-- Rather than have a classroom party, Eastern Elementary School third-grade students packed 37 shoeboxes with toys, candy, toiletries and school supplies to be sent around the world to children in need via Operation Christmas Child.
-- Traverse City Area Public Schools' Students In Transition Empowerment Program (STEP) would like to thank the staff at Meijer Inc. of Traverse City for donations made through the Meijer Annual Community Drive. Store managers John Spalding and Barbara Lee collected basic items students may need while in residential transition, as well as $825 in gift cards that will be used in TCAPS' secondary schools to purchase items for students that could not be purchased with federal and/or state funds.
-- Scott Purdy of Traverse City, a senior at Olivet College, is one of a group of 27 students and two college employees who recently made a weeklong service trip to support Hurricane Katrina victims in New Orleans. In addition, they spent one night at the Morgan Scott Project in Deer Lodge, Tenn., where they delivered new, unwrapped toys to families in Morgan and Scott counties, two of the poorest counties in Tennessee.
-- The Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society at West Shore Community College in Scottville gathered nearly 2,300 canned and nonperishable food items to donate to the St. Jerome's Food Pantry in Scottville and the Ludington Salvation Army. Katie Convissor's English Composition 1 class collected more than 200 items and won a pizza party delivered by PTK members.
-- Holy Angels Elementary second-graders and Immaculate Conception third- through fifth-grade students collected more than 300 toys they donated to children in the community via the Traverse City Fire Department Toy Program. In return, the State Theatre screened a free Christmas movie to the children.
-- Students from Silver Lake Elementary School shopped at Meijer Inc. with a local hero (police officers, firefighters, EMTs, Marines) to buy toys for the Toys for Tots program. Meijer donated the money used to purchase toys.
-- Fifth-grade students from Eastern Elementary School decided to "give back" by sharing holiday cheer with residents at the Grand Traverse Pavilions Senior Care Center rather than have a classroom party.
-- Fifth-grade students from Courtade Elementary School celebrated their holiday party with a caroling program for the residents at the Traverse City Tendercare Nursing Home.
-- Eastern Elementary School students from Mrs. Radakovich's second-grade class collected food for the animals at the Traverse City Humane Society as their service project for the community during the holiday season.
-- Willow Hill Elementary School has been awarded $350 by the TBA Credit Union and Harvitt Insurance Agency/MEEMIC to create a reading garden outside the school library. The library will match the grant funds using monies generated from the Boxtops Program. Patio blocks will be sold later this year; plant donations will be accepted in the spring. Call Librarian Shar Bogard at 933-8551 for details.
-- Kristie Ryder-Slater of Lake Ann, a senior at Michigan State University, was one of six students across the country awarded a $2,000 scholarship from the American Proficiency Institute. Ryder-Slater plans to work in infectious disease research.
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