Memorial Day is generally a day off from school, but one local group of young people is using the time to give back to the community.

Venture 9 Crew of Chapel Hill, which is a community service organization of area youths, is teaming up with the Chapel Hill Downtown Partnership, Friends of the Downtown, the FranklinHotel and Tyler’s Restaurant to sponsor its fourth annual Memorial Day blood drive. So far, the organization has already collected 105 units of blood; according to the American Red Cross, one pint of blood can save up to three lives.

Monday’s blood drive will run from 11 a.m.-4 p.m. at the Franklin Hotel on West Franklin Street. Since Monday is a holiday, all downtown parking is free.

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This week, a national television network will be paying a visit to Chapel Hill to present one of its new series to Chapel Hill-Carrboro City School district students.

On Tuesday, representatives from Discovery Education will report to Phillips Middle School to screen its program entitled “North America” for the district’s students and teachers. The show, which is narrated by Tom Selleck, is a seven-part series designed to expose several aspects of wildlife throughout various environments, including the Rocky Mountains and the American Southwest. The screening will show the first episode, which originally aired on the Discovery Channel earlier this month.

The entire series is set to run on the Discovery Channel through June 16; Tuesday’s screening is set to begin at 9:20 a.m.