By Karen Vance
Enquirer contributor

For one Tristate woman, Black History Month is an opportunity to share a simpler and happier time with her church and her community.

Kim McGee, a 20-year member of the First Baptist Church of Kennedy Heights, 6201 Red Bank Road, has constructed a large tabletop exhibit titled "Women of the South" for a second year. The exhibit was inspired by her grandmother's home in the 1950s and 1960s and features 8- to 12-inch dolls dressed in period clothing, a farmhouse and a church.

"We just have so much going on in the world right now, so much negative. We need something positive, and this is the place to start," the 54-year-old said. "The elderly people at our church just love the exhibit. Everyone of them grew up in a house like this and had a church down the street."

McGee and fellow church member Linda Griffin constructed the exhibit themselves for about $1,000, using birdhouses they found at a craft store for the buildings and making the clothes for the dolls themselves.

The women included a country house with cotton fields, a barn, chickens and ducks running in a dirt yard, and a grandfather and child on the house steps. At the church down the street, there is a family on the way to a church service, three choir members and a cemetery in the yard.

The exhibit is still open at the church this weekend, all day Saturday (call the church at 793-5642 for times) and from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sunday. McGee will take the exhibit home to be used again next year, but she's hopeful she can take it to other Cincinnati churches in the meantime.

Teen parties grow

About two years ago the Faith Fellowship Church, 6734 Bridgetown Road, Green Township, stumbled upon a community need. The 300-member church sponsored a local Christian band's CD release party. About 400 people attended.

Since then, the church has been organizing monthly teen parties on Friday nights with attendance ranging between 80 and 100. The church has inflatable boxing and jousting rings, foosball, food, music and sometimes a band.

"There's something here that kids desire on a Friday night," said Pastor Tim Wagner. "We just try to give kids a safe place to be, and in the process we introduce them in a nonthreatening way to our church. It's evolved into a pretty big monster, but the kids love it."

Now, after about two years of being organized by Wagner, the church's youth group of about 20 teens is taking ownership. They've adopted a new nickname - Teen BLOC parties. BLOC stands for Believing and Living in One Christ.

Admission costs $4, which covers food and drinks. For more information, contact Faith Fellowship Church at 598-6734 .

Church hosts concert

Mount Auburn Presbyterian Church, 103 William Howard Taft Road, will present Cincinnati Camerata, a 20-member choral group, performing "Febris: Fever of Love" at 4 p.m. Sunday. Tickets require a $12 donation . Information: (859) 491-2362 .

Send religion to kvance@fuse.net or fax to 513-755-4150.