Big Brothers and Big Sisters and the Society for Advancement of Mangagement are caroling at 7 p.m. Thursday in the DeKalb County Nursing Home, 2337 Sycamore Rd.

SAM members can meet before caroling at 6:30 p.m. at the Family Services Agency, 3131 Sycamore Rd. For more information, call Michael Eilers at 753-3715.

Informational meeting

Community Contact’s tenth annual public information meeting will be held at 9 a.m. Friday at Mid America Savings and Loan, 2600 East Main St., St. Charles.

NIU hosts Holiday Ball

The Holiday Ball for NIU faculty and staff will be from 9 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. on Friday in the Duke Ellington Ballroom at the Holmes Student Center.

The event is sponsored by President John and Lili La Tourette and the University Women’s Club. Music this year will be provided by the NIU ‘40s Dance Orchestra, conducted by Ron Modell.

Concert to aid the needy

The 20th Annual Aniversary Benefit Concert will be from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday in the General Electric Union Hall, 14th and State streets, DeKalb. Benefits will be donated to help needy children.

Home education group

Home Oriented Unique Schooling Experience, a support group for parents who prefer to educate their children at home, will hold a meeting from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. on Dec. 12, in the DeKalb Public Library’s conference room.

The meeting will focus on math with NIU Math Professor David Rusin speaking. Margie Mason, NIU math education professor, will provide concrete ideas for sharing math with children.

CAB hosts tournament

Campus Activities Board Recreation Committee is sponsoring the first campus-wide College Bowl Tournament from 11 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Feb. 10 in the Holmes Student Center. Deadline for game registration is Dec. 15 in the CAB office.

The College Bowl is a trivia knowledge contest similar to the game show “Jeopardy.”

Aid to hurricane victims

NIU’s Pi Sigma Epsilon is selling candy until Dec. 15 to raise money for the Hurricane Hugo and San Francisco Earthquake Disaster Relief Funds.

Contest for poets

The deadline for the American Poetry Association Contest is Dec. 31. Poets may enter by sending up to six poems, each no longer than 20 lines, to American Poetry Association, Dept. CT-90, 250-A Potrero St., P.O. Box 1803, Santa Cruz, AA 95061. The grand prize is $1,000 and the first prize is $500.

Oscilloscope provided

NIU’s electrical engineering department has a new $3,500 digital oscilloscope for undergraduate lab experiments and advanced research.

The oscilloscope was provided as part of an annual equipment award program by the Hewlett-Packard’s Midwest Sales group, based on competitive requests by universities throughout the Midwest.