People and Places

REID ATTAINS EAGLE RANK

Cameron Reid, 18, of Bentonville has attained the rank of Eagle Scout. Reid organized the clean up of the Gamble Cemetery in Centerton under the guidance of the Benton County Cemetery Preservation Group. Old burial plots and headstones were rediscovered and are now able to be restored. Reid is the son of Darryl Manning and Lynn Manning and a member of Troop 122 in Rogers. Reid

FROST’S VIDEO WORK FEATURED

Eureka Springs resident Adrian Frost’s work Lysistrata premiered recently at the 2018 International Video Poetry Festival in Athens, Greece. The festival features video artists and poets from 25 countries. The sixth International Video Poetry Festival ran Jan. 19-20 in Athens.

Frost wrote, directed and produced the contemporary retelling of the Greek myths of Lysistrata and Odysseus, part of Frost’s epic poem and film Furies. The video was shot in Carroll and Washington counties by cameramen Alexander Virden, Siddhartha Torre-Frost and Prince T (Tadeusz Ciesielski), an award-winning Polish cinematographer. The film stars Khalia Smith as Lysistrata, with beatbox by Damien Asbury and video editing by Travis Clark of Caveman Consulting.

Frost’s film The Return premiered at the 2014 Eureka Springs Independent Film Festival, then took best experimental film award at 2014 Pollygrind Underground Film Festival in Las Vegas and was selected for the 2015 International Video Poetry Festival in Greece.

Frost’s current work, Song of the Sea Wind, is in production and slated for the Newlyn Film Festival in Cornwall, England, Frost’s birthplace.

PROFESSOR RECEIVES KRAUFT GRANT

Miles D. Fish, professor of music at Northwest Arkansas Community College, has been awarded the Dr. Conrad Krauft Professional Development Grant. Fish will use the award to research Ludwig van Beethoven’s years in Vienna. Fish will teach in Europe this summer at NWACC’s summer campus in Siena, Italy, allowing him the opportunity to travel to Vienna before returning to the United States, he said.

To make use of social media, Fish has created a “Beethoven in Vienna — Krauft Grant” Facebook page and will post photos, videos and information daily from Vienna, so interested students, teachers, Beethoven fans — as well as the Krauft family — can follow his work in real time, he said.

The Krauft grant is a gift by Krauft’s family through the NWACC Foundation and administered by the college’s sabbatical and emeritus committee. The grant is offered to an NWACC faculty member, specifically to help with expenses for a summer study project that will enrich that teacher’s work at the college or will help further his academic interests. Krauft was a former professor of psychology, who died in 2012. At the time of his passing, Krauft had taught at NWACC for more than 20 years.

MAIN STREET AWARDS COME HOME

Main Street Rogers has been honored with Main Street Arkansas awards recognizing outstanding work in downtown revitalization. Main Street Arkansas is a program area of the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program.

The best image and branding campaign award went to Woof & Wander in downtown Rogers for that downtown business’s logo and outreach to dog lovers. The best economic impact project award went to Ozark Beer Company, located in a historic apple cider vinegar factory in downtown Rogers that attracts some 25,000 visitors each year. The outstanding Main Street merchant award went to Melissa Turpin and Dana Smith of Honeycomb Kitchen Shop in downtown Rogers for their business that sells products from around the world in addition to locally hand-crafted items.

Other local winners of Main Street Arkansas Awards include:

Outstanding marketing effort award: “Inside Out” Facebook live show and Main Street Eureka Springs.

Best downtown marketing campaign award: Main Street Eureka Springs’ “EurekaSpringsDowntown. com.”

Best downtown cultural project award: Trail of Tears Memorial in downtown Ozark.

Main Street hero award: Dee Bright of Main Street Eureka Springs. Winner of Arkansas Downtown Network awards included:

Best downtown improvement project award: Downtown Fort Smith for the “Propelling Downtown Forward” plan.

The Main Street Arkansas and Arkansas Downtown Network awards are presented biannually to recognize outstanding achievements by individuals, organizations and communities in helping to revitalize their downtown areas. The Main Street Arkansas advisory board selects the winners.

PRINCIPAL VOLUNTEERS

Danny Brackett, principal of Har-Ber High School in Springdale, recently returned from the 2018 Lifetouch Memory Mission, a volunteer effort to build a new community center and cafeteria in Rio Grande, Dominican Republic. Brackett was one of 45 volunteers that included 29 educators and 16 Lifetouch employees from around the country. The volunteers spent a week continuing the work on the educational facilities including the cafeteria and basketball court.

CITIZENS AWARDED FOR SERVICE

Bentonville Mayor Bob McCaslin has announced Emily Adams, Shane Newell and the United Way of Northwest Arkansas Gift in Kind Volunteers as the 2017 fourth quarter winners of the Mayor’s Outstanding Citizen Award.

Adams, a senior at Bentonville High School, has volunteered at Havenwood, a transitional living facility for single parents in Bentonville; served as a student mentor; served at Second Street Pantry and Miracle on 14th Street; and organized a group of friends to assemble more than 70 homeless care kits.

Newell volunteers as a mentor with the Bentonville Public Schools “lunch buddy” mentoring program. Currently, he works with three students at three different schools, meeting with each student once a week. Newell also gives back to the schools through his business and to date has donated more than $30,000.

The United Way Gift in Kind warehouse volunteers connect millions of dollars of donated product to more than 230 local nonprofit agencies, churches and regional food banks.

The Outstanding Citizen Award program recognizes volunteer contributions of Bentonville residents. There are three award categories: adult, youth and community group. First quarter 2018 nominations will be accepted through March 30.

Information: bentonvillear.com.

NWACC NURSING RANKED HIGH

The nursing program at Northwest Arkansas Community College was recently ranked No. 4 among nursing programs in Arkansas by the website registerednursing.org. The college’s program ranked the highest among two-year institutions granting an associate degree.

Nursing programs were assessed on several factors that represent how well a program supports students toward licensure and beyond. It considered pass rates of the National Council licensure examination-registered nurse. The college’s first-time pass rate in 2017 was 97.4 percent.

NWACC’s nursing program earned accreditation in 2017 from the Accreditation Commission for Education in Nursing. The national accreditation was in addition to the already existing accreditation by the Arkansas State Board of Nursing.

PATTERSONS ESTABLISH EDUCATION SCHOLARSHIP

University of the Ozarks alumna Edna Elkins Patterson, class of 1967, and her husband John have created a new scholarship endowment at the school to assist elementary education students from Johnson County. The long-time Clarksville residents established The Edna Elkins Patterson and John S. Patterson Education Scholarship recently with a gift commitment of $100,000.

MISS UAFS SCHOLARSHIP PAGEANT

Twenty-eight local children will participate in the Miss UAFS Scholarship Pageant on Feb. 24 through the Princess and Prince program, a noncompetitive program, allowing children ages 5 to 10 to take part in pageant festivities.

Each participant will meet Miss UAFS 2017, receive a T-shirt, gift bag and a tiara or medallion. They will also make three onstage appearances during the pageant. Activities also include a tea party with Miss UAFS and Miss Arkansas.

Local princesses and princes this year are:

Alma: Hailey Cottrell, 9, daughter of Heather and David Chance and Chelsea and Lance Cottrell; Destine Chance, 5, daughter of Heather and David Chance and Amy Smith; Hadleigh Miller, 8, daughter of Mandy and Michael Miller and Dawna and William Dunn; and Jax Nelson, 6, son of Anna and James Nelson.

Booneville: Ayden Rhinehart, 7, son of Ann and Shawn Allisson and and Tiffany and Craig Rhinehart.

Fort Smith: Elowyn Fisher, 5, daughter of Samantha and Clay Fisher and Jeremy Nolen; Mackenzy Knubley, 9, daughter of Kristel and Chris Knubley; Haven Matlock, 6, daughter of Meagan and Ty Matlock; Daniella Newman, 10, daughter of Rita and Josh Newman; Ember Nolen, 10, daughter of Samantha and Clay Fisher and Jeremy Nolen; Everly Pollard, 8, daughter of Kristi and Al Pollard; Alyssa Shaw, 9, daughter of Marion Burris; Quinn Smith, 6, daughter of Meagan and William Smith; Abigail Whitt, 9, and Olivia Whitt, 6, daughters of Kane and Judy Whitt.

Greenwood: Allie Oswald, 5, daughter of Haley and Shane Oswald and Faelynn and Brandon Ramsey; Hannah Marie Ramsey, 10, daughter of Holly and Loyd Bates and Faelynn and Brandon Ramsey.

Hackett: Jenna Black, 7, and Stephanie Leann Black, 6, daughters of Jessica and Larry Black.

Lavaca: Jerlyn Fryar, 8, daughter of Ginalyn and Jeremy Fryar.

Magazine: Kennedy Boyle, 6, daughter of Chris Boyle and Karen McAnally.

Ozark: Tayvee White, 7, daughter of Kristi and Casey White.

Van Buren: Caleigh Anne Boster, 7, daughter of Alexis and Michael Boster.

The Miss UAFS Pageant is a preliminary pageant to the Miss Arkansas and Miss America scholarship programs and will be held at 7 p.m. Feb. 24 at the ArcBest Performing Arts Center at the Fort Smith Convention Center. Tickets are $10.

Information: 788-7300, uafs.universitytickets.com.

LOCAL SCHOOLS GO EAST

The EAST programs at Don Tyson School of Innovation and Sonora Middle School, both of Springdale, were named as finalists for the awards of excellence in the Environmental and Spatial Technology Inc. (the EAST Initiative).

The students will make presentations to judges during the EAST Conference on March 13-15 in Hot Springs. The winners will be announced at an awards gala that begins at 7 p.m. March 14 at the Hot Springs Convention Center. Tickets for the general public are $15.

ARKANSAS YOUTH VOLUNTEERS NOTED

Anna Richey, 16, of Paris was named one of Arkansas’ top two youth volunteers of 2018 by The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards, a nationwide program honoring young people for outstanding acts of volunteerism.

Richey, a sophomore at Paris High School, organizes an annual community “tea party” that has collected more than $100,000 in gifts and donations over the past four years for foster children at Christmas. She became interested in helping foster kids after four of her cousins were taken from their home and placed in foster homes throughout Arkansas.

As state honoree, Richey will receive $1,000, an engraved silver medallion and a trip in late April to Washington, D.C., where she will join the top two honorees from each of the other states and the District of Columbia for four days of national recognition events. During the trip, 10 students will be named America’s top youth volunteers of 2018. The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards is conducted by Prudential Financial in partnership with the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP).

The program judges also recognized four other Arkansas students as distinguished finalists for their impressive community service activities. Each will receive an engraved bronze medallion. Abigail Gearhart, 17, of Rogers, a junior at Shiloh Christian School, co-founded the “Soles for Souls for Mission of Hope” shoe drive in 2015, that has collected more than 2,500 pairs of shoes for people in need in Haiti.

ROGERS NAMES LEGACY AWARD

The Rogers Public Education Foundation has chosen its first Legacy Award recipient: Cyrus Arden Sutherland, who was a local architect, educator and preservationist. The Legacy Award was created for graduates of Rogers High School or educators, who are deceased, who have made exceptional contributions to society and have had a positive and lasting impact on the schools’ culture.

Sutherland’s family will accept the Legacy Award on his behalf at the 2018 Wall of Distinction banquet April 19 at the Embassy Suites in Rogers. Proceeds from the banquet go to the foundation, which raises funds and distributes grants to teachers for classroom materials and special needs.

Information: rogerspef@gmail.com.

YOUNG ALUMNI AWARD

Rebecca Hurst, managing partner at Smith Hurst law firm, received the second annual Young Alumni Award from the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith’s Alumni Association, recognizing the alumna’s successful career in business law and service to the university. She was honored at the homecoming reunion social Feb. 9 at The Blue Lion at UAFS Downtown.

Hurst is an estate planning and business lawyer in Northwest Arkansas, co-founding Smith Hurst, initially Fayetteville and now located in Rogers. She graduated in 2000 with a degree in accounting from the University Center on Westark College’s campus, prior to UAFS becoming a four-year university. After a brief stint as a corporate accountant, Hurst earned her law degree from the University of Arkansas and her master of laws in taxation from New York University.

She has been recognized in the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal’s “Forty Under 40” list of business leaders; as a 2012 and 2013 Rising Star by Mid-South Super Lawyers in the field of estate planning and probate and been named a Super Lawyer each year since 2014; and has been awarded an AV rating by the attorney directory Martindale-Hubbell, the highest rating available for a lawyer’s legal ability and professional ethics.

Her service to UAFS includes two three-year terms on the UAFS alumni advisory council. She currently serves as a member of the UAFS Foundation Board.