Starting today, customers at the Mill Mountain Coffee and Tea at 4710-A Starkey Road will notice something different — a drop-off box for submissions to SWoCo, our new community newspaper and website for Southwest Roanoke County.

Yes, we know you’re reading this online — and scattered all over this site are links where you can submit news and photos to news@swo-co.com. (Don’t forget the dash!)

But we also know that not everybody is online — and sometimes not everything is easy to send across the Internet.

So that’s why we have a drop box. Think of this as our Southwest Roanoke County bureau.

We also know that sometimes it’s good to just sit and chat — and that’s why Emily Flora, our community journalist for Southwest Roanoke County, will be holding “office hours” at Mill Mountain Coffee and Tea on Wednesday from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. That’s her picture on the right.

She’s eager to hear your ideas about covering our community — so stop by and share some news the old-fashioned way.

The Cave Spring Optimist Club is celebrating its 40th Smith Mountain Lake Fishing Tournament May 2-4 and Bill Cochran, retired outdoors writer for The Roanoke Times, has been to every one of them. He shares recollections here.

May 2 is Church Women United in the Roanoke Valley May Friendship Day at Our Lady of Nazareth Catholic Church on Electric Road.

Registration will begin at 9:30 a.m. with welcome and Bible study at 10:15 and a business meeting at 10:45 a.m.

The program will begin at 11 a.m. with the theme “God’s Wisdom Inspires Hospitality.” The annual offering for the Fellowship of the Least Coin will be collected. A luncheon will follow in the Fellowship Hall.

The cost is $5 per person. To make reservations call, Rita Harris at 774-0066, ext. 10 no later than Tuesday, April 29.

Church Women United (CWU) is a Christian women’s movement representing Protestant, Roman Catholic, Orthodox and other Christian women, founded in 1941.

CWU holds three annual worship celebrations, one being May Friendship Day. May Friendship Day was first observed in 1933 and focuses on “creative and healing relationships” that exist in local communities.

Faith Christian School, 300 plus students and parents, will be working at Jubliee Acres- a Rescue Mission summer day camp located outside of Roanoke Friday, April 25 from 8:45 a.m. until 2 p.m.

Students will be rebuilding trails, mulching the challenge course areas and playgrounds, and cleaning the camp to prepare for the children during the summer months.

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Where else can you go on a Saturday night and taste top-notch food, sip fine wine and bid on fabulous auction items, all the while, supporting disaster relief in your community?

Held on May 3, from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m., this event raises money for the disaster relief work of the Red Cross in the Valley.

The 2008 Red, White + Blues will be held in the new Special Events Center of the Roanoke Civic Center. Tickets are $50/advance, $60/door. Call 985-3539 for a a table of eight/$360. Tickets are also available at Kroger stores. N’awlins costumes optional!

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Out of more than 100 nominations received by parents, students, administrators and colleagues, Chris Overfelt from Arnold R. Burton Technology Center was named the Golden Apple Winner.

“It is a distinct honor to be recognized by peers, students and parents,” said Education Foundation Chairman Brucie Boggs. “It is the mission of the Foundation to support education excellence in the Roanoke County Public Schools and we are very proud of our winners and everyone who was nominated,” Boggs said.

The Roanoke County Public Schools Education Foundations Golden Apple Reception was held on April 23 at the Holiday Inn in Roanoke. The program, conceived in 1994 by the Foundation’s Board of Trustees, recognizes and honors teachers who have made a positive impact on their students.

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My Gym of Roanoke isn’t in Southwest Roanoke County, but it’s close enough that Swoco residents would be interested in this: A fitness challenge next week (April 28-May 2) to coincide with National Fitness Month.

The Roanoke location of the children’s fitness center is at Townside Festival Shopping Plaza at 3727 Franklin Road, just under the bridge and over the line in the city.

A press release from My Gym follows:

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The Roanoke County Fire and Rescue Department, Back Creek Volunteer Fire Company and Back Creek Civic League hosted a dedication for a nearly 2,000 square foot addition Monday, April 21.

The addition comes after a large amount of growth in the Back Creek Fire and Rescue serving area.

“This addition allows us more than enough room for expansion for a fast growing community,” Division Chief Steve Simon said. “This is clearly a community station; it’s truly part of the community.”

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On Friday, Cave Spring High School boys’ soccer team plays host to Blacksburg. It’s a rematch of last year’s state title game, won by Blacksburg. Sportswriters Robert Anderson and Aaron McFarling preview the game on this week’s Varsity Cast, our weekly high school sports webcast.

James Hutton, a Hidden Valley Middle School teacher and member of a local fly-fishing group loves to fish, but he doesn’t keep this love to himself. Instead he devotes a three or four Saturdays each year to kids in the Quest Program, an after school and Saturday enrichment program for Roanoke County’s gifted K-8 students, and teaches them the art of fly fishing and about the environment.

Hutton’s “A River Runs Through It” clinic began early Saturday morning, on April 19 on Colorado Street in Salem at the Roanoke River in an effort to clean the environment by picking up garbage. Throughout the clinic the 5th through 8th graders also study the stream, plant and animal life, and then learn a new activity- fly fishing.

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