Roses to the organizers and many volunteers who worked together to package more than one million meals for hungry children in some of the world's most impoverished areas.

Community volunteers and students at UNC and other area colleges and universities pitched in for University Million Meals Week 2009. They packaged a total of 1,031,776 meals, which will be shipped to Haiti, Kenya and Nicaragua. There they will feed school children in need.

The output topped last year's total by more than 21,000.

The event was held at four university sites -- UNC, N.C. State, East Carolina and UNC-Wilmington -- and was manned by students from those schools as well as from Duke, Meredith College, N.C. Central and Peace College.

Everyone who participated opened the school year on a very special note, by working hard to give kids they will never meet a chance at a better life.

Roses to Sherril Koroluk and the Preservation Society of Chapel Hill, for putting together a fun and delicious evening that put a smile on a lot of faces.

Koroluk, the assistant to the society's director, came up with the idea of holding a Cupcake Festival to celebrate the birthday of Horace Williams, the influential UNC professor whose former home on East Rosemary Street now houses the Preservation Society. The festival on Aug. 21 at the Horace Williams House was by all account a smashing success. Hundreds of cupcakes were donated by local bakeries, and many others came in from individual residents hoping to win the contest for "Chapel Hill's Most Luscious Cupcake." The celebration also featured live music, poetry, wine from Cupcake Vineyards and more.

The free event was open to the public. It drew scores of people who sampled the goodies, enjoyed the tunes and the company and maybe left with an appreciation for local history and the important work the Preservation Society does.

Roses to the Chapel Hill Fire Department and Chapel Hill Museum, whose little puppet show designed to teach kids about fire safety has caught on a big way.

They've received requests to perform "Johnnie Joins the Fire Department" for audiences as far away as Mobile, Ala., and now the project is preparing to hit the big screen, sort of.

The museum recently received a $15,000 grant from Progress Energy to turn the puppet show into a movie. Filming began last week at Fire Station No. 1 downtown.

The original show was the brainchild of Deputy Fire Chief Matt Lawrence, who came up with it while he was working with the Burlington Fire Department. His idea was that if you pair fire safety with the kind of fun, musical entertainment kids enjoy, they might remember the lessons better.

Chapel Hill 1st Sgt. Chris Bradley wrote the script for "Johnnie" based on Lawrence's program. The show has been performed now for many school children here and elsewhere. Now, thanks to the Progress Energy grant and additional help from the N.C. Jaycees Burn Center at UNC Hospitals, it will go out to help, and perhaps save, even more kids.