NEEDS A HOME

Night is a spayed black Lab mix with a happy personality. She is young, but not a baby and is calm until you want to play -- and then she is ready to go. She gets along well with other dogs.

Meet Night at the Brazos Animal Shelter (www.brazosanimalshelter .org) at 2207 Finfeather Road in Bryan. Hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Mondays through Fridays and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays.

BUSINESS AWARD

Liz Phariss was recently presented with the 2009 Business Person of the Year Award by the Abilene Business Council of the Abilene Chamber of Commerce. Pharris is a Bryan native and a graduate of Bryan High School.

She earned the award for her successful business Kinder Hearts Home Health Care, which she started in 2002. The agency offers comprehensive home health care services to Medicaid-eligible clients under age 21 who depend on machines, or are medically fragile or developmentally disabled. The business now has offices in Abilene, San Angelo and Wichita Falls and serves 62 counties of West Texas.

Phariss' mother, Rose Acosta, lives in Bryan.

NAVASOTA'S SPRING FEST

* Navasota residents recently celebrated Spring Fest, which included a tour of historic houses. Among the houses toured was the Ketchum/Korner home, at 615 N. 10th St., which was built in 1884.

* The city of Navasota/Keep Navasota Beautiful Commission was recognized at the recent 42nd Annual Keep Texas Beautiful Conference, receiving first place, Governor's Community Achievement Award, population 5,001-8,000 and a $75,000 landscaping prize.

AREA SCHOOLS

* A&M Consolidated High School seniors Robby Nevels (left), Alok Vaid-Menon (center) and Seth Carstens won first place in the software engineering team competition at the recent National Business Professionals of America Conference. It was the second time Consol students have won the national championship in this event.

Eight students qualified for the Dallas conference: Carstens, Nevels, Vaid-Menon, Ali El-Halwagi, Pranitha Patil, Allison Pearce, Kelsey Redman and Diana Wang.

Patil, a junior, placed third in fundamental spreadsheet applications.

Carstens plans to attend Abilene Christian University this fall, Nevels will go to The University of Texas and Vaid-Menon will attend Stanford University.

* In the Texas Mathematics League Contest this spring, participating sixth-graders from Cypress Grove Intermediate School in College Station were ranked 11 out of 93 schools across the state and second in their region.

In the Math Olympiad Contest, 35 Cypress Grove sixth-graders and 28 fifth-graders were among nearly 150,000 participating students from around the world who competed in five tests from November to March.

Both fifth- and sixth-grade teams were named to the National Math Olympiad Honor Roll for ranking in the top 10 percent for their scores. Both groups earned the Highest Team Achievement award, and fifth-graders also earned a Certificate of Meritorious Achievement.

Student Jaitao Liang ranked in the top 2 percent of all students and received a trophy, gold pin, patch and certificate for being a Top School Scorer.

Twenty students ranked in the top 10 percent, while 59 out of 63 students ranked in the top 50 percent.

* Three College Station students qualified for the national debate tournament sponsored by the National Forensics League in Birmingham, Ala., in June.

Andrea Cohen and Karl Fitz competed as a team in cross examination/policy, while Kalyan Venkatraj competed in Congress.

* Local teen Xavier Alcala-Herrera was recently named Mr. Dance 2009 at the Fire and Ice International Talent Competition in Louisiana.

His sister, 13-year-old Angelica Alcala-Herrera, was named Senior Photogenic Champion and was runner-up to Teen Miss Dance 2009 at the same competition.

Xavier, 17, choreographed the siblings' top-scoring duet. Both of their duets were top-four picks and received at least 290 out of 300 possible points.

* Aadil Razvi, 17, a senior at A&M Consolidated High School, has been chosen to attend The American Legion Boys Nation this month in Washington, D.C.

The weeklong program introduces the "senators" to the structure and function of the federal government while combining lectures and forums with visitations to federal agencies, institutions, memorials and historical spots in and around Washington.

Razvi is one of 98 young men selected from around the U.S.

MILANO LIONS

Elgin Noon Lions Past-President Jeff Coffee installed Milano Evening Lions officers during a recent meeting at the Milano Senior Citizens Center. Milano club President Arthur Kelley presented a certificate of appreciation to Coffee along with Milano club Vice-President Bill McMinn and Milano club Secretary Nell McMinn.

MILITARY

* Navy Seaman Recruit Leah M. Gipson, daughter of Fey E. and Ronnie L. Gipson of College Station, recently completed U.S. Navy basic training at Recruit Training Command, Great Lakes, Ill. Gipson is a 2006 graduate of A&M Consolidated High School.

* Navy Seaman Recruit Nicholas S. Petry, son of Penny E. and Wayne P. Petry of Buffalo, completed U.S. Navy basic training at Great Lakes, Ill. Petry is a 2004 graduate of Buffalo High School.

HIGHER EDUCATION

* Brittany Green Gibson of Bryan graduated from Sam Houston State University with a bachelor's degree in Music Education.

She earned a 3.52 gpa and was active in Freshman Leaders, Resident Advisers and Alpha Chi Omega. She will be teaching music at Royce Black Elementary School in Cypress.

* Jeremy Alan Hardey of Bryan has been recognized as a member of the President's Honor List at Louisiana Tech University in Ruston. Hardey earned at least a 3.8 gpa.

* David Briner and Casey Hatfield of College Station have received academic merit scholarships to attend Southwestern University in Georgetown. Briner received a Ruter Scholarship, which is a merit scholarship of between $5,000 and $10,000 a year. Hatfield received a Mood Scholarship, which is a merit scholarship of between $10,500 and $17,000 a year.

Hatfield is the daughter of Karen and Keith Hatfield of College Station. She is a 2009 graduate of A&M Consolidated High School. She plans to major in biochemistry at Southwestern.

BVCOG

A planning session for the 8th Annual Funders Forum, set for Oct. 8-9, was recently held at the Brazos Valley Council of Governments building in Bryan. The forum, sponsored by the council, Texas A&M University Energy Systems Laboratory and A Circle of Ten, brings leaders from nonprofit groups, schools and communities together with elected officials and funders from federal, state and private entities.

BVCOG and A&M also hosted the 2008 Forum, which was the largest gathering of funders in the nation. The 2009 Forum will be at First United Methodist Church in Bryan.

On Oct. 8, Forum and community leaders will kickoff the event with a dinner. The Forum, Oct. 9, will have 40-50 funders on hand in funding panels, one-on-one consultations, exhibits and networking, to discuss what funds are available for nonprofit goups, schools, churches, cities, hospitals, libraries and universities.

For more information, contact Tony Huddleston or Sue Oliver at 903-541-0013 or Nelda Thompson at 979-595-2801 ext. 202 or go online to www.etvv.org..

WRITING A WINNER

B-CS resident Linda Warren's novel, Texas Heir, has been chosen as a finalist in the Contemporary Series Romance category of the 2009 RITA awards, given by the Romance Writers of America.

The RITA - the romance publishing industry's highest award of distinction -recognizes excellence in published romance novels and novellas. Up to 1,200 romance novels and novellas from 12 different categories are judged each year in the RITA competition. After the first round of judging by fellow published romance authors, the competition narrows to approximately 100 finalists.

Winners will be announced July 18 during the group's 29th Annual National Conference in Washington, D.C.

BRIDGE CLUB

Star Duplicate Bridge Club met June 26 at the College Station Conference Center. The winners were: N/S -- 1. Sheryl Pace and Richard Duble; 2. Linda and Perry Shepard. E/W -- 1. Ann Fleisher and Harry Suggs; 2. Lucy Nelson and Peggy Ross; 3. (tied) Cindy DuBois and Marie Stinnett.

On Monday, the winners were: N/S -- 1. Kathy Baldwin and Barbara Petty; 2. Patsy Boedecker and Joyce England. E/W -- 1. Sally Koestler and Elizabeth Ward; 2. Frank Edmiston and Chuck Gates; 3. (tied) Joyce Gorzycki and Freddye Thompson.

BRENHAM POLICE

Chief Rex Phelps announced that four Brenham Police officers competed in the 2009 Texas Police Games held recently in Conroe. Sgt. Trey Gully and Deputy Chief Jay Petrash both won gold medals in Powerlifting and Bench Press.

Sgt. Carl Wiesepape and Cpl. Al Gomez, both senior members of the department's SWAT team, participated in the Sniper marksman competition; Wiesepape took fourth place.

4-H

Brazos County's Equestrian 4-H Club Senior Horse Judging Team topped off an amazing year by winning the Texas State 4-H Horse Judging Contest at the State 4-H Roundup last month.

The team of Piper Cain and Derby Jones, both of College Station, and Lauren Gast and Brittany Williams, both of Bryan, took first place in the Halter and Performance competitions. They also earned the Overall High Point Team award.

The team will go on to represent Texas at the American Quarter Horse Youth World Contest in Oklahoma City in August, and at the National Competition held at the All-American Quarter Horse Congress in Columbus, Ohio, in October.

This year, the Equestrian Club Senior Team also won the horse judging competitions at the Fort Worth Stock Show, the San Antionio Stock Show and the Montgomery County Horse Judging Contest, and had the high point Senior at the Heart of Texas Fair and Rodeo at Waco.

The Team is coached by Dr. Katrin Hinrichs of College Station.