“Be kind.”

By last Saturday afternoon when the snow and breezes calmed a bit, there was more snow than I have seen for many years. that is good for our land. What a blessing for our county.

Gail Voss wasn’t sure that the men of the Eads senior citizen group would welcome the menu of soup for the monthly noon meeting. However, we surely enjoyed them. She made buffalo-barley soup, and she and the ladies made cheese-broccoli, potatoes-sausage, and beef stew. It was great, with lots of corn bread, hot rolls, and desserts. President Sylvia Weeks invited Cardon and Joyce Berry to go first for food since it was the month of their 61^stwedding anniversary, and also Bill Woelk’s 92nd birthday. Jim Collins came from La Junta Area Agency on Aging office and said he will be bringing our new oven and refrigerator. Guest speakers were Tristen Sheridan and Violet Snyed, representing Prairie Pines Assisted Living facility. They were informative about the services and staff roles at Prairie Pines, including activities, meals, types of rooms, and kinds of services their staff can give and arrange for residents and their families. The ladies invited the seniors to visit Prairie Pines.

Remember that game nights at the Eads Senior Citizen Center are the first and third Tuesday nights. The Sage noon meal will be February 1, and you need to call Areta Laird to order a meal. February 2 will be the monthly brunch at 10:00 a.m., and the monthly noon meal will be February 15.

A meet and greet dinner was planned for Sunday evening at the Kiowa County Community Building for the all people to meet Beth (Stavely) Bell and her husband and two little boys. We warmly welcome Beth, who is the new CEO of Weisbrod Hospital and Kiowa County Hospital District. Jose Hernandez and his sons were to cater the meal.

I was delighted to listen to and watch Saturday shows of the National Western Stock Show in Denver. That really brought back good memories of years ago.

Mike and Cindy McLoud’s grandson, Amanda’s son, of Dumas, Texas, was in Denver exhibiting his prize winning hog at the National Western Stock Show. This was a good learning experience for a young boy.

Congratulations to Magdalen Haase and Antonio (AJ) Vasques of Eads High School, who were announced to be finalists for the Daniels Scholarship. They will be interviewed with other students in a few weeks. This is a prestigious scholarship. It is an honor to even be a finalist!

We do welcome four new National Park Service employees to our community. They will be working at the Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site visitors center in Eads, or out at the site northeast of Eads. The visitors center is on Maine and 13th Streets. I often see travelers taking photos of the office or peering in the windows. It will be nice when they can have a receptionist there to answer questions. We have become accustomed to tell people to go to the back of the building, where there is an entrance to an elevator up to the offices. Kate Bloom has worked a number of years with the National Park Service in museum management in the Tuskegee Institute, Ocmulgee Mounds, Everglades, and other sites. Kate is from Pennsylvania. Tim Jobe is also from Pennsylvania. He has worked for the National Park Service since he was in college in 2009. Tim has worked in parks in Alaska, Washington, North Dakota, Massachusetts, and South Carolina before coming to Eads. Another young lady who has come to the National Park office in Eads is Danielle Stevens. Through the years, she has worked in administrative support roles, and is a writer and an editor. She came from New Mexico, where she worked with the Sandia National Labs. Ms. Stevens worked with crisis management of fires. Mario Medina is also another Park Service staff member in Eads who worked here before. Since graduating from Crowley High School in Ordway, Mario has worked at a number of parks in New Mexico and Colorado using his knowledge of indigenous history.

Recently there was a feature on television about a man and a lady reporter who bicycled from Denver to Kiowa County to the Sand Creek Massacre site. It showed such lovely photography of our land.

Tina Adamson prepared a meal of several soups for Monday evening. She and the three Commissioners, Donald Oswald, Mike Lening, and Butch Roberson, are encouraging people of Kiowa County to think about and to actually volunteer for the fair board and other boards in our county. Tina acknowledged and published a list of the fine people who already serve on a number of important committees or boards for the good of our county. Fellow Kiowa Citizens, you are needed. If we hope to have a Kiowa County Fair in September, we need people to step up and serve on the fair board. 

Every Sunday morning when I turn to drive north, I smile as I pass by the American flags waving in the breeze near the Praise Church, and think that Pastor Lane Gooden set the flags out before he went to out to check his cows.

Sports fans will need to check with local school districts on dates of the makeup games because of the storm.

Please pray for America.