Talk of the Neighborhood highlights Central Texans’ achievements.

* Applause *

* The Texas Association of Builders awarded the 2008 Ted Schlossman Lifetime Achievement Award to M.L. Dickey of the Heart of Texas Builders Association in Waco during the Sunbelt Builders Show at the Gaylord Texan in Grapevine.

This annual award recognizes the outstanding lifetime achievements of a person to the home building industry in Texas. Dickey has been a homebuilder in the Waco area for more than 50 years.

* Linda Carroll Franklin-Weaver, who chairs the ambassador program for the Cen-Tex African American Chamber of Commerce, is the chamber’s Citizen of the Month for December.

A 1970 gradute of Temple High School is a graduate of Paul Quinn College, she became a registered nurse through McLennan Community College and is a Fast Trac graduate of Baylor University.

She served as a commissioned nurse in the U.S. Navy Nurses Corps during Operation Desert Storm. Since retiring from nursing in 1994, she has been involved in community service, including the Dream Team network of NeighborWorks Waco, which works to develop community partnerships, and the Community Race Relations Coalition.

She has five daughters and five grandchildren.

* Class Acts *

* Bruceville-Eddy Intermediate School students of the month for November were:

Fourth grade — Leonardo Albiter, Emily Garcia, Jarred Hawkins, Bryson McBee; P.E.: Marcus Abilez, Melissa Tye.

Fifth grade — Lexey Hopkins, Emilee Hubbard, Alex Rodriguez, Alis Tatum; P.E.: Danielle Harper, Colton Hill.

Sixth grade — Alex Ash, Meghan Dupree, Melanie Morris, Tyler Scott; P.E.: Nathan Martinez, Jordan Patterson.

* In the Military *

* U.S. Marine Pvt. Kyle D. Darst, a 2006 graduate of Bruceville-Eddy High School, graduated boot camp Nov. 26 at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego.

He attended McLennan Community College from 2006 to 2008. He is the son of Michael and Tammie Darst of Eddy.

* Navy Seaman Recruit Cody M. Jacobson, son of Pamela G. White of Holland and Michael J. Jacobson of Hewitt, completed basic training at Recruit Training Commandm in Great Lakes, Ill.

* Pitching In *

* McLennan Community College student Jessica Woodward helped her Relay for Life team raise more than $3,000 for the American Cancer Society.

As team captain for Phi Theta Kappa, the honor society for two-year colleges, Woodward — a cancer survivor herself — personally raised more than $1,000.

The team got creative in its fundraising approaches, making a digital cookbook on CD that netted more than $1,200. The team also raised funds at the Relay for Life event with silent auction baskets, tie-dye T-shirts and massages given by a team member who is a certified massage therapist.

At the Relay event, the Phi Theta Kappa team’s “Hawaiian” campsite won best theme.

In 2005, Woodward was diagnosed with childhood bone cancer — rare for someone in their 20s — when she was pregnant with her third child. Her son was delivered six weeks early so she could receive chemotherapy treatments. After a year of treatments, she has been in remission for more than two years.

* Third-graders from Lorena Elementary raised $344.77 to help sponsor 10 McLennan County children served by the Angel Tree Project, a ministry that reaches out to children of inmates and their families during the Christmas holidays. The money raised was used to purchase specific gifts designated by the children.

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