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Windsor Place of Coffeyville held a graduation ceremony for its Age to Age Learning program. It is a program whereby kindergarten students attended classes on a daily basis inside the nursing home and have constant interaction with the nursing home residents. It’s the first of its kind program in Kansas and is being heralded by local, state and national officials for its innovative approach to learning. The University of Kansas will release a study in late June that will reveal how the kindergarten students and the nursing home residents have benefited from the social interaction.

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The Oklahoma Highway Patrol has released more information regarding a deadly crash in Nowata County that claimed the lives of two Caney residents and injured four others.

Amy Blagg, 44, of Caney and her 15-year-old son, Kyler, were killed in the wreck which happened the evening of May 9th on U.S. 169 highway, just north of Delaware, Okla.
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BY ANDY TAYLOR
Montgomery County Chronicle

INDEPENDENCE — Montgomery County commissioners faced numerous questions from an 89-year-old resident Monday concerning the recent dismissal of Wilbur Schwatken, Jr., as the Montgomery County rural fire coordinator.

Adolph Wildgrube, a lifelong Montgomery County resident now living in an Independence elderly care facility, pressed commissioners for details about their direction for the Montgomery County Rural Fire District #1. On April 20, Schwatken was not reappointed to his rural fire coordinator’s position. Following that meeting, commissioner Tony Fowler indicated that Schwatken’s dismissal was based on the commission’s desire to see the director’s position in a “different direction.”

Wildgrube wanted to know specifically what that “direction” would entail. Commissioners didn’t reveal many details.

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INDEPENDENCE — A Montgomery County teenager is among the national winners in a patriotic essay contest.

Madison Freeman, an eighth grade student at Zion Lutheran School in Independence not only won the local and state levels of the VFW’s Patriot Pen Essay Contest but the local student finished in 38th place in the nation. She received a $500 savings bond for being a winner at the state level and a $1,000 savings bond for finishing among the top 40 in the nation.

“We’ve had a lot of local and state winners, but we’ve never had anyone advance this far at the national level,” said Dawn Oldenettel, Zion Lutheran School principal, who also said that seventh and eighth grade students are required to compete in the essay contest.

The theme of the VFW essay contest is “Why America’s Veterans Should Be Honored.” The theme at a personal meaning to Freeman, whose father is an Army veteran. A cousin, Corey Ashworth, is currently deployed with the U.S. Army in Iraq.

Madison is the daughter of Rick and Tammy Freeman of Independence.

CANEY — Sixty-eight members of the Caney Valley High School Class of 2009 will receive their diplomas at a commencement program at 7 p.m., Saturday, May 16, in the CVHS main gym.

The program will begin with the the senior high band playing the fanfare and processional with the traditional “Pomp and Circumstance.”

CVHS principal Justin Lockwood will give the welcome followed by the introduction of co-salutatorians Alyssa Whitman and Caitlin Estes by Danny Fulton, superintendent. Fulton will then present the class valedictorian, Shari Blecha.

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TYRO — Ten seniors at Tyro Community Christian School will receive their diplomas during commencement exercises scheduled to begin at 7 p.m., Friday, May 15, in the Tyro Christian Church sancutary.

The 10 seniors include Joel Daniel Becker, Hannah Lynn Clark, Ruth Anne Clark, Faith Dawn-Marie Collier, Katelyn Denaé Haley, Caleb Andrew Matthews, Seth David Schrag, Eden Marie Sizemore, Jessica Elizabeth Stauffer and Zoe Kathleen Wills.

Valedictorian of the class is Caleb Matthews, son of Colby and Julie Matthew of Caney.

Jessica Stauffer is the class salutatorian. She is the daughter of Doc and Sharon Nunneley of rural Independence.

Terry Byrd, TCCS administrator, will present awards and scholarships. Ken Smoll of Independence will deliver the special message. Smoll, a pilot at Cessna Aircraft Company in Independence, began his career in the mission field.

The class will view a video of their school years, and Doug Songer will offer a special music number, “While I’m Waiting.”

CHERRYVALE — Cherryvale High School seniors will take their final walk as high school students on Saturday, May 16 when they are conferred diplomas during commencement ceremonies in the CHS Gymnasium. The ceremony will begin at 10 a.m.

Cherryvale High School alumnus Bob Ott of Salina, Kan., will be the guest speaker and the recipient of the Outstanding Alumni Award presented by the Cherryvale Alumni Association.

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BY ANDY TAYLOR

INDEPENDENCE — Fifty years ago this month, America’s space race caught the attention of Montgomery County when one of its own natives got a free ticket to outer space.

She was a rhesus monkey dubbed “Able” by the U.S. military, but before she joined another fellow squirrel monkey cohort Baker in a brief space trip on May 28, 1959, she was catching peanuts as a resident of Monkey Island at Independence’s Riverside Park.

Few people paid attention when the generation of rhesus monkeys left Monkey Island in 1958 and were replaced with a pack of spider monkeys.

But, when the U.S. Army and the newly-formed National Aeronautical Space Administration (NASA) needed rhesus monkeys for study in an actual space flight, they looked no further than the University of Wisconsin in Madison, Wis., where the former Independence rhesus monkeys had made their new home. The U.S. Army grabbed four of the rhesus monkeys that were born in Independence, put them through a training course of button pushing at Cape Canaveral, Fla., and lined them up for a possible ride where no monkey had gone before: outer space.

Why monkeys? The U.S. military and NASA were trying to determine the effects of space and weightlessness on the body. And, because the rhesus monkey’s skeletal frame was so identical to humans, the military and NASA believed the rhesus variety of monkey could be the top candidates for study during and after a trip into space.

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