JUSTIN COOK The Roanoke Times

From left: Blacksburg High School DECA club adviser Cindy Mitchell, seniors Will Hopkins and Christine King and juniors Erica Wharton and Jessica Ross work on their "Home for the Holidays" program, which provides bags of breakfast and lunch foods to go home with selected students during their two-week winter break.

For the third year, members of the DECA club, a business group, are asking the community to donate food or money to their "Home for the Holidays" program, which provides bags of breakfast and lunch foods to go home with selected students during their two-week winter break.

The project is aimed at reaching students who receive free and reduced school meals. Often, those students rely on schools for meals.

Marketing teacher Cindy Mitchell is working with school guidance counselors to choose students in need.

Residents can donate either money or food for the project. Mitchell said she's worked out a $17 price for all the ingredients in one bag with the local Kroger.

This project is in addition to a Thanksgiving holiday basket the club has long created. Those baskets -- complete with turkeys -- go to chosen needy families who might not otherwise have the holiday meal. Donations for those baskets also are being taken.

"Our kids thought, 'Well, what about Christmas when they're out for two weeks?' " Mitchell said.

Last year, students created more than 200 Christmas baskets. They're over that number this year -- already at 248 -- and will collect food through Dec. 1.

This year's donations are being made in memory of former student Ayesha Kathleen Wintersdorff. She died in a car crash in June 2008 and was an active member of the DECA club.

Christine Wintersdorff, her mother, said she is grateful for the program because it continues her daughter's dream of making a difference in the world.

"She didn't like injustice of any kind and was a supporter for the underdog," she said.

The baskets will have foods such as cereal, peanut butter, apple sauce, fruit snacks and graham crackers.

"It's a great way to know that the kids will have something to eat," Mitchell said.

On Friday, the club will host a "Car Smash" to raise money for the campaign.

Fans of both Blacksburg and Christiansburg high schools can have a chance at smashing a donated car at Bill Brown Stadium. One side of the car will be painted for the Bruins, the opposite side for the Blue Demons. Participants will get three swings at their favorite side of the vehicle.

Proceeds from additional swings at the car benefit Home for the Holidays. Donations of food or money can be made at the school or by contacting Mitchell at 951-5706.

Nursing program tuition to increase in Radford

Students in the adult nursing program in Radford City Schools need to pay an additional $30 per month in the 2010-11 school year. Tuition now is $45 per month.

Participation in the program, which provides an 18-month nursing curriculum and a clinical setting at Radford High School, has been steady in recent years. Some 22 students were admitted each year between 2002 and 2008, with more than half staying in the program, according to district data.

Tuition has not risen since the program's first graduating class in 1971.

The city will collect $13,770 this academic year. The division expects to collect $22,950 with the higher tuition.