Northwest

01:00 AM EDT on Friday, June 17, 2005

REGIONAL DIGEST

COMMUNITY NEWS

La Luz De La Vida (The Light of Life), a program for women and girls of all ages, will be held Tuesday from 7 to 8:30 p.m., at YWCA Northern Rhode Island, 514 Blackstone St., Woonsocket.

The free event will expose girls and women to practices that will help them grow into whole females using performance art and rituals. Storytelling, music, theatre and participatory exercises will highlight the evening.

The program stars actress, singer and playwright Rose Weaver; educator, performer, consultant on interfaith and multicultural issues, and music director for the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of South County, South Kingstown, the Rev. Cynthia Burke; and Abigail Jefferson, who served as artistic manager for the CityKids Repertory, New York City, associate director of Everyday Theatre/Commission on Social Services in Washington, D.C., and who held a staff position with Children's Television Workshop as writers assistant and researcher for the PBS television series Ghostwriter.

The event is supported through a grant from the Rhode Island Council on the Arts and sponsored by YWCA Northern Rhode Island.

For further information, contact YWCA Northern Rhode Island (401) 769-7450.

Awareness classes: Smithfield will sponsor two landlord lead hazard awareness classes tomorrow and Wednesday, in Smithfield Town Hall, 64 Farnum Pike. The Saturday class will meet at 9 a.m. and Wednesday's class will be held at 6 p.m. The class, which usually costs $50 per landlord, will be free as a service to the community and those landlords attending will receive a certificate indicating that they have complied with this portion of the law. Smithfield residents who own rental property are strongly urged to attend as are landlords in neighboring communities. All Rhode Island landlords are required to attend the class by July 1.

Landlords may attend the class by just showing up, but reservations are recommended to ensure that there is sufficent seating and course materials available. To reserve a space, call either (401) 943-6244 or call the town at (401) 233-1010.

Grants awarded: Homefront Health Care was awarded a $30,000 job development grant. The program was one of three programs that the United Way of Rhode Island awarded more than $150,000 in grants from its Building Adult and Neighborhood Independence Impact Group for job development programs serving the East Bay, Newport, Northwest Rhode Island and South County sections of the state.

Homefront Health Care will train and place a minimum of 63 certified nursing assistants and homemakers for jobs in home care. All trainees will be adults with limited work skills. The grant will focus on individuals from Bristol, Washington Counties and Northwest Rhode Island.

PEOPLE

Lt. Gov. Charles J. Fogarty recently honored several Northern Rhode Island High School graduates for demonstrating outstanding leadership skills. Pawtucket Red Sox owner Ben Mondor spoke to the graduates at a State House ceremony May 23.

Students chosen to receive the 2005 Lieutenant Governor's Leadership Award were nominated by their schools for motivating other students to excel and achieve; demonstrating a positive and upbeat attitude; maintaining good grades; planning and organizing charitable and educational activities; and excelling in school-sponsored clubs, sports and other extra curricular activies.

Northwest students who were honored are: Christina J. Boucher, Burrillville High School; Courtney Leja, Ponaganset High School; Sara Fava, of Johnston, Trinity Christian Academy, and Jessica Saccoccio, Johnston High School; Amy Vinhateiro, North Providence High School; Jessica Hopkins, Scituate High School, and Nathan Sperry, of Scituate, The Met Center; Collette Jeanine Laflamme, of Smithfield, Portsmouth Abbey School and Kristopher G. Ouellette, Smithfield High School.

BRYANT UNIVERSITY

ACUTA award: Bryant University, named by Forbes.com and the Princeton Review as the second most connected campus in the country, has been selected to receive the 2005 Association for the Communications Technology Professional in Higher Education (ACUTA) Award for Institutional Excellence in Communications Technology in the Small Size Institution category.

The Association for the Communications Technology Professional in Higher Education's (ACUTA) goal is to recognize vision and technological leadership in the creative use of communication technology to support teaching, research, decision making and the delivery of services.

As part of the larger strategic plan, Bryant has strived to offer new and improved technologies to enhance the teaching and learning experience and streamline its business operations by creating total convergence of its IP network infrastructure to support voice, video and data.