5 Things You Need To Know Today: May 18

Our daily column, 5 Things You Need to Know Today, will help you to get your day started and offer you some fodder for water cooler conversation.

1. There is a Raise the Roof event scheduled today from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. to help Kris Burke and her family. Burke, a Framingham resident, is battling stage 4 cancer. Friends and family have raised money to make repairs on her home. The first project is complete. Rexford Kidd of Capital Contractors repaired the family's front steps, and donated a portion of the labor and materials. Now, today, workers are fixing the roof on the family's home. You can volunteer your time today by clicking here or you can donate money to the cause to Keeping Kris Strong to Middlesex Savings Bank, 235 Old Connecticut Path, Framingham 01701. Organizers state they have raised enough money to fix the roof and when done they will work on some interior repairs of the home.

This week, Framingham Patch blogger Brenda Crawshaw wrote about Kris & her family too. Read it here.

2. Summit Montessori School will hold an exhibit of student artwork called Spring Into Art tonight, May 18, from 7 to 9:30 at the Pleasant Streeet school. The event features a mini auction of 9 pieces of collaborative art, created by students with their art teacher, Edith Loring-Thomas. Every student from age 3 to 12 will have at least one piece of work in the show.

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4. Today and tomorrow are the final days to see the Materialize show at Fountain Street Fine Art gallery. Gallery is open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. The exhibit materialize features works by artists Lisa Barthelson and Denise Driscoll, who  combine traditional media with the seemingly infinite supplies of debris and data that flow through daily life.

5. Today is the Framingham Garden Club's annual Spring Plant Sale. Sale will take place at the Academy Building on the grounds of Cushing Memorial Park from 9 a.m. to noon. Sale will include member-grown perennials, annuals and herbs