Area Students Win Honors In Idaho Essay Contest

Area students recently received certificates and savings bonds as well as cash for class projects after winning the ‘Idaho Forest Products Week’ Essay Contest. Winners were selected from nearly 900 statewide entries. First place winners received a $100 savings bond. Winners and the grade categories are listed.

Grades 6-8: Kyle Kelly, honorable mention, teacher, Lori Reynolds, Valley View Elementary in Bonners Ferry, Idaho.

Grades 3-5: Noel E. Brown, first place, teacher, Mr. Lusk, Hayden Lake (Idaho) Elementary; and Shandi Thompson, honorable mention, teacher, Mrs. N. Mason, Spirit Lake Elementary School.

Grades K-2: Andy Goodwin, honorable mention, teacher, Sonya Nordgaarden, Selkirk School in Sandpoint; Stephanie Peugh, honorable mention, teacher, Jennifer Lamb, Seltice Elementary School in Post Falls; and Mrs. Vosberg’s second grade class, Sunnyside Elementary School in Kellogg, $100 special award for class projects.

Criteria for essays were to include how forest products touch students’ lives, and if they were in charge, how they would provide tangible products while being environmentally aware of air and water quality, wildlife habitat and other benefits.

Steve W. Nordin, son of Robert and Deborah Nordin of Sagle, Idaho, has enlisted in the Army as a wheel vehicle repairer and departed for basic training at Fort Sill, Okla.

Nordin, a 1992 graduate of Central Valley High School in Spokane, will qualify for a $3,000 cash incentive due to test scores and enlistment choice.

Air Force Lt. Col. Robert A. Kreager, has retired from the Air Force after more than 26 years of service.

Kreager, who was chairman of the department of social work with the 59th Medical Wing at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas, has been decorated with the Meritorious Service Medal, which is awarded for outstanding noncombat meritorious achievement, at his retirement ceremony.

Kreager, who has received six other Meritorious Service Medals, was cited for demonstrating superior leadership and exemplary management of the largest social work department in the Air Force.

He was also commended for exceptional officership skills, esprit de corps and leadership by example which enabled his department to provide quality care to more than 23,000 patients a year.

In the past, Kreager has been praised for his expert presentations of Project Link suicide prevention briefings.

Bethany Toews, a senior at Lake City High School, has been chosen as the Coeur d’Alene Rotary Scholar of the Month for November.

Toews, who maintains a 4.0 grade point average, is active in honors courses, All Northwest Honor Choir, All State Honor Choir and lettered in track and field.

She has been a member of the National Honor Society, Natural Helpers, and Youth Volunteers of America. She has tutored fourth- and fifth- graders as well as teaching a singing clinic for elementary students.

, DataTimes