About Town

By Doris and Ida Lessenden

April 30, 2004

A huge crowd of family and friends turned out Sunday afternoon at the Eads Senior Center to wish George Crow a Happy 90^th Birthday. He has endeared himself for many years in our community for his benevolent acts of kindness, his generosity with his money, and donations of foods and other gifts to groups and individuals. At his side were his brother, Ray and Lucille Crow, George’s sisters, Oralee (Vernal) Patterson, Mabel Yost, and Gertrude (John) Dixon, and many of their families were on hand for the celebration also. George’s daughter, Diane and Dale Pierce were here from Delta, and his son, Charles of Eads attended the party.

Delegates converged from all the districts in Kiowa County for the Republican General Assembly Saturday. Vern Harris from District l and Donald Oswald from District 3 were chosen to run for County Commissioner seats. A number politicians and campaign workers spoke for candidates who are running for office in the state primary.

Friends about town are so happy to have some Eads "snowbirds" come home recently from their winter quarters in Arizona and Texas. LaVerne and Ilene Eder, Gary and Thada Hart, Bob and Donna Miller, and George and Dorothy Ellicott have returned to their homes. Welcome home!

Congratulations to Kim (Japhet) Englehardt who will be graduating in May from Lamar Community College as a registered nurse. We are pleased that she is operating a new company, Southern Colorado Critical Nurse LTD in Eads. This occupation will allow her to be at home more with their two young sons yet she can still work as a nurse when needed. Congratulations to Kim and her family.

Kiowa County ladies, Vera Hallock, Mary Louise Huddleson, Bernice Tuttle of Towner and LaVerle Kelley, Delores Rector, Loretta Seibel, Annie Cole, and Doris Lessenden of Eads attended the large informative meeting in La Junta last Thursday. The AARP and Medicare staffers spoke about the 27 choices of health insurance cards for prescription drugs that people will need to make decisions about soon. The ladies will try to help other people to know some of the options before them. The many speakers were good, but even they said they don’t know all the answers. That same day, Faye Barber went with another group to Burlington to the area Task Force meeting.

Congratulations to Prom Queen, Jessica Watts and King Chad Barnett who were crowned by junior Vice President, Josh Fry and President Alysha Uhland at the Prom Saturday evening. Prom Court attendants were Ashley Brown, Jamie Richardson, Steven Gilmore and Anthony Voss. The Prom was decorated in red, silver, and black on the Red Carpet Affair theme in Hollywood. Barry Koch announced the dancers who came from the stage and walked down a winding red carpet between twinkling lights and silver stars that had the names of all the juniors and seniors written on them. The deejay was Shannon Christie and his wife from Cheyenne Wells. The parent liaisons, Lori and Rob Morlan and Rhonda and Doug Uhland did and outstanding job of guiding the students for their prom and the whole year. We who have watched them as liaisons for three years know that Lori and Rhonda are dedicated leaders of this class of 18.

The Juniors and Seniors are grateful to all the local people who donated gifts and money for their fantastic After Prom Party. A big "thank you" goes to the adults who came after mid-night to 5:00 a.m. to operate the game tables and distribution of the gifts. Senior parent liaisons, Pam Batterton and Delisa Weeks were helpful organizers for this party.

It is so good to know that Carl and Zelda Peterson are back at their ranch east of town. Carl was flown on April 10^th to Colorado Springs with a heart problem. After surgery, Carl is doing a lot better and is getting stronger with therapy.

There was a good turn out of Eads folks who went to the Lamar Elks club to play bingo last Thursday to help the juniors and senior earn some money for their prom expenses. The Elks gave the students $700 .00 for their work and the participation of people who came from Eads.

If you ever want to see the joy of children exploring big machinery, trucks, and animals, you ought to go see the FFA Barnyard Day next year at the school. They had a great display last Tuesday. It was good to hear the quack of ducks and see the horses, sheep, goats, cattle, and other animals.

Bless Linda Trosper’s heart, she is often available to go to the school to substitute or to work with the STAND club which she did last week. Some of the students served the lunch after Konda Howard and Debbie Kliesen prepared it. This was part of their project to bring awareness to have a "Safe Prom". Raina Kliesen decorated the room with balloons and other posters.

We were pleased to receive an invitation to Matt Bontrager Bain’s graduation from the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs. Matt’s big day is May 21^st where he will receive a Bachelor of Arts in Geography and Environmental Studies. His parents, Judy and Lyle Beeson, are to be congratulated also.

Joe and Janie Bush catered a fine beef brisket southern style dinner for the annual FFA Banquet Monday evening for a full house of students, families and supporters. Around 43 members were given numerous plaques and framed certificates for their class and competitive work. Guest Speaker, Ben Weber, of McClave who is the State Vice President, said that these successes come about because of hard work and dedication to their goals. Ben is a student at West Texas State College.

After attending the FFA banquet, it leaves me with a sense of awe to hear and see all the work and memorization that students accomplish. There were so many awards given that I will rely on their reporter to report the awards. The students who received some of the most coveted awards were seniors Ashley Brown and Brad Rehm, Juniors Heather Miller and Kelley Lindholm, Sophomores—Adam Saffer and ninth grader, Destiny Saffer. The Honorary FFA adults who were inducted into the chapter were Ted DeLong, Rob and Lori Morlan, and Rod and Karen Jagers for assisting the students in so many ways this year. Delisa Weeks was another parent who received special recognition from the chapter. Lance Jagers, their advisor, has done a wonderful and commendable job in leading this large chapter in learning and accomplishing numerous projects. At the end of the evening, Nick Barnard and Shawn Kraft presented a large screen power point photo show of their activities this year.

Don and Darlene Jones of Bloomington, Illinois, were here visiting her mother, Lillie Fox last week.

There will be an auction of items at the ranch of the late Joe and Catherine Oswald Saturday, May 1^st beginning at 9:00 a.m. The ranch is southeast of Kit Carson.

Rhonda Krueger and Tonya Lane are looking for models of any age to participate in the May 7^th Mother’s Day Fashion Show at the Nursing Home at 2:00 p.m. Please call them or Doris Lessenden if you can be a model.

Families and friends are enjoying the Senior Profiles of Plainview and Eads students. Thank you, to Betsy Barnett who gathers the photos and takes the profiles, and the Press for donating the space to run them.