Recycle those gowns: If you graduated from Wenatchee Valley College and you’re not clinging to your cap and gown as proof, the college would like them back.

The college Foundation is asking graduates to donate their caps and gowns for students who can’t afford to buy them. The foundation bought some that are loaned to students, but the need is growing. A new cap and gown costs $40.

“Everyone deserves to graduate in style after putting in all the time and effort to get there,” said Stacey Lockhart, executive director of the foundation.

To donate, contact Lockhart at slockhart@wvc.edu or 682-6415.

Cousin to a hero: It’s always amazing to find out how even little old Wenatchee can be so globally connected. Malcom Keithly, owner of M & M Productions, a video production company in Olds Station, sent us a link of TV coverage about his cousin, June Keithley-Castro, who was recognized last month as one of the Philippine Islands’ great heroes. She was given a plaque of recognition and one of the country’s highest awards during the 27th anniversary of the People Power Revolution Feb. 25 in Manilla. Philippine President Benigno Aquino and other leaders paid tribute to Keithley-Castro for her work as a radio announcer during the 1986 revolution to overthrow dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

“An excellent broadcaster, an extraordinary woman, a patriotic Filipino, Keithley-Castro is today revered as one of ... (the revolution’s) enduring heroes,” a reporter for the CBN TV segment said over video footage of the award presentation. She kept the Filipino spirit alive with her broadcasts from an undisclosed location during the rebellion, according to the report.

Malcom Keithly said he had heard that his father’s brother had married and fathered a child in the Philippines, but never knew of the Keithly-Castro connection until she contacted the family while doing a TV production in Seattle in 2009. Here’s the link to TV coverage of the recognition: http://tinyurl.com/d6mzpd6

Help for the Third World: At age 15, Amber Smoke traveled to Romania three times to help out at orphanages there. The home-schooled young woman, daughter of Wenatchee Fire Chief Stan Smoke and his wife Wendy, is now 34 years old and the married mother of four living in Cashmere.

But she still has a passion for helping people in Third-World countries.

Smoke, whose last name is now Givens, makes washable incontinent pads for women and sells them online and locally at Lemongrass Natural Foods and at Wenatchee Natural Foods. For every pad she sells, she donates one pad to a hospital in Ethiopia. In that African country, many women are incontinent as a result of poor medical care during childbirth.

For more on her product, visit mypeepods.com. For more on the Ethiopian hospital, visit hamlinfistulausa.org.

Smoke says she and her children sew the washable pads and say they are a good product because they are “environmentally friendly, more cost effective and more comfortable than disposables.”

This week’s Worm was compiled by World staff writer Rick Steigmeyer. Have a tip? Send it to newsroom@wenatcheeworld.com.