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Kids are returning to school this week - today for students in many communities, including Attleboro and North Attleboro - which means summer is, alas, over, although it won't be technically over until the autumnal equinox arrives on Sept. 22.

For students, the bittersweet end of summer means new grades and challenges, but for me, it's time to give out my annual end-of-summer awards known as HEATS - Honors for Really Extraordinary Achievements in the Summer.

In this summer, with gasoline prices exceeding $4 a gallon for a few weeks, and with economic pressures reverberating across the economy, HEATS this year will reward efforts that enabled people to enjoy the summer without breaking their wallets completely.

So, without any further delay, the 2008 awards include:

The North Attleboro Firefighters Kids Day Association, for putting on another fine four-day festival that was noteworthy - in this wet summer where showers and sometimes strong thunderstorms have been falling practically every day - for being rain free. As a result, very good crowds came every day to Mason Field, and fireworks again were offered on Friday and Saturday evenings. Kudos to the entire crew for a job well done. Kids Day Road Race Director John Gautieri for continuing year in and year out to keep the Sunday morning Kids Day race tradition alive. A good crowd of about 300, including many families, turned out for both the free children's events that preceded the main event and the 5K race on a pleasant and not humid morning.

Organizers of the area's many fine weekly summer concerts, who once again provided ample free entertainment on a weekly basis in Attleboro and many of the surrounding communities. A special mention goes to the North Attleboro Cultural Council for organizing that town's inaugural weekly Tuesday evening concerts at Veterans Park in downtown North Attleboro. The events were a welcome addition to the area concert lineup.

The Attleboro YMCA and Hockomock Area YMCA win HEATS awards for continuing to offer fine summer camps for area children, and for offering scholarship assistance through their respective Best Friends and Reach Out for Youth and Families campaigns.

Ditto for the camps and programs offered by the North Attleboro and Attleboro Park and Recreation departments. Thanks to those programs, hundreds of youngsters are kept busy in fun ways for most of the summer.

A special HEATS awards to the zoo camps that educate scores of youngsters at Attleboro's Capron Park Zoo and North Attleboro's World War I Memorial Park Zoo.

Educational and cultural HEATS awards go out to the Attleboro Arts Museum for its summer classes, to the Southeastern Arts Collaborative (SMARTS) for its annual summer program, and to the Bristol Community College's Attleboro Center for its popular Kids College.

The Newman YMCA of Seekonk has earned its first HEATS award for offering its new "Cheap Eats" program, which features both quality evening meals and family fun.

Area libraries again earn HEATs for writing new chapters of their yearly summer reading program for children. This year's theme was Wild Reads.

The organizers of the Rehoboth Agricultural Fair deserve a HEATS award for being serious about making a long-term commitment to bringing this staple of summer fun and entertainment back every year after a several-year hiatus.

The LaSalette Shrine deserves a HEATS award for quickly making its its new Memorial Day festival a must-attend event at the start of the summer. Those who participated in the annual Pan-Mass Challenge bicycle ride for the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute's Jimmy Fund - either by riding, cheering on the riders along the route, which passed through much of The Sun Chronicle area, or by volunteering - deserve kudos and HEATS awards for continuing to be involved in such a worthy event. Ditto for all those involved in the area's Relays For Life for the American Cancer Society in June.

HEATS awards go out to the organizers of all of the annual events that dot the summer landscape around here, without which it wouldn't quite be summertime in the greater Attleboro area: The Attleboro Elks Barbecue, the Portuguese-American Festival, the St. Joseph's Church Festival, the Attleboro Recreation Department's Kidz 4th Fun Day, the Attleboro fireworks, the Arnold Mills July 4th Road Race and parade, the Community VNA Hospice's annual Runaways Road Race, and the Butterfly 5K race at World War I Memorial Park in North Attleboro to benefit Julia's Garden at the park.

Although their season will be extended with the Governor's Cup International League playoffs, the Pawtucket Red Sox earn a special HEATS award for providing family entertainment at affordable prices.

LARRY KESSLER is a Sun Chronicle local news editor who can be reached at lkessler@thesunchronicle.com.