Traverse City Record-Eagle

Opinion

January 30, 2012

Cheers: 01/30/2012

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• To the 200 students at Lake Leelanau's St. Mary School for their "2012 in 2012" campaign, a plan to raise $2,012 for an orphanage in India as well as collect 2,012 pounds of blankets, shoes, coats and clothing by the end of February. The money will be sent to the Divine Sisters Service, which cares for almost 3,000 people in 92 homes in India. The blankets, schools, coats and clothing will go to Afghan refuges.

• To the Grand Traverse Continuum of Care for conducting its annual count of the homeless living in the region. The count was conducted in Antrim, Benzie, Kalkaska, Grand Traverse and Leelanau counties. Results from area social and mental health services, shelters, food pantries and helping agencies like the Father Fred Foundation will be included in a request for federal Housing and Urban Development grants to serve the area's homeless population. The 2011 count found 740 homeless people and resulted in a $726,777 HUD grant to the Continuum to be distributed to area programs and agencies serving and sheltering the homeless.

• To the Bay Area Transportation Authority, which will start construction soon on a new waiting area and upgrades to its Cass and South Airport facilities. Eighty percent of the expected $329,000 project will be paid with a Federal Transportation Authority grant; a Michigan Department of Transportation grant will pick up the remaining 20 percent.

• To art teacher Nichole Jones, her two Traverse City East Middle School classes and Moomers Homemade Ice Cream for a joint venture in ice cream making. Jones' students designed container labels and voted on favorite student-created ice cream recipes. Students made their own clay bowls, while Moomers made the winning ice-cream concoctions, Berry Bam and Dark Berry. The sixth-graders celebrated the project by eating the ice cream on the last day of their semester.

• To all who donate or are involved in the Father Fred Foundation's 18th Annual Frostbite Food Drive, which starts Wednesday and runs through Feb. 12. Drop-off locations are Garfield Plaza and Fox Motors Grand Traverse along North U.S. 31 South during business hours. Donations will be collected also at Glen's at Chums Corners, Tom's in Acme, and Oleson's at Three Mile and Hammond.

• To Sean Sheldon, a 6-foot-9 St. Francis senior who scored a record-breaking 46 points for the Gladiators recently in a fast-paced 104-78 win over Benzie Central. Sheldon broke St. Francis' single-game scoring record of 42 points set by Jim Swaney in a 1976 game at Cheboygan and repeated twice by Rich Eikey in the early1980s in games against Manistee Catholic and Kalkaska.

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