A community Homecoming parade will kick off at 5 p.m. Oct. 9 at the Community Swim Club on Aqua Drive. It's the prelude to the matchup between the Foxes and the Mustangs of Plum Senior High School.

The parade will feature the Fox Chapel Area High School marching band and the homecoming court, including a local senior citizen king and queen, and children from the four district elementary schools. Community leaders and organizations, and a fire truck are expected to join the freshman, sophomore, junior and senior classes in the parade that will highlight this year's homecoming theme, "Music of the Night."

Parking will be available at O'Hara Elementary School, where spectators can line up along the parade route. The festive march will end at James M. Burk Athletic Facility at the high school on Field Club Drive in O'Hara.

The homecoming king and queen will be crowned and the float winners will be announced during halftime. The local senior citizen king and queen are Herb and Alice Goetz, residents of Aspinwall at UPMC Lighthouse Pointe.

Additionally, there will be a Little Foxes Den from 4 to 5:30 p.m. Oct. 9 on the lawn outside the high school's large group instruction room. The den will have free activities for children age 8 and younger. The children will be invited to join the homecoming parade through the school parking lot.

Admission to the homecoming game is $3 for students, $5 for adults and free for district senior citizens who have a Gold Card.

• Hartwood Elementary School in the Fox Chapel Area School District has been awarded a Highmark Healthy High 5 School Challenge grant of nearly $10,000 to implement a program aimed to encourage lifetime fitness at an early age. Studies illustrate that the health habits children develop at a young age will continue with them through adulthood, and the grant will support Hartwood's efforts in introducing programs that ultimately will create healthier, more successful students.

North Hills School District received two awards of excellence in the 40th Annual Educational Publications Contest, sponsored by the Pennsylvania School Boards Association.

The 2008-09 annual report and the district's Webs site -- www.nhsd.net -- each received the association's highest honor. The Web site category was added to the publications contest in 2007. The 2008-09 Activities Calendar, The Online Academy @ North Hills brochure, the North Hills Senior High School 2008-09 Program of Studies handbook, and the Winter Holiday Concert program all earned honorable mentions.

• North Hills School District will host its second annual Homecoming carnival and car cruise Saturday. The celebration, open to the community, will be held from 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. on the junior and senior high schools campus.

Several school clubs, athletic groups and booster organizations will offer carnival games and activities, and there will be a dunk tank where students can "dunk the principal." The event will include the eighth annual Computer Aided Drafting & Design Club Car Cruise, which will include classic and new cars, trucks, motorcycles, Jeeps and show cars. Spectators will be admitted free. The entry fee is $10 for all participating vehicles. More than 30 trophies and awards will be presented. Dash plaques and gift bags will be given to the first 100 vehicles, and proceeds will benefit the CADD Club. Contact Jim Cassandro for more information, cassandroj@nhsd.net.

Student performances by the North Hills dance team, world drumming ensemble and the orchestra are scheduled and baked goods, pizza, hotdogs and sandwiches will be available.

The carnival is sponsored by the North Hills Junior High School Caring Team, which raises money and community awareness for the needs of grieving children in Western Pennsylvania.

The North Hills varsity football team will meet Pine-Richland High School at 7:30 p.m. tomorrow at Martorelli Stadium. The high school homecoming dance will be held on Saturday at North Hills Senior High School.

The girls field hockey team is launching a fundraiser and awareness initiative to fight breast cancer.

"Next Thursday, the team will play using pink balls, and the coach, Donna Stephenson, plans to donate $10 for every P-R goal scored. The team already has earned more than $500 for the cause through a carwash. The girls also will sell pink P-R spirit T-shirts."

The team is designating today's game against Mt. Lebanon as the Play4theCure Game for breast cancer. The junior varsity game starts at 6 p.m., and the varsity game begins at 7:15 p.m.

Ms. Stephenson said the two teams will honor field hockey official Barb Crupie, who is a breast cancer survivor, and also the memory of another field hockey official, Sue Conti, who lost her battle with the disease in October 2007.

Team seniors will be recognized at the game against Hempfield on Oct. 13. The junior varsity game will start at 6 p.m. Senior night recognition takes place at 7 p.m., and the varsity game gets under way at 7:45 p.m.

For more information or to sponsor goals scored, please contact Coach Stephenson at donnastephenson@zoominternet.net.

• The Pine-Richland High School Chamber Singers have been selected to be a part of a televised event called "Celebrate America" being broadcast on PBS stations and subsequently sold as a DVD.

Choral director Lee Rickard said two dozen students will travel with him to the WQED studios in Oakland on Oct. 9 for a recording session.

Program coordinators are traveling to 13 cities across the country to record sessions with students to be a part of composer, musician, conductor and arranger Tim Janis' program. The choirs will each sing a selection that will be aired as part of the project.

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