Author Jane Kirkpatrick has a grasp of how to blend Oregon’s history with fiction that grabs the interest of readers.

More than 50 people came out in June to hear Kirkpatrick talk about the power of stories in everyday life as part of the Stayton Public Library’s seniors program, said librarian Pam Pugsley. The popular author also talked about living and ranching in Eastern Oregon, Pugsley said.

“Jane is a superior speaker,” she added. “I’m still getting comments on how good the talk was.”

At the Stayton Relay for Life on July 11, Peggy Wilson walked the survivor lap, ate a burger, and then joined teammates for another hour around the Regis High School track.

“Everyone was so energetic,” said Wilson, a cancer-survivor with the Stayton Cooperative Telephone Company team.

Wilson’s team was the top money-raising team for the third consecutive year, earning more than $7,000 for the American Cancer Association, a nationwide community-based voluntary health organization dedicated to eliminating cancer.

Thurman Smith is one lucky dog!

“That’s what they called me when I came close to being bombed out of the air,” said Smith, a 90-year-old veteran of three wars with the U.S. Army Air Corps, which became the U.S. Air Force after World War II.

Smith, who has lived in Lyons for the past 35 years, still has plenty of stories to tell about his fighting days, his love of horses and his childhood on his family’s northeast Texas farm.

Parks got pruned, schools were painted and city offices got a little TLC recently when Christians in four cities took the biblical edict to “love one another” straight to their communities.

“iServe came about from the conviction that Christians should aspire to a servant heart,” said Tim Schabel, who initiated the neighbor-helping-neighbor outreach last year and saw it come to fruition with the help of Community Pastor Tod Schlomann and layman Tim Hophan, both of Foothills Church in Stayton.

“We’re trying to be good servants in our community, to say we’re the church and we’re here for you,” Schabel said.

Blacksmith artist Tom Dudkowsky of Stayton will give a metal work demonstrations at Fresh to You Produce & Garden Center from noon to 3 p.m. Saturdays in August.

Dudkowsky is the owner of Ironvision in Stayton. For 30 years, he has created custom pieces using metal and taught blacksmithing classes.

As if the PRCCA purse that goes to some of the best rodeo professionals in the business isn’t enough, the 2008 Santiam Canyon Stampede will raise money to help Santiam Memorial Hospital in its fight against breast cancer, donate food to the Stayton Food Bank and contribute to other community projects. The rodeo events take place July 31, Aug. 1 and Aug. 2 in Sublimity on the Sublimity Harvest Festival Grounds. The festival grounds will be packed with families enjoying a variety of good down-home entertainment.

“The music this year is Alexis Ebert with Bump in the Road and we are doing a bike rodeo with the Stayton-Sublimity Police Department on Saturday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.,” Corky Justis, Santiam Canyon Stampede director of promotions said.

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