Chad Earhart, wide receiver and outside linebacker for the Hidden Valley Titans, has been named the Army Iron Man of the year for Virginia by the U.S. Army Beckley Recruiting Battalion. The Army Iron Man award recognizes the best two-way high school football player in the battalion’s Virginia recruiting territory.

As the Army Iron Man of the Year for Virginia , Earhart will receive a customized, championship-quality ring from presenting sponsor Jostens.

In week nine, Earhart scored on a 52-yard touchdown reception, returned a kick-off for a 94-yard touchdown, and returned an interception for a 35-yard touchdown as Hidden Valley beat Christiansburg, 38-21.

For more about the Iron Man Award and a list of weekly winners, see the Sports Flash Web site here.

Jill Hale of Bent Mountain sent these photo into us! She said that the turkey was hanging around her area for two weeks with a hen. Aren’t the deer beautiful?

Click on the photos to enlarge.

Do you have any wildlife photos? If so, we would love to see them! Send them to us at news@swo-co.com

This is a photo of the  Southwest Virginia Ballet Company dancers in The Nutcracker.

Quite a few of the dancers are from Southwest Roanoke County. They are: Front Row: Katie Munson. Middle: Kathryn Butler, Bria Gepitulan, Abby Michael. Back Row: Amber Beidler, Sidney Vaughan, Shannon Toole, Abigail Bagliani, Caitlyn King.

The Nutcracker will show Dec. 13 at 7 p.m. and Dec. 14 at 3 p.m. at the Roanoke Civic Center.

Tickets range from $13-$37.

For more infomation, click here or call 540-853-LIVE (5483).

Submitted by: Mike Lawson

This is a Thanksgiving picture from Jill Hale of Bent Mountain of her dogs Buddy and Wolf and her dad’s dog, Ajax.

Do you have any Thanksgiving photos of your animals? If so, send them to us at news@swo-co.com!

Constitution Day is celebrated on September 17, when the Constitution was signed in 1787. Marcia L. Larson, who lives on Tomaranne Drive invited some children in the neighborhood over to ring in the day. Here is what she had to say about Constitution Day and photos she recently shared with SWoCo.

Citizens in the Roanoke area were asked to ring their bells on Constitution Day at 4 p.m. I have a large N&W bell at the back of my house so I invited some neighborhood children to come and ring the bell. Some of the children had to be lifted up and help to pull the rope. As you can see one of them rang it by  herself, but they all had fun celebrating the Signing of the Constitution. -Marcia L. Larson

If you have photos you would like to share with SWoCo email them to us at news@swo-co.com.

Ten Adventurers tackled a 35-foot rock in Bozoo, West Virginia, on a chilly fall day in November. The Adventurers are Virginia Skyline Girl Scouts, ages 11-18, who love exciting, high-adventure activities. None of the girls had been outdoor rock climbing before. They were all really good about encouraging each other as they faced the challenge.

We were all afraid to go first, but after a couple girls went, everyone wanted to climb. It was scary and it froze my hands because of the cold temperature, but we all climbed at least once. I made it all the way to the top twice, and it felt good to see that I could do it when I wasn?t sure if I could,? said Kelsey Burchett, a student at Cave Spring Middle School.

Photo Caption:

Front row: Tess King, Bryli Long, Margaret Foster, Kelsey Guy

Back row: Brad Buchanan (instructor), Lauren Flora, Kate Penney, Kelsey Burchett of Southwest Roanoke County, Kaitlin Stevers, Taylor Perkins, Shawn Worthley (instructor), Alyssa Porterfield

Laura Burchett

Article and photo submitted by Laura Burchett

Emily Flora SWoCo

Carlos Brazilian International Cuisine restaurant located on Route 419/Electric Road between Starkey and Ogden Road has often been missed by locals and visitors who come to the area and want some fine cuisine.

According to owner, Maggie Amaral the sign was put up prior to Halloween.

“We always had another sign at the bottom of the hill,” Amaral said. “It was between all the other signs and ours was disappearing. At least now people will know where to turn.”

The electronic sign, though very expensive Amaral said, will be helpful and let people know where to turn to get on the hill to Carlos.

“We were just looking into it and we were debating to put one in or not.

“We were getting a lot of calls saying, ‘where are you exactly where do we turn?’ It’s good for publicity also. It is expensive, but in order for the restaurant to work we have to be up to date like everyone else.”

Amaral said that the new electronic sign is the same size as the one that had been their previously. The sign also displays what is on special that day and displays featured dishes.
“You can see it from far away so when you are planning to turn ahead of time. We also do custom cakes with customers and a lot of people were not aware we did things like wedding cakes, or cakes for special events, and birthdays. But now they know because they see it on our sign.”

Roanoke County police say there was an armed robbery Friday afternoon in the apartment complex at 4300 Garst Mill Road.

Here’s the full statement from Roanoke County police:

Armed Robbery

• Incident: Armed Robbery

• Date of Incident: 11/21/08 Time of Incident: 2:04pm

• Location of Incident: 4300 block Garst Mill Road

• Investigating Officer: Detective Neil Gardner

• Victim Name(s):

• Suspect Name(s):

• Charges if Applicable:

• Arrests Information: There have been no arrests made at this time.

• Anyone with information is asked to call (540)777-8623

• Additional Remarks: At approximately 2:04pm today a male subject was robbed at gun point in the laundry room of his building. An undisclosed amount of money was given to the suspect when the gun was displayed.

The suspect is described as a light skin black male, 5′ 6″ tall about 20-30 years old with tattoos on his left forearm, close cropped hair, a short mustache and a short goatee. He was last seen wearing a red hooded sweat shirt and baggy blue jeans. There were no injuries reported.

This case is still under investigation. Anyone with information is encouraged to call the Roanoke County Police Department at (540)562-3265 or Detective Neil Gardner at (540)777-8623.

Lots of Southwest Roanoke County people were at The Little Black Dress Party in downtown Roanoke on Thursday night that benefited the Square Society (which, in turn, helps raise money for Center in the Square.)

Among the Swoco people there who took time to step onto the red carpet and pose for our paparazzi photo crew were:
* Brian Thomas, Kim Essington, Beth Maiden and Bryan Maiden (that’s them above.)
* Gail Albert with Carol Patterson of Franklin County
* Jessica Ofsa, with Katherine Heath of Roanoke
* Greg King, with Deana Wescott of Roanoke
* Kim Robertson and Nicole Pardon, with Brenda Wilson of Roanoke, Jill Cooper of Botetourt, and Michelle Church of Roanoke
* Robin and Justin Nelson
* Kim Essington and Beth Maiden (going solo this time!)
* McKenzie Cox, with Jeff Brunk of Salem
* Amy Tuggle, with Tad Woods of Roanoke
* Tor and Kathy Mjelde

For the entire photo gallery, click here. And if paparazzi photos are your thing, we also have photos of Southwest Roanoke County people at the recent Stocked Market event.

But you don’t need to wait for us to roll out the red carpet. If you have photos of Southwest Roanoke County people, you can share at news@swo-co.com

A teacher at Cave Spring High School is among 19 teachers from across Western Virginia who are finalists for this year’s McGlothlin Awards for Teaching Excellence.

The teacher is Peter Lustig.

There are more details in this official release about the awards:

Read more »