The Virginia Cooperative Extension has added a food preservation class — specifically, canning — at the Brambleton Center  on Aug. 8.

Food writer Lindsey Nair has details her on her Fridge Magnet blog.

Cave Spring High School has hired Ricky Lonker as its head baseball coach, Knights athletic director Jon Hartness said today.

Sportswriter Robert Anderson has more on this story.

If you were hoping to see “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers” at Showtimers, you might want to make other plans.

The rest of the run is now sold out!

You can, at least, see still photos from the show here.

After three years as principal at Fort Lewis Elementary School, Kim Bradshaw has moved on to continue to make an impact at Oak Grove Elementary School.

Bradshaw joins the staff as principal at Oak Grove this school year. No stranger to education, Bradshaw spent two years prior to her work at Fort Lewis as assistant principal at Burlington Elementary School; before that, she taught second and third grades at Cave Spring Elementary. Bradshaw was drawn to Oak Grove’s status as a Title I school with a diverse student population.

“It’s an honor to be working here,” Bradshaw said of Oak Grove. “I’m fascinated by different cultures. That will be a fun part–to learn about other cultures.”

Another one of Bradshaw’s goals for the year (and perhaps the biggest) is to get to know everyone in the Oak Grove Elementary community. She’s looking forward to spending time in the classrooms, she says. She also wants to get a chance to ride all of the bus routes–something she did when she started as principal at Fort Lewis.

She and her family (husband Jim, daughter Kristen and son Jason) live in Southwest Roanoke County so she is familiar with the area, but riding the bus routes will help her to better learn some of the neighborhoods and connecting streets, she says.

Bradshaw and her family have a long connection to Roanoke County–particularly to Roanoke County Public Schools: Kristen and Jason will be attending Cave Spring High School and Penn Forest Elementary school this fall, and husband Jim worked as an administrator at Glenvar Middle School until last year.

“There’s not a school I’ve been in that I wouldn’t put my own kids in,” Bradshaw says.

Her pride in being a part of the Roanoke County school system is as evident as her excitement to begin a new school year.

“[As a teacher] in the classroom you make an impact on students every year, but as an administrator, it grows substantially,” Bradshaw says. “I’ve always wanted to make a positive impact.”

And this year, as in years past, will afford her that chance.

The school year kicks off at Oak Grove Elementary on Monday, Aug. 20 for new student orientations. Back to school events continue in September with Back to School Night on Sept. 11 and Picnic in the Park on Sept. 28.

Roanoke County has released the following statement about the 911 test this morning that inadvertently resulted in 30,000 households getting a false warning that an armed inmate was on the loose:

– A test alert message about an escaped inmate that went out via phone, text, and email from Roanoke County this morning was a test message generated by Roanoke County’s new emergency alert system – there never was an escaped inmate.

The test alert message went out to approximately 30,000 households and businesses in Roanoke County within 15 minutes. The fact it went out to so many people was a mistake and Roanoke County apologizes for the error and any confusion it may have caused.

Roanoke County is planning to launch its new emergency alert system to the public in mid-to-late August using a software program provided by Twenty First Century Communications. The County currently has a test group of about 300 people – mostly Roanoke County employees- who’ve been receiving test alert messages this month from staff in Roanoke County’s Emergency Communications Center to ensure that the system is working properly.

This morning, the test alert message about an escaped inmate should’ve only gone to the test group but mistakenly went to landlines throughout Roanoke County. The test messages from Roanoke County should have displayed on a person’s Caller ID as RoCo Alert – this is the name Roanoke County has given to its Emergency Alert System.

Roanoke County was able to stop the message or even more households and businesses would have received the test alert. Roanoke County also sent a follow-up message to the Roanoke County households and businesses that received the initial alert reminding them that the message they received was indeed a test message and to disregard the information.

Below is a narrative of the voice messages that were sent to Roanoke County households and businesses:

First Alert:

THIS IS A TEST: This is an emergency notification from Roanoke County. Please do not hang up. As of July 31, 2012; 9:55 am, an inmate escaped during a transport from I81 SB exit 140 headed toward Catawba Valley Dr. The Roanoke County Police Department and Deputies from the Roanoke County Sheriff’s Office are attempting to locate Robert Smith 6’0 blue eyes, blonde hair, 180 pds; If you see this person please call 9-1-1 and report sighting. For further information call Lt Artz 540-387-6141 . Do not call 911 unless you have an emergency. THIS IS A TEST

Follow-Up Alert:

PLEASE DISREGARD THE PREVIOUS MESSAGE, THIS IS A TEST OF THE RO CO ALERTS EMERGENCY SYSTEM. PLEASE DISREGARD THIS PREVIOUS MESSAGE, THERE IS NO ESCAPED PRISONER.

About 30,000 Roanoke County residents got a frightening phone call this morning: An escaped inmate was on the loose, the automated message warned. The man, who was 6 foot 2 with blond hair, had escaped while being transported on Interstate 81, near Catawba Valley Drive.

But the reverse 911 call was a mistake, county spokeswoman Teresa Hamilton Hall said.

The Roanoke Times has more on this story.

Miami University awarded 3,219 degrees to students during spring commencement exercises May 5 at Yager Stadium.

Miami University is a public university located in southwestern Ohio, offering more than 100 degree programs in humanities, science, engineering, business, education and fine arts.

Mary Cobb Lawson of Southwest Roanoke County received a Bachelor of Arts degree, cum laude.

– Submitted by Miami University

The following students were among more than 1700 students who graduated from Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C., on May 21, 2012.

• Samantha Hoback from Roanoke
• Nilam Patel from Roanoke
• Tiffany Jordan from Roanoke

– Submitted by Wake Forest University

Photo courtesy of Phil Barbour

First Bank of Virginia’s new Salem office opened its doors this month. The bank provides personal and business banking services from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Thursday and from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Fridays.

First Bank of Virginia VP/ City Executive Phil Barbour, who lives in Southwest Roanoke County, works alongside AVP/Manager Tammy Amos, customer service representative Vickie Thomasson, and teller Debbie Durrett. Regional Executive and Senior Vice President Jim Grubbs will direct the team and be active in the community supporting business development.

Everyone is invited to stop by and become a part of the First Bank of Virginia family. The Salem branch will be holding a series of special events during the official grand opening from Aug. 23-24.

– Submitted by Phil Barbour, First Bank of Virginia

William Gooding of Roanoke was named to the dean’s list for the spring 2012 semester at Washington University in St. Louis. Gooding is enrolled in the university’s College of Arts & Sciences.

To qualify for the dean’s list in the College of Arts & Sciences, students must earn a semester grade-point average of 3.6 or above and be enrolled in at least 14 graded units.

– Submitted by Washington University