■At long last, Sandra Clark, a sophomore at the university of Massachusetts from South Hadley, was crowned Winter Carnival Queen, Saturday. Originally scheduled for coronation at the UMass-Maine basketball game one week earlier, the queen competition was continued for one week following a complaint of discrimination by one male contestant.
■Gov. Francis W. Sargent recently reappointed William H. Welch of 57 Columbus Ave., Northampton, to the Holyoke Community College Advisory Board. Nathaniel Reed, Ph.D., of Amherst, was also appointed a member of the board.
■Alwin Schmidt of Florence this week received the 1996 Advocacy and Public Affairs Award at the annual meeting of the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association in Washington, D.C. Schmidt has been the director of public affairs for the Family Planning Council of Western Massachusetts for 16 years and has been active in the reproductive health movement both locally and nationally.
■Louis J. Denys of Southampton has been named the new executive director of the American Red Cross for Franklin County. As director of the Greenfield-based Red Cross chapter, a position he started in early January, Denys oversees daily operations in Franklin County.
■The Veterans Education Project of Amherst has long helped local veterans speak out about the realities, sacrifices and costs of war. Now, the nonprofit group is encouraging Valley veterans and their families to share their wartime experiences through the written word in a multi-week writers’ project that kicks off Monday at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst.
■The city is poised to expand the Saw Mill Hills by 22 acres in a move officials hope will increase the number of people who frequent the large conservation area in Florence. The City Council is expected to take up an order that gives the Conservation Commission permission to acquire the land from a group of homeowners who live in a subdivision near Matthew Drive and Gregory Lane.