Send announcements to The Loudoun Connection, 7913 Westpark Drive, McLean, VA 22102, e-mail to loudoun@connectionnewspapers.com or fax to 703-917-0991. Deadline is Friday, two weeks before the event. Photos/artwork encouraged. For more information, call Jennifer Lesinski at 703-917-6454.
Air Force Airman Ian Young has graduated from basic military training at Lackland Air Force Base, San Antonio, Texas.
During the six weeks of training, the airman studied the Air Force mission, organization, and military customs and courtesies; performed drill and ceremony marches and received physical training, rifle marksmanship, field training exercises, and special training in human relations.
In addition, airmen who complete basic training earn credits toward an associate degree through the Community College of the Air Force.
He is the son of Kim Young of Kingsport Drive, Leesburg.
More than 190 volunteers attended the 2005 Retired and Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP) recognition luncheon Friday, September 23, at the Belmont Country Club in Ashburn. Parks, Recreation & Community Services Director, Diane Ryburn, presented Supervisor Stephen Snow (R-Dulles) a mock check for $881,561 to show the value of the effort of Loudoun County's 289 RSVP volunteers.
Nora Gillette, Ethel Perkins and Robert Mayer were inducted into the RSVP Hall of Stars, since they contribute more than 5,000 lifetime volunteer hours. Lucy Segraves accepted the Rising Star award for accumulating 469 hours
during her first year of service and Olga Ricciardi earned the SuperStar award for volunteering 1,497 hours during the fiscal year. Also, Georgia Belle, Pat Pearson, Alice Power, Joan Sears and Pat Wimmer were nominated by their volunteer station and selected by RSVP Advisory
Council members for the Shining Star award.
RSVP is part of Senior Corps, a network of national service programs that provides older Americans the opportunity to apply their life experience to meeting community needs. Anyone 55 or older, retired or semi-retired is eligible to register as a RSVP volunteer.
The Loudoun Master Gardener Volunteers held a friendly competition building scarecrows recently. The scarecrows were placed in the Master Gardener Demonstration Garden at Ida Lee Park for judging Oct. 13. The scarecrows were then left for display in the Demonstration Garden so visitors could vote for their favorite during the Loudoun Fall Color Tour Oct. 15 and 16.
Judging was based on creativity, originality, color, design, and durability. First place, Judy Stroske and Irene Mandracchia, "Dog Walker;" second place, Sally Hewitt and Liz Kasabian, "Hawaiian Hula Dancer; third place, tie, Sara Reed, "Master Gardener Maggie" and Lucia, Alyssa and Bernice Pull, "Mummy Mia."
The popular choice vote of visitors saw only four votes separating the top first three finishers. First place, Stroske and Mandracchia, "Dog Walker;" second place, Denise and Rachael Palmer, "Scary Fairy;" third place, Arthur Osteen, Betsy Allen and Maggie Allen, "Frosty the Strawman."
Nearly 1,000 AOL employees united for the last AOL Volunteer Day Oct. 14 to teach children about online safety, prepare holiday baskets for needy individuals, fix up local schools, teach young entrepreneurs about the basics of business and taking action to care for the environment. The day marked the fifth annual Volunteer Day and the last before merging AOL's Volunteer Day with the Greater DC Cares Servathon, creating one of the area's largest community service days.
AOL employees generated 5,000 hours of community service benefiting more than 17 local nonprofit organizations throughout the area.
Next year's AOL/Greater DC Cares Servathon event will be held May 19-20.
This year's AOL Volunteer Day projects in Loudoun County included AOL employees presenting the Faux Paw Internet Safety Assembly (www.iKeepSafe.org) in a dozen schools, which will help teach area students to stay safe online; installing a fence to protect an ecologically sensitive area in the Rust Sanctuary; creating a path with rocks found around the C&O Canal to make the trail passable when wet, removing invasive species and blocking social trails that have been made by hikers; painting and general repairs to The Good Shepherd Alliance; helping to water seal the barn and the front entrance of the Loudoun Heritage Farm Museum and helping prepare for the fall harvest festival; visiting with senior citizens at the Leesburg Senior Center; preparing literacy kits for The Loudoun Literacy Council.
Loudoun Clerk of the Circuit Court Gary M. Clemens announces that eight deputy clerks have completed the
certification program for deputy clerks offered by the Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service at the University of Virginia.
The recently certified deputy clerks and their areas of expertise are Bobby Anderson, case management division; Susan Barbini, courtroom clerk; James Bohnaker, public services division; Laura Boudreaux, bookkeeping and accounting; Joan Hope, public services division; Leslie
Kelly, jury management; Terry Sealock, bookkeeping and accounting and Michele Timmons, probate.