Roses to Will Raymond, one of the candidates running (unsucccessfully, it turned out) for a seat on the Chapel Hill Town Council.

Immediately after the election, Raymond coordinated a collaborative effort among the Chapel Hill and Carrboro election candidates to pick up political yard signs to help restore our streets to pre-election normalcy quickly and efficiently. Within two days he had personally pulled up six pickup truck loads of signs for various candidates.

Many residents aren't crazy about the profusion of political signs along the roadways before an election (we'd love to see a study on whether they actually work), and nobody wants to see them still hanging around after Election Day. Raymond went above and beyond to ensure that wouldn't happen.

Roses to the 100-plus volunteers from the community who made 65 blankets at the recent Blanket Bee Bonanza at Christ United Methodist Church.

The blankets are donated to a group called Blankets for Children, which in turn will give them to local children in need.

The Blanket Bee Bonanza is over, but it's not too late to get involved. For information on sponsoring a blanket, e-mail blanketsforchildren@gmail.com.

Roses to the Carolina Hurricanes and the Chapel Hill Veterans of Foreign Wars Post, for distributing free tickets to about 150 Chapel Hill-area veterans for a game between the 'Canes and the Los Angeles Kings on Veterans Day.

The Hurricanes distributed some 300 tickets to the local post, which passed them out to veterans and their families in front of the Franklin Street post office and at University Mall. We're sure the veterans and their families enjoyed the game and appreciated the gesture. It was a small thing, perhaps, but small things matter too.

Roses to Kathy Humphries, aka The Book Fairy, and the university departments and organizations that organizing a book drive for children being treated for cancer.

The book drive, which goes on through Dec. 10, is seeking donations of books for kids ages 1 through mid-teens. Spanish-language books for preschoolers, and and picture books or easy readers in English are especially needed.

The books will go to the Pediatric Oncology Clinic at UNC Hospitals, where they will be available for young patients.

Humphries has been gathering books and donating them to the clinic since 2007, when her son Karl died of cancer at age 13. He was an avid reader, and she has dedicated herself to providing books for the other children at the clinic because, she said, "I know that if Karl could have gone in and seen this big selection of books, it would have made his day."

Books can be dropped off at the Davis, Undergraduate, Wilson, Health Sciences and Law libraries, or in the lobbies of the School of Information and Library Science, the School of Education and School of Social Work.