It's going to be a grand celebration at 6 p.m. Saturday at the 25th Pastoral Anniversary Banquet, honoring the Rev. Dr. C.P. Preston Jr. The event will be in the Grand Ballroom at the Miami Hyatt Regency, 400 SE Second Ave. in downtown Miami.

Preston, one of South Florida's most respected ministers, is the senior pastor of Peaceful Zion Missionary Baptist Church at 2400 NW 68th St., and the past Moderator of the Florida East Coast Baptist Association Inc.

To help honor him, gospel great Dottie Peoples will be the guest artist at the banquet. You know her from such hits as, "He's An On Time God," "He Meant it for My Good," "Testify," and "Nobody Can Do Me."

The keynote speaker will be the Rev. Dr. James Sampson, president of the Florida General Baptist State Convention, and pastor of the First New Zion Missionary Baptist Chruch in Jacksonville.

The cost is $60 for adults and children 11 and older, and $30 each for children 10 and under.

Tickets are going fast. If you go, you should call Betty Dudley, chairwoman of the Anniversary Committee at 305-624-4232 or call the church at 305-836-1494 to make your reservations and to purchase tickets.

Woman’s Club cruise

The Miami Woman's Club will have its Oct. 11 luncheon meeting aboard the Island Queen I, and you are invited to join the group as the Island Queen I takes them on a Miami River Boat Tour Trip.

The boat will leave from the Bayside Dock promptly at 11 a.m. and will return at approximately 2:30 p.m. A boxed lunch will be provided by "Fit 2 Go" and a professional Miami River tour narrator will be on board to point out all the interesting and historic sites. Sounds like a fun and relaxing 31/2 hours.

The cost is $40 for club members and $45 for guests. To reserve your space, send and e-mail to Nancy Smith at nsmith2686@bellsouth.net or, you may send her a check by Oct. 7, to 13040 Ortega Lane, North Miami, FL 33181 and tell her your preference for lunch.

The selections are: caprese wrap, lunch box with chips; chicken salad platter or a turkey, ham, Swiss wrap lunch box with chips.

Make checks payable to Miami Woman's Club, with boat trip on the memo line. All proceeds will go to the club's building restoration project.

Food for the poor

Students at South Florida colleges and universities will join other college students around the country as they host All-Nighter to Empower Students to commemorate World Food Day on Oct. 16.

The campus events are in partnership with the international relief and development organization, Food for the Poor, and they are geared to combat hunger and to increase awareness about malnutrition and to fund self -sustaining solutions to poverty, such as tilapia pools and animal husbandry projects.

Last year, in one night, students at colleges and universities throughout the country raised enough money to build self-sustaining tilapia ponds in Haiti.

So far this year, students at Florida International University and the University of Miami have scheduled their All-Nighter for Nov. 18.

Sahra Arbabi Aski, a senior at Florida International said, "It is with great honor that we take on this big responsibility. ... I am pleased to see that our Golden Panthers are standing together to support such an incredible cause and help build a brighter future for those in need."

She said the All-Nighter at FIU has been a successful event for the past three years.