News Digest News Digest (June 17, 2005)

Rotary's Spirit Run scheduled Sunday

The Rotary Club of Pleasanton will hold its annual Spirit Run Sunday to raise money for scholarships.

The Father's Day event will start with the 10K race at 8 a.m. and the 5K race, run and walk at 8:20 a.m. Both races will start and finish under the Arch on Main Street.

The Spirit Run was originally known as the Arroyo Centennial Trails Run when it started in 1994 as part of Pleasanton Heritage Days. The name was changed to the Spirit Run two years later and in 1997 the Rotary Club, which had been a sponsor, took over the management of the popular event. Over the last seven years, the race has generated $174,000 in sponsorships and $83,360 in registration fees, according to Rotary Club member and Realtor Tom Fox.

Race day registrations can be handled at the Round Table Pizza parking lot on Main Street in advance of the event. Students win big in Destination ImagiNation

Students from Pleasanton Middle School and Hearst Elementary School won top honors at the Global Finals of Destination ImagiNation in Knoxville, Tenn. Competing against 850 teams comprised of 8,000 students from around the world, the PMS team came in first place in the Dizzy Derby competition and second in the Sudden Serendipity event. Students won the Dizzy Derby event by putting Vintage Hills Elementary School third-grader Jared Siegel on a cart and whipping it around a triangular track 140 times in less than seven minutes. In Sudden Serendipity, the students orchestrated a skit about an initial invention and a serendipitous event that results in another invention. The PMS team was made up of students James Hedrick, Sargun Dhillon, Haley Laine, Adam Siegel, Diane Rodriguez of Los Cerros Middle School in Danville and Preston Hedrick of Hearst Elementary School.

The Hearst team placed third in the elementary division of the Sudden Serendipity competition and was given a Renaissance award for their outstanding engineering and design. The team included Sachin Dhar, Preston Hedrick, Hunter Laine, Kelly Villanueva and Patricia Walchessen.

Downtown rocks on First Wednesday Downtown rocks on First Wednesday (June 17, 2005)

Las Positas closed on Fridays Las Positas closed on Fridays (June 17, 2005)

Las Positas Community College will be closed on Fridays, June 10 through August 5 in an effort to conserve energy. The Chabot-Las Positas Community College District Offices in Pleasanton will also be closed on Fridays during the summer. Even with campus being closed, security will still be on duty. Library to celebrate millionth item checked out

The Pleasanton Public Library reports that it expects to check out one million items this fiscal year sometime this weekend. To thank its supporters, the Friends of the Library is planning a "We Made a Million" celebration, with an award for whoever checks out the millionth item. The library is located at 400 Old Bernal Avenue. For more information, call 931-3406.

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