She'll play violin in soldiers' honor

Whenever there's a need for volunteers to raise funds for disaster relief, needy families, or for children of deceased soldiers, Alexandra Amend chips in.

The 9-year-old Green Township girl will play the National Anthem on her violin at 12:30 p.m. Sunday at the Reds game, dedicating the song to the Freedom Alliance Scholarship Fund for children of soldiers killed or injured in Iraq. She has already raised more than $500 for the fund, playing at various locations around town this summer.

Alexandra is a fifth-grader at Summit Country Day school. She and her family have adopted a platoon of soldiers serving in Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Alexandra raised $2,000 for the Red Cross Disaster Relief after 9-11.

She is the daughter of Kenneth and Maureen Amend. The family is urging anyone who attends the game to make a banner with a message of support for the troops, because a video will be made and sent overseas.

Cops honored for valor, performance

Cincinnati's Rotary Club will give its annual awards today to four Cincinnati police officers:

• Officer Michael Schulte, for valor during a February incident in Northside in which he chased suspected burglar Andre Sherrer and fatally shot him after Sherrer got the officer's baton and hit him with it.

• Veteran canine officer Spc. David Kennedy, for career enhancement after a year in which he started working with a new dog, Scout, and became a certified trainer and evaluator of other canine teams.

• Investigator Patrick Galligan, for a body of work. To name all his qualifications, his supervisor wrote, "would literally demand a small journal."

• Lt. Theresa Theetge, honored for treating people fairly, reorganizing the system of filing use-of-force reports, and for soundly defeating her opponent in an April charity boxing match.

The winners were nominated by their supervisors, with Chief Tom Streicher making the final choices. They'll be treated to lunch today at Xavier University's Cintas Center.