Each week ‘‘At Our Best’’ highlights the achievements of those in our community. It includes honors, awards and other recognition that is being earned by local residents.

Please continue to send or deliver such information, along with pictures of those honored, to the newspaper in care of managing editor Mike Schmeltzer, 600 S.W. Jefferson Ave., Corvallis, OR 97333.

Cipollone receives scholarship

Crescent Valley senior Michelle Cipollone was recently awarded the Violet Lang Music Scholarship. She will study music education/performance at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Wash. in the fall 2008.

Dental group gives grant to B&G Club

On April 19, the Dental Foundation of Oregon awarded $5,000 to The Boys & Girls Club of Corvallis. The funds will go toward supplying the Boys & Girls Club of Corvallis free dental clinic run by Dr. Ken Johnson.

Since the opening of the clinic on February 25, Dr. Johnson and his team of volunteer hygienists have provided over 100 appointments to children across Benton County. Dr. Johnson’s goal is relieve pain and suffering in children so they can stay in school and pursue their dreams.

The Dental Foundation of Oregon, formerly The Oregon Dental Foundation, was established in 1982 and is dedicated to improving oral health for Oregon’s children. The foundation aims to change the rate of youth dental decay by funding community projects that focus on prevention and education, and those that provide emergency dental care for children who are disadvantaged and have no access to care.

Students honored in literature contest

2008 Letters About Literature contest Oregon winners include: Level I Runner Up: Ali Hentzel , Corvallis; Level III First Place: Maya Lim, McMinnville; Level III Honorable Mentions; Shenna Hillsman, Lebanon.

Letters About Literature is a national reading and writing promotion program of the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress, sponsored in partnership with Target Stores. There were 1,050 contestants from Oregon and over 59,000 nationally.

First Place winners each receive $100, Runners Up receive $50, Honorable Mentions receive a $25 bookstore gift certificate and semi-finalists received a $10 bookstore gift card.

Horner receives Elks Scholarship

The Corvallis Elks Lodge 1413 awarded scholarships to Jordan E. Horner, Crescent Valley High School student, and Jared McKinney, home school student, for the 2007/2008 Elks Scholarship award.

Students Awarded $20,000 by OSU

A four-member MBA student team took home the New Enterprise Challenge grand prize of $10,000 for developing a business plan for S-Ray, a dental imaging alternative to X-rays that uses sonar. The competition, organized by the Austin Entrepreneurship Program, was an opportunity for OSU students to present their new business ideas to experts including successful entrepreneurs, senior executives, venture advisers, and investors.

Integrated Pole Solutions team received the $5000 second prize and two teams, CyanoEnergy and NorthWestNanoCoatings, tied for third place with a $2500 prize.

Team members were:

S-Ray: Yunhwan Ahn, Kelly Harness, Glen Morrison, and Rachel Yim

Integrated Pole Solutions: Mike Peterson

CyanoEnergy: David Dickson and Jacob Jones

NorthWest NanoCoatings: Brian Bode, Ching-Ling Tseng, Kevin Fish, Nick Kirkwood, and Pichamon Adulavidhaya

Girl Scouts Earn Silver Award

Five Cadette Girl Scouts from Benton County recently earned The Silver Award, the highest award for girls in the Cadette program. Anne Wynn, Julie Rorrer, Angela Erickson, Katie Keuneke and Carly DeMeo completed a total of fifteen interest projects, the Leadership Award, the Career Exploration Award and the Challenge of Being a Girl Scout before they started their Silver Award Leadership Project.

The project involved a nine week reading program at Mount View Elementary School. The girls planned a theme for each week and had books, guests and crafts related to the theme at the event. Nancy Polikoff, Mt. View Librarian, was the Advisor for the project.

All of the girls are members of Girl Scout Troop 209 led by Cece DeMeo. Anne Wynn, a sophomore at CVHS, is the daughter of Michael and Marsha Wynn. Julie Rorrer, a sophomore at CHS, is the daughter of Greg and Kristin Rorrer. Angela Erickson, a freshman at CHS, is the daughter of Gerald and Julie Erickson. Katie Keuneke, a sophomore at CHS, is the daughter of Jerry and Nancy Keuneke. Carly DeMeo, a sophomore at CVHS, is the daughter of Tony and Cece DeMeo.

Kerr wins Kiwanis Club ‘Hero’ award

Harold Kerr has been chosen to receive the Kiwanis Everyday Hero Award by the noon club’s Awards & Nominations Committee Members.

Harold has given countless community volunteer hours to projects that support Vina Moses, Children’s Farm Home, Epsilon Sigma Phi, Junior Town Club (a bridge organization), Corvallis 150th Birthday celebration, the Kiwanis Triangle beautification project (south Corvallis), Kiwanis Annual Pancake Party, Kiwanis Berry project and many more.

Student named to Michigan honor roll

University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Mich. — Lyndsay De Carolis earned University Honors for the winter semester 2008 and was also recognized by the University of Michigan Athletic Department as a Scholar-Athlete (Varsity Soccer) at a ceremony on April 15th. De Carolis is a student in the university’s Literature, Science and Arts department majoring in Program in the Environment and Spanish. She is the daughter of Bob and Sandra De Carolis and is a 2007 graduate of Crescent Valley High School.

— Gazette-Times