A former Montgomery County special education student has donated five homemade kits to the county for students with sensory integration problems.

Kayla Price, who graduated from Blacksburg High School this spring, helped make the kits, valued at about $1,200. Among other things, they are filled with textured bean bags, weighted blankets covered with buttons and zippers and containers of sand.

"It helps calm kids to be able to touch these things," said Connie Ritchie, a hearing specialist in Montgomery County, who also worked with Price.

Ritchie said the kits would be beneficial for students who have autism or brain injury.

"They don't have the sense of the hard and the soft and textures and things. This helps get their brain to work in a certain way so they can focus on their education," she said.

Price took on the project as a way to give back to the special education department and to earn her Girl Scout Gold Award. It is the highest award a Senior Girl Scout can receive.

Price was diagnosed with severe to profound deafness at age 2. Doctors told her parents she would likely never be able to talk or have usable hearing. She graduated from Blacksburg with a 3.48 grade-point average and is now a freshman at Rochester Institute of Technology and National Technical Institute for the Deaf.

Radford resource center cancels event for parents

The Radford City Schools Parent Resource Center will not have the coffee and meet and greet it planned for Tuesday afternoon.

The city-funded center provides things such as literature and DVDs on special education topics, homework help, parenting tips and occasional workshops.

Director Peggy Kinzer wanted to resume the coffee dates that stalled during the past three years to raise awareness about the what the resource center offers.

"I just don't know whether they don't need us or they don't know we're here or not," Kinzer said.

The center, located behind the high school, is open three days a week, but often weeks will go by without a visitor, she said.

"We're really trying to offer services to all parents," Kinzer said.

She said she does plan to have an afternoon coffee for parents next year.

Dayspring students complete projects

Nearly all of Dayspring Christian Academy's 200 students took a day off school last month, but they weren't just playing hooky.

On Nov. 7, the students fanned throughout Christiansburg and Blacksburg for the school's "Serve-a-thon."

Students spent three to four hours volunteering in the community, including visiting residents at nursing homes, collecting items for food pantries, doing yard work, preparing lunch for the Salvation Army's "God's Lunchbox" program and organizing and cleaning the attic at the Caring Pregnancy Center.

Radford High students chosen for honor choir

Radford High School students Shane Craig and Liza Sutphin have been chosen to participate in the American Choral Directors' Association National Senior High Honor Choir.

Shane is the son of Stephen and Lori Knowles, and Liza is the daughter of Scott and Joan Sutphin. The two will be among 198 other performers and were chosen from among 300 recorded audition from across the country.

To help pay for travel to the March show in Oklahoma City, the school's choral director, Lois Castonguay, is accepting donations. Any donation can be sent to the school at 50 Dalton Drive in Radford.

Anna L. Mallory covers events and issues affecting Montgomery County schools and beyond. If you have information you'd like featured, e-mail anna.mallory@roanoke.com. You also can visit Chalk Dust, the New River Valley's education news source, at blogs.roanoke.com/chalkdust.