It was good times, fried fish, pageants, arenacross and more this Saturday in Xenia, where the annual Xenia Volunteer Fire Department Fish Fry event was held.
The event raises money for the volunteer fire department, enabling them to have more discretionary funding, as well as money to be able to upgrade some of their essentials.
There were two pageants held as part of the event, the Little Miss and Mr. pageant and the Junior Miss Xenia Fish Fry pageant.
During late July and early August, some of the Boy Scouts of Clay County Troop 282 took a backpacking trip to Philmont Scout Ranch, near Cimarron, N.M. After the troop's last trip, in the summer of 2008, Scout Leader Tom Barbre gave us his journal, which the Advocate-Press presented excerpts from. This year, we will run all of Barbre's journal from the trip, divided into two parts. For the full journal, and more pictures, please visit www.advocatepress.com
As an aside, Troop 282's Scoutmaster, George Dickinson has been visiting area schools, trying to recruit new boys to become Scouts. Trips to Philmont are only one of the options for adventure that await young men in the Boy Scouts. For those who would like to join, meetings are open and are held on Tuesday night at the Scout building on south Main Street, at 7 p.m. Boys must be at least 11 years old, or entering into sixth grade in order to join.
Jeanie Hall may be the name of the owner of the 111 Club in Clay City, but that's not what she gets called. During the 35th Anniversary of the Clay City bar, the revelers cheering Hall on were all calling her "Mom."
"Everybody calls her 'Mom,'" said Jeanie's daughter Alesia Klingler, who helped plan the event with 111 Club manager Jamey Tolliver. "She's got my brother and I and the rest are all adopted."
"Everybody's family to her. Everybody," said Tolliver. "She's special to them."
On Friday morning a potentially destructive gas leak lead to the disruption of traffic and power to the area surrounding the intersection of North Avenue and Main Street in Flora. Due to a quick response by local utilities and emergency services, there were no injuries or sicknesses due to the leak.
Benita K. Moore will be presenting a program and signing copies of her Civil War book on Aug. 9, at 2 p.m. The book, “A Civil War Diary: Written by Dr. James A. Black, First Assistant Surgeon, 49th Illinois Infantry,” will be available in both hardback ($22) and paperback ($16). The program will be from 2 to 2:30 p.m. with the signing afterwards from 2:30 to 4 p.m.
Brittany Arbuckle, 19, of Flora is the 2010 Miss Clay County Arbuckle was crowned at the climax of Friday evening's pageant, as part of the 71st annual Clay County Agricultural Fair.
Arbuckle is the daughter of Erin Krutsinger and Shawn and Tracee Arbuckle. She is sponsored by Flora Rehabilitation and Healthcare Center and by Stacey Earleywine at Cuttin' Up Hair Salon.
On Monday evening, the reign of Ariel Porter as Junior Miss Clay County began after this year's junior Miss Pageant, which was put on as part of the seventy-first annual Clay County Agricultural Fair.
The other pageant contestants awarded besides Porter included first runner-up and casual wear winner, Tiffanae Litaker; second runner-up and stage presence winner, Brittany McKnelly; Miss Congeniality Inonna Weller; and Miss Photogenic Makayla Schroer.
The other pageant contestants rounding out this year's lineup were Hannah Britton and Alexis Shock.
Bill Atwood of North Wayne Insurance Agency was the event's emcee and was joined by Lee Ryker, who ran the pageant's sound.
The rockets' red glare shone over Charley Brown Park and Flora after dark this Sunday evening, as fireworks capped off the annual Kiwanis 4th of July festivities.
The fireworks show was just the end of a weekend of fun though.
Besides the fireworks, of course, one of the yearly standbys of Flora's Fourth of July festivities is the All American Boy and Girl Contest, were adorable tykes from age three to six put on their most patriotic attire and strut their stuff for the judges and a crowd of cooing parents, relatives and family friends.
This weekend, Flora Boy Scouts from Troop 282 joined more than 10,000 other Scouts for Scout Quest 100, an event held in St. Louis' Forest Park in honor of the 100th anniversary of the Boy Scouts of America.
"This is the second biggest scouting event in the country this year," said George Dickinson, Troop 282's Scoutmaster. "The only thing bigger is going to be the National Jamboree (a huge event held in Virginia near Washington D.C.)."
The Scouts of Troop 282 had further to travel than many and Dickinson said that the best camp sites were taken by 2 or 3 p.m. on Friday afternoon.
PFC Monte Henderson came home along time ago. Killed by a snipers bullet during a firefight Sept. 10, 1968, in the Quang Ngai Province of South Vietnam. When Henderson died, he was returned to Flora where his mother, Dorothy Henderson buried him. He was gone, but to his high school friend, Sam Rice, he was not forgotten.
A half a world of distance, 40 years and death weren't enough to keep Rice from honoring Henderson's memory. Rice and Henderson knew each other in Toulon, Ill., where Rice still lives and where Henderson attended high school, before enlisting in the army.
A year after Henderson's enlistment, Rice was in the service as well."I was there a year later, but in the same area," said Rice, "He got killed in July of '68 and I went in June of '69."
When you hear the words breast biopsy many emotions and concerns raise; however, it is important to note that almost 80% of breast biopsies do not turn out to be cancerous.
That is why it is important to know there are options when selecting a biopsy procedure. One of the least invasive forms of a breast biopsy is suction assisted (Mammotome) needle biopsy.
Hope everyone had a nice weekend. Remember our soilders eveyday not just on Memorial Day. Several people attended the Memorial severs at Oaskaloosa Cementary. The services was good. There was several memorial sevices thru the weekend.
On May 4, 2010, local Modern Woodmen of America members gave a lasting gift to the community. Members of the Xenia Modern Woodmen 6535 gathered at the Xenia City Park to plant six shade trees.
The Advocate-Press will publish Wednesday and Thursday of next week instead of the normal schedule of Tuesday and Thursday.
The office will be closed Monday in honor of Memorial Day and will open again on Tuesday.
With the Fourth of July holiday falling on Sunday this year, the Advocate-Press will have a normal publishing schedule for the rest of the summer, until the Labor Day holiday, when the paper will once again publish Wednesday and Thursday.
Monday Clay County residents will stop to remember those who have served our country and are no longer among us.
Monday honors will beging with a parade that will travel down Main Street, at Library Park starting at 10 a.m. From the there the route will do down West North Avenue to Blue Mound Road then to Elmwood Cemetery.
The parade is scheduled to arrive at the cemetery at 10:15, at which time the ceremony will begin.
The ceremony will inlude Flag raising, invocation, wreath presentations, special music, 21-gun salute, taps and address by Myron Kirby.
Tuesday evening the final class of Clay County graduates took the next step in their lives, the eigth grade class from Clay City officially moved on to High School in a ceremony that lasted less than 30 minutes.
The theme of the promotional exercise was Starry Night and the theme was included throughout.
At Floyd Henson Junior High School, Flora and Xenia eighth graders walked across the stage at a promotional exercise held Monday evening in the school’s gym. On one side, their lives as elementary school students, on the other, a new school and going back to being the smallest fish in the pond.
“We’ve all had our ups and downs as a class,” said Maverick Fisher during the ceremony’s welcome, likening junior high to a football game and the faculty’s influence as a motivating halftime speech, “We are very thankful for those speeches we’ve received along the way.”
The ceremony saw 84 students promoted to high school.
Opening the event was Morgan Van Hyning, who recited the Pledge of Allegiance and gave an invocation.
Friends, family and neighbors of the Flora High School Class of 2010 packed into a hot and stuffy Conley Gymnasium on Sunday afternoon to see the class off.
After the traditional processional, the ceremony got kicked off with a prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance delivered by Rebecca Vincent.
The welcome was delivered by Class President Elizabeth Moore, whose long term tip for the class was jokingly about the use of sunscreen. Moore also mentioned her 11 classmates who were not allowed to attend graduation after being caught trespassing at the school on Thursday night.
Teen REACH is an after-school program implemented across the state. In Clay County though, the REACH program has taken on a life of its own, through the efforts of the staff at the Clay County Health Department, Teen REACH Volunteers and the teens who take part in the program themselves.
This Saturday, Clay County Teen REACH marked its ten year anniversary with a reunion picnic in Charley Brown Park that gave those involved with the program a little chance to look back and have a little fun too.
Teen REACH Site I Coordinator Trisha Mosbarger said that the reunion went "Really well," despite how busy the weekend was, but that she had expected more people would have come out.
