By Sue Moore
It’s good to leave town to take a week’s vacation and get a different perspective on this little corner of the world I call home. I had an opportunity to visit Kauai’i in Hawaii this month to meet there with friends and family over plenty of good food and camaraderie. I find that people are interesting and good the world over but especially in the friendly state of Hawaii. Although nothing seemed to have changed upon my return home, I have changed appreciably. I feel closer to my family members for having spent quality time together. I loved the scenery and the people who are of all races and creeds as we are all Americans. We face the future with hope for the better in whatever small pockets we exist.
In the meantime, the staff of the South County News carried on in splendid fashion. I looked at newspapers from the island and the mainland in my travels, finding most of them a shadow of their former selves in page count, advertising and local news. We are blessed to have so many people in our circulation area of Vicksburg and Schoolcraft who donate their hard-earned dollars to support a newspaper such as the one you are reading. The people who stepped in to make sure this issue is complete include Travis Smola, our hard-working reporter; Linda Lane, our volunteer board member and reporter; Bob Ball, our copy editor and board member; Sheri Freeland, our advertising representative, and Justin Gibson, our graphic designer.
The first day I was on the island, I received a text from Superintendent Keevin O’Neill about a press conference that very afternoon and could I attend. I told him I would send a reporter since I was 3,000 miles away in Hawaii. He replied that his dad was there too and if I saw him I should say hello. Travis covered the press conference and wrote the story upon a moment’s notice.
Good Samaritan in Schoolcraft
Wayne York experienced this act of kindness while plowing the parking area this winter for the congregation of the First Presbyterian Church of Schoolcraft. He was doing the work with his John Deere lawn tractor. “On two different occasions out of nowhere came a pick-up truck with a front-end plow and plowed the parking lot in no time at all. I don’t know either of the drivers, however, I do want them to know that I greatly appreciate their random act of kindness,” York said.
Schoolcraft School Superintendent Rusty Stitt Posting on Facebook
“I write this with a heavy heart as today I lost one of my students to suicide. As a society we must bring mental illness forward and have more resources to help those in need. We need to teach our children social-emotional learning skills by teaching them how to deal with emotions, relationships and proper decision-making. We have limited resources in our schools. Educators try their best to teach these skills but aren’t often equipped and feel pressured to get through the standards for accountability reasons. We must wake up and deal with this epidemic. We need more resources in our schools to help with this growing issue,” Stitt said to his friends and neighbors.
Ag Artifacts Needed
Kalamazoo County Farm Bureau is in the process of planning this year’s Annual Meeting to celebrate their 100th year as an organization sometime in August. They are looking for knowledge and/or historical items or pieces related to Farm Bureau or agriculture in Kalamazoo County over the past 100 years. If anyone has information to share, please email Lisa Robb at kalamazoocounty@ctyfb.com or call 269-342-0212.
Looking for Long Lost Classmates
The Vicksburg High School class is 1969 will be celebrating its 50-year anniversary at the Summer Festival on Saturday, July 27. Larry Forsyth is heading up the search for missing classmates. He can be -reached at 269-649-2437 or kindlingmaker@gmail.com. They expect to have a party in the evening after the alumni breakfast that is held annually in the community pavilion in the morning.
Tom Hoy Honored by Colon High School
The athletic Hall of Fame at Colon High School was started by Vicksburg’s Tom Hoy when he was athletic director and assistant principal at Colon in 1998. He retired from education in 2008, knowing that those who would follow in his footsteps would keep up the effort. Much to his surprise, they nominated Hoy for membership this spring with a ceremony, a plaque and a reminder of the many championships the high school teams received under his tutelage. There were 20 SJV conference titles earned from 1996 to 2009 by Colon athletes. He and wife DeeDee have moved to Austin Lake but still call Vicksburg home.