Cathy Benson | The Botetourt View

Trent Matthias of Lord Botetourt's Class of '09.

Trent Matthias is the typical LBHS senior. He has been a Botetourt resident for five and half years. He was born in Indiana and has lived in Illinois and Wisconsin as well. The oldest of three boys, he is the son of Jane and Todd Matthias of Blue Ridge. He will attend Virginia Tech in the fall and has been accepted into the College of Architecture where he plans to major in landscape design.

He has maintained a 4.02 GPA at Lord Botetourt, which has him near the top of his graduating class.

Matthias played golf and basketball at LBHS. This year the Cavs won the Blue Ridge District tourney in basketball. The Kiwanis Club of Roanoke named him an unsung hero for the team. He is also a member of the National Honor Society, Young Life and plays in his church band at Orchard Hills Church of the Holy Spirit every other Sunday. He was described as "a nice young man" by the faculty and staff at LBHS.

Music is a big part of his life. Matthias has a band and is the drummer for "Echo Theory," one of the bands at Battle of the Bands at the school recently. He wore a white sleeveless T-shirt and do rag for his drummer uniform, which was really gutsy for a quiet and unassuming young man. Matthias has played the drums for three years. "If you could play for any band, which one would it be?" The Botetourt View asked him. "I'd like to play for Audioslave," he said. He does like all genres of music, harder rock his favorite and of course plays Christian and gospel music at church.

He has recently started working the second shift at Cardinal Glass in Vinton so his graduation plans are to work all summer. They make business and residential glass and his father is in management there. In college, he thinks he will play intramural sports.

"I have created a lot of great memories at LBHS. My friends have been a big part of my high school career," he said. "I think my favorite memory was going to state in golf my sophomore year. We finished second. I feel really good about my time at LBHS, but I am ready to graduate and get on with my life. I am really excited to be going to Tech next year."

James River

Sharron Smith of Fincastle is a perky teenager who will graduate from James River High School on Saturday, June 13. Smith is going to attend Radford University and also will be a cheerleader for the school's basketball team. She is the daughter of Wanda and Tim Smith. She has been described as "a really great kid, sweet girl and easy to work with" by members of the faculty and staff.

Her time at James River High school has been busy. She has been a cheerleader for her junior and senior years. That was a sport she came to love. "This year our cheerleaders really came together and gelled as a squad and we did things together."

She has maintained 3.79 GPA overall so she is academically gifted as well. She also has a talented singing voice and has sung the National Anthem at basketball and wrestling tournaments. "I don't belong to a group or anything but I will sing when asked," Smith stated.

In her career at JRHS she has been in the SADD club, the National Honor Society and of course cheerleading. She volunteers at Fincastle Baptist Church helping run errands and so forth for her mother who works there, and had an internship with the Bank of Fincastle this year. "I really enjoyed learning about how the banking system operates," she said.

In her spare time she took tumbling and gymnastic classes at Creative Fitness in Buchanan to hone her cheerleading skills. She said she liked working on the various SADD projects like Red Ribbon Week, and Spirit week.

Smith is an only child who said she loved getting all of the the attention at home. Her cat Jaci is the apple of her eye and is spoiled.

Marine Ecology and the trip to the Caribbean was exciting this spring and it wil be her favorite subject from high school. Smith said, "It was hard though. When we were there we researched the biodiversity of the coral reef and when we came back we had to analyze it and get everything in some type of order so we could write a paper." She thought analyzing the data from the trip to be arduous.

Her most fun memory this year? "Going to the state basketball finals in basketball. We had a fun time and even if we didn't win we got there."

Blue Ridge's Kayla Hanson wins Entrepreneur Foundation scholarship

Lord Botetourt High School senior Kayla Hanson of Blue Ridge has won four yearly $1,000 scholarships from The National Federation of Independent Business Young Entrepreneur Foundation. Hanson has a cake decorating business.

She has been baking and decorating cakes since middle school. She raised enough money from her business to help her family adopt a baby sister from China two years ago.

Hanson was featured as the cover story on Focus on the Family's Teen Magazine "Brio," for the magazine's sixteenth birthday edition two years ago as well. She will attend Liberty University in the fall. For more information about the award, visit The Notebook on botetourtview.com

Troutville Elementary's Jump Rope for Heart raises $3,400

Troutville Elementary School had about 70 students participating in Jump Rope for Heart and helped raise $3,400 for American Heart Association in April 2009. Beverly Hart is the Jump Rope for Heart Coordinator for TES.

Thank you to Kroger in Daleville for donating the snacks for our children to enjoy after the event. Above are third- through fifth-graders who participated. For a photo of kindergarten through second grade students who participated, visit The Notebook on botetetourtview.com

Submitted by Sheila Feltis

Central Academy student wins second place for engineering essay

The National Academy of Engineering's EngineerGirl! Web site have announced the winners of the 2009 Imagine That! Engineering Innovation Essay Contest.

Nialah Wilson, an eighth-grader at Central Academy Middle School, won second place for an essay on a device that would aid in speedier unloading of 18-wheeled trucks, the "Doramel."

This national contest asked young people to consider one of three images on the EngineerGirl! site and to discuss its potential purposes and functions using engineering creativity. More than 400 students in grades three through 12 submitted essays.

"When President Obama recently spoke at the National Academies, he stressed the importance of innovation to enhancing our quality of life and taking on the many challenges facing our world," said NAE President Charles M. Vest. "I am very encouraged by the wonderful ways in which the girls and boys who participated in the NAE's EngineerGirl! essay contest demonstrated the power of their imaginations, because it's the key spark necessary for any engineering innovation."

Prizes ranged from $500 for first place to certificates for honorable mention. All of the winning essays are posted at www.engineergirl.org.

EngineerGirl! is designed for middle school girls and offers information about various engineering fields and careers, as well as games, books, and other resources on engineering. EngineerGirl! and Engineer Your Life (www.engineeryourlife.org), a Web site for academically prepared high school girls, are part of NAE's ongoing efforts to increase the diversity of the engineering work force.

Submitted by Nathan Kahl

Music teacher wins scholarship from American Recorder Society

Margaret Courtney, Music Educator from Greenfield/Buchanan Elementary Schools in Botetourt County, has received the President's Scholarship from the American Recorder Society (ARS). The scholarship is given to one individual who stands out as a recorderist, but more importantly has shared love, knowledge, and expertise of the instrument with others. Mrs. Courtney founded the Greenfield Consort, the only group of its kind that she knows of in Southwest VA. Her leadership and efforts to encourage children to play the recorder stood out among all applicants for the scholarship.

The American Recorder Society consists of players from all over the US and abroad, including Japan, Europe, Australia, and Canada. She will use the scholarship to attend the San Francisco Early Music Society's Recorder Workshop during the month of July. She will be able to study with some of the finest players in the world and take classes on Baroque ornamentation, technique, and learning to play at a master's level. Mrs. Courtney said, "For someone like me, it's a great honor and the chance of a lifetime!"

Submitted by Barbara Hunt