Human Development on Thursday, Oct. 9, 2003, at 4 p.m. She is currently the Director of Health and Human Services Office on Disability and has over fifty years of service toward disability advocacy.