BEVERLY — School Superintendent Jim Hayes has taken his knocks over the last few years with all of the budget problems, but how about giving him credit for making the drive down from his home in Hampstead, N.H., Sunday morning to run in the Heads-Up Road Race at Lynch Park. The race was organized by Beverly High seniors Courtney Chalifour, Caitlin Amatucci and Meghan Chatellier on behalf of Heads-Up, which encourages Beverly sports team to perform community service instead of "canning" for money.

Hayes turned in a pretty good time, too — 31 minutes, 46 seconds for 3.1 miles, good for 45th out of 86 finishers.

¢¢¢

One of the most impressive aspects of last week's wake for Army Spc. Stephen Fortunato was the work of the Beverly High Marine Corps Junior ROTC Program. The students, in their Marine Corps uniforms, served as honor guards during the five-hour wake at the high school field house. Sgt. Major Todd Ellis deserves credit for reinvigorating the program, which was in danger of shutting down due to lack of participation until he took over nearly two years ago.

¢¢¢

We got an update from Harold Chin, an aspiring actor from Beverly and "Pirates of the Caribbean" extra whose character was featured as an action figure last Christmas.

Look for him tomorrow at 8 on ABC's "Pushing Daisies," where he plays poker in the episode "Dim Sum Lose Some." He'll also be on "My Name is Earl" as a trailer park resident in an upcoming episode called "Nature's Game Show."

On the big screen, he's pumped for the February 2009 release of "The Pink Panther 2," where he plays a curator in the scene shot at the Statehouse.

He also has a role as a homeless man in "The Soloist," starring Jamie Foxx and Robert Downey Jr., and a science fiction conventioneer in "Race to Witch Mountain" starring Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. Both movies come out in March.

Then, he appears as a first-class airline passenger in "Funny People," a July movie with Adam Sandler.

Talk about connections.