Chinese New Year of the Dog, Figure Skating, Backyard Bird Count, Ames School Student Services

Dennis Hart gives a roundup of last week's local news from the pages of the Ames Tribune and related local papers.

Jingtao Wang, Principal of the Ames Chinese Language Academy and students of the Academy, Daniel, Megan, Grace, James, Willow, and Amy, deliver a Chinese New Year's greeting for the Year of the Dog, and tell KHOI reporter Susan Franzen about this unique local school which teaches Chinese language, history, and culture. 

Two performance events will be happening in Ames during the celebration period (1) ISU: Feb 18th at Students and Chinese Academy students perform at Memorial Union Great Hall; (2) Chinese Gala: Feb 23rd, at City Auditorium - a professional team from mainland China will present acrobatics, dance, magic, folk art and other traditional Chinese arts. 

Ames resident, Joan Gordon, has been a figure skating judge for more than 40 years, as well as a skater herself and describes the world of figure skating and judging, the Ames Skaters' Club, and Parks and Recreation classes at the skating rink.

Pat Schlarbaum notifies us about the global Backyard Bird Count that will turn ordinary bird lovers like you into "citizen scientists" from Feb 16 -19 in association with the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology.   Results can be paoted at 

Dr.Anthony Jones, Director of Student Services for the Ames Community School District, describes programs for special needs students and student retention programs in Ames Schools and comments on how school shootings affect schools and students.