Nappanee Advance-News, Volume 129, Number 9, Nappanee, Elkhart County, 2 March 2006 — Page 1

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Embracr thk Pack BINGO The second annual Longaberger Basket Bingo, sponsored by the Theta Delta Chapter of Psi lota Xi, will be held Saturday, March 4, at St. Isadore's Hall at the corner of Maryland and Bike Streets in Bremen. The doors open at 9:30 a.m. and play begins at 10 am. Longaberger Baskets, as well as filled themed baskets, will be given as prizes. Tickets can be purchased at the door S2O for 20 cards, additional cards are $1 each or 6 for $5. Psi lota Xi is a National Philanthropic Organization, whose main area of concentration is in the field of Speech and Hearing. Proceeds from this event will go toward current efforts of the chapter in these areas as well as projects in literacy and the arts. FREE MASONS All Nappanee and Bremen Free Masons are encouraged to attend the Bremen Lodge 414 meeting Tuesday, March 7, at 7 p.m. KIWANIS SOCCER The next scheduled meeting for the Nappanee II "Early Bird" Kiwanis Club Youth Soccer League is Monday, March 13 at 7 p.m. at the Nappanee Public Library. The Nappanee II "Early Bird" Kiwanis Youth Soccer League is looking forward to another successful season. AIDA The North Wood High School Performing Arts set to present the musical "Aida" on March 24,25 and 26. Tickets went on sale to the general public on Monday, Feb. 27 through the Performing Arts Office at North Wood High School. All tickets are $5 and are reserved seating so get your tickets now. Tickets can be purchased at the door but please realize the Performing Arts is expecting a sell out crowd for each performance. Contact Us Advance News 158 W. Market St. P.0.80x 230 Nappanee, IN 46550 Office Hours: 10 a.m. to 2 pm. Wednesday through Friday Phone: 574-773-3127 (news) 1-800-933-0356 (ads) ip .- J V‘y, ■, Fax 574-773-3512 E-mail [email protected] M

Students take care of business

By Anthony Godson Editor North Wood High School is getting down to business. For the first time since the high school said good-bye to its Future Business Leaders of America program, the school is once again offering a business program to its students Business Professionals of America. "The school dropped Future Business Leaders of America because it kind of just died out," Scott Hoover, of the North Wood business department, said. "We're now trying to build (the business program) back up." At the high school level, the BPA is a national organization designed to develop students who have an interest in the business field. BPA competitions are held, which allow students to work as a team, or individually, on projects such as designing a web page, analyzing case problems or many others. On Jan. 14, the North Wood chapter of the BPA competed at the District Leader-

Ig: jj J . i-|a.' s. ■/. -ms ■ MKjL MBm, jtt Wf WM J| Ij[ R| jyHV El fcA^J^AAASJjyyim|mßlß MIL W^T^TK t JTymm^KM ■ / M* Ui ►Jh* 4 l * 1 Wie grandness of if all North Wood sophomore Todd Byrket prepares himself to swim in the 100 freestyle at the state I flfc f iii <■ t JBHHHI swim meet held at the I.U. Natatorium on the cam-

ADVANCE NEWS PHOTOS/A.W. GADSON Byrket received some moral support from his teammates while competing at the state meet. Those there to support him were (left to right) freshman Zach Slabaugh, freshman Austen Burkholder, sophomore Jason Casteel, junior Jarron Lincoln and junior Scott Anglemeyer.

Life’s not getting any easier for Hall

By Anthony Godson Editor Brittany Hall may not be a meteorologist, but she does know that when it rains it pours. In just the past month, the 18year old North Wood senior has had a tooth broken by a basketball and had her car totaled, but the most jarring event to her life was when her 5-month old son was diagnosed with congenital scoliosis. "It's been pretty stressful to deal with everything," Hall said from her grandmother's home, as her son, Braxton Hostetler, played in his baby swing. Hall became pregnant with Braxton as a junior in high school, which is something her grandmother, Marcia Krebs, admits isn't the ideal situation. "Having the baby is one thing, we would have dealt with that as a family," she said. "But when Brittany received the call about Braxton's diagnosis, it was the worst day of her life." Braxton was diagnosed with congenital scoliosis after an Xray revealed that there was a curvature in his spine. By definition, congenital scoliosis is "due to a developmental deformity in the formation of the vertebrae."

ship Conference at Ivy Tech in Warsaw, where 12 students earned a spot at the State Leadership Conference in Indianapolis. "I really didn't expect to do that well," Hoover said about the district competition. "We just have some pretty good kids." Among the students who qualified for the competition is junior Ashley Schmitt, who will compete individually in Fundamental Accounting, while she will also be a part of the Financial Analysis team with Tyler Rensberger, Brandon Richardson and Sam St. Germain. To individually qualify for the state competition, Schmitt had to place in the top five at the district competition. "I had to take a test, that was basically about debits, expenditures and a lot of things you need to know for accounting," she said. While she talks about balance sheets and income statements, it's apparent the junior in high school must have a fondness for numbers. That, or she's just

For Braxton, half of his spine is fused to his vertebrae, while the other half is not. The family first noticed that something may be wrong with Braxton after noticing a lump on his back. "It felt like a muscle," Krebs said. While it was obvious that something wasn't right by touch, it took an MRI to get the true diagnosis. The disease occurs at birth, affecting only one of out 10,000 children. It first affects the spine, but with that, other organs can then be affected. "If not fixed, it can then affect the kidney and heart as well," Krebs noted. The family will not fully realize the extent of the disease until a full series of tests are performed, but that does cost money. After learning of Braxton's disease, Hall's family got into contact with the National Scoliosis Foundation, who in turn got diem in touch with the Shriners Hospital in St. Louis. Shriners Hospital for Children works to provide free care to those under 18 years of age. There are 22 Shriners Hospitals, with one in Chicago focusing on curing spinal cord injuries. It's

preparing for her future. "Hopefully I can do it for a career," she said about accounting. "I really enjoy it." As far as the team competition, Schmitt and her three teammates will look over submitted numbers, then present their findings to a panel of two judges. "We'll have a balance sheet, and we'll need to project expenditures for the next year," Schmitt said. "We'll present how much money is needed for the budget." When their findings are presented, the workload will be distributed among the team members. "I explain the miscellaneous cash funds and other things like that," St. Germain said about his involvement with the team. The Financial Analysis team will have another teammate competing individually, as Rensberger will participate in one of the open competitions. In order to qualify for state, a student must have finished in the top 10 in his or her particular open event at the district

The grandness of it all North Wood sophomore Todd Byrket prepares himself to swim in the 100 freestyle at the state swim meet held at the I.U. Natatorium on the campus of Indiana University, Purdue University of Indianapolis. Byrket competed in the 50 and 100 freestyle events, and his performance can be found on page 6 of this edition.

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ADVANCE NEWS PHOTOM.W. GAD«Sn Brittany Hal and her five-month old son, Braxton Hostetler, have some fun at home.

that hospital that Braxton may be accepted into. "Shriners may accept him, but they are a little concerned that he could be too small," Krebs

said. "His curvature is at 43 degrees, and they usually do the operation when the curve is Sm HAUL, Pog* 2

level. Along with Rensberger, other North Wood students who will compete in the open competition at state are Krista Bontreger, Stephanie Cromer, Phil Flickinger and Brad Niver. For the open competition, students once again take tests, with Rertsberger doing well on a management test, the same as Flickinger. "I'd say there were a couple hundred kids at the district competition," Rensberger said. "You can choose different kinds of tests to take, and in the open event, anyone can compete." Events that take a little more preparation, involve the teams. Along with the Financial Analysis team, North Wood will send its Small Management team of Flickinger and Niver to the state competition, and the Web Page Development team of Ben Baker, Seth Emerick, Whitney Frantz and Mika Tatich. In preparing for the district competiSee BPA, Page 2

Flags to honor Freed By Anthony Godson Editor Just prior to getting business related to the city underway, Nappanee Mayor Larry Thompson first began a Monday afternoon meeting by remembering the passing of a resident. Gregory K. Freed passed away at 3:42 a.m. on Sunday morning at the Elkhart General Hospital. "He was a 19-year member of our fire department, and as many of you may have heard, he died of a heart attack in the early hours of Sunday morning," a somber Thompson said. Freed's father, Warren, was also a former member of the "Smokey Stovers," and his son, Kent, just joined the department on Feb. 1. "Our sympathies are with the family," Thompson said. "The fire department plans to be at the visitation, and to the best of our ability, we plan to give him full honor." Among the ways that the city is honoring Freed, is that flags will be at half-mast for 19 days, symbolizing each year he served on the department. After a moment of prayer for Freed, the Nappanee Board of Works and Public Safety meeting got underway. At the last meeting of the board, an issue of encroachment on city property was talked about, with City Attorney Brian Hoffer addressing the issue again on Monday. Hoffer gave a rundown of the issue, stating that the property at 205 Nappanee Street encroached on property south of the Emergency Medical Services building. The encroachment is only by few feet, which is a gravel parking area. "While we are not utilizing the property, we certainly don't want to agree that the property is not ours," Hoffer said. The attorney went on to say that he could write up an Encroachment Agreement, allowing the property owner to keep using the space, as long as he or she doesn't "do anything different or try to improve it." If, and when, the city decides it needs to use the property, it can then tell the property owner it will be needing the property back. "In the agreement, we can give them a fair amount of time to cease activities,*' he said. The board approved this recommendation.