Hats Off

-- Winners of the 1992-93 PTA Reflections Program for students from the Kent School District were announced. The following finalists will go on to the Washington State PTA contest.

Visual arts: Kristina Baldridge, Laura Tortier, Marika Dye, Charleen Hendrickson, Eric Nelson, Esmeralda Castillo, Lyny Di, Peter Sumenaseni, Amy Jo Gunderson, Todd Martin, Emma Giles, Darren Smith.

Literature: Holly Presseisen, Paul Henderson, Alexandra Eberle, Ryan Schwarz, Tom Cummings, Yuka Tsukamaki, Matt Cummings, Daniel Tebow, Rachel Freeman, Benjamin Plunkett, Vanessa Mitchell, Barbara Fritz.

Photography: Jessica McAbee, Adam Willden, Heidi Krasselt, Tom Cummings, Alicia Gray, Keke Palea, Justin Jue, Greg Daly, Jesse Webb, John Reed, Ryan Winn, Josh Bock.

Music: Leland Dent, Erika Machen, Lindsey Gibbon, Caleb Jones, David Pelton, Lisa Nguyen, Linda Nguyen, Barbara Datin, Dallas Bledgett.

Honorable mentions were awarded to the following students.

Visual arts: Kara Thies, Ryan White, Tarynn Haffner, Ben Muzzey, Jennifer Havener, Brian Partridge, Katrina Wagner, Annalise Marty, Andrea Bevilacqua, Kyle Conrads, Mariesa Diebold, Jill Johnson, Scott Rich.

Literature: Jordon Smith, Becky Darby, Holly Knapp, Naomi Cantwell, Suzanne Moellendorf, Tosha Ritchie, Jeff Hulse, Amber Brown, Jeremy Hinkhouse, Elaine Ang, Barbara Fritz.

Photography: Chris Pulisi, Anna Tomalik, Kim Travis, Kevin Moore, Chris Hanzeli, Kim Adamek, Brian Robinette, Paula Ewing, Matt Cummings, Jessica Hofferbe, Sean Heavey.

Music: Melissa Brown, Andrew Gray, Shelly Sunberg, Yuka Tsukamaki, Barrett Keitges, Sarah Emfield, Melinda Reed.

-- Members of the Pierce College faculty have been named recipients of the 1992-93 Teaching Excellence Awards by the Community College Leadership Program. Awards will be presented next month at the International Conference on Teaching Excellence to speech instructor Norm Komnick, music instructor Jere Knudtsen, English instructor Jean Murphy and philosophy/theater instructor Doug Saxby.

-- United Way of Pierce County presented its first annual Volunteer of the Year awards of 1992. The Individual Adult award went to longtime volunteer Franko Fountaine. Ho Byun of Puyallup won the Individual Youth Award. Ray Tennison of the Simpson Paper Co. was the winner of the Campaign Volunteer Award and Simpson Tacoma Kraft Co. won the Corporate Citizen or Group Award.

-- Clark Townsend, assistant to the president at Green River Community College, has been elected vice president for finance and membership of the National Council for Resource Development. The council is an association of community college administrators that secures federal, state and private support for its institutions.

-- The Washington Interscholastic Activities Association announced last month that the Auburn Senior High School forensics team had won the State Academic Championships for the 1992-93 school year. The Auburn forensics team had a 3.61 GPA for the first semester of this year. It was presented to Director of Forensics Mike Burton.

-- Kent School District Transportation Supervisor Claudia Otey was appointed to the Washington State Safe Schools Advisory Committee. The committee addresses the safety of students and school personnel on school grounds and buses.

-- The Kent School District will receive SchoolMatch's special award for outstanding school systems. Only 9 percent of the nation's school systems are designated for the special honor in 1993. SchoolMatch is an independent nationwide service that helps parents find schools that match the needs of their children.

-- Good Samaritan Community Healthcare named Debbie Churchill Samaritan of the Month for March. Debbie is a laboratory operation supervisor. She has worked with Good Samaritan for six years.

-- Angela Chang, a junior at Thomas Jefferson High School, was one of seven winners in the State Superintendent of Public Instruction's 20th Annual High School Art Show. She will receive a certificate and a $200 purchase award. Her pastel work, "Flowers," will be added to the superintendent's permanent art collection.

-- Nelsen Middle School's Match Counts team took first in the statewide competition last month in Spokane. The Nelsen students won the championship and seventh-grader Thor Sletten placed first in individual honors. Team coach is Bill Okubo.

-- Students teams from Springbrook, Sunrise and Meridian junior highs recently competed in the Mount Rainier Regional Odyssey of the Mind Tournament. A combined intermediate team from Sunrise and Meridian took first place and received the Omar Award for spirit and the Creativity Award. A primary team and intermediate team from Sunrise earned first- and second-place awards, respectively, in their categories. Two teams from Springbrook, competing at the junior high level, placed third and fourth in their divisions.

-- The Auburn Fire Department and the Auburn Firefighters Association held their annual awards ceremony last month. The following members were honored: Firefighter First-Class-Specialist Richard Schneider, certificate of appreciation; Fire Chaplain Phil Rue, certificate of appreciation; Public Education Officer Kimberly Cunningham, letter of commendation; Firefighter First-Class-Specialist Jon Cahill, letter of commendation; sixteen members of the A Shift and Battalion Chief Russ Vandver, meritorious unit citations; fourteen firefighters from the B Shift and Acting Battalion Chief Don Casselman, meritorious unit award.

-- Kentridge High School senior Heather Nist has won a statewide competition for a $7,500 college scholarship from The Bon Marche. Thirty-seven students vied for the scholarship open to students in Distributive Education Clubs of America. The scholarship may be used at any accredited college or university in Washington.

Hats Off To . . . appears in the Thursday South Times when space is available. Send announcements of scholarships, awards and promotions to South Times, 31620 23rd Ave., S., Suite 312, Federal Way, WA 98003.