A new program out of the University of Mississippi Medical Center is targeting one of the most troubling issues facing Mississippi kids - obesity.

Choose your brand of excitement, beginning Friday morning, during a weekend that offers time-honored rituals and a fundraiser to boost the University of Mississippi Medical Center's MIND Center.

Members of the medical school Class of 2015 will learn where they'll undergo several more years of training when they assemble for the annual Match Day, starting at 10 a.m. Friday at the Jackson Convention Complex.

Beginning Friday night and overlapping into Saturday, the celebrating continues with the Mal's St. Paddy's parade and related festivities, which bring attention and funds to Batson Children's Hospital. And Sunday night, lucky ticket-holders will crowd into Thalia Mara Hall to see legendary soul singer Gladys Knight in concert, a benefit for the MIND Center.

Let's take it from the top:

The national Specialty Care Dentistry Association bestowed its distinguished service award on a School of Dentistry professor, while a noted dermatologist gave the first Louis J. "Skip" Wise Education Fund lecture.