Ross community gives nearly $7K to family of firefighter who died in crash
Credit: Submitted photo
Credit: Submitted photo
Gold Star in Ross Twp. has announced a fundraiser for the family of Brandon Sparks helped raise $6,791.
Sparks is a former Ross firefighter who died in December 2021 in a motorcycle crash. Shortly after the incident, the RTFD posted:
“Brandon Sparks joined Ross Township Fire Department as an Explorer while in high school and was hired as a part-time firefighter/EMT after graduation. He recently celebrated his 5 year anniversary with the department. You will be missed tremendously and loved forever by all of us.”
MLB player Kyle Schwarber tells Middletown students they can achieve their dreams
Credit: Nick Graham
Credit: Nick Graham
“Dream today. Rise tomorrow.”
That was the message on the marque outside Wildwood Elementary School in Middletown on Tuesday afternoon.
A similar sentiment was delivered by one of the city’s most popular citizens inside the school’s cafeteria.
Kyle Schwarber, 28, a 2011 Middletown High School graduate who has fulfilled his dreams by earning millions playing Major League Baseball for seven seasons, talked to the students about having large aspirations and working hard to accomplish them.
National Organ Donor Day: Local man waits on transplant list for kidney
Credit: Nick Graham
Credit: Nick Graham
Bryan Watkins didn’t know he had kidney disease until he had a stroke in 2018.
Now, the 64-year-old from Hamilton has been waiting for a year for a new kidney, and he joins many others who have waited for years.
“It’s stressful,” said his wife, Ellie Watkins. Her husband is on the national transplant registry list, and is limited on what he can do. That doesn’t include each dialysis session being four hours and he does it three days a week.
Black History Month: Middletown school teaching students about local heroes
A Middletown teacher said her school’s decision to take a local approach to celebrating prominent leaders during Black History Month is having more impact on students.
Students at Middletown’s Highview 6th Grade Center are getting local Black History lessons every time they walk the school’s main hallway thanks to a series of large posters featuring 16 African American men and women from the city’s history.
While some schools elsewhere often default to only focusing on nationally famous Black leaders during the month celebrating Black history, a home-grown heroes approach is more relatable, said Highview Language Arts Teacher Anedra Million.
New Big Blue football coach: Hamilton ‘has a special place in my heart’
HAMILTON — The Hamilton City Schools announced Arvie Crouch as the Hamilton High School head football coach on Friday, pending board of education approval Feb. 24.
“I am thrilled to have Arvie leading the Big Blue,” Hamilton athletic director Missy Harvey said.
“During the interview process it was very apparent what this job meant to him. His knowledge of our community and our athletes made him the perfect fit.”
AND, for an extra sixth story of the day ...
Entire community invited to new monthly worship event led by multiple churches
Community members are already talking about it and showing up for a new event The Presbyterian Church of Hamilton is spearheading with other area churches. The community-wide event, “Hamilton Community Worship Circle” will bring people together through worship music on Sunday nights, once a month.
“I had been looking for ways within ministry to react to all of the racial upheaval that we’ve had over the past couple of years, and music being my go-to, I thought, if I can be a part of bringing people together through music, then maybe we can ascend above some of these differences, and that’s happened. That’s probably the most rewarding thing about it,” said Mark Provart, director of praise, youth and young adult ministries at The Presby.
He said everybody’s coming together under the banner of worship, and that has been an easy way to unite people.
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