Photo courtesy of Martha Hooker
Glenvar High School DECA organized a canned food drive for our community and collected more than 4,000 cans of food. The DECA students sorted and boxed the cans to be delivered to a local food pantry.
Students pictured from left are Timothy Cockes, Charles Greely, Derek Reynolds, Logan Bowbeer, and Kyleigh Alleman.
– Submitted by Martha Hooker, Marketing Coordinator, Glenvar High School
Flaky Biscuits will play at the Salem Mill Mountain Coffee & Tea from 7 to 9 p.m. Monday, Dec. 3.
Flaky Biscuits plays an eclectic assortment of celtic, old time, bluegrass and gospel tunes–plus some songs that don’t fit comfortably into any genre, featuring Carolyn Day, Jeff Phillips, Luke Poore, Mark Poore, Hannah Robbins and Amy Rockhill on the mandolin, guitar, hammered dulcimer, clawhammer banjo, upright bass and fiddle.
For more on their music, visit their website. For more on Mill Mountain Coffee & Tea, find us at www.facebook.com/MillMountainCoffeeandTeaSalem.
Flaky Biscuits’ 2013 MMC&T dates:
Submitted by Miranda Beck, Mill Mountain Coffee & Tea.
Roanoke Moose Family Center #284 will be host to a Toys 4 Tots pool tournament this Saturday, Dec. 1.
Registration is at 11 a.m. There is a $10 entry fee, or bring a new unwrapped toy. No stuffed animals. There will be door prizes and raffles, including football memorabilia (college and pro), basketball memorabilia, furniture, Tom Reed Custom Cue, jewelry, and more.
The first-place prize will be a McDermott Cue, APA weekly fees, APA yearly membership, and a $25 gift card to Papa D’s. Second-place prize will be a players cue, APA yearly membership, and a $15 gift card to Papa D’s. Third-place prize will be APA yearly membership, APA weekly fees, and a $10 gift card to Papa D’s.
Sponsors for the event are Papa D’s, New River APA and the Roanoke Moose Lodge.
The lodge is located at 3233 Catawba Valley Drive in Salem. For more information, contact Kory Wolford at 537-0175.
– Submitted by Paul Lee
Submitted by Laura Reilly
Glenvar High School will hold their annual Indoor Yard Sale in order to raise funds for Glenvar High School’s After Prom. The yard sale is scheduled for tomorrow, Dec. 1, from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.
For more information contact Lisa Wiley by emailing lmwiley@hotmail.com.
In case of inclement weather, the sale will be held on Saturday, Dec. 8.
Courtesy of Gail McClung, West Salem Baptist Church.
Please join us this Christmas as we worship the Lamb of God who has taken away the sins of the world. It will be a night of meaningful worship and proclamation as the choirs of West Salem Baptist Church rejoice in our Savior, Jesus Christ.
Saturday, Dec. 15 and Sunday, Dec. 16 at 6:30 p.m.
We will have a reception following the Sunday performance. For childcare of children three and under, please call the church office.
Also please join us for our Family Christmas Eve Worship Service on Monday, Dec. 24 at 7 p.m. No childcare provided.
West Salem Baptist Church is located at 500 Turner Road (behind WalMart). Please call 540-389-2129 or visit www.wsbaptist.org for more information.
Submitted by Gail McClung, West Salem Baptist Church.
Pictured are employees from the warehouse, HR and Technology Operations at Comcast, plus some of the employees' family members. / Photo courtesy of Julia Fitz.
The Comcast Foundation has awarded a $2,261 grant to HopeTree Family Services as part of its Comcast Cares Day contributions. Comcast partnered with the Salem organization for the company’s 11th annual Comcast Cares Day on Saturday, April 21, when more than 75,000 Comcast and NBCUniversal employees, friends and family members joined together across the country to participate in one of the nation’s largest single-day corporate volunteer efforts.
The grant is presented in recognition of Comcast’s commitment to the communities where its customers and employees live and work, on behalf of each Comcast employee and family member who volunteered on Comcast Cares Day. As part of Comcast Cares Day at HopeTree Family Services, more than 100 volunteers worked together to beautify the organization’s main campus. Projects included painting, landscaping and general cleanup.
“Comcast Cares Day is part of a year-round commitment to our local communities,” said Donna Rattley Washington, regional vice president of government and community affairs for Comcast. “Through this support from the Comcast Foundation, we are pleased to help our local partners as they continue to make such a profound impact on the lives of so many.”
“We are grateful to Comcast and its employees for pitching in on Comcast Cares Day to help us create a welcoming environment for the children and families we serve,” said Julia Durodoye, Development Coordinator of HopeTree Family Services. “This generous grant from the Comcast Foundation will help us further in our mission to offer valuable resources and support services to at-risk children and youth as well as to adults with intellectual disabilities in communities across Virginia.”
Comcast Cares Day volunteers have donated more than 2.5 million hours of service since the initiative first began in 2001. In addition, Comcast has contributed more than $11 million in Comcast Cares Day grants to partner organizations to help them continue in their missions to serve their local communities.
Since 1999, the Comcast Foundation has had a positive impact on lives in nearly 2,000 communities through approximately 3,000 organizations. For more information on Comcast’s volunteer and community investment initiatives, visit www.comcast.com/community.
Submitted by Julia Fitz, Comcast Cable.
The Winter 2013 edition of Recreation Family Fun Guide is now available at Brambleton and Green Ridge Recreation Centers! Look for your own copy in mailboxes starting early next week. Or, browse our online catalog of programs. Program registration dates are as follows:
• Saturday, Dec. 8 – Online for County Residents ONLY
• Monday, Dec. 10 – Walk-in/Phone for County residents
• Wednesday, Dec. 12 – Open registration
Submitted by Roanoke County
Maybe you saw (or read) “Moneyball” – about finding valuable baseball-players through computer geek-ery. And there’s a darned good chance you heard about mathematical rankings and election predictions.
“You can use math to rank just about anything,” said Roanoke College Math Professor Roland Minton to a recent, packed “Coffee Shop Talk” at Mill Mt. Coffee.
Think Amazon, Netflix, Pandora [music] – all of those “if you like that, you would probably like this”- systems, he said. And Google!
He explained how such systems can be used to determine “Who’s #1 in College Football.” He started his own ranking-system thirty years ago: “It’s simple and it works!”
Simple, to Roland anyhow: He spoke about strengths of schedules; 246 Division 1 teams. And equations, unknowns, a matrix. “But a computer does the math!”
Sometimes his system is “right on the money for the point spread”: “Almost scary,” he chuckled.
He noted the unpopularity of the current BCS [Bowl Championship Series] configuring – satirized by “The Onion” – and figures a playoff system will happen in a couple of years.
He fielded many audience questions – especially for predictions on specific games. (Southeast teams are underrated, he said.)
Roland joked frequently, making math seem kinda fun. (Balancing my checkbook is not fun. When I asked a cocktail party of Boston accountants if “outstanding” checks were the month’s best, they choked on their olives.)
“It’s a diverse field: If you think of a problem, probably a math professor has studied it…. You get to stick your nose into everyone’s business!” He laughed.
Both he and wife / RC Teaching Associate Jan Minton (no math slouch herself) bring a playful spirit to math. She is spearheading RC’s still-in-progress regional contribution to the national Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef Project [Sept. 30, 2011, column] – about a thousand pieces by some 200 local contributors as of Nov. 1. (The show opens Jan. 25th, coordinated by RC Gallery Director Talia Logan.)
Roland also enjoys demonstrating card tricks to students: “No sleight-of-hand necessary! Just math.” (“Fun stuff,” he joked last year, “so people won’t avoid me at parties.”) And he melded his love of golf with – you guessed it – math (physics, too): “Golf by the Numbers.” His book seems useful to fans and players alike.
RC colleagues describe the “math power couple” as brilliant and kind. Add in their wit and playfulness – and their chosen field seems a whole lot friendlier.
The final RC talk is Dec. 6 (Thurs.), Mill Mt. Coffee, 8 pm, free. German and Linguistics Prof. Jim Ogier will discuss “The Maya and the End of Time.” (Will Dec. be your last chance for a cookie – or Life Itself? Doubtful, but do attend.)
For more crochet / coral info: coralreef@roanoke.edu.
