March 2012

Several area fire departments responded to a late afternoon fire at 10100 Lincoln Highway on March 26. Departments and EMS included Bluffton, Beaverdam-Richland, Ada-Liberty and Lafayette-Jackson. Lincoln Highway was closed to traffic at Pevee Road and and other intersecting road.

The March Apollo Career Center board's agenda is now available for Icon viewers. The agenda is in an attachment at the bottom of this story. The meeting is Monday, March 26.

Bluffton High School singers Eli Runk, Clay Wilson, Chase Wilson and Lucas Harnish entertain with a song residents of Maple Crest Senior Living Community. The students performed earlier in the afternoon at Mennonite Memorial Home. Kara Zink is the BHS vocal instructor. Click for a video.

Little-known fact: Most of the marketing efforts of the Freed Center for the Performing Arts at Ohio Northern University take place in Bluffton.

That's because, Anita Cook, independent contractor and marketing manager of the Center, lives in Bluffton. She creates most of her work from the office in her home on North Main Street, located just north of Groves Quality Collectibles.

Owner of Maestro Graphics, Cook is a freelance graphic artist, and her work with The Freed Center is one of the many multi-tasking positions she balances quite well.

The Bluffton Area Chamber of Commerce newsletter is now available to Icon viewers.

Several items are in the newsletter including:

* Details on BCE's business plan competition

* March 27 downtown business owners meeting

* Update on membership

* Sponsorship form for 2012 arts and crafts show

The newsletter is available in an attachment at the bottom of this story. For all chamber undates visit www.explorebluffton.com

By Kirstie Runion
Bluffton University student

A jogger with an iPod or a family walking a dog may be regularly seen in Bluffton-not "college students walking back to campus drunk after hitting the bars."

I would know. I am a senior at Bluffton University and have called it home for three years now. Majoring in English and Writing, it was hard for me to read such a biased story in Friday's Lima News.

The words and assumptions that were published in the article about a Bluffton student assault were hurtful to the university and community.

Hazel Marie Austin, 93, of Bluffton died at 9:05 a.m., March 25, 2012 at the Mennonite Memorial Home, Bluffton. She was born March 1, 1919, near Lafayette, to John Henry and Marie Howe Klingler. In 1945 she married Robert Austin and he preceded her in death in 1998.Mrs. Austin retired from the Chrysler Jeep Corp., Toledo. She attended Ebenezer Mennonite Church, Bluffton.

Peter and Jenna Liechty Martin in Belfast

Note: Peter Martin is a 2006 Bluffton graduate with a BA degree in Business Administration. Jenna Liechty Martin is a 2007 Bluffton graduate with a BA in Business Administration. This story appeared in the February 2012 edition of Beyond Ourselves, a publication of Mennonite Mission Network.

Taking a break in the Chicago urban garden they helped prepare for planting season are Bluffton University students (top, from left) Abbey Graber, Jodi Stutzman and Abbie Richer, along with (bottom, from left) Derek Davis and Tobin Eicher.

Thirty Bluffton University students spent their recent spring break in Chicago, but they weren't in the Windy City to see its tourist attractions.

From March 4-9, the students-from the campus group SERVE-divided into small groups and worked in inner-city neighborhoods at soup kitchens, churches, nursing homes, outreach centers and a children's after-school program, among other locations.

The Bluffton Exempted Village School District is currently accepting applications from students interested in attending the school district through open enrollment for the 2012 -2013 school year, according to Greg Denecker, Bluffton superintendent.

Students from any school district in Ohio may apply and enroll in Bluffton Schools tuition free. Students are admitted on a full-time basis only.

Applications are approved annually on a first come, first served basis and approval is subject to grade level enrollment and educational programs.

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