Talk of the Neighborhood highlights Central Texans’ achievements.

* Applause *

* Ira Walton, a retired military veteran from Waco, won four gold medals at the 25th annual National Veterans Golden Age Games held May 25-June 1 in Honolulu.

Walton, 88, won gold in air rifle, checkers, dominoes and table tennis. This was Walton’s 22nd year competing at the games.

The Golden Age Games had more than 850 senior veterans, a new attendance record.

* Waco Knitters group member and designer Cynthia Miller has been accepted into Knit Pick’s Independent Designer Program and had her first IDP crochet pattern published.

The design is named ‘Santiago Crochet Baby Sweater’ and it can be found at www.knitpicks.com online. The Santiago Sweater is a V-neck cardigan sized for newborn to 3 months.

* Keith Randall, former public relations director at Baylor University and longtime Waco resident who serves as associate director of marketing and communications at Texas A&M, won two Best of Texas awards from the Texas Public Relations Association.

Randall won in the opinion category with an op-ed piece written in conjunction with a Texas A&M professor comparing the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill to the 2010 Gulf oil spill.

A second award was in the news writing category for a story titled “A Marine Mr. Mom,” that explains how Aggie researchers detected that male pipefish give birth, but many are deadbeat dads who don’t care for their offspring.

* Class Acts *

* Students named to the president’s honor roll at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville for a perfect 4.0 grade-point average during the spring semester were::

Groesbeck — Melissa Hiser;

Hewitt — Stephanie Sanders;

Kosse — Megan Ensminger;

Marlin — Camellia Ward;

McGregor — Colton Barber;

Robinson — Steven Fleuriet;

West — Samantha Patterson.

* Students on the president’s honor roll at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches for a perfect 4.0 grade-point average during the spring semester were:

Aquilla — Jaimie Wade;

China Spring — Eneida Santiago;

Itasca — Kari Bottorff; Toni Rutherford;

Malone — Barbara Ann Christian;

Marlin— Angie Jenkins;

Mart — Jake Schlemmer;

Rosebud — Ashlee Polk;

Waco — Paige Beasley; Katie Hill;

Whitney — Heather McPherson; Kelley Neuman.