A Niotaze single mom is beaming today as she looks forward to moving into a home that her friends have made possible for her.

Chasity Meise watched last week with tear-filled eyes as a huge bulldozer razed her home at the east edge of Niotaze — a necessary move because it was filled with unhealthy mold. The home had been flooded numerous times when a nearby creek overflowed its banks.

“I just got my house paid for in May of this year,” said Meise who has five children plus a grandchild she is helping to raise. “My grandbaby kept getting sick and we finally figured out it was the mold that started growing after the flood two years ago. We pushed back the couch and the mold was growing up the back of it.”

Friends from up the street, Brian and Carey Shouse, heard about Chasity’s problem and launched an effort to find her a suitable house where she would have more space and get away from the mold plague.
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Joe Tindle pushes open the door to his wood shop and immediately apologizes for the mess.
“I need to spend more time cleaning up,” he says, pointing to a stack of boards which he soon will fashion into a baby cradle or rocking horse.

His project for this week is making his 51st cradle which will go to the unsuspecting parents of a newborn baby.

He tries to make a cradle for everyone in his community who is having a baby — and even some outside the town of Longton where he lives.

“It’s not always a surprise,” he admits, “but there’s just something special about it when nobody is expecting anything. I know it sure makes me feel good.”

Tindle also has made dozens of rocking horses for the children of area friends. Read more

Donald Drumwright of Severy enjoys “cheering up” his mom, who is disabled. One way he does that is to purchase lottery tickets for her to scratch.

“It’s entertainment and brain exercise for her,” explained Drumwright.

Drumwright and his mother both got cheered up last night, when a $1 Blackjack instant ticket the son had purchased for his mother turned out to be a $10,000 winner! Read more