“Love your neighbor as yourself” Matthew 22:39. Then Trust them, Thank them, and Value them. Let’s make it a habit to practice the Golden Rule.

Several couples in our community have been celebrating that they have been married 50 or more years. Some whom I have visited with are Bob and Renee Woods –63 years, Orville and Rita Mousel-----, Dave and Diane Harrison—55 years and Louis and Lauretta Brown—50 years. We do congratulate them and many other couples who have had lasing marriages.

Charlotte Beeson and her daughter, Michelle Weygandt, were here for Don Phillips’ funeral. Last month, they flew to Paris, France, to attend Charlotte’s grandson’s wedding. Richard Beeson’s son proposed to his girlfriend under the Eiffel Tower so later they decided “Let’s get married there.” It was a loving thing for Richard and his wife to do to fly his mother and sister to France for a dream come true for them. They had a good time in fine eating places and castles, except that Michelle walked on a broken foot for five days till she returned to America.

The funeral of Don (Charlotte) Phillips of Eads was a large one with friends and family of his ten brothers and sisters. Mr. Lane Gooden officiated the service and Mrs. Deborah Gooden was the liturgist. Monica Uhland and Rhett Uhland sang the musical selections. The Kit Carson VFW Post conducted the closing service for their fellow veteran, Don Phillips, that was led by Alan Naugle and Areta Blooding-Laird,

Corbin Jagers had a great airplane ride for his 10^th birthday Thursday. His sister, Cassidy, went with him for the ride with recent graduate, Dillon Roucsh of McClave. This outstanding young man received his pilot license before he graduated. Dillon is a Colorado State FFA Officer who will travel around the state for his officer duties this fall.

Kathryn Smith is a sweet new lady resident at the Prairie Pines Assisted Living Center. Her home state is Pennsylvania. She came to our state because her daughter, Connie and husband Ernie Lambright, are the new pastors at the Sheridan Lake Bible Church. Kathryn’s family and the friends who usually go to Pines Coffee Hour on Friday afternoons had a surprise birthday party for her. Activity Director, Cindy Newman, had interviewed Katryn and wrote a lovely biography in Mrs. Smith’s words of memories from her life. It was heart touching and brought tears to some of our eyes.

Ruth Buller did such a nice gesture for the new Pastor and Mrs. Lambert. She and some ladies collected photos of the church family so the Lamberts can connect faces with names. Ruth made these in to a wonderful white shutter fly book. Charlotte Woelk bought me one of the books. I do really like it because one doesn’t always know which names belong to what face. The book also contains addresses and phone numbers or e-mail addresses.

Congratulations to Matthew Seay, who graduated last month from John Hopkins University in Washington D. C. He now has a Master Degree in Economics. He works for the Federal Reserve as a Financial Analyst in Washington D.C. Matt is the son of Barbara Seay of Eads. He is an Eads graduate with the Class of 2007.

CSU Extension Office personnel, Karen Jones and Jeremy McNeely, hosted the annual tri-county Fashion Show for 4-H’ers. The 4-H’ers expressed their thanks to the Crow-Luther Cultural Events Center for letting them use the theatre for their contest. They also appreciated Terry Riley’s expertise with the lighting and spot light. The names of the girls and boys who competed are: Erin Tempel, Kylee Holden, Cassidie States, Alexa Nelson, Erin Tempel with a second garment, Aaron Musgrave, Kree Wallace, and Clayton Nelson. Kiowa County 4-Her, Reagan Johnson, presented the award ribbons and pretty bouquets of pink and ivory carnations with lilies in lavender foil wraps. The three boy models received nice pocket knives in a carrier. These 4-Hers and other 4-H members in Kiowa County are working on their 4-H projects that will be judged at the 4-H Achievement Day fair on Monday, August 7.

There are fine auctions of goods for three days at Glaida Craven’s home in Kit Carson July 20-22, and July 22 at the home of Don McDaniel home on Kerr Street. Don has decided to move to the Veteran’s Home at Home Lake near Monte Vista. He will live in the assisted living home but he says they have a nursing home so there if the time comes that he needs it he can just move to the other end of the Veterans campus. We will really miss Don in this town, but he is a wise man to be thinking about his future care. More of us need to take his lead such as writing a will, designating how you want your emergency health care handled, planning our funeral and/ or hymns that you would like and what is to be done with your home and possessions. How about you, Reader? Have you procrastinated and not done these important steps?

Plans are shaping up for the Maine Street Bash July 29. That Saturday morning at 10:00 a.m. people can enjoy free admission until 10:00 p.m. There will be about 40 or more vendors along Maine Street who will have booths for foods, games, beverages, funnel cakes, and other goods and foods. I talked to Steve Glode of Eads who said some of his friends from Thailand who live in Eads and Lamar are going to be selling Thai foods. This will be a good chance to meet some new friends. People can sign up for the Horse Shoe tournament, the Cob game, kid’s games, Karaoke singing; buy things from artisans and other vendors.

There will be a band stand all day-night for local singers, so sign up with Alicia James! Bring your money to line up for singing with Darwin Nelson’s Karaoke machine. The band JUDI out of Lamar will be others who will bring great music to Eads for listening or dancing. Remember onlookers can watch the Color Run near Prairie Pines and the Demolition Derby at the fairgrounds organized by Justin Lenox.