Roses to Kathleen Thompson, who has served as the faithful and superlative library director of the Chapel Hill Public Library since 1985.

Thompson retired Friday from the post she has held for the past 27 years. Over that period she has overseen two moves and two expansions of the library buildings and has brought library circulation from 421,000 volumes annually to nearly 1.1 million today – an increase of 160 percent.

Under her leadership, the Chapel Hill Public Library has consistently ranked since 1999 as the top public library in the state and, along with Chapel Hill law enforcement, is ranked by the public as the top public service offered by the town.

We extend hearty thanks to Thompson for her 27 years of dedicated service to our community.

Roses to the local restaurants who were honored recently for their years of participation in the RSVVP program, which has been fighting hunger in our community for almost 25 years.

RSVVP, founded by Irene Briggman, offers local restaurants the opportunity to participate in that fight by donating 10 percent of their net receipts on RSVVP Day – the second Tuesday in November – to the Inter-Faith Council for Social Service. Since 1989, RSVVP has raised nearly $400,000 to support IFC’s Food Pantry and Community Kitchen.

On Sept. 18 leaders from IFC gathered to present plaques commemorating milestone anniversaries of longtime RSVVP restaurants.

The restaurants honored for 20 years of participation were 411 West; Amante Gourmet Pizza in Carrboro; Breadmen’s; Margaret’s Cantina; Mediterranean Deli; and Sunrise Biscuit Kitchen.

The restaurants honored for 15 years of participation were Akai Hana; Alfredo’s Pizza Villa; The Carolina Club; Carrburritos; Joe Van Gogh; and The Loop Pizza Grill.

The restaurants honored for 10 years of participation were ACME Food & Beverage; Chick-fil-A; Elaine’s on Franklin; Lantern Restaurant; and Pantana Bob’s.

And remember, this year’s RSVVP Day is Nov. 13.

Roses to the winners of 2012 Health Innovation Challenge held by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina, Queen City Forward, Bull City Forward and the Institute for Emerging Issues.

BCBSNC, based in Chape Hill, named 11 finalists in the competition, which challenged North Carolians to come up creative solutions to help reduce obesity in the state.

Of those finalists, three winners emerged: The Walking Classroom, based in Chapel Hill, along with Durham’s In-R-Food and Sqord. Each will be awarded $20,000 to help implement their projects.

The Walking Classroom, an initiative begun by Laura Fenn in her fifth-grade classroom at Scroggs Elementary School, puts lessons on podcasts for students to listed to as they take brisk 20-minute walks.

In-R-Food is a smartphone app that lets users see nutritional information about grocery foods by scanning their barcodes. Sqord is a game that uses a special wristband that tracks their physical activity and then turns it into points, medals, wins and other online rewards.