Program honors student helpers

Russett's Nicole Cook wasn't looking for a reward when she signed up to tutor children at a nearby homeless shelter.

But after a year spent reading to the youngsters, helping them spell and making them laugh, the home-schooler got a surprise thank-you from her students.

It came in the form of handmade notes scribbled across a piece of construction paper that was dotted with the artwork of a dozen elementary-schoolers.

"You tell jokes a lot. I like that," a little boy named Casey wrote between crayon marks. "You are a party animal."

That brought a laugh form Nicole, a quiet teenager who works with the Families...