CONCORD- W.M. Irvin Elementary students and staff were shocked when Ellen DeGeneres announced that the Chobani Foundation was donating $100,000 to the school for its BackPack program.
Emily Francis, English as a Second Language teacher at W.M. Irvin, traveled to California last week to be on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. Francis was selected as a guest because of her kindness and dedication to her students. A former Cabarrus County Schools Teacher of the Year, Francis moved from Guatemala to the United States when she was 15 and told Ellen she learned English by watching her on television.

Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu signaled on Feb. 11 that Turkish citizenship will be provided to all overseas members of the Ottoman dynasty at a meeting in Istanbul, one day after events held to mark the centenary of the death of Ottoman Sultan Abdulhamid II. “We want to provide citizenship to all those who do not have Turkish citizenship. I will personally deal with this issue in accordance with decisions from the cabinet,” he said. Çavuşoğlu and Istanbul Mayor Mevlüt Uysal met members of the Ottoman royal family who were in Istanbul to attend Abdulhamid II memorial events.

Approximately 250 runners from around the world climbed the Empire State Building Run-Up presented by Turkish Airlines and powered by the Challenged Athletes Foundation. In the world’s first and most famous tower race, runners climbed 1,576 stairs, 1,050 vertical feet (320 meters), to the 86th floor of the fifth tallest building in the U.S. for the 41st annual event on Wednesday. Frank Nicolas Carreno Hernandez from Colombia won the men’s invitational with 10 minutes and 50 seconds in his first participation in the Run-Up, The defending champion Suzy Walsham from Singapore won the women’s invitational with 12 minutes and 56 seconds. This was Walsham’s ninth total victory in the race, and her sixth consecutive win.