By Cort Reynolds
More than 450 swimmers and their families will descend on Kenton July 9-10 for the 39th annual Elks Invitational Swim Meet and Western Ohio Aquatics League championship.
The WOAL is for swimmers aged four to 18 who are members of one of the league’s teams.
The Kenton Municipal Swimming pool is the site for the 2021 Swim Championships and will host eight teams from Ada, Bluffton, Findlay, Kenton, Shawnee Country Club, Wapakoneta, Westside and Van Wert. Teams will compete for the 2021 league title.
With the summer around the corner, loads of people get out and enjoy the outdoor fun. You and your family have big summer plans: fireworks, picnics and swimming. Now you just need to make sure that no one ends up red (itchy rashes), white (a box full of tissues), or blue (coughing or an asthma attack) for the wrong reasons. That’s why it’s so important to be prepared, so allergies and asthma don’t overshadow the festivities.
By Fred Steiner (Photo accompanying this column shows Fred Steiner and Ryan Lowry cutting the Icon’s first anniversary cake in 2010.)
Thoughts on:
• how the Icons came to be,
• journalism in a small town,
• and a memo to Steve Stratton on retirement.
Here’s the thing:
You can earn a living working in your profession in a small, rural community. But, along the way, you can’t predict the encounters that hit like insects on a car window at 70 mph.
The Bluffton and Ada Icons passed on to their second generation of owners at the beginning of the month. Fred and Mary Pannabecker Steiner, who launched the two community journalism websites, announced Ryan and Gayle Lowry of Bluffton as the new owners beginning July 1. Read the full story.
Fourth of July weekend fireworks lit up the Ada sky for the first time in many years. The fireworks show on July 2 was at the Ada Park. Ken Collins shares these shots for Icon viewers. Bluffton's fireworks takes place on National Night Out in early August.
