ANNOUNCEMENTS
Expansion planned at Midlothian YMCA

Thanks to the solicitation of the home building community by HHHunt, the Midlothian YMCA has received $251,500 in pledges that will add 23,755 square feet to the existing YMCA at Coalfield and Woolridge roads. The fundraising effort was aided by the "$50,000 HHHunt/YMCA Matching Fund."

Phase I will include a welcoming lobby and conversation café, a community and technology resource center, a wellness center, sports and adventure center, expanded child watch center and kids' gym, and family locker rooms. Phase II will add an indoor warm water family pool, an outdoor performing arts area, an indoor walking track and an outdoor climbing wall.

Guardian Horse Bedding, which produces wood pellets for energy and wood shavings for animal bedding, will invest $1.4 million and employ six people at a new facility in Chesterfield County.

Bruce W. Thompson of Woodlake has been elected to the trustee board of the Ruritan National Foundation - the 501(c)(3) educational foundation of Ruritan National. A retired banker, Thompson has been a Ruritan since 1959 and was selected as the Midlothian Ruritan Club's "Ruritan of the Year" in 2005. He's also served as zone and district governors in the Rockingham District.

Eleven employees of Midlothian-based Getloaded.com took a dip in the Atlantic Ocean during the 15th Annual Polar Plunge Winter Festival in Virginia Beach on Feb. 3 to raise money for Special Olympics Virginia. Last year, 3,433 people took the plunge, raising over $610,000.

Village Bank is reporting a net income of $1.4 million for 2006, 14 percent more than in 2005. Money on deposit increased to $253.3 million from $186.7 million while total assets climbed to $291.2 million, an increase of 35 percent. The bank opened three new branches and has nine locations with seven of them in Chesterfield County.

The after school program at Harrowgate Elementary School received a "Model Hunger Relief Partner" recognition from the Central Virginia Foodbank late last month. The award was accepted by Taffy Jones- Hayes, an intervention strategist at the school. Carver Middle School mentors and assists the students at the elementary school.

Alexandra Elwood, who attends the center-based gifted program at Manchester Middle School, is serving in the page/messenger program with the Virginia Senate during the General Assembly session.

Falling Creek Middle School has received a GEAR UP (Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs) grant benefiting its seventh graders. The federal program is designed for low-income students, and will supply tutors, mentors and visits to college campuses to improve their chances of attending college. These students will also be eligible to receive college scholarships.