High school students are celebrating the last day of school and the start of summer, but the work isn't over for three freshman from Shadle Park. They are preparing to head to the MESA USA National Engineering Design Competition in Portland on June 21st.

MESA students, Kelopatra Deltchev, Hailey Guyette and Jessica Lim, started the year with a goal to win the state competition, and now they are preparing to compete at the national level.

“Sure, we're hoping to win; but even if we don't, we know we'll have a great experience,” said Deltchev. “Our goal was to win state and we've done that.”

With roughly 13,000 volunteers assisting the Spokane Public Schools community, choosing the year’s Outstanding Volunteers is a challenge. We appreciate the efforts of all our volunteers who give so freely of their time to help struggling readers, assist busy teachers and make our schools better and richer places for students to learn.

Many volunteers truly do go the extra mile, and so are singled out as Outstanding Volunteers. Thank you to sponsor Luigi’s Italian Restaurant for making this program possible, and congratulations to the honorees for the 2012-13 school year:

Julia Roberts, Logan Elementary: Nearly every school day for 13 years, Julia has spent an hour and a half helping in the health room. She seems to have magical ways of healing children and is never too busy to listen to them, even as she is applying band-aids, handing out ice packs and taking temperatures.

Students at Glover Middle School partnered with