Send notes to the Connection at south@connectionnewspapers.com or call 703-778-9416. Deadline is Friday. Dated announcements should be submitted at least two weeks prior to the event.
Marianne Nell, daughter of John and Nancy Nell of Springfield, was inducted into the National English Honor Society at Randolph-Macon Academy in Front Royal. Nell is a junior at the Academy.
TOT Preschool of 8508 Hooes Road, Springfield, is taking registration for the 2009-10 school year. The school offers half day classes, two to five days a week, for 3-5-year olds. www.totpreschool.org or 703-644-6384.
First grader Presley-Shane Allen Hinkle won first place in the Reflections Art Contest for Saratoga Elementary School, first place in the District level, including first place in the region and third place for the state of Virginia. Presley-Shane is the son of Shane A. Hinkle of Springfield.
Sarah Ross, a sixth grader at Newington Forest Elementary School, Springfield, was among the 36 finalists in the Heinz Ketchup Creativity Contest. Each of the 12 winners’ artwork will be reproduced on approximately 20 million Heinz Ketchup packets and displayed in the Winners’ Gallery on www.KetchupCreativity.com. The 12 winners also will receive a $1,000 cash prize while their schools receive $1,000 toward art supplies, a poster of the winning design and $1,000 worth of Heinz Ketchup.
Jonathan Rocha of Thomas Edison High School, recently enrolled at Commonwealth ChalleNGe (www.vachallenge.org), the Virginia component of the National Guard Youth ChalleNGe Program that prepares at-risk teens for the GED and future employment, military or higher education opportunities.
Katherine Lambertson of Edison High School, who plans to study chemistry in college, has received a National Merit Computer Sciences Corporation Scholarship, a corporate-sponsored scholarship from the National Merit Scholarship Corporation.
Lorrie Lynn Christman of Alexandria has earned a bachelor of science from Excelsior College in Albany, N.Y.
This year’s Washington Regional Transplant Community’s (WRTC) Legacy of Life Scholarship competition winners include:
* First Place ($5,000): Benjamin Pochekailo of Fairfax
* Honorable Mention ($1,000): Elizabeth Bognanno of Springfield
* Honorable Mention ($1,000): Brandon Lawlor of Centreville
The winning essay tells the story of a car crash victim who, while asleep in the hospital, hears a discussion about organ donation and falsely believes doctors are going to recover his organs. He awakens to discover that he had been transplanted with an organ as the result of organ failure due to trauma during the accident.
The Legacy of Life Scholarship is geared toward educating students about the importance of organ and tissue donation. The winning essays can be read at www.beadonor.org/2009ScholarshipWinners.
Students from Hayfield Secondary School traveled from Alexandria, to the Walt Disney World Resort on April 16-18, for the fifth annual Festival Disney, a competitive music festival. The Concert Choir, Chorale, Wind Ensemble, Symphonic Band, Festival Orchestra and Chamber Orchestra members competed for top honors in this one-of-a-kind festival event. Festival Disney is open to junior, middle and high school music groups.
Springfield native John Locke recently attended the weeklong U.S. Coast Guard Academy Introduction Mission 2009 program at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in New London, Conn. The Academy hosted high school juniors from all over the U.S. who competed in the AIM 2009 engineering competition, AIM Robotics on the Water, along with other events. The competition was created by the Academy’s Department of Engineering in an effort to draw more cadets into the Academy’s technical disciplines of civil, electrical, mechanical and naval architecture/marine engineering.
High school junior Justin Strickland of Springfield was selected from the American Legion Boys State program to represent Virginia as a "senator" at The American Legion Boys Nation July 17-25. The weeklong program concluded its 64th annual session after providing a chance for the 98 young men participating to gain first-hand knowledge of the federal government’s organization and its operations. The program combined lectures and forums with visits to federal agencies, institutions, memorials and historical spots in and around Washington, D.C.