The Ethics Bowl doesn’t attract quite as much attention as the football playoffs, but for most of us, ethics is a matter of far more personal relevance than, say, knowing how to run an off-tackle sweep.

And, for the third straight year, East Chapel Hill High School has won the North Carolina High School Ethics Bowl. The championship, held at UNC on Nov. 17, puts the East squad into the first-ever National High School Ethics Bowl next April, where East will go up against teams from at least 12 states.

In a distinctly unusual twist, East Chapel Hill won the state title by defeating ... East Chapel Hill. The school sent two separate teams to the competition, and they both advanced to meet each other in the finals.

The Triangle Area Homeschool team finished third, while Carrboro High School finished fourth.

Other quarterfinalists were from Woods Charter School, Carolina Friends School, Chapel Hill High School, and Cary Academy.

The North Carolina High School Ethics Bowl is part of the National High School Ethics Bowl Tournament and is sponsored by the Parr Center for Ethics at UNC.

21,000 beautiful roses to bioMérieux, an international diagnostics company in Durham, for awarding Smith Middle School’s European Exchange program $21,000.

These funds will allow students from lower-income families to participate in educational seminars in Europe next spring. These seminars will be led by an expert economist and skilled teachers as they travel together through France and Belgium.

Thanks to bioMérieux, the group will learn about healthcare from American and European perspectives as they visit a bioMérieux facility in Lyon. They will also learn first-hand about medieval art and architecture and the impact of World War II in Paris and Normandy, as well as attend an EU seminar at the European Commission in Brussels.

Their French language skills will be critical as all teachers and students will be staying with host families (pen pals ) in Liège for one week, attending Saint-Benoit Saint-Servais.

Roses to Colleen Lanigan, who has been Chapel Hill’s Special Olympics coordinator for more than 17 years.

The Town last week named Lanigan the winner of this year’s Cal Horton Service Award, the highest honor Chapel Hill can bestow on a town employee.

The award is presented annually to an employee who “brings credit to the Town with exceptional contributions to the community.” Her commitment and dedication to Special Olympics and its participants and their families has been a hallmark of her service throughout her career.

She administers year-round athletic events for more than 300 youth and adult athletes with intellectual disabilities. It’s a prodigious job, and she does it with excellence, energy and a contagious enthusiasm.