Kim Gear, right, youth market director at the American Heart

Association of Northeast PA, presented an Elite School Award plaque and banner to Jen Bowman, Pleasant Valley Intermediate School's fourth- through sixth-grade physical education teacher, in recognition of her efforts and that of her students in raising $7,101 in the Hoops for Heart fundraiser. The American HeartAssociation's mission is to build healthier lives, free of cardiovascular diseases and stroke and provide public healtheducation in a variety of ways. Hoops for Heart involved the students in a weeklong program of shooting basketball hoops.