Grand Oak Elementary students collect cans for the hungry

During Grand Oak's Food Flood Friday yesterday, students collected 1,398 cans of food for the hungry.

The cans will go from the Huntersville school to the Second Harvest Food Bank.

Third-graders Zaheer Razack, Caroline Rodriquez and
Ashlyn Mayfield get ready to sort their cans.

Kimora Dillahunt, Sophia Garsik and
Adriana Pillo organize boxes of donations.

Alexa Van Dam adds an item to a collection box.

Myers Park, Country Day, Providence Day win local WorldQuest competition

Three Charlotte schools will advance to a national Academic WorldQuest trivia competition in April.

In Charlotte's fourth annual Academic WorldQuest contest Wednesday, Myers Park High came in first, Charlotte Country Day second, and Providence Day in third.

The international trivia competition, hosted by the World Affairs Council of Charlotte, emphasizes the importance of international events, commerce and culture. Questions ranged from current events to history to international faces in the news.

The teams will travel to Washington, D.C., to compete (30 other councils in the country participate) on April 26.

Twenty other high schools participated Wednesday:

Cannon School
Cato Middle College High
Charlotte Catholic High
Charlotte Christian
Charlotte Latin
CMS - Exchange Students Team
Crossroads Charter Senior High
Davidson Day
East Gaston High
East Mecklenburg High
Highland School of Technology
Independence High
Military and Global Leadership Academy
North Mecklenburg High
Providence High
Rocky River High
Sun Valley High
Union County Early College High
Vance High
Weddington High

Nash Grier dunks on Bobcats center Bismack Biyombo

Vine sensation Nash Grier, a Davidson Day sophomore, recently spent some time making videos during a practice with the Charlotte Bobcats.

Most notably, he enlisted some players to sneak up behind center Bismack Biyombo and hold a miniature basketball hoop.

Here's what happened:

As of Tuesday, rankzoo.com lists Nash as the fourteenth most-followed Vine user in the world, with more than 2 million followers.

Cannon School goes Hogwarts for Halloween, raises cancer research money

For Halloween, the upper school at Cannon divided its students into four houses a la "Harry Potter" -- House Animus, House Impetus, House Humanitas and House Integritas.

(The house names came from the school's core values: courage, passion, kindness and integrity.)

Photo courtesy of Cannon School

The houses competed in their own team-building games on Halloween and also raised money for the American Cancer Society for Cannon's annual event, Cannon Runs for Cancer Research.

Runners went through a 1.5 mile obstacle course Thursday, designed by Cannon's Relay for Life Club. In honor of Halloween, each house had students dress up as zombies along the course who tried to capture flags from runners.

SEA LIFE Charlotte-Concord Aquarium seeks top 10 Young Environmentalists

In an online contest, SEA LIFE Charlotte-Concord Aquarium is giving 10 students, between ages 8-12, the chance to earn a spot on its SEA LIFE Young Environmentalist panel.

The aquarium is set to open at Concord Mills this spring.

The panelists will share SEA LIFE's "Breed, Rescue, Protect" conservation message at their schools, get an annual pass to the aquarium and participate in grand-opening events.

To enter, students must:
1. Write a 200-word essay that answers, "How can you protect your favorite endangered sea creature?"
2. Create a piece of art, using any medium, illustrating the endangered sea creature.
3. Be willing to talk to their school and class about the importance of taking care of sea creatures.

Submissions are due by Nov. 18, and are accepted through Facebook at www.facebook.com/SEALIFECharlotteConcord or by email to YoungE@SEALIFEUS.com. To view terms and conditions, click here.

All entries will go on the aquarium's Facebook page, and winners will be chosen and announced in December.

Nash Grier said to meet with Disney star Zendaya in Charlotte

Zendaya.
Photo courtesy zendaya.com

Attention Vine-viewers: Expect some Vines this weekend from Nash Grier with Disney Channel star Zendaya.

After a whirlwind trip to New York City, local Vine sensation Nash Grier said he'll meet with her and film some Vines.

Vines are six-second, looping videos.

Zendaya stars as Raquel "Rocky" Blue in Disney's "Shake It Up!" and is currently recording her first album.

Nash filming at GMA this week.
Photo courtesy Elizabeth Grier-Floyd

She will be in a "Beats by Dre" commercial with Cam Newton and is coming to Charlotte this weekend to meet him, promote her album and sing the national anthem at a game, Panthers officials said.

Nash, a 15-year-old sophomore at Davidson Day, returned this week from New York where he was featured on "Good Morning America" and "Inside Edition."

He said the national attention was spurred by the Observer's story about him that was published Monday. According to rankzoo.com Friday, he is the 20th most-followed person on Vine with more than 1.6 million followers.

St. Mark Catholic raises more than $62,000 for diabetes research

St. Mark Catholic officials gave a final tally this week that students raised more than $62,000 for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation Kids Walk to Cure Diabetes for the school's annual spring service project.

They raised money through penny wars, a raffle, family donations and corporate matches.

Students learned about what it's like living with diabetes and the importance of finding a cure when five of the school's students who have Type 1 diabetes presented a video showing how they test their blood sugar, make safe food choices and give themselves insulin.

This is the second year in a row that St. Mark has been the school to raise the most amount of money for the JDRF Kids Walk to Cure Diabetes, said school volunteer Amy Burger.