In addition to participating in football camps that start on Monday, the members of the Vinton-Shellsburg football program will be selling Viking Gold Cards this week.

A total of 65 Iowans have been reported missing in the month of July, a startling, troubling statistic that has law enforcement officers, parents and those whose job it is to help children safe pondering the reasons for the increase, and how to stop it.

The Vinton Parks & Recreation Department is pleased to announce that a brand spankin’ new playground for Riverside Park has been funded and ordered… now all we have to do to make this playground a reality is to build it! Bringing neighbors and friends together to share in this Community Build Event can create positive individual experiences and a great sense of pride knowing you helped construct a new playspace for Vinton’s youth.

On Saturday, the Benton County Fairgrounds was the site for the Progressive Ag Safety Day. The group started with various events at 9:00 a.m. and concluded with lunch around noon.

“Last year the first Woosley Tours arrived in Vinton for a noon time meal event and it was, indeed, very successful. So much so, that they are returning on September 27, for a second dining/meeting/entertainment experience” said Frank Kruse, Event Coordinator Lavanda Woosley operates a touring company out of Cedar Rapids and says of her business, “I schedule trips when I want to go, where I want to go and then see who wants to come along!” She chose to tour Vinton’s historic Rock Island Depot complete with tour guide Reverend Phil , Vinton’s noted railroad historian and scholar.

  Noah Hedinger, a German exchange student, was one of the leaders of the 2018 VS soccer team, and is one of three siblings from Germany who has spent a year in Vinton.

The woman who helps find homes for exchange students in eastern Iowa says the PAX organization is seeking families in the Vinton-Shellsburg, Benton Community or Center Point-Urbana areas for two girls.

Friends gather around the casket of Aziza Kikuze after her death earlier this year; she is one of 6 Congolese immigrants to die on three-mile stretch of Highway 30 in Benton County since 2016.

By Bethany Gates, Correspondent This past Saturday, over 40 people attended the free self-defense class presented by officers from the Benton County Sheriff's Office, Urbana Police Department, Belle Plaine Police Department, and the Vinton Police Department (see photos here and here).

A young John Gualtier poses for the camera; his experience as a WWII Army medic and concentration camp liberator will be on the Palace screen March 11.