Each Friday, The Gazette salutes those who make Emporia and the surrounding area a better place to live and work. Give these folks a pat on the back ...
TOW TRUCK drivers in Emporia who dealt with a markedly higher volume of calls during and after last weekend’s snowstorm. One local tow company reported that business had at least doubled as a result of the storm.
- The construction crew at the Granada Theatre for their continuing efforts to restore an Emporia landmark to the way it looked before the 1959 fire.
- The South Lyon County Education Foundation for beginning its campaign to increase scholarships and funding for Hartford, Neosho Rapids and Olpe schools.
- Robin Gunkle of Emporia, who won the raffle following the Emporia Christmas Parade for a new playhouse. Gunkle donated the playhouse back to its builders so they could sell it for additional proceeds for the Salvation Army. Jesse Cooper purchased the house for $1,250.
- Bonnie Jean Short of Cottonwood Falls, a diabetes sufferer who has received three awards from Eli Lilly and Co. this year, including a gold medal for 75 years of insulin therapy.
- Emporia police officers Todd Ayer and David Holmes and Lt. Larry Adams, who succeeded in saving two juveniles from the ice at Peter Pan Park early Thursday morning. The two 13-year-old boys were playing on the ice when one of them fell through. Ayer and Homes arrived at the scene, ordered the standing child to the shore, and threw a rope to the boy in the icy water. Adams assisted in pulling the boy to safety.