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We learned today that SWoCo has won an award in the Suburban Newspapers of America annual contest.

* SWoCo shared second place — with its sister publications in Botetourt County and Salem– in the “best web/print combination” category.”

The judges said:

The Botetourt View, So Salem and SWoCo are print / online projects produced by The Roanoke Times that combine user-generated contributions, a community journalist, local advertising sales and online-first, edited-for-print content in the way that many media companies can and should.”

Meanwhile, our parent site — www.roanoke.com — took first place in the “best overall local news site” category. SWoCo and our other community publications drew an indirect mention there. The judges said:

“Roanoke.com and The Roanoke Times cover all the bases with this excellent site and suite of interactive-media services including mobile for Blackberry, IPhone and Droid. News texting , even digital billboards for breaking news? Great stuff. Nice design. Especially liked photos of the week and the local community sections.”

As the judges pointed out, we rely on you — the reader — to share many of the photos you’d like the community to see, so we here at SWoCo thank you!

Want to keep up with SWoCo from your mobile device?

We now have a site designed specifically to work from your smart phone — go to m.roanoke.com, choose “topics,” and then click on the SWoCo icon you see here.

This will save you the hassle of typing in the whole URL.

Please note that this is for your mobile gizmo only; if you’re coming at us from a computer, you should still go to the regular roanoke.com or swo-co.com.

Do you like to eat?

Today, roanoke.com has launched its new food site, PlateUp — or, more technically, plateup.roanoke.com.

We have restaurant reviews, a searchable dining guide, a searchable recipe guide and a shopping blogger, Hollie Wingate, to fill you in on coupon deals.

You can post your own reviews and recipes, too.

If you want to go stylin’ around Southwest Roanoke County with your very own SWoCo sticker, just pop us at email at news@swo-co.com and we’ll mail one to you.

Carrie Wickert is a leukemia patient. By joining the Marrow Registry, you could be a life-saving match for someone like her.

Carrie Wickert is a 33-year-old young lady who loves life. Carrie grew up on Smith Mountain Lake and the Roanoke Valley and is a 1995 graduate of Cave Spring High School. She enjoys water activities on the lake, loves the sun, her friends, and is an active member at First Presbyterian Church, where she has gone on two mission trips.

Carrie was diagnosed with Acute Myelogenous Leukemia (AML) last August, went through chemo at Lewis Gale and was cancer free in October. At that time there was not a bone marrow match for Carrie and there was a 30 percent chance the cancer would not return. But this January the cancer did return and Carrie is currently at Duke University medical center going through more chemo and will be part of a transplant study program as soon as she is in remission.

You could be a life-saving match for someone like Carrie.
You have the power to heal …. the power to save a life!

Take the first step: Join the Registry

Date: Saturday, May 1
Time: 10 a.m. – 3 p.m.
Location: Lewis-Gale Medical Center, 1900 Electric Road, Salem, 24153
More information: Betsie Letterie (919) 414-8312; Roger Wickert, 353-5600.

Joining the Marrow Registry is easy:
1) Fill out a registration / health / history form. Remember to bring the name / address / phone number of two contacts.
2) Have the inside of your cheek swabbed. There are NO NEEDLES involved to register.

You need only to be between the ages of 18 and 60, be willing to donate to any patient in need and meet the health guidelines.
This registration drive is sponsored by the Salem Rotary Club.
To learn more about The Marrow Foundation, call (800) MARROW-2 or go online at BeTheMatch.org

The Roanoke Times is looking for a few good teens. Once a week, we publish The Edge, a print page that is planned, written, and photographed by local teenagers. With Roanoke Times staff as advisors and mentors, high school students learn the ropes of journalism, hands on. Sometimes, students are inspired to make a career of it.

Are you interested in exploring journalism? The Edge is accepting applications from high school students in the region. We need writers, photographers and artists for next year’s staff.

We have more details here.

Chuck Lionberger. Photo by Jared Soares, The Roanoke Times

How much does SWoCo resident Chuck Lionberger love Disney? His vanity license plate on his minivan is “MICKY FN.” And when he saw the golf ball-like structure at Epcot: “I felt like I was coming home for the first time. I found where I was. I found where I wanted to be.” The Roanoke County schools spokesman recently won a free trip to the Florida park for his family. Read Courtney Cutright’s story here.

Roanoke Times staff photographer Jared Soares shot the Cave Spring Knights winning their second straight state championship on Saturday, March 13. The Knights are once again AA Division 3 VHSL State Boys State champs after defeating Brunswick High 54-43 at the Verizon Wireless Arena at the Siegel Center in Richmond.

By Keisha Graziadei
Special to SWoCo

The montage of trophies in their bedrooms spoke for the two young dancers, before the interview. Some stood from the floor to eye-level, while others densely covered shelves and dresser tops.
The Southwest Roanoke County home of Jim and Beth d’Alelio houses two of the Divine Dance Center’s very accomplished competition dancers, brothers Tony and Joey d’Alelio, 16 and 12 respectively. Tony is a sophomore at Cave Spring High School, and Joey a sixth-grader at Cave Spring Middle School.

The boys dance nearly any form: ballet, hip hop, jazz and clogging. Tony favors contemporary while Joey’s favorite is musical theater.

Both brothers started dancing at age 9 but were inspired for different reasons.

“At first it was because of girls,” Joey said and cracked a smile. “But then later I realized I really liked it.”

Tony was first inspired after seeing videos of his mother singing, dancing and acting while attending Shenandoah University. Anything that was on a stage and in the spotlight would have been fine for Tony, so he decided to audition for “The Nutcracker.” He landed a part as “Fritz,” discovered he was good at dance and pursued it.
Read more »

You may have seen this note to readers we ran in the Feb. 19 print edition of SWoCo. If not, here it is:

We have a conundrum and we’d like your feedback.
Each week, we ask readers to share their photos, and we try our best to run all of them.
This winter, we’ve received some hunting photos. When we’ve run those, well, we’ve also heard from a few readers who strongly object to hunting — and object to us running them.
We’re torn.
On the one hand, we don’t want to make anybody unhappy. On the other hand, well, the parents sharing photos of their kids’ hunting trophies are as proud of those kids as others are of kids who have won a sports trophy or some other recognition — and we’re here to help celebrate achievement.
How do you think we should resolve this? With the photo in the Feb. 19 edition, we’ve taken the liberty of cropping it to show the proud hunter — and the antlers — but not the dead deer. You can find the full photo here.
Let us know what you think.

Since then, we’ve received a number of responses, both pro and con, reprinted below. What do you think? You can leave comments below. Read more »