ORCHIDS: To Paul Hagman of Youngstown and Janis Sanfrey of Warren who have been named to positions on the board of directors of the Raymond John Wean Foundation. Both have served on the foundation's Neighborhood SUCCESS grant committees. Hagman, a designer, has a master's degree in architecture and volunteers with many area organizations. Sanfrey is a lifelong Warren resident and a teacher with Warren City Schools. Sanfrey also is a volunteer with various community projects.
ORCHID: To Hartford's own NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver Dave Blaney for working with the Feed the Children program to deliver a truckload of food and essentials to Warren Family Mission this week. The distribution was in recognition of Blaney's top 10 finish in this year's Prelude to a Dream race that took place at Eldora Speedway. Blaney chose Warren and Warren Family Mission as the recipient of food and essentials for 400 children and their families.
ORCHID: To BP America, for delivering 600 pounds of processed beef and pork this week to the local Salvation Army and St. Vincent de Paul Society. The donations were delivered by Curtis Thomas, BP's director of government and public affairs for Ohio, and were from the company's purchase of three 4-H livestock auction animals last month at the Trumbull County Fair. The company purchased a steer and two hogs at the fair's livestock auction.
ONION: For the painfully slow process regarding information related to RG Steel's Warren plant and its employees. Worker furloughs began after the steel company filed for bankruptcy in late May. Hundreds of members of the United Steel Workers of American Local 1375 on North Park Avenue met this week looking for answers, but few answers were available. Many members just want to know if they will be going back to work at the plant, but the union president said there were questions that could not be answered because he had been provided few details.
ORCHID: To the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport in Vienna for receiving a federal grant to allow officials there to continue their plan to restore regularly scheduled passenger service. It was announced this week that a $780,000 U.S. Department of Transportation grant was awarded to match local funds to develop a revenue guarantee program to support the first year of any new service, minimizing the airline's financial risk during a start-up.
ORCHID: To a group of area residents who are attempting to address area violence and will be holding a march in downtown Warren on Sunday from the amphitheater to Courthouse Square and back. The group is called the Warren City Committee and was formed as a nonprofit community-based organization of city residents. The event is called "Pray for Peace, Stop the Hate and Violence."