Reunion set
Saturday
The annual Shackelford family reunion is scheduled for 10 a.m. Saturday at the Elkins Community Center.
Participants should bring covered dishes to share.
Information: (479) 643-2325.
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Whitehead wins
national award
Paul Nathaniel "Nate" Whitehead, an Elkins High School graduate and current Arkansas Tech University student, recently received the Junior American Citizen Community Service Award from the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution. Whitehead received the award Sept. 13 at a meeting of the Marion Chapter in Fayetteville.
Whitehead is the son of Mike and Dorothy Whitehead. He was honored for his Boy Scout Eagle project, which included a cleanup of Mount Zion Cemetery in Sulphur City.
The cemetery was covered with dead trees, greenbrier, grapevines and grass for at least a decade before the project, which took place in the winter of 2012-13. Volunteers cleaned up the mess, worked on a fence and arranged for a new sign for the cemetery.
Whitehead and his father are Civil War re-enactors. He was also an outstanding student at Elkins High School, maintaining a 3.5 grade-point average.
He was active on the varsity football and baseball teams and in the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, Future Business Leaders of America and Future Farmers of America. He is majoring in emergency management at Arkansas Tech.
Marrow drive
seeks a match
A bone marrow donor drive and fundraiser in honor of Jackson Carter will take place at 6 p.m. Friday at Rogers High School, prior to and during the Rogers High School vs. Har-Ber High School football game.
Carter, a senior at Rogers High School, was diagnosed with leukemia a year ago and now needs a bone marrow transplant.
Information: Rebecca Kendall at (479) 531-2675 or bethematchfoundation.org/goto/TeamJacksonCarter
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NWA students
named Fellows
Two students from Northwest Arkansas were named Sturgis Fellows by the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville.
Sydne Tursky of Van Buren and Rachel Ungar of Fayetteville were chosen among four Sturgis Fellows this year. Turskey is a graduate of Van Buren High School, where she served as president of the National Honor Society and Future Teachers of America.
Tursky is the daughter of Michael and Kimberly Tursky. She plans to study journalism and French.
Ungar is a Fayetteville High School graduate. She was active in Odyssey of the Mind, National Honor Society and Mu Alpha Theta in high school.
She is the daughter of Peter Ungar and Diane Serenson-Ungar. She plans to major in mathematics and biology.
The Sturgis Fellowship is the university's oldest. The Roy and Christine Sturgis Charitable and Educational Trust awards each fellow $17,500 per year for four years, which covers tuition, room and board and provides educational tools for students.
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Hager celebrates
104th birthday
Helen Hager of Rogers recently celebrated her 104th birthday with friends and family. The party was held at Bradford House in Rogers, where Hager resides.
She was born Sept. 6, 1910, in Brooklyn, Ill. Eating chocolate is among her favorite things to do.
Rodgers named
Spectrum Scholar
Brittany Rodgers of Fayetteville has been selected as one of four students from the University of North Texas to receive the 2014 Spectrum Scholarship from the American Library Association. Rodgers is working toward her master's degree in library science through the UNT College of Information's distance education program, available in Arkansas and Tennessee.
The scholarships provide $5,000 for one academic year and are not renewable. They are considered to be among the most prestigious for students earning graduate degrees in library and information science.
Rodgers has worked at the Springdale Public Library as a circulation clerk and information assistant since July 2011. She holds a bachelor's degree in history and European studies from the University of Arkansas.
She expects to finish her master's degree in December 2015.
Hall of Honor
inducts two
The Van Buren High School Hall of Honor Board has announced that Dr. J.B. Hays and George David Williams will be inducted as part of its 2014 class.
Hays is a 1951 graduate of the high school and a graduate of the Washington University School of Dentistry and the Mayo Clinic School of Medicine. He was instrumental in establishing the Northwest Arkansas Free Health Center's dental clinic and has served on a medical mission to Haiti.
Williams was a 1961 graduate of Van Buren High School and a 1968 graduate of the University of Arkansas at Monticello. His high school football coaching career spanned 45 years including stops in Blytheville and Pocahontas.
He is a nine-time Arkansas Coach of the Year.
An induction ceremony is planned at 1 p.m. Saturday at the Van Buren Fine Arts Center.
Latture named
to Hall of Fame
The late James Paul Latture Sr. of Fort Smith has been named to the Arkansas River Historical Society Hall of Fame. The Hall of Fame is a tribute to those who have contributed to the development of the river, its basin and the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System.
Latture moved from a staff position at the Tulsa (Okla.) Chamber of Commerce to become executive director of the Fort Smith Chamber in 1955. He worked to help the Arkansas River grow from then until his death in 1986.
He was instrumental in finding locations for the Port of Fort Smith and establishing the Fort Smith Port Authority. He also worked with the Arkansas Industrial Development Commission to market the waterway to industrial prospects.
Allen named
board president
Chaz Allen has been selected as the new president of the board of directors for the Northwest Arkansas Center for Equality in Fayetteville. Allen succeeds outgoing board president James Rector, who will remain as president emeritus.
Allen, a Springdale native, joined the center's board in January and has helped develop the center's 2015-17 strategic plan. He works as a project manager at the Walton Arts Center in Fayetteville.
UA Fort Smith
society inducts 20
Twenty University of Arkansas at Fort Smith students were inducted into the Alpha Beta Omega chapter of Kappa Delta Pi International Honor Society in Education during a ceremony Sept. 15. Five senior members of the group also received cords during the event.
New members are Kelsie Inge of Alma; Tina Hurt of Branch; Angela Stout of Cedarville; Tracie McCarver of Chester; Rebecca Ryan of Farmington; Laura Been, Hannah Crawford, Danyell Farris, David Orick, Jennifer Sanchez and Jaurdan Veazey, all of Fort Smith; Courtney Gosch, Ruby Roden and Lorene Russell of Greenwood; Natosha Womack of Huntington; Hannah Michael of Lavaca; Jennifer Jones of Poteau, Okla.; Randa Grant of Spiro, Okla.; Ashlee Snow of Springdale; and Amanda Beck of Van Buren.
Crawford and Rheachel Weaver, of Fort Smith; Chelsea Peugh and Ashley Pope of Greenwood; and Michael, of Lavaca, received cords. Students must have a 3.5 grade-point average to participate.
Pickering helps
with homecoming
Melanie Pickering, a junior from Bentonville, has been chosen for the 2014 Oklahoma State University Homecoming Steering Committee.
Pickering is a human development and family sciences child life specialist major at OSU. She is the daughter of Kevin and Molly Pickering.
While serving on the committee, she will help coordinate the annual Harvest Festival to benefit children in Stillwater, Okla., and the surrounding area. The committee is made up of 62 students who are also responsible for putting on the annual Homecoming festivities.
Potter named
to elite program
Lilly Potter of Middleburg, Va., the granddaughter of Ervin and Daisy Potter of Hogeye, was accepted to an elite U.S. State Department program to travel to Singapore and Malaysia for four weeks this summer. Potter was one of 20 high school students chosen for the 2014 American Youth Leadership Program.
She is a student at Foxcroft School in Middleburg, Va., and is the daughter of Jeffrey and Donna Potter.
Send information about birthdays, honors and reunions to [email protected], [email protected] or Northwest Arkansas Achievers, P.O. Box 7, Springdale, AR 72765.
NAN Our Town on 09/25/2014