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Valentine's Day is only two weekends away. Are you ready? If not, here are six ways to say "I Love You" in Botetourt County. Can you think of more? Feel free to add your suggestions in the "comment" field below.

1. Singing Valentines: Let the Star City Sounds Chorus serenade your sweetheart for Valentines Day. A four-part harmony quartet will sing two love songs and provide a rose. Available February 13 or 14. Cost: $35. Call Linda at 774-1542 for scheduling.

2. More Singing Valentines: Say "I love you" with a singing Valentine sung by a Virginia Gentlemen barbershop quartet. For only $45 on the 13th of February and $50 for the 14th, a quartet will serenade your sweetheart at home, at work, at school or most anywhere in the Roanoke Valley. The quartet will sing two love songs and present a card with a personal message and a long-stem red rose, and capture the moment with a photo taken with your sweetheart.Presented by the Virginia Gentlemen Barbershop Harmony Chorus.For more information, go to: www.vagents.org.

3. Buy a "love line" in The Botetourt View. Yes, this is a cheap promotional ploy, but it's also cheap (only 99 cents a line) and the ultimate promotion is, well, for you. Call 981-3311 to place your "Love Line" in print. Deadline: Noon on Tuesday, Feb. 10.

4. Go see "Bubbles of Emotion" at Attic Productions just south of Fincastle. It's a love story, of sorts, and the show opens Feb. 12. (For a story and photos, click here.)

5. Go see "She Loves Me" at Showtimers community theatre just off 419 in Roanoke County. It's a love story, and it opens Feb. 12. The Botetourt connection: Cheryl Lunsford of Fincastle is the music director. (For more on the show, see this story.)

6. Go see the Feb. 14 show by Roanoke's comedy improv troupe, The Big Lick Conspiracy, which features Ross Laguzza of Fincastle. The group has performed at the Waldron Stage at Mill Mountain Theatre; no word yet on where the Valentine's Day show will be, since Mill Mountain has closed -- check back here for an update.

So what ideas do you have for a Botetourt-themed Valentine's Day? You can leave your tips in the "comment" field below.

If you've already visited our photo gallery from Wednesday's Lord Botetourt-Northside boys basketball game, you might want to check it out again -- we've just added four new photos from Stephanie Klein-Davis of The Roanoke Times.

True, Lord Botetourt came up short, but Stephanie still has some nice shots of Lord Botetourt players, such as this one of Jonathan Fralin defending as Patrick Arnold (left) struggles for the ball against Trey Smith of Northside.

Do you have photos involving teams or players from Botetourt County? If so, you can share at news@botetourtview.com

Happy campers, all God's Children at Camp Bethel.

Disadvantaged children want to go to camp as well as those who can afford to go to camp. Barry LeNoir, the camp director at Camp Bethel, said "We have never turned a camper down." Last year alone they funded 111 "campships" the terminology used for the spots reserved for the disadvantaged children. Each for the past 6 years they have seen the numbers steadily rise. With the current economic conditions they beleive the trend will continue. The cost per camper is $240 for a week and Camp Bethel is one of the most affordable  and fun camps around.

On Friday, Febraury 27, they will host a "Sow the Seeds" dinner for a minimum of $40 per plate (and they usually get more and hope for it!) to fund the campships for the coming summer. Sew the Seeds comes from the following parable spoken by Jesus in Matthew 13, "A farmer went out to sow his seed.... still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop-a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown." and from the letter of Paul to the Corinthians, 2 Corinthians 9:6 ..."and who ever sows generously will be rewarded generously."

Campership campers generally come church referred or Socials Services in Roanoke and Botetourt Counties or DePaul Children's Services. From their experiences at the camp over the years these children have grown up to become pastors and church workers in adult hood. Moreover it can be a safe haven from the pressures at home.

Up to 150 diners can come to the Sow the Seeds Fundraiser in the Ark dining hall where a new internationally known cook has become the chef. Reservations have to be made by February 20. For more information, contact Camp Bethel at 992-2940

The regular meeting of the Botetourt Breast Cancer Support Group will meet Tuesday Feb. 3 at the Family Life Center of Fincastle United Methodist Church at 7 p.m. This month a guest speaker from Allegheny Regional Hospital will speak on cardiovascular system and stroke prevention.

Also the Relay for Life team, Jackies Girl's will be holding a bake sale at Allegheny Regional Hospital 8: a.m. on Friday April 10, 2009.

Relay for Life meetings for all planning to participate are all on the following Tuesdays at Daleville Church of the Brethren: Feb. 17,  Mar. 17, Apr.21, May 19.

Relay for Life of Botetourt will be held at the Buchanan Carnval grounds (Town Park) on Friday May 29, 2009.

Cheryl Lunsford, the Fincastle singer/songwriter and guitar teacher, is serving as music director for the upcoming production of "She Loves Me" at Showtimers community theatre in Roanoke County.

For more on the show, which opens Feb. 12 and runs through March 1, click here.

Relaxation awaits at Lighten Your Burden Massage Therapy.

A Grand Opening will be held on Saturday, January 31, 2009 across from Lord Botetourt High School from 11am to 2 pm at 1424 Roanoke Road, Botetourt Plaza in Daleville VA. Phone 540-353-1463

Sherry Lilly, the proprietor and massage therapist, said this about the day's events: GRAND special pricing for * packages & * gift certificates, held only on this day between hours listed above

Specials listed on location day of event include:

Door Prizes - Drawings

Refreshments - healthy snacks

Demonstrations

Grand Opening specials

Ribbon cutting ceremony by Botetourt County Chamber of Commerce.

The latest wrestling trip was to North Carolina and the club did well.

The Rhino Extreme in Fayetteville, NC on January 24, 2009

Over 500 entries and one of the toughest tournaments on the east coast.

Division Name Place

Rookie Novice: Caleb Willard 1st

Extreme Novice: Nick Giantonio 4th

Rookie Schoolboy: Andrew Buchanan 2nd

Extreme Schoolboy: Seth Carlton 2nd, David Giantonio 2nd, Dorian Giantonio 2nd

Brian Barnett 4th, Hunter Santos 4th

Extreme Junior: Daniel Lloyd 5th

Coaches Stacy Anderson and Chip Nininger took the wrestlers to Fayetteville, NC to compete in this tournament.

Senior Rob Cary decked out for an Biotech electophoreis lab in his LBHS Genetics course.

This semester a group of LBHS students are tackling Genetics in a class instructed by John McLaughlin, PhD, a science teacher at the high school. When you get a dozen scientists in the room, something is bound to happen and with these young people they are seizing the opportunity to take that step above from a high school class into the type of science research experience most often found in university labs. Since the mapping of the human genome and biotechnology industries using DNA have sprung up around the world, the class is not your Daddy's Genetics course from college, either.

The purpose of the lab which used borrowed equipment from Virginia Tech, is to establish relationships through proteins of different fish and mollusk species by electorphoreis, a process that separates the genetic materials into dyed gels by isolating and comparing the different protein patterns.

Proteins form the muscle tissue of marine vertebrates and invertebrates are used to determine phylogenetic relationships. Sounds technical? Yes, it is. The experiment is in Science Teacher magazine in 2001 and was co- authored by McLaughlin who has a Phd from Virginia Tech.

By looking at the protein DNA relationships the common ancestry in the development of different species can be seen.

The students armed with cool goggles, aprons, gel plates and the electorphoreis "cooking" machines, fish proteins and buffering solution took turns preparing the experiment by the steps listed on the project sheet given to them by McLaughlin. Once the experiement components fell into place the machines bubbled away for 45 minutes. Welcome to the laboratory! One day later the gels were dyed with blue dye by the AP Biology class and the students will be able to see which of the five species they have derived proteins from are closest or farthest apart in genetic relationship. The species used were squid, tilapia, salmon, flounder and striper bass. For more pictures of the lab click here.

Those participapting in the lab were Rob Cary, Holly Harnsberger, Pahl Pappas, Kelly Crocker, Kelly McKnight, Emory Straub, Alexandra Stiles, Kayla Hanson, Emily Riley, Lexie Surface, Emily Adams and Zoe Graman.

Yuck!

Ick!

It's Weird Science Night at Troutville Elementary School, and Jane Wolfe has sent us an entire photo gallery from the event.

You'll find one on the cover of this week's print edition of The Botetourt View and some more inside, but then, if you're into the goop, you can find the entire photo gallery right here online. By the way, that's Max Burke and Jack Cole getting their hands dirty with science.

Each week, we find ourselves with more photos than we can ever hope to fit into print, so here they are online. (Plus, we update this site sometimes a dozen times a day, so think of this as your daily digital newspaper for Botetourt.)

So what other online extras do we have this week? Well, lots, and here's a handy guide on how to find them, but first . . .

SPECIAL ADVERTISING NOTICE . . .
In this week's edition of The Botetourt View, you'll see a special promotion in the classifieds on page 21: Share a special message with your sweetheart this Valentine's Day by placing a Love Line in our Feb. 13 print edition of The Botetourt View. Only 99 cents a line! For details, well, see the ad or call 981-3311 by noon on Tuesday, Feb. 10. We now return you to your regularly-scheduled news briefing . . .

And now, the online extras:

* Promotions announced at Bank of Botetourt
* Photos from Read Mountain Middle School Spelling Bee
* Photos of Troutville Elementary’s 5th grade spelling bee winners
* Photos of the Botetourt Buddies
* Photos from the presentation that robotics students at Lord Botetourt made
* Another photo of Scott Garnett, on the road in Europe

AND IN SPORTS . . .
* Photos from Lord Botetourt senior night wrestling
* Photos from James River wrestling tournament
* More photos of James River wrestlers at Glenvar tournament
* More photos from the James River - Parry McCluer boys basketball game
* Does Lord Botetourt have the best Group AA girls basketball team in the region? Vote in this poll.

So how can you get your news and photos in The Botetourt View? Easy! Just share at news@botetourtview.com. (And a special request this week -- send us your holiday photos!)

For more information -- including how to advertise and reach more than 90 percent of the households in Botetourt County -- see below:
Read more »

Dr. Tony Brads, school superintendent, with Jerry Burgess county administrator, in the foreground explains state budget cuts to the school board budget committee.

The Botetourt County School Board budget committee FY09-10 met for the first time to discuss the state funding cuts to Botetourt County schools this morning at 8:30 a.m. The schools will have a proposed $2,198,000 cut in funding from the state of Virginia as it struggles to manage a $2.9 billion reduction in revenues in the general fund.

School Board Chairman Kathy Sullivan opened the session with her concerns about taking a step backward because as she said, "We have worked so hard to get where we are today with our quality program."

Those present included administrators, all five school board members and two members ad hoc on the committee from the board of supervisors-Don Assaid and Billy Martin. Jerry Burgess, County administrator, sat in on the meeting as well as reporters, a BEA rep and an interested citizen from Buchanan, Tom Wilbon, who has been coming to the input meetings.

Botetourt County Public Schools is the largest employer in Botetourt County. Teachers and staff have been worried about possible lay-off and staffing reductions as evidenced in the first budget input meeting when twenty of them attended the meeting at James River High School to air those concerns.

The first 45 minutes Dr. Tony Brads the school superintendent explained the state budget cuts and how they reflect many cuts to the Standards of Quality, how monies are based on average daily membership (ADM), composite index and the rearrangement of lottery funds in the state budgeting process. He even mentioned the car tax and how that took money away from localities.

He covered other state budget concerns that included the proposed funding cap for basic aid support that results in $1.48 million of the budget fund reduction to the school division, school construction grant monies, lottery funding and stated the effects of all of the cuts that will certainly impact students and instruction. Botetourt County's ADM is down about 50 students, said assistant Superintendent John Busher after the meeting. The funding figures for next year will be based on the March 30 ADM.

The budget input meetings earlier this month were scored with both administration and school board members encouraging parents and citizens to contact legislators and ask that the SOQ cuts not be made permanent. There is also a trend, Brads said, for the legislators to look at moving the 55 percent to 45 percent state to local funding to a more of a 50-50 proposition. Botetourt County is already assisting the school division by overfunding positions above the current SOQ's in things like building principals, elementary guidance counselors and so forth.

The bottom line at the end of the morning is that the division has found $1,556,436.81 in the proposed budgeted areas to reduce. That still leaves a $642,195 shortfall, which is about a 3 percent increase from last year's ask to the county for the school board to consider.

Brads proposed to Assaid, who is chairman of the board of supervisors and asked where the money might come from that perhaps, one-third of the money, about $400,000, could come from the Capital Reserve Fund established for the division last summer by the Board of Supervisors. That would leave a little over $242,000 that might be an additional ask from last year's budget request. Keep in mind this is only a proposal. Scott Swortzel, Blue Ridge School Board member said they will study the figures and come back to the next budget meeting on Feb. 12 at 5:00 p.m. with a better idea of what steps will be taken next in the process.