Talk of the Neighborhood: May 9, 2010
Talk of the Neighborhood highlights Central Texans’ achievements.
* Applause *
* Five Junior Girl Scouts from Troop 7081 in Hewitt were awarded their Bronze Award on April 10. Kimberly Chancellor, Alena Bartek, McKenzie Clafferty and Evan Williams chose the Waco Humane Society for their project. Kaitlyn Mitchell helped Friends for Life by sewing and donating lap blankets for seniors.
For the Humane Society project, the girls held a bake sale to fund their efforts. Alena and Kimberly designed and built six cat towers. Kimberly also collected more than 150 used tennis balls and Alena made rope toys for the dogs.
Evan and McKenzie made more than 60 items, including braided rope toys, catnip mice and dog and cat treat pillows.
The four girls also donated 40 dog toys purchased with bake sale proceeds. All the items will be used by the shelter animals or given/sold to adoptive families to take home for their new pets.
Kaitlyn picked the Friends for Life project because she volunteered the last two holiday seasons with the Gifts for Grannies program.
* Chelsea Kruciak (right), a 15-year-old Midway High School freshman, has been offered a two-year contract with Page Parkes Modeling Agency in Houston.
She completed a model camp in January. She is the daughter of James and Sharon Kruciak of Hewitt.
* Hank Gerdes, a Midway High graduate, was awarded the business person of the year for 2009 by the Buda Area Chamber of Commerce.
Gerdes has owned a State Farm agency in Buda since 2006. He is the son of Dr. and Mrs. Trey Gerdes of Waco.
* Class Acts *
* John R. Haskett, a 2009 Midway High graduate, made the dean’s list at the University of Oklahoma for the fall semester in pre-business studies.
* McLennan Community College students Janet Frei of Marlin and Sarah Middlebrook of West, who are in the school’s paralegal program, received scholarships from the Waco Legal Professionals Association.
* Elidia G. Berg, a 12th-grader at Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, N.H., received highest honors for the fall and winter terms. She is the daughter of Joan Brickley and Bruce Berg of Waco.
* Carolyn Miakashi of Waco received a bachelor of arts degree in interdisciplinary studies from Western Governors University, an accredited online school.
* In the Military *
* Navy Seaman Recruit Orin M. Brown, son of Doris K. and Douglas A. Brown of Gatesville, completed basic training at Recruit Training Command in Great Lakes, Ill.
* Pitching In *
* Waco Community Development, created in 2001 to help revitalize North Waco, has been awarded a $20,000 grant from the Bernard and Audre Rapoport Foundation for the Parental Engagement Project.
The project works to increase parental involvement at Brook Avenue and West Avenue elementaries. Waco Community Development personnel work with neighborhood schools and associations, nonprofit groups and churches to revitalize the neighborhood.
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