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wins awards The Franklin County High School Air Force Junior ROTC was awarded the Civil Air Patrol's Aerospace Excellence Award for 2004. The award is presented by the Civil Air Patrol to recognize classrooms that use a "hands-on" approach to aviation and aerospace. This is the third year in a row that the Franklin County AFJROTC has been selected to receive the award.

The Virginia Air Force Association selected the Franklin County High AFJROTC as the top Air Force JROTC unit in Virginia. The award recognized the work that the Franklin County unit has done not only in the Air Force curriculum but also in its community service, patriotic presentations and aerospace excellence. The unit was noted for receiving the Air Force Distinguished Unit award for 2003 and 2004.

Eight cadets from Franklin County High's AFJROTC recently completed Leadership Camp in Charleston, S.C. The camp, held on board the USS Yorktown, provides a patriotic and educational program for cadets from the Air Force, Marines, Army and Navy.

The following Franklin County High students attended the camp: Shelly Cabaniss, Tiffani Remmert, Jason Palmer, Samantha Holland, Charles Vaughan, Malcolm Scott, Zane Morris and Rachel Nye. Cadet Holland was selected as the "Outstanding Cadet."

Roanoke County students

to attend FCCLA event

About 200 students from all over Roanoke County will celebrate community pride and community service today at Arnold R. Burton Technology Center as part of a district-wide Family Career and Community Leaders of America event. The theme for the event is "Put the 'U' in Community" and will focus on helping students understand the rewards of volunteer service, become familiar with local agencies and give them the opportunity to provide hands-on help to local social service programs. Students will spend part of the day doing volunteer projects at various locations, including the Rescue Mission of Roanoke, Goodwill Industries of the Valleys and Southwest Virginia Second Harvest Food Bank.

Patrick Henry teacher's

art chosen for gift

The Arts Council of the Blue Ridge has chosen a sculptural piece by Sandy Johnston, welding teacher at Patrick Henry High School, as a gift for one of the winners of the Perry F. Kendig Awards for 2004.

Each year, the Arts Council chooses an organization and/or individual(s) to receive the award for support of arts and culture in the Roanoke region. Winners are given a unique, original piece of artwork, chosen by the Arts Council.

Johnston's sculptural piece was presented to Center in the Square, one of this year's Kendig award winners, at a reception Sept. 23 at the home of the Hollins University president. The piece was chosen for its beauty and because its shape reflects the circular staircase that rises through the central lobby of the Center in the Square.

Cave Spring High

hosts art show

Cave Spring High School is hosting a small exhibit of drawings from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, Pa., through mid-October in the library/media center during regular school hours. The charcoal and graphite observation studies are by freshmen drawing students.

Roanoke County teachers

featured in art show

Several Roanoke County art teachers are participating in the "Local Artist Exhibition" through Oct. 15 at Beads Indeed, 123 Campbell Ave in Roanoke. Work from the following Roanoke County teachers is featured: Angela Shields, art teacher at Northside High School; Pam Rose, art teacher at Cave Spring Elementary and Glenvar Middle School; Mary Ann Poling, art teacher at Hidden Valley High School and Cave Spring High School; and Mary Ellen Walthall, art teacher at Hidden Valley High School.

Roanoke FBLA students

to hold yard sale

The Roanoke City Schools chapters of Future Business Leaders of America will hold a yard sale from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday at Noel C. Taylor Learning Academy, 3601 Thirlane Road. Call 853-1461 for more information or to donate items.

Olive Garden seeking

essay writers

Olive Garden is accepting essays of 50-250 words answering the question "What do you like most about living in the United States and why?" for its Pasta Tales national writing contest for young writers in first through 12th grades and up to 18 years old. Essays can be submitted between Monday and Dec. 3.

Submissions will be judged on creativity, adherence to theme, organization, grammar, punctuation and spelling by the Quill and Scroll Society of the College of Journalism and Communications at the University of Iowa. The grand prize is a trip to New York, dinner at the Olive Garden in Times Square and a $2,500 U.S. Savings Bond. A winner also will be chosen in each grade category and will receive a $500 U.S. Savings Bond and dinner with their family at their local Olive Garden.

Pasta Tales entry forms and complete rules will be available Oct. 4 at local Olive Garden restaurants or by logging on to www.olivegarden.com/ourcommunity/pastatales.asp. Call (954) 776-1999 between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. for more information.

Company looking

for contestants

Roanoke Valley teachers are invited to get involved with the HOBO Energy Challenge, a new contest program sponsored by iScienceProject. The free contest, which runs Sept. 1-May 1 is designed to promote energy awareness within schools while offering students of all ages a fun, hands-on science learning experience with HOBO¨ data loggers.

A data logger is a portable electronic recording device that can be set up to monitor light usage, room temperature and relative humidity. Accompanying software turns the energy usage data into colorful, time-stamped graphs that indicate, for example, when lights were on or off and what room temperatures were during the night.

The mission of the contest is to use data loggers to find examples of energy waste in a school. Participating classrooms will receive a free HOBO Loaner Package that includes everything needed to start investigating energy usage. Classrooms that investigate and document at least one example of energy waste win a complete HOBO data logger system ($200 value). An entire classroom set of HOBO data loggers ($1,000 value) will be awarded to elementary, middle and high-school classrooms that make the greatest effort to investigate energy waste.

For more information on the HOBO Energy Challenge, or to sign up, visit www.iscienceproject.com/energy_challenge/energy_challenge.html. Deadline for contest entries is April 30.