The new organization needs your help in getting items that can be donated. Here is a basic list of the (new) items that can be donated: small bottles of shower gel, shampoo or conditioner; lipstick or lip gloss; nail polish, cosmetic bags, perfume, samples or items from gift with purchase sets, decorated pens or pencils, gift cards of $5 - $10 each, inexpensive necklaces or bracelets, hair accessories, and beauty tools (nail clippers, files, cuticle clippers).

Each participating school will have its own schedule for pick up of the items. Ransom Everglades School will be collecting donations on Nov. 1 at the school 3575 Main Highway Dr. in Coconut Grove. Donations may be dropped of at the main office at the front of the school. Make sure the donations are labeled "Birthday Bag Initiative," and/or "Julie Salzinger."

For a list of other participating schools, email birthdaybaginitiative@gmail,com.

Jazz band

Tickets will go on sale Tuesday for season two of the Belen Jesuit Cultural Series, which opens at 7 p.m. in the Saladrigas Gallery on Sept. 14 with a performance by the Belen Jesuit Jazz Band.

The band is directed by Mariene Urbay and the concert will launch the band’s first CD.

Belen Jesuit Preparatory School is at 500 SW 127th Ave. For tickets and for more information call 786-621-4173.

Monkey talk

Sian Evans, of the DuMond Conservatory for Primates and Tropical Forests at Monkey Jungle will speak on "Our Closest Living Relatives," at noon on Sept. 10 at the Woman’s Club of Homestead, 17905 SW 292nd St. in Homestead. Her appearance is a part of the Bea Peskoe Lunchtime Lecture Series.

Evans was born and educated in the United Kingdom. It was while she was studying zoology at the University of London, that she was introduced to Porky the alpha male in a group of pigtail monkeys living in London Zoo. The meeting and her subsequent study of the social dynamics of Porky’s group proved pivotal in shaping her future career. She has a masters degree in Biological Anthropology from the University of Durham and a doctorate from the University of Wales. Evans has lived and studied primates in Africa, where she could watch mandrills from her kitchen window and where she helped raise orphan gorillas.

Currently she is the managing director of the DuMond Conservancy, where she studies nocturnal owl monkeys and teaches in the biology department at Florida International University. The work of the DuMond Conservancy has a long history of research by the DuMond family, whose vision created Monkey Jungle.

Evans lives on a horse ranch in Redland with her husband Dr. Robert Cooper, a retired veterinarian. They are the parents of two grown children, Evans, a former sergeant in the U.S. Marine Corps and currently is a biology major at Lynn University, and daughter Seren, is a "Teach for America" chemistry teacher at North Miami Beach High.

A simple lunch, at a cost of $10 per person, can be provided for those who interested, but you must make reservations.

To make your reservations, call Barbara Millenbruch at 305-230-9185, before 2 p.m. Friday.