The Toppenish Community Chest food bank was the local staging area last week for the annual homeless count.

Students at Valley View Elementary School in Toppenish collected more than 1,500 food items during the school’s annual food drive. According to Kari Breeden, Valley View’s canned food drive coordinator, it is the most food items ever collected by the students. “Our students are working hard at becoming good citizens and this was a good community service project for them,” Breeden said. All Valley View students in kindergarten through fifth grade participated in the community service project. The food items have been donated to the Toppenish Food Bank. Valley View Elementary students load items from the school’s annual food drive into a pickup bound for the Toppenish Food Bank. Pictured front row Carlos Urcino, Everardo Silva, and Daniel Venancio. Back row: Leonel Reyna, staff member Kari Breeden, Eddy Silva, Miguel Magana and Cesar Robles.

Fourth graders in Marco Yolo’s class at Valley View elementary School in Toppenish got a lesson in the practical application of math, and did a very good deed at the same time recently.

Cafe Ole has opened in the heart of Toppenish’s business district at 208 W. First.

Workers unload an overturned semi Jan. 21 on Buena Way near Toppenish. The truck apparently overturned when it left the east side of the roadway, went down a steep shoulder and into soft soil. Two wreckers were standing by to remove the truck and trailer after the cargo had been removed. At press time, there was no information about damage or possible injuries.

Yakima Valley Partners Habitat for Humanity will dedicate its newest Habitat home in the Valley on Sunday, Jan. 31 in Granger.

Asia Aguilar, a junior at Zillah High School, has been accepted into the Washington Aerospace Scholars program.

No one can argue that Kirkwood Elementary fourth graders in Debbie Irving’s class aren’t on the ball.

A dozen Toppenish High School boys will vie for the Mr. Toppenish crown Jan. 20, as part of the YouthWorks program of Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital Foundation. The contestants’ objective is to help make a difference in the lives of children in the Yakima Valley, by raising money to help support the work of the foundation.

Humanities Washington has elected Ricardo Valdez as a new memeber of its board of trustees.