Milestones

CHILDREN'S GIFT BAGS FOR HOSPICE IS GIRL SCOUT'S PROJECT

Hospice of Wake County has received 50 children's gift bags from Allison "Grace" Forster, 14, as part of her Girl Scout Silver Award project.

Grace, who is a top jump roper in the United States, enlisted help from her fellow jumpers to provide stuffed animals. She also received books from members of her church.

Each bag will be given to children in Hospice of Wake County's Reflections grief program or to children of patients. The bags include a coloring book, crayons and stickers.

Grace is a freshman at Spring Hope High School. Her mother, Denise Wotovich, is a volunteer with Hospice of Wake County.

HUMANITIES COUNCIL HAS NEW BOARD MEMBERS

The N.C. Humanities Council, a 37-year-old statewide nonprofit affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities, has added six members to its board.

They are:

* Glen Anthony Harris, associate professor of history at UNC-Wilmington. He is the author of numerous articles on topics including African-American-Jewish relations during the first decades of the 20th century.

* Tom Hanchett, staff historian at Charlotte's Levine Museum of the New South. He has curated a string of prize-winning exhibitions and has written widely on such subjects as North Carolina music traditions and the history of American shopping centers.

* Reginald Hildebrand, associate professor of African and Afro-American studies at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is working on a collection of essays on W.E.B. DuBois, Malcolm X and the theologian Howard Thurman.

* Jonathan Howes, special assistant to the chancellor and adjunct professor of regional planning and public policy at UNC- Chapel Hill. He served as mayor of Chapel Hill from 1987 to 1991 and as secretary of the state Department of Environment, Health and Natural Resources from 1993 to 1997. Howes also leads the board of the N.C. Parks and Recreation Authority.

* Carol Lawrence, a professional writer and editor from Asheville who is the principal with Carol Lawrence Consulting. The firm helps nonprofit groups in Western North Carolina increase fundraising, develop leadership and improve organizational effectiveness.

* Hephzibah Roskelly, former director of the composition program at UNC-Greensboro, who now holds the women's studies professorship. She teaches courses in rhetoric and composition and American literature and culture.

MILLBROOK STUDENT TO PLAY IN ROSE PARADE

Wesley Odum, a junior at Millbrook High School in Raleigh, has been selected by Bands of America for the national Honor Band in the 2009 Tournament of Roses Parade.

Odum was selected from among hundreds of applicants across the nation for membership in the honors ensemble.

The Bands of America Honor Band is a 300-piece national ensemble with woodwinds, percussion and a flag-and-dance team.

Odum will be a member of the percussion line and will spend a week in Southern California, where he will have rehearsals, performances at the Tournament of Roses Bandfest and Disneyland, special activities and a featured appearance in the world-famous parade.

The Tournament of Roses Parade will start at 8 a.m. New Year's Day. The 5.5-mile parade will be broadcast on ABC, NBC, CBS, Univision, HGTV, Telemundo, Travel Channel and Discovery HD.

CHAPEL HILL MAN WILL DIRECT TEACHER DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM

Ross White, associate director of LEARN NC at UNC-Chapel Hill, has been named North Carolina's statewide director of e-Learning for Educators, a federally funded teacher development program.

The UNC alumnus will fill the post while staying on at LEARN. For e-Learning, White will oversee a partnership of five North Carolina educational organizations, including LEARN, that will partner with similar groups in nine other states.

Each state's team will create and share online teacher development courses, providing a variety of resources for teachers. Courses will begin in January.