Sandra Clark, M.D. was honored with the 13th annual Mildred Berkeley Community Service Award from the Inter-Faith Council for Social Service at the IFC's annual meeting on Oct. 20.

The award is given in memory of Mildred Berkeley, who exemplified a life of service. She was both a visionary and a doer who volunteered and helped in myriad ways: by visiting the sick; taking friends to detox; collecting and providing food for the hungry; befriending the homeless; greeting guests and service recipients as a volunteer receptionist at IFC; working in the Community Kitchen; talking to those who lived on the streets; and serving on the IFC Board of Directors.

For nearly 15 years, Clark volunteered and ran the IFC's Robert Nixon Free Clinic for the Homeless. The clinic provides health care to homeless persons through important community partnerships with Piedmont Health Services, UNC Hospitals, the UNC Medical School, the UNC School of Pharmacy and approximately 75 volunteer health professionals.

"Sandra has been instrumental in building lasting relationships between the medical and homeless communities," said Chris Moran, IFC's executive director. "She has provided and helped sustain quality health care to thousands of homeless persons at Community House and HomeStart facilities throughout her many years of warmhearted and thoughtful service and care for others needing guidance, confidence, trust, medicine and options for addressing serious illnesses and challenges."

Clark is a graduate of the UNC School of Medicine and has been a physician at Piedmont Health Services for 16 years. In addition to serving as the medical director at the IFC's clinic, she has also started a service learning program in a rural area of Mexico and has led many other community health initiatives.

The Friends of the Orange County Public Library (FOCPL) Executive Board announced the three finalists in the organization's logo contest.

From a field of nearly one dozen entries, the Board chose designs by Rob Kark of Chapel Hill, Mike Musser of Hillsborough, and Sallie Scharding of Carrboro.

The three designs are on display at the Orange County Public Library at 137 W. Margaret Lane in Hillsborough from October 24 through November 14.

During this time, the public will cast votes for their favorite design at the circulation desk. The logo that receives the most votes will become the new logo of the FOCPL.

The winning logo will be announced December 3 at the FOCPL Annual Meeting, and the winning designer will receive $100. The runners-up will each receive $25.

Dr. Phillip R. Westmoreland of Chapel Hill, professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering and executive director of the Institute for Computational Science and Engineering at North Carolina State University, has been elected president of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) for the 2013 term.

Westmoreland, who was named a Fellow of AIChE in 2005, has been an active member of the professional society for close to 40 years, dating to when he was a student at N.C. State. He will serve as the organization's president-elect in 2012 and as past president in 2014.

Keith Taylor of Chapel Hill, an area pilot, has now given more than 1,300 young people a free demonstration airplane ride as part of the Experimental Aircraft Association's Young Eagles program, which is introducing a new generation to the world of flight.

All pilots in the Young Eagles program explain the safe operation of airplanes and principles of flight before the short trips. Young Eagles flights are provided by volunteer EAA-member pilots in aircraft ranging from the newest airplanes to vintage biplanes. Aircraft such as gliders, helicopters, and even hot air balloons and blimps have also been used for Young Eagles flights.

Participants become official Young Eagles - the flight, the names of the pilots and the participants are also included in the "World's Largest Logbook" that is on display in the EAA AirVenture Museum in Oshkosh, Wis., and at www.youngeagles.com.

On Wednesday, UNC junior Stewart Boss will head to Washington, D.C. for special meetings with EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson and the White House Liaison to Young Americans Ronnie Cho scheduled for Thursday.

Boss will join 30 student leaders from across the country for the event that will culminate 100 Percent Clean: 100 Actions for Clean Energy, a month of more than 100 actions on campuses, including a large protest at UNC last Tuesday on the steps of Wilson Library.

Student leaders will have the opportunity to brief both Administrator Jackson and White House Liaison to Young Americans Cho on student efforts to transition their campuses and communities off coal and dirty energy to clean energy solutions. They plan to thank the Administrator for her leadership on new rules to protect public health from coal pollution - including efforts to clean up smaller coal plants such as the one on UNC's campus.

Then they will head to the White House for a conversation with Ronnie Cho about urging the President to take bold action to transition the nation to cleaner energy sources that will create jobs and improve the health of communities like Chapel Hill.

Boss was selected because he was a leader for the Coal-Free UNC student effort, a successful campaign to get Carolina to stop burning coal on campus by 2020.

Boss is working with the Sierra Club and other students to get UNC's roughly $2 billion endowment to divest its holdings in the worst coal companies in the country and use its financial power to support sustainability initiatives.

On Oct. 22, the Friends of North Carolina Public Libraries (FONCPL) recognized The Friends of the Carrboro Branch Library as a first place winner in their annual Frances B. Reid Awards for outstanding Friends groups across the state.

FONCPL presented the recognition certificate and cash award at the Annual FONCPL Awards meeting at the Chatham County Community Library.

Present to receive the award on behalf of the Friends of the Carrboro Branch Library were Friends members Martha Tyson, Nerys Levy and Alex Brown, as well as Lucinda Munger, Orange County Library Director.

The Friends, who have fought for more than 24 years for a free-standing, full-service library in the Southwest part of Orange County, received this award as recognition for their advocacy on behalf of the library, their continued struggle and successes in achieving their goal of a freestanding library in southwestern Orange County, as well as their regular work of raising funds for the library, providing free books to needy citizens and providing two annual scholarships to local students.

Thanks in part to the advocacy of Friends of the Carrboro Library, Orange County has committed $5.5 million to the building of a Southwest Orange Regional Library once an appropriate site has been identified. The Friends continue to be involved to ensure this project becomes a reality, and hope to host FONCPL's annual meeting the first year the library is open.

Frances B. Reid was a consultant for the State Library of North Carolina and was instrumental in the founding of FONCPL in 1985.The annual competition is open to local Friends of the Library statewide.