Teen Girl Scout Troop 1761 enjoyed the challenge of a high ropes course and climbing wall at the Girl Scouts' Camp Pretty Pond in September.

The girls and leaders spent the day navigating the ropes course and scaling and repelling the climbing wall.

Participants were instructor Marissa Ross, Rachel Ost, Elizabeth Strohbeck, Gigi Strohbeck, Cheryl Olive, Sofia Sanchez, Audrey Everett and Shelby Olive.

Rotary helps African students

A relationship between the Cary Central Rotary Club and South African Rotary clubs has strengthened since it began in 1987.

The Algoa Bay Club, located in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, requested humanitarian assistance to educate the primary school students of the region.

Due to severely limited government resources, Rotarians there turned to their longtime friends in Cary to assure that young students have the tools necessary to compete in the regional South African and global economies.

The students of the Colleen Glen Primary School required the basic tools for success: pencils and sharpeners, books, notebooks, Xhosa Language Bibles, photocopy paper, sporting equipment and visual aids for science, biology and mathematics.

The Cary Central contribution of $1,150 combined with gifts from Rotary clubs in South Carolina, Illinois and Arizona, along with South African and matching grants provided by the Rotary Foundation, for a total of $41,924.

As the international co-sponsor, Cary Central was chosen to bestow a Paul Harris Fellowship to celebrate someone who most symbolized the project by content of character and humanitarian service to mankind.

The club chose to honor Harvey L. Duke, retired pastor of First Baptist Church of Cary.

Duke is a 40-year reverend of the church and a 28-year Rotary charter member and past president.

Funeral director Hackney honored

Terry Hackney, funeral director, will be recognized for 50 years of service with Brown-Wynne Funeral Homes.

Hackney is a member of the Cary Masonic Lodge #198.He also is a former member of White Plains United Methodist Church.

A recognition dinner will be held in his honor on Nov. 8.

Kids to Kids awards grant

Kids to Kids, a youth initiative of Infante Sano, has awarded a grant to Julie Magnussen, originally from Cary, to support her volunteer work in Belize.

This grant will provide a health education resource center for teachers in a rural area of Belize.

Kids to Kids grants are funded by money raised by kids throughout the United States who want to make a difference in the lives of kids in developing countries.

Kids to Kids was founded in 2005 by four children from a Boston suburb who realized they could make a difference in the lives of kids in under-resourced communities overseas.

Since 2008, Kids to Kids has awarded over 100 micro-grants, totaling over $50,000, for various art, sports, environmental and educational projects.

To learn more, visit infantesano.org or follow the blog at kidstokids.org/blog/.