April 2014

Speaking to a Bluffton University audience on April 1, self-described “Affrilachian” writer Crystal Wilkinson shared her experiences of growing up black in rural Kentucky and learning to embrace her heritage.

Wilkinson came to Bluffton as guest author for the university’s 30th annual English Festival, an event that gives high school students the opportunity to read and write with working authors. Among Wilkinson’s work is “Blackberries, Blackberries,” which won the 2002 Chaffin Award for Appalachian Literature.

Dorothy Williams, 94, of Bluffton died at 2:50 p.m. April 2, 2014, at Smithville-Western Care Center, Wooster.  She was born Feb. 6, 1920, in Pandora to the late Christian and Clara Suter Locher. 

Mrs. Williams was a retired teacher and guidance counselor, having been an educator for 38 years, the last 26 with Lima Public Schools. She also taught in Colorado, Wyoming, Washington, Nevada and American Dependent Schools of Japan. 

Bluffton cyclist Everett Collier takes lots of bike rides around the block, and this summer that block extends for 3,600 miles.

Collier will participate in the 7th annual Fuller Center Bike Adventure. It’s a bike ride from Atlantic City, New Jersey, to Astoria, Oregon. The ride starts June 5 and finishes on Aug. 10 – with several stops along the way where bikers will assist in building projects with Fuller Center covenant partners.

As of the of March Collier had raised over $6,000 for his efforts in the trip.

Icon viewers:

My influence in selecting Bluffton area/Little Riley headwaters as grounds for re-introduction of beavers having now been exposed, I feel comfortable in letting The Icon announce the choice for a northeastern Ohio location, the one quadrant of the state for which a site had not been announced.