Local briefs

Role model essay earns student $1,000

A South Junior High student has won a $1,000 scholarship for writing an essay about his mother as a role model.

Jay Baker won first place in a statewide essay contest for seventh- and eighth-graders.

Jay received the scholarship Friday at a school assembly. The seventh-grader also won a party for his class, and one of his teachers won $500 to buy education materials.

Learning Quest, a Kansas 529 education savings plan, sponsored the contest. The contest aimed to celebrate September as National College Savings Month and encourage students to plan their futures.

Students wrote essays about someone they admired who went to college and became successful.

One winner and one runner-up per grade level were chosen.

Jay is the son of Ronald and Kathryn Baker.

Transportation

Bus system celebrates fourth anniversary

The Lawrence Transit System celebrated its fourth anniversary on Thursday, and officials announced ridership continues to grow.

The system has provided 1,108,576 rides to area residents since its inception, said Karin Rexroad, the city’s public transit administrator.

Rexroad said new numbers that measure November ridership also were encouraging. The system has seen a 33 percent increase in ridership compared with November 2003. The system is carrying 8.23 passengers for every hour it is in operation, Rexroad said.

Members of the city’s Public Transit Advisory Board played host to Moktee Ahmad, regional administrator for the Federal Transit Administration as part of an anniversary celebration on Thursday.

Winter wear wanted

The Lawrence Indoor Aquatic Center is accepting donations of unused winter apparel to give to those in need.

The center, 4706 Overland Drive, is collecting mittens, hats, scarves and similar items through the end of the year.

All items will be donated to the Court Appointed Special Advocate Program, an organization that provides support and safeguards the interests of abused and neglected children who are in the juvenile court system.

Hall Center seeks nominees for award

The Hall Center for the Humanities at Kansas University is seeking nominations for its Byron Caldwell Smith Award.

The award, which is given every two years, will go to an individual who lives or works in Kansas and who has written an outstanding book in 2003 or 2004. The $2,000 award will be presented in September 2005.

The award was established by a gift from Kate Stephens, a former KU student and one of the university’s first female professors. It honors Smith, a former professor of literature.

Nominations letters, which must include a statement regarding the nominee’s eligibility, address and telephone number, as well as three nonreturnable copies of the nominee’s book, can be sent to Smith Award, Hall Center for the Humanities, the University of Kansas, 900 Sunnyside Drive, Lawrence 66045.

Deadline for nominations is 5 p.m. March 1. For more information, contact the Hall Center at 864-4798 or visit www.hallcenter.ku.edu/Competitions.

South Park rec center to close for remodeling

The South Park Recreation Center, 1141 Mass., will be closed Monday through Jan. 9 for remodeling.

Lawrence Parks and Recreation Center officials are consolidating some administrative office space to make room for more small classroom space.

The center is scheduled to reopen at 8 a.m. on Jan. 10.

Rep. Moore has new Capitol Hill address

U.S. Rep. Dennis Moore has moved his Washington office.

The new office address is 1727 Longworth House Office Building, Washington D.C. 20515.

His Lawrence office remains at 647 Mass. No. 212.

LHS senior chosen for U.S. Senate program

A Lawrence High School senior will be one of two students representing Kansas in the annual United States Senate Youth Program.

For a week in late February and early March, Nathaniel Wells and more than 100 other high school students from around the nation will meet and attend briefings with officials from offices like the U.S. Supreme Court and the State and Defense departments.

Wells is the son of Kim and Bonnie Wells of Lawrence.

The Senate Youth Program, held each year in Washington, brings select high school students on an all-expenses-paid trip to visit the nation’s capital, meet and hear from members of the three branches of the federal government.

Each participant receives a $5,000 college scholarship from the William Randolph Hearst Foundation.

Parks and Rec offers aquatic certification

The Lawrence Parks and Recreation Department’s Aquatic Division is offering American Red Cross certification through Club LIAC.

The classes will be in a fast-paced setting and are available to the public.

Classes will start Monday and end Dec. 30, at the Lawrence Indoor Aquatic Center, 4706 Overland Drive.

The cost of the classes vary and pre-registration by Sunday is required for all classes. Space is limited.

Individuals interested may register online at www.lprd.org or at any Lawrence Parks and Recreation facility.

For more information, call Lori Madaus, aquatics manager, at 832-7946.

Pharmacy Assn. wins ‘chapter of the year’

The Kansas University chapter of the National Community Pharmacists Assn. has won its fourth “student chapter of the year” award in five years.

The honor is given to the chapter whose students demonstrate a high commitment to community service, and who were involved in political issues involving the industry. Eighty-eight schools were eligible for the award this year, which was given at the NCPA national conference in Boston this October.

The only time the KU chapter has failed to take home the award since 2000 was in 2002, when it took second place.

In addition to the chapter award, Robert Wenzl, a fourth-year pharmacy student from Topeka, took home the third place prize in the NCPA Pruitt-Schutte student business plan competition. Wenzl won a total of $2,000 for KU and the school’s NCPA chapter for his plan.