All photos by Jamie Nygaard
LOTS OF PHOTOS BELOW -
PART 1 (Click here for part 2 photos) - A highlight of the Christmas season in Bluffton is the all-elementary school afternoon concert.
Talk about a "sold out" gymnasium, this is it. Kindergarten through fifth grade musicians, under the direction of Alice Basinger, performed their tradition holiday concert selections plus new works.
The Bluffton Icon named Jean Ann Szabo, 91, resident of Maple Crest, recipient of the Icon’s Zuzu’s Petals Award.
The award comes following the Icon’s invitation to viewers to nominate who they believe is Bluffton’s greatest musician, or modestly put, a great musician who well-deserves the recognition.
This year’s recognition comes following the Icon’s free showing of “It’s a Wonderful Life,” at the Shannon Theatre on Nov. 23.
The Bluffton Swim Club is for high school aged swimmers from high schools in the surrounding area. This is the first season for the group and they practice at the Putnam County YMCA.
The inaugural Bluffton Swim Club delivered a strong start to their season at a tri-meet versus Kenton and VanWert high school swim teams on Thursday, Dec. 6, at Kenton. As a team, they finished overall in second place with the men finishing in third and the women in second.
The team’s first event of the night was the girl’s 200 meter medley relay with Ellie Hoffman, Joscelin Reineke, Maria Spallinger and Julia Smallcombe. They tied for first with Van Wert’s team with a time of 2:15:60.
Note: Phil Steiner is the son of Dan and Barb Steiner of rural Bluffton. Phil andand his wife, Mindy, live in Tijuana, Mexico. They started an organization called Be2Live. It offers service trips to Mexico for U.S. high school students. More details on the program are at the bottom of this story.
Mindy shared the following story recently on her Facebook. It tells of one family’s attempting to gain entrance into the United States:
JV boys Row 1 (left to right): Thad Mittendorf, Jonathan Schriner, Alec Deardorff, Adam Fredritz Row 2 (left to right): Tyson Shutler, Eli Lemley, Nic Essinger, Nick Jebsen
