Five 2nd Half Champions to be honored Thursday

Five who achieved after age 50 honored tonight The award recipients will be declared '2nd Half Champions'

Five Virginians will be honored today with 2nd Half Champion awards for achievements they reached after the age of 50.

The 2nd Half Champions are:

Alan Arkava: An educator, counselor and coach in Connecticut who, after his retirement at age 59, decided to pursue a career in nursing. He graduated summa cum laude with a registered nursing degree from J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College in 2004.

Arkava, who is 67 and lives in Richmond, works as a nurse now with Chippenham Medical Center.

Linda Sasser: Retiring after a career as a teacher in California, the 68-year-old Sasser fulfilled a longtime dream by purchasing 20 acres of land and becoming a farmer in Goochland County near Hadensville.

In addition to bringing her vegetables and eggs to the Goochland Farmers Market, she also became involved in Citizens Concerned with Goochland Growth, a grass-roots efforts to make the community a better place to live.

Vilma Seymour: Seymour, 58, raised three children while owning and operating a hair salon. At 50, she decided to go to college. The Mechanicsville woman graduated magna cum laude from Virginia Commonwealth University with a bachelor's degree in Spanish at the age of 56, studying abroad in Mexico.

Seymour has worked to help the Richmond Latino community, including helping develop a language services program with VCU Health Systems and a summer program for Latino youth. She was appointed by Gov. Timothy M. Kaine to the state Board of Health Professions.

Sompong Sombati: Sombati, 61, grew up in a poor Thai village on the banks of the Mekong River. He went to high school in Wisconsin as a foreign-exchange student, served as a U.S. interpreter during the Vietnam War and returned to America for college and graduate school.

Sombati was a faculty member in Virginia Commonwealth University's neurology department when, at age 60, he decided to rebuild his childhood home and to celebrate each of his decades by doing six Ironman triathlon races. Between training and racing, the Richmonder has swum almost 300 miles, biked 7,000 miles and run 1,500 miles.

Donnie West: A machinist by trade, Donnie West of Mechanicsville was 50 when he tackled the physically challenging and rigorous demands of the Hanover Fire-EMS training academy. Through hard work and dedication, he became assistant chief with the Black Creek Volunteer Fire Company. In 2007 and 2008, he was the company's Officer of the Year.

West, 58, regularly participates in public education activities with the fire company to enhance fire safety in the community.

Wachovia Securities will present the 2nd Half Champion Awards this evening at a ceremony at the Landmark Theater, 6 N. Laurel St., Richmond. The Richmond Times-Dispatch and the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute are co-sponsors of the event.

Contact Peter Bacqué at (804) 649-6813 or .