Stories from Wednesday, December 16, 2015

Santa arrived at the Marcus Community Center during the big Marcus Christmas Celebration on Friday evening. More photos from the Marcus event will be in the Marcus Christmas Celebration Photo Gallery on Friday.

The annual Needy Kids auction was held on Saturday, Dec. 12 at Bright Side Lounge. Photo by Ken Ross

A major project to update and enhance the Sanford Museum and Planetarium was announced Tuesday morning, along with the announcement that Cherokee State Bank is starting off the drive for an estimated $950,000 in improvements with a pledge of $250,000, to be given over a five-year period...

Friday's Chamber Coffee, at 9:30 a.m., will be hosted by KCHE Radio. There will be no Chamber Coffee the next two Fridays, due to the Christmas and New Year's holidays.

1. Western Christian; 2. Treynor; 3. Cascade,Western Dubuque; 4. Pella Christian; 5. Dike-New Hartford; 6. Northeast, Goose Lake; 7. Kuemper Catholic, Carroll; 8. Sioux Center; 9. Camanche; 10. Interstate 35, Truro Others receiving votes included Ridge View...

MARCUS - Marcus-Meriden-Cleghorn trailed Hinton throughout a tight War Eagle Conference boys' basketball contest here Friday, losing to the Blackhawks by a final score of 73-62. Jake Hunter paced the Eagles' scoring with 19 points and Jacob Spleler scored 14 points, grabbed 14 rebounds and blocked two shots. Derek Erdman and Ben Specht also scored in double figures, with Erdmann scoring 11 and Specht...

PAULLINA - The South O'Brien boys, ranked 9th in the state in Class 1A this week, kept their record spotless with a 55-39 win over Akron-Westfield here on Friday. Damon Struve scored 22 points for the winning Wolverines, including 5 of 10 three-point attempts, and Brian Haden also reached double figures with 10 points, while Kyle Paulsen scored eight and dished out five assists...

ALTA - The Alta-Aurelia boys played a pair of basketball games over the weekend and both games resulted in Warrior losses, but A-A coach Chris Abaray said he was nevertheless "very encouraged" by the play of his young group of hoopsters On Friday night, Alta-Aurelia gave Pocahontas Area a run for the first three quarters, before the Indians outscored the home team 23-11 in the 4th quarter to post an 81-54 Twin Lakes Conference win...

ALTA - The improving Cherokee wrestling Braves swept all three foes at Thursday's Alta-Aurelia Duals Meet here, disposing of host A-A 48-28, Emmetsburg 41-40 on criteria after the teams tied at 40-40, and 70-12 over an outmanned Marcus-Meriden-Cleghorn squad featuring just four varsity wrestlers...

HOLSTEIN - The undefeated Ridge View boys blasted Cherokee with a 41-15 halftime lead on the way to a resounding 77-55 boys basketball win here Saturday night. Tyler Wingert tallied 21 points and Garrett Lamp 17 to lead the Raptors, who canned 26-52 field goals for 41 percent, including 10-22 three-pointers and 15-23 free throws...

Four players hit double figures to lead the Cherokee Braves to a 68-51 victory over Estherville-LC in Lakes Conference boys basketball action here Friday night. The Braves led 34-25 at halftime and then outscored the Midgets 21-7 in a solid third quarter to seal the deal...

A quick-striking Cherokee Washington High girls basketball team erupted to a 29-9 first-quarter lead on the way to a decisive 86-24 Lakes Conference basketball win over Estherville-LC here Friday night. Kaely Hummel scored 24 points, Olivia Dagel 18, Makenna Carver 10, and Lyndsay Williams and Paityn Hagberg nine each for a superb balanced scoring night for the 7th ranked 4-0 Cherokee club...

HOLSTEIN - Employing a balanced scoring attack and a school reord 15 three-pointers, the 7th rated 4-0 Cherokee girls romped past Ridge View 89-50 in a non-conference basketball encounter here Friday night. Kaely Hummel led the WHS gals as usual with 28 points that included a 6-9 effort for three-balls for the talented senior guard who now stands second on Cherokee's all-time 5-on-5 girls basketball scoring list second to former Miss Iowa Basketball Tammy Blackstone...

Of more than 2,000 millennials polled by Harvard political scientists, just 49 percent say the American Dream is alive for them personally, while 48 percent declare it dead. While some may see the even divide as balanced, the fact that about half of young people are pessimistic about the future is actually cause for alarm...

Like many people, the late Nate Phipps of Cherokee always wanted to learn to fly, but unlike most people, he not only learned to pilot, he also built a business around that love with his other love, wife Ginny, and that business, Nomad Travel, marked its 50th anniversary in 2015...

I am writing this column on a nasty Monday morning when I would have loved to stay home, tucked into my favorite chair with a cup of coffee and a good book. I don't have that luxury yet, but for those of you who do, here are some suggestions from the shelves of the Cherokee Public Library...