Virginia Bueno watched the Memorial Day ceremony from a lawn chair near the grave of her husband, Santiago. My new friend, Virginia, can laugh about it now, the story of a memorial stolen from her husband's grave site.

Congratulations to all of the recipients of the "Eastern Iowa Fellowship of Christian Athletes Outstanding Servant Leader Scholarship Award" for 2017. Winners included from the Benton Countyarea: Cassie Williams - North Linn High School Chase Boddicker - Center Point - Urbana High School Chuck Hingst - Center Point - Urbana High School Claire Holtz - Center Point - Urbana High School Jon Stuelke - Center Point - Urbana High School Award winners were nominated by FCA Huddle Coaches and met selection criteria demonstrating FCA's core values of integrity, serving, teamwork and excellence.

The Newhall Legion Auxiliary unit 167 has chosen Ally Bierschenk, the daughter of Jenny and Cary Bierschenk, as its Girls State participant for this year.

By Brad Barker, VPRD Memorial Day weekend ishere, school is out and summer is officially underway. Along with that comes another greatswim season at the Vinton Community Swimming Pool! The pool opens Saturday, May 27th and regular hours will take place during the holiday weekend.

Morgan Eggert of Atkins, Iowa, was one of 241 students named to Concordia University, Nebraska's honors list for the spring 2017 semester. The top 25 percent of all undergraduate students who complete at least 12 credit hours qualify for the honors list.

Every year, high school and college graduates gather in a big stuffy room, wearing silly-looking outfits, hear the same once-inspiring, but now worn-out songs and cliches, and listen to a somewhat notable person try to offer encouraging - and hopefully, original - words about the future.

The Vinton Post 57 American Legion Auxiliary has chosen Kaitlyn Goodell, left and Maylee McKibben, right as its Girls State participants for this year.

Kylie Miracle and Sara Jorgensen are among recent inductees into the Wartburg NSLS. Congratulations to VS alumni members Kylie Miracle and Sara Jorgensen on being inducted into the Wartburg College chapter of the NSLS, the National Society of Leadership and Success.

On Wednesday, May 24, 2017, the Eastern Iowa Honor Flight will launch EIHF Flight #28. Since we began operations in 2009, to date, we have transported 2309 Veterans, plus their guardians to Washington, DC to visit the memorials dedicated to their service and sacrifice.

Jamal is learning how to use a sawzall before moving to the blitz site. By Joshua Richards On May 8, Cedar 1 headed to North Omaha, Nebraska to serve with Habitat for Humanity through June 8.