Grafton cancels plan to open new school on Shawnee Drive.    Grafton has withdrawn a rezoning application that would allow it to open a private school in the former American Woodmark headquarters at 3102 Shawnee Drive, but the nonprofit still plans to buy the property.  Had the rezoning request not been withdrawn Friday, It would have faced significant opposition from city government.   At Tuesday's commission work session, the majority of members indicated they would oppose Grafton's rezoning request at the panel's next meeting on November 18, 2019.  (For more information, see the article in The Winchester Star, dated Saturday, December 8, 2019.)  

Donors fill truck with gifts for Laurel Center.  Donors helped The Laurel Center get almost everything on its holiday wish list Saturday during a Stuff the Truck event in front of the Walmart department store off US 50 in Frederick County.  The nonprofit agency is still keeping its fingers crossed that Santa or someone equally generous will deliver the one thing its watns most this year - $150,000 to pay off the center's capital debt.  For more information about The Laurel Center, visit the nonprofit's website at thelaurelcenter.org.  (Taken from the article in The Winchester Star dated Monday, December 10, 2019.)

Grace, service dog-in-training, learns with help from SU staff and students.  Grace, a year-old service-dog-in-training, is like any other hound when she's off the clock, running around with a toy to chew on and play with.  Though the yellow Labrador goes to Northern Virginia once a week for an hour of training, she still needs to work with a "puppy trainer" on how to be a service dog in daily life.  Grace is part of the Veterans Moving Forward program.  When her training is complete, she will be a service dog for a veteran with physical limitations or metal illness such as post tramatic stress disorder (PTSD), at no cost to the verteran.  Shenandoah University Provost, Adrienne Bloss,  reached out to the nonprofit program about becoming a puppy trainer.  When possible, Grace stays with Bloss during meetings, speaking events, and her other daily activities.  She often stays at Bloss's house with her two other dogs.  Since Bloss travels a lot, Niccole Gatliff, assistant registrar and adviser to Shenandoah Student Veterans (SSV) and other SSV students help train Grace by taking her to training classes and to their university campus classes.  Bloss would like to have several dogs in training on campus. But there is a limiting factor to this because people often don't want to give up a puppy they've trained.  However, if the training is a community effort, perhaps that would make it a little earier.   For more information about Veterans Moving Forward, visit:  vetsfwd.org  (Taken from The Winchester Star article dated Tuesday, December 11, 2019.)