West metro briefs: Demolition of Lake Minnetonka homes to be topic

International speaker Hesham Shehab will be at Excelsior's Our Savior Lutheran Church and School next Sunday, Nov. 8. He will speak at 8 a.m., 9:30 a.m., 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. about Islam, Christianity and evangelism. The event is free. For more information, contact Jerry Rosamond at 612-597-1504 or jerry.rosamond@oslcs.org.

The annual Metro Summit for Lake and River Groups will take place Dec. 1.

The event, which is open to the public, will include presentations, discussions and networking with community leaders, government representatives and water quality professionals and will run from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the Eisenhower Community Center in Hopkins.

The summit is sponsored by the Minnehaha Creek Watershed District and the Freshwater Society. The cost to attend, which includes dinner, is $10. For more information or to register, go to freshwater.org/metrosummit2015.

Maple Grove's local Knights of Columbus Council recently earned a top international award. The Knights of Columbus Council 13359 was awarded Star Council, one of the group's top awards recognizing overall excellence. The Knights of Columbus is the world's largest Catholic lay organization.

Plymouth's Fire Department is collecting leftover Halloween candy donations to send to troops overseas. The fourth annual "Halloween Candy Buyback" will take place Nov. 2-3, with candy donations accepted from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at Plymouth City Hall, 3400 Plymouth Blvd.

The candy donations benefit Operation Gratitude and other military support groups, sending the care packages to U.S. military members serving overseas and through the Armed Forces Service Center at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.

The plaque, which will be installed next spring, is part of the group's efforts to mark historic landmarks in the town. It honors three burial mounds that were located at what is now the city hall campus well before Euro-American settlers arrived near Lake Minnetonka, a spiritual place for Native Americans.

There once were burial mounds around Lake Minnetonka and the state, the final resting places of Indians from about 500 B.C. through 1500 A.D., according to the state archaeology office. In the 1880s, 524 mounds were mapped along on the lake but Euro-Americans desecrated many of them and removed the contents; now, more than 40 mounds are estimated to be along the lake. Burial mounds are protected under state law.

Families interested in learning more about the Blake School are invited to a "Discover Blake" session this month. Events are scheduled for each of the school's three campuses:

• Hopkins campus, 110 Blake Road S.; 9 a.m. to noon Saturday, Nov. 7. Prekindergarten to grade 8.

• Wayzata Highcroft campus, 301 Peavy Lane, 9 a.m. to noon Saturday, Nov. 7. Prekindergarten to grade 5.

Families are encouraged to preregister at blakeschool.org/discoverblake. For directions or more information, go to www.blakeschool.org or call 952-988-3420.