BrandonInfo.com

Baccalaureate is Wednesday evening. Graduates aren’t required to go to Baccalaureate, but most of them do anyway. It’s not school sponsored. The Brandon Valley Ministerial Association sponsors it, and it is a religious service.

Did you go to your Baccalaureate? Why or why not?

Will your graduate participate? Why or why not?
Some people might be very grateful to the ministerial association for sponsoring this event, which blesses the graduates and gives them a Christian farewell from high school.

Others may think that even though it’s optional and not school-sponsored, it’s still a waste of time or even worse, an insult to other religions.

What are your thoughts?

Summer Rec registration is from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. today at the Brandon Municipal Golf Course Community Room. Will any of your kids sign up for Summer Rec? Have any of your kids participated in the past?

What parts of Summer Rec have you used? Golf or tennis lessons? Theater or art camp? Daily activities at the school? Field trips?

What parts of Summer Rec do you like? What parts would you like to see improved? What programs would you like to see that Summer Rec doesn’t already have?

This Sunday, Brandon Valley kids are pitching in to help one of their classmates go to college.

Exchange student Kofi Gunu of Ghana has gotten a nice scholarship to Augustana college, but he still needs $10,000 for tuition. That’s ten times more than his father, a librarian in Ghana, makes in a year.

There will be a fundraiser benefit for Gunu from 6 to 8 p.m. Sunday at United Celebration Church in Brandon. The event will include food, games, a silent auction and a Jell-O salad contest.

Organizers are still collecting items for the silent auction. To donate, contact Justin and Jana Lovrien at  janalovrien@alliancecom.net.

Here’s a link to a story about Gunu: http://brandoninfo.com/article/20130502/NEWS/130502003/1001

Watch for stories in the Brandon Valley Challenger about Brandon Valley teachers who are retiring this year. This week, there will be a story about Jeanne Lens, a first-grade teacher at Brandon Elementary.

Next week, we’re hoping for stories on Shari Sunne, who teaches second grade at Fred Assam Elementary, and Connie VanDenOever, a kindergarten teacher at Robert Bennis Elementary.

We always like to include comment in the story from former students, or from parents of students. Do you have an anecdote or comment about either Sunne or VanDenOever that I can include in next week’s stories? If so, please email me at apthiele@argusleader.com. Remember, we have to be able to use your name in order to include your comment.

You can post comments here, too, but I won’t be able to include them in the stories unless you contact me directly.

Thanks very much.

Alica P. Thiele

Do you know anyone who was running in the Boston Marathon, or who was spectating? If so, are they ok?

If you have any connection to anyone who was there, will you please let us know? You can email me at apthiele@argusleader.com.
Thank you.

Alica P. Thiele

Our big tree in the front yard lost about six big branches yesterday from the ice. Of course, the branch that hit the house was the biggest one that fell. It did a little damage to our newly-shingled roof. Not sure of the extent of the damage, though. My husband will have to climb onto the roof to tell for sure.
The city will let people drop off their fallen branches just east of the hockey rink at McHardy Park. I hear there’s a big run on chainsaws at hardware stores.

Be careful with those power tools, folks.

What kind of damage, if any, did you have during this week’s ice storm?

This is the spring season, and all the local theaters are getting ready to present their spring shows. MCAP is gearing up for “Let Me Hear You Smile,” and the high school is now performing “South Pacific.”

I’ve done school and community theater for 40 years, give or take. It all started in the eighth grade, when the chorus director in junior high asked me if I would sing some music for him for a play he was putting together. I ended up being the grandmother in “Three Pink Leprechauns,” and the drama bug had bit. I auditioned for every play in high school and got parts. Over the years, I’ve performed at most of the area theaters.

It’s great fun, I think. I’ve made many friends and have many war stories to tell about mishaps, mixups and improvised moments.
What is your hobby? What first got you interested in it? What is it about your hobby that you enjoy?

I have to ask. Do you observe Holy Week? Do you go to church extra times From Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday? Do you spend extra time in prayer?

Some churches don’t observe a liturgical calendar, and many people are secular and don’t observe religious occasions at all.

What is your tradition?

The Brandon Valley Health Fair will be held at the high school Thursday, March 21. Have you attended the health fair in past years? Are you planning to attend the health fair this year?

I am writing a story about the health fair for the March 20 Brandon Valley Challenger. I am looking for someone who will comment for my story about what they thought of the fair in past years, or why they are looking forward to the fair this year. Or even just on the topic of health and fitness in general.
Will you comment? You can email me at apthiele@argusleader.com. I need to be able to use your name if I use your comments in my story.

You also can post your comments on this blog. I won’t use any blog comments in my story unless you contact me by email (or by phone at 331-2376) and say I can use your name.

Thank you.

Alica P. Thiele

Do you drop off your middle school student and pick them up each day? Or does your middle school student ride the bus?

Do you ever attend events at the middle school? What do you think of the parking situation at the school?

Do you have any suggestions on improving the traffic flow at the middle school?

A legislative committee in Pierre this week defeated a bill that would have prevented mentally ill people from buying firearms.

Proponents of the bill said folks with mental problems could be too dangerous to own guns.

Opponents said the bill would deny people firearms even if they had never committed a crime?

Which way do you lean on this issue? Do you think the legislative committee made the right choice?

Should Valley Springs pursue a Safe Routes to School reimbursement? The City Commission is gathing information to apply for $130,000 in federal money for signage and sidewalks.

The Safe Routes to School is a reimbursement program, so the city would need to come up with the money to do the work initially.

If you think the city should apply, where do you think the money would be best used?

The Brandon Valley School District plans to hire two part-time people to monitor the kids at Robert Bennis and Fred Assam elementaries so they don’t throw away as much food as they do now at lunchtime.

Do you think this is a good idea?

Apparently, the kids are throwing away a lot of vegetables and fruit, which the federal government is saying they must take on their plates in the new school lunch guidelines.
Some may say that hiring more people is a waste of money. Others might say that it’s worth it to spend $14,000 in wages to save $50,000 in food.

What are your thoughts?

The Brandon library will celebrate 10 years soon. Do you ever use the library? If so, what do you use it for? The library offers many services

computer access

preschool storytime

books

magazines (both in paper and electronically)

community meeting room
Of course, the high school kids use the library every day.

Are there any changes you would like to see at the library?

A lifelong Brandon resident is gone. Tom Ode died unexpectedly of a heart attack.

I’ve known Tom since we were both kids, although I don’t remember him much from those days because I was five years older. I do remember when his kids were little, and his family would come into my family’s cafe for Sunday smorgasbord. His family kept increasing in size until there were six little kids.
I got to know Tom better when he started developing his farmstead, which now contains Eagle Creek and The Bluffs. He always was happy to talk and answer questions about his projects.

What do you remember about Thomas “Tom” Ode?

A legislative task force is going to recommend tougher rules for teen drivers, especially for those ages 14 and 15. In the past, rural and west river people have opposed raising the age of driver licenses, saying young teens are needed to help move equipment around on farms and ranches.

The task force proposals won’t increase the ages of driver licenses, but they would restrict the number of passengers a teen driver could have, for example, and they would ban all electronic devices while driving.

Some folks may think these measures are great and will increase the safety of the drivers and others on the road. Other folks may think that South Dakota still is enough of a maverick state to be that restrictive.

What are your thoughts?

Perhaps you would like to see increased sales tax revenue in 2013. Perhaps you would like to see the road in front of your house improved. Or maybe you would like to see a shelter in your neighborhood park.

What New Year’s Resolutions would you like the city of Brandon to make?

The city council is thinking about hiring a professional consultant to give ideas of how the municipal golf course could make more money.

Should the golf course turn a profit? The swimming pool doesn’t and never will, for example, and yet people want one in the city. Same with the parks. Pioneer park will never “pay for itself,” so to speak, but people want it anyway. Should the golf course be another city amenity, like the parks, that we just pay for through our taxes?

Or should the golf course be expected to pay for itself, and even more, turn a profit. And if it does turn a profit, where should that money go?

What do you think about the idea of hiring a professional consultant?

I’d just as soon stay home when it snows like this. I have a full pantry at home, and plenty of quilts to keep me warm.

But work calls, and families everywhere have obligations that force them to go out and about.

How bad does it have to get before you decide to stay inside? Has this week’s snow made you cancel any of your plans?

Today, a bunch of little kids were shot to death by a gunman who invaded their school.

What is wrong with people? It’s incomprehensible.

What are your thoughts on the tragedy?