The event paired 16 McDougle Middle School students with 16 officers from the Chapel Hill, Carrboro and UNC police departments on a shopping trip to buy holiday gifts for friends and family with funds provided by the Optimist Club.

School counselors, teachers and administrators recommended the deserving students based on their hard work and financial need. The Optimists and the police departments hope this program will both help these young people know the joy of Christmas and foster positive relationships with school, police and community leaders.

Special bouquets go to Trish Verne, Optimist Club president and Shop With a Cop program organizer; Family Specialist Lisa DeCesaris from McDougle; and officers Steven Champion and Joseph Glenn from the Carrboro Police Department for their help in coordinating this event.

Roses, belatedly, to Colleen Minton, organizer and tour-de-force behind TerraVita, a sustainable food-and-beverage celebration held last month.

The event brought Chapel Hill’s foodie reputation in front of national press, as well as some of the best biodynamic and organically-grown wines and microbrews in the world with.

This year’s event included more producers, seminars, and a lineup of top North Carolina chefs, uniting their amazing food with select beverages produced by some of the best craftsmen in the world. A chefs’ dinner benefitted the Carrboro Farmer’s Market, whose organizers are raising funds for planned improvements to its location behind Carrboro Town Hall.

The event could not have happened without Minton’s energy, organization, and passion for sustainable agriculture.

Last year Bon Appetit magazine challenged its readers to “imagine a place where foodies not only have a favorite chef, but also a favorite farmer; a place where the distance between the organic farm and the award-winning restaurant is mere miles; a place where a sustainable future is foreseeable. It’s all a reality in Chapel Hill.”

It’s a reality because of people like Minton, who deserves more than roses. We think a nice bottle of organic wine is in order.

Roses to the staff at Aldersgate Church Preschool, who gave their young students an important lesson in the importance of compassion and generosity – and to the children themselves, who responded with energetic enthusiasm.

The teachers asked their students, aged 2-4, to bring in items from their pantries to share with those who might not have food in their pantries or cabinets, and who might not have pantries or cabinets at all.

Over a two-week period the children brought canned goods and placed them in a basket. The kids marveled at how tall the towers of cans grew, and in the end the school was able to deliver 14 bags of much-needed goods to the Inter-Faith Council for Social Service’s Food Pantry.