About Town

By Ida and Doris Lessenden

April 23, 2004

Congratulations to Ashley Brown, Eads Senior, who was chosen to be the Eads "Zonta Girl of the Year". She and her mother, LeAnna Brown, were honored by the Zonta Club last Tuesday evening at a dinner in the Lamar Cow Palace along with girls from seven other schools. Ashley and the other young ladies were selected for this fine honor because of their grades, school and community activities, character, and leadership. Congratulations to her parents, Van Jr. and LeAnna Brown.

The friends from around Kiowa County and the state extend their most sincere sympathy to the family and husband, Don, of Shirley (Shalberg) Synder formerly of Sheridan Lake. Her sister, Charlotte (Bill) Woelk of Eads and brother, Merle, (Carol) Shalberg of Sheridan Lake and all their families were in Colorado Springs and Sheridan Lake last week for her funeral and burial back here at Sheridan Lake. Shirley received numerous awards and recognitions during her forty years as an educator and gymnastics coach.

Friends of Dan and Evelyn Garner are glad to have them back home in Eads. Their sons, Jim, and Gale and Bonnie, have been here to help them with the transition.

Every month we look forward to having our "Adopted Third Grade Grandchildren" come to Weisbrod. This month they colored tulips, then cut out the delicate design two times and then mounted them between colored cellophane paper. So now we have pretty "stained glass" art in many of our windows.

Maxine Mays is glad to have her sister, Ruth Foos, here from Ulysses, Kansas, for about a week. Maxine is doing better after several heart surgeries recently.

Ruth Dawson celebrated her birthday last week with family and friends at her ranch near Chivington. Happy Birthday, Ruth!

According to Pastor DeGetta Goettel, 16 teenagers went to Colorado Springs recently to see the performance of "The Thorn". This drama about the passion of Jesus is performed several nights at the New Life Christian Church. May 7^th and 8^th a number of youth from the United Methodist and the Assembly of God youth groups will go to "Acquire the Fire" in Colorado Springs. Through the years we have heard really good reports of these conferences for teens.

We are glad to see that Marie Lang is able to get out and about town a bit more now. She was not well for three weeks. Some of the winter-spring illnesses have been a problem to many people.

During March, Hazel Krueger had a shamrock design wall hanging on display in the Nursing Home Dining room. We counted 23 different green colored fabrics in that lovely work of art. She used tiny squares for most of the quilt pieces. Currently, one of Ida Lessenden’s pink rose embroidered quilts is on display that she made for her granddaughter, Glenda Lessenden Stoker.

Eva Gadzinski of Eads was glad to have her sister, Sandy, come from Ulysses, Kansas, over the weekend to visit her. Eva has been having some hospital stays lately so these visits are most welcome.

This is Prom week, so you can guess that excitement is running high at EHS besides a lot of running at track meets. Larry D. Gifford and the high school track team traveled to Springfield the 17^th while Sue Fox went with the Middle School track team to Tribune on Saturday the 17^th. This week the junior high will be at Swink and McClave while the high school tracksters will be at McClave and Granada.

Joan Pryce Hawkins and her National Honor Society members offered their last cookie sales this week. Students and families are regretful that Joan is retiring this year. She has been a real blessing to so many students through her years of teaching business education and related subjects.

My granddaughter, Dreama, rolled me to the Tuesday baseball game last week. That was a fun experience. The Eagle Baseball team won their games with Swink last week too. This week they encounter Kit Carson. The residents also enjoyed having a ride on the Weisbrod trailer on Friday with Bob Howerton. He took us around to see some of the pretty yards and flowering trees.

A number of local people went to Republican and Democratic Party Caucuses last Tuesday. This Saturday at 2:00 p.m. is the Republican General Assembly in the court house meeting room. The Democratic Party Assembly will be May 7^th at the Eads School multipurpose room.

Congratulations to Eads senior, Jessica Watts, who was chosen to play in the Colorado Coaches Girls, All-State Basketball games. The games were played in Broomfield. Jessica was nominated by coaches from her school league based on talent, dedication, team play and leadership. Congratulations to Jessica and her parents, Allen Wade and Marie Watts. Jessica was also nominated for the Rocky Mountain News Player of the Year award. She has indeed been a dedicated and talented athlete in three sports during her high school career.

Congratulations to Dain Barnett, Marcus Gilmore, and Alysha Uhland on winning top awards in the Creative Writing Contests at the Annual Otero Arts Festival. They are the students of Mary (Adamson) Vasquez.

It made me happy to get to have dinner with my four children, Doris, Virgyln, Virgil Allen, and Dwight at Our Place Restaurant last week. Wanda, Bonnie, Tearle Lessenden, and Jacob Buck joined us for a pre-birthday dinner for Doris. They "locked" my wheelchair into Doris’ new van so we had a nice little ride.

Last week there was a huge Career Development competition at Lamar Community College for many Future Farmer’s of America Chapters. There was a nice photo of Heather Miller, Levi Kraft, Brianna Kerfoot, and T. J. Watts in the Lamar paper. These students were the top winning horse judging team. Other team results will probably be published. Next Monday, April 26h the chapter will host their Awards Banquet at the fairgrounds.

Melody (Laird) Lloyd came from Fruita, to visit her father, Bob, and Janet Laird in Lamar. Sunday evening Terry, Arêta, and Shalyn Laird went to visit with the family.

This is National Volunteer Recognition week at nursing homes across the country. Weisbrod hosted a reception Tuesday evening and the noon luncheon for the hospital. The Weisbrod Auxiliary will be meeting Tuesday.