Spreadsheet guru recognized for volunteer work

Barbara Belshee was recognized by the Granite Falls School District and the Washington Association of School Administrators on May 7 for her volunteer work.

Belshee retired in 2009 as budget manager in the Edmonds School District. For the past six years, she’s volunteered in the business office in the Granite Falls district, helping with budget adjustments, grant expense monitoring, financial data summaries, research and more.

Fundraiser raises $17K for nonprofit

A “Celebrate the Children” luncheon and auction held May 2 raised more than $17,000 for Clothes For Kids, which this year provided wardrobes to over 3,170 students in Snohomish County.

“The $4,000 raised during the Fund-A-Need portion of the auction will go a long way to help us stock socks and underwear for fall,” program manager Nancy Laird Burris said.

Clothes For Kids completed clothing distribution for the 2014-15 school year at the end of March and will reopen in late August. Donations of gently used clothing and cash support are accepted year-round. For more information, go to www.clothesforkids.org or call 425-741-6500.

Community Transit recognized by Guard

Washington Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve, a federal Department of Defense office, on May 7 presented Community Transit with an Above and Beyond Award in recognition of the agency’s “extraordinary support” of its employees who are active in the National Guard and Reserves.

Community Transit actively recruits new employees at local military job fairs and through Naval Station Everett and Joint Base Lewis McCord, and provides generous benefits to active Guard and Reservists when they are called to duty.

Beds for kids

St. Vincent de Paul, North Sound Council, recently received a donation of $5,000 from the Everett Clinic Foundation. The money will purchase beds for children who are otherwise sleeping on the floor in their homes.

Edmonds dancer makes Top 12

Aeden Conefrey, 18, an Edmonds native and Olympic Ballet School alumnus, placed second in Senior Men’s Classical at the 2015 Philadelphia Youth America Grand Prix ballet competition and went on to compete in the New York Finals, where he placed in the Top 12.

The Youth America Grand Prix is the world’s largest international student dance competition and has jump-started the careers of many of today’s leading dancers.

A senior in high school, Conefrey has spent the 2014-15 school year training on scholarship at the Rock School for Dance Education in Philadelphia.

Conefrey trained at Olympic Ballet School for three years, performing in Olympic Ballet Theatre productions such as “The Nutcracker,” “Giselle” and “Coppelia,” and performed the lead in “Petrushka” with The Seattle Symphony at Benaroya Hall.

The dancer’s success at the Grand Prix has brought several scholarship offers to continue his training, from the Dutch National Ballet, Royal Winnipeg Ballet, Zurich Dance Academy and Joffrey Ballet in the United States.

County, contractor honored for Oso aid

Snohomish County Public Works and IMCO General Construction received the 2015 Build Washington Construction Excellence award in the heavy industrial category from the Associated General Contractors of Washington at a May 14 awards dinner in Seattle.

The award recognizes their joint work on the Highway 530 “Incident Debris Removal Project” following the Oso slide.

“This project focused on making the area more stable in the removal of the debris, requiring the massive coordination of work teams and keeping the public informed while exercising respect and dignity in the recovery of personal property,” said Owen Carter, Snohomish County Public Works deputy director.

More than 1,000 pieces of personal belongings, photos, and documents were recovered from the 80-acre disaster site. Archaeologists, spotters and others were brought in to work alongside crews.

“(IMCO) also completed the work six days earlier than contracted and $5.2 million under budget,” Carter said.

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