Board of Education member receives award from NAACP
Chapel Hill-Carrboro Board of Education member Elizabeth Carter received the NAACP Community Service Award at the Chapel Hill-Carrboro branch’s annual banquet on Saturday.
Carter was honored at the banquet at the Carrboro Century Center for her service as an advocate for children during her 14 years on the school board. A long-time area resident, Carter is one of the few school board members who was a student in Chapel Hill-Carrboro schools.
Rotary Club sponsors rubber duck race
The Chapel Hill-Carrboro Sunrise Rotary Club will sponsor its annual Rubber Duck Race on June 9 at West Point on the Eno River.
The Blue Ribbon Mentor-Advocate, a mentoring and student support program operated by Chapel Hill-Carrboro schools, will benefit from rubber duck sales.
Ducks will race rain or shine, and the first 13 ducks across the finish line win prizes.
Prizes include an all-inclusive vacation for two in Jamaica, a three-night beach house vacation at Sunset Beach, two roundtrip airline tickets to anywhere in the continental U.S. and more. Participants do not need to be present to win.
Ducks cost $10 each, $50 for a “Ducky Six Pack†and $100 for a “Ducky Dozen†of 13 ducks. To purchase a duck, send a check or money order made out to “Chapel Hill Carrboro Sunrise Rotary Club†with a note including your name, full address, email address and at least two phone numbers. Mail it to Blue Ribbon Mentor-Advocate, 750 S. Merritt Mill Road, Chapel Hill, NC, 27516. Payments must be received by May 31.
Student competes in national competition
Gray Symon, an eighth grader at Smith Middle School, competed in the national MathCounts competition in Texas last week.
Symon qualified for nationals when he won the individual’s championship at the North Carolina MathCounts competition in March. MathCounts is a national middle school math enrichment and competition program.
The top four competitors from each state, Washington D.C., Puerto Rico, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, the Northern Mariana Islands and the Department of Defense and State Department schools competed as teams at the national competition. Symon placed 37th in the individual competition, and the North Carolina team placed eighth in the team competition.
Smith teachers Boyd Blackburn and Andy Lathren coached Symon at the state competition.
Students create tourism campaign
Fifth graders from Mary Scroggs Elementary School presented a Chapel Hill tourism campaign to the Chapel Hill/Orange County Visitors Bureau and Mayor Kevin Foy on Friday.
The 25 students created website address ideas, toll-free numbers, posters and essays about why visitors should consider visiting Chapel Hill and Carrboro. In addition, several students developed concepts for television commercials, while others discussed the best ways to reach potential visitors.
Scroggs teacher Jennifer Dudley guided the students in developing their presentation, which kicked off National Tourism Week, May 12-20.
A selection of the students’ work will be displayed at the Visitors Bureau on Franklin Street.
High school teacher to recieve award
Chapel Hill High School teacher Joanne McClelland will receive a teaching award from Amherst College on May 27.
McClelland teaches Advanced Placement literature at Chapel Hill High and is one of three secondary school teachers that will be honored at Amherst’s commencement.
The teachers will receive the Phebe and Zephaniah Swift Moore Teaching Awards, which recognize teachers who have been important in the academic careers of Amherst students.
McClelland was nominated by Samuel Guzzardi, one of her former students and a member of the Amherst class of 2007.
“Her ‘tough love’ style of sharp commentary delivered with stern but supportive eyes immediately won me over,†Guzzardi said. “Her message to me was simple and unwavering: with privilege comes responsibility.â€
Students place second in science competition
A team of eighth graders from Smith Middle School won second place in the North Carolina Students Fueling the Future competition.
The team competed against 20 other schools in the fuel cell competition.
Team members include: Kaela Cogswell, Quinn Lyons, Elysia Su, Jenny Lu, Caitlin Ball, Carson Collins, Allison Press, Emily Goldman, Angela Zhang, Helena Archer, Christin Whitley, Ali Perrone, Kali Xu, Bojia Chen, Ruaire Lavelle, Zoe Gan, Morgan Grobin, Patrick Mateer, Kaitlyn Norton, Sarah Smith, Daniel Park, Cindy Pi, Chiuwen Thor, Andrew Dowdy, Susan Lee, Jane Chen, Emily Werk, Ellie Davis, Yvonne Tran, Violette Zhu, Henry Tran, Austin Craig, Jacob Mwaniki, Kyle Grant and Paul Noah.
Three groups won first place in individual events. Cogswell, Su, Lyons and Lu won the science notebook category. In addition, Chen, Werk and Davis won the oral presentation category, and Tran, Cogswell, Pi, Zhu and Xu won the science bowl category.
Smith teacher Melinda Fitzgerald coached the team.