Emily Flora | SWoCo

Fourth-grade teacher April Shell and a group of pupils from Faith Christian School helped plant flowers at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center recently.

It may have been windy and a bit chilly one recent morning, but that didn't stop about 50 Faith Christian students from digging in the dirt and planting about 12,000 plants.

Every year, each grade level at Faith Christian School (FCS) conducts some sort of community service project, and this year the third- and fourth-graders joined forces at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center.

Together they helped plant about 3,000 pots and 12,000 red, white, and blue flowers in shape of the American Flag to kick off the center's 75th anniversary.

The plants came from the center's CWT Greenhouse on site, which employs Veterans and sells to the community.

"I've been buying from here forever," Anna Grubb, parent organizer for the service project at FCS said.

Grubb learned about the 75th anniversary coming up and asked if there was any way that they could help. That's when the plan to plant flowers in the shape of the American Flag was born.

Grubb said that she and Sandra Lane, the horticulturist and CWT coordinator at the medical center, have been planning the event since about midsummer.

"It's wonderful. There's no way we could do it without them," Lane said. "We got really ambitious. The flag is something I've wanted to do for a while now."

The 75th anniversary celebration will be held on the baseball field at the medical center on Oct. 19 beginning at 1 p.m.

"They are going to try to recreate the ceremony they had when they opened the VA in the '30s when President Roosevelt came," Grubb said.

After the FCS students finished their work for the day, the center released 200 balloons to represent the start of their 75th anniversary celebration.

Students were hard at work from 9 a.m. to after 1 p.m. and took great pride in helping their community.

"We're making it better when people pass by," Emily Kagey, a fourth-grader at FCS said. "When people pass by, they will see that we are serving the Lord."

North Cross to hold Painted Chair Affair

North Cross School will raffle off eight wooden chairs -- hand-painted by well-known local artists -- at the school's first Painted Chair Affair on Nov. 12, from 5:30 7:30 p.m., at Schaal's Metamorphosis, 4025 S. Jefferson Street, Roanoke.

Each chair is one-of-a-kind (and fully functional!) and has been individually titled with names such as Charitree, African Flavor, Sunset Flight and BabyDoll, to name a few. The artists include Carol Marlowe, Tuesday Moriarty, Yumiko Ichikawa, Marie Gobble Levine, Pam Ogden, Judy Bates, Sandi D'Alessandro and Shirley Johnson.

The chairs will be raffled at 7 p.m., but it is not necessary to be present to win a chair. Tickets to attend the reception are $25 per person and reservations may be made by calling 540-989-6641. Raffle tickets are available for $10. They are also available on campus, in Slack Hall.

The chairs are now on display in the Logan Gallery at North Cross School.

The event is being hosted by the school's Friends of the Arts committee, and proceeds will be used to provide resources needed by the NCS fine arts department, host events that bring parents and families together to enjoy the arts and help create additional fine arts programs that benefit children at North Cross and in the community.

Funds raised will also provide NCS the opportunity to create an art based community outreach program for area children. This new outreach program will be part of the school's existing and active community service program.

For more information, call 540-989-6641 or visit www.northcross.org

Submitted by Laura L. Neff-Henderson, APR

North Cross students host exchange students

North Cross has embarked on a new study abroad program for students and their families. This fall was the first time that students at North Cross had the opportunity to host students from Colegio Santísima Trinidad, in Córdoba, Andalucía, in southern Spain.

For Sept. 27 through Oct. 10, the students from Spain attended classes with their North Cross host students and also traveled to local and regional sites. The places they visited included Roanoke College, the mall, The Taubman Museum of Art, the Roanoke Farmers Market, Science Museum of Western Virginia, Dixie Caverns and many more. They also took part in North Cross athletic events and participated in a farewell dinner on Oct. 9.

During spring break 2010 the North Cross students who participated will return the visit, live with exchange students' families, attend some classes with them, and take excursions to local and regional points of interest.

Drew Maurer, a 10th-grader at North Cross School was one of the students who hosted Alvaro Machado, a student in Spain.

"It's been a real adventure," Maurer said. "Most of them speak really good English. I'm actually learning Spanish from him [Machado]. It's a different culture. We've had a couple parties for them and I've played pool with Alvaro a lot. He's really easy going."

Maurer said that he's looking forward to March when he will have the opportunity to visit Machado's hometown in Spain.

Machado said that his favorite part about his experience in Roanoke has been the Dixie Caverns, shopping at the mall, and doing community service at Mill Mountain Zoo.

When asked what he will take Maurer to do when he visits his hometown he said, "A lot of things. We'll visit Córdoba and we'll party. I love to party."

Malcolm Douglas, North Cross' Director of Community Service and Director of Sustainability said, "We are trying to design our international program around immersion. We've found that the immersion concept is more valuable. There immersion is happening more at night. They're going out and interacting with people in Roanoke. Parents are impressed at the effort the students have had to speak each other's language."

North Cross Middle School honors Breast Cancer Awareness Month

All of the North Cross Middle School students, faculty and staff came to school wearing pink in support of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, which is celebrated throughout October.

North Cross students have also been collecting donations today to donate to the Susan G. Komen fund.

Robin Kingery served as the guest speaker and spoke to the students and staff about her battle with breast cancer from 10 to 10:30 a.m.

Barbara Whitlock, assistant to the middle school director and a breast cancer survivor also gave a testimony.

Kingery gave out pink memorabilia and encouraged the students to ask questions and talk about cancer. She also asked that they remind all of their female friends and family to get mammograms.

Gift bags were also given to the students who had the most unique Passionately Pink Day outfits.

The students helped raise $325 for the Susan G. Komen research fund surpassing the previously set goal of $250.

Walmart, Sam's Club honor Oak Grove teachers

The Oak Grove Elementary School staff was in for a surprise last week when Walmart and Sam's Club chose their school and their staff to receive 20 $100 gift cards.

Principal Cris Flippen said, "For whatever reason our school got chosen by Sam's and Walmart. It's basically a thank you for committing to education."

Ten staff members received $100 from Walmart and ten received $100 from

Oak Grove Elementary School was recently chosen by Walmart and Sam's Club.

"The store nominated Oak Grove to receive the certificates," Karen Smith, Assistant Manager at Walmart said.

"Teachers spend a lot out of their own pockets."

Flippen said that she found out that Oak Grove was nominated for this just a few weeks ago. She said that all of their staff's names were put into a drawing and 20 were chosen to receive the money.

"I just feel like everybody has an impact on our successful school," Flippen said.

When the recipients were asked what they were going to do with their winnings, they shouted, 'Use it for our classrooms!'