Submitted by: Amber Toth

We had a great weekend. We went two different directions this weekend. Our younger debaters went to Chanute and everyone brought home wins.

Our more experienced teams went to Lawrence this weekend. We brought home the 3rd place trophy out of 33 schools. In the varsity division, Seth Cross and Zach Humble lost in the semifinals to bring home 3rd. In the open division, Joe Adams and Isabella Province took 3rd after losing in the semifinal round. Jake Province and Suzi Owen took 3rd in the junior varsity division after losing in the semifinals.

Once again, Tiger debate has made a name for itself against the largest programs in the state. This was our last regular season tournament. Regionals is in two weeks. We hope to bring home a regional championship qualifying a four-speaker team to state. Joe Adams/Isabella Provence and Seth Cross/Zach Humble will be our four-man team. Hunter Parker and Breana Mooney will be the alternates.

We have also qualified our maximum number of two speaker teams. Our goal is to have 14 qualified for state in the next two weeks.

I’m so proud of how hard these kids have worked and how much they have grown. It’s a pleasure to coach kids who work hard and are coachable. A great weekend for Tiger Debate.

The Fort Scott National Historic Site’s 34^th Annual Candlelight Tour event brought more than 650 visitors to the site as tickets for the 26 weekend tours were sold out, even after adding an extra tour.

“Overall, I think it was a good event this year,” park ranger and tour guide Galen Ewing said, saying the nice weather through the weekend helped. “This is the first year in a few years that it sold out.”

With “A New Birth of Freedom” as its theme, the tour included five scenes that might have occurred at the fort in the year 1865, just after the ending of the Civil War. Almost 100 volunteers from the fort, Friends of Fort Scott National Historic Site, Fort Scott High School drama club and Fort Scott Middle School Pride acted out the scenes.

More than 700 candles were lit on the grounds of the site as the scenes were acted out by candlelight in different areas and buildings of the fort.

Scenes included soldiers preparing to go out on patrol, the announcement of President Abraham Lincoln’s death, the downsizing of the hospital, the opening of the Freedmen’s School for former slaves and the auctioning off of the fort buildings.

For the past five years, Ewing said the tours have focused on the Civil War years, leading up to the ending of the war this year in honor of the 150^th anniversary of the end of the war. Although a theme has not yet been chosen for next year, Ewing said he is looking forward to it as it is the 35^th annual event.

Families and organizations from around Fort Scott opened their homes and buildings for members of the community to visit and tour during the 36^th Annual Homes for the Holiday Tour Saturday and Sunday, as well as the Moonlight and Mistletoe Tour held Friday evening.

“This took almost a year in coordination,” said Rhonda Dunn, president of the Historic Preservation Association, during the Moonlight and Mistletoe Tour Friday. “And I think it is going absolutely great.”

Participants in the tour included buildings such as the Mary Queen of Angels Catholic Church, built in 1872, which allowed visitors to see its collection of artwork and stained glass windows. Bethel Community Church, constructed in 1916, was also open as was the Bourbon County Courthouse, which had new exhibits on display.

Families also gave tours of their homes, such as Arlo and Ernestine Eden, who, with some of their seven children, pointed out its antiques and other items collected or passed down through generations of their family. They also told stories of their farmhouse, such as when a tornado tipped it on its side in 1916 and it had to be put upright once again.

Bob and Denise Duncan also opened their home, located on the second floor of what was previously a commercial building on S. National. A Mad Hatter Tea Part was also held at the location Saturday afternoon, with community members of all ages dressing for the occasion.

A new and possibly one-time addition to the tour this year was the E3 Ranch owned by the LaRoche family, which was the highlight of the Moonlight and Mistletoe Tour Friday evening. Interest in the tour led to the 150 tickets being sold out quickly, with more tickets being added and again sold out.

The Moonlight and Mistletoe Tour first visited the home of Loren and Julie Readinger, Jennifer LaRoche’s parents, which was built by her great-great-grandfather in 1927. The Readingers moved into the home just a year ago after remodeling it.

The tour also visted major league baseball player and Fort Scott native Adam and Jennifer LaRoches’ first home – now a guest house, their E3 Ranch house built in just the past few years and a building housing a basketball court, batting cages and further living quarters where a reception was held Friday evening.

Dunn said she had mentioned to Jennifer, her cousin, during the previous Moonlight and Mistletoe event that the HPA would love to one year have the E3 Ranch on their tour. Initially Jennifer said they would rather wait until they lived in the home full-time, but a month later they said they would host the event this year, with Adam expressing an eagerness to help with the fundraiser.

The E3 Ranch — named after a baseball term designating an error by the first baseman, LaRoche’s position — allowed visitors to see LaRoche’s baseball and hunting trophies on display as well as the living areas of the couple and their two children. A live nativity scene was also on their property, with costumed children accepting requests for Christmas carols.

Participants said they were pleased that the homes on the tours throughout the weekend had a lived-in feel to them, instead of merely being on display.

Friday evening, Dunn and the HPA also presented a check to the Chamber of Commerce and the city of Fort Scott to go towards purchasing a new trolley for the city.

Members of the community bundled up and lined Main Street for the annual Christmas Parade through downtown Fort Scott Tuesday evening, ending with the lighting of the mayor’s Christmas tree and an appearance from Santa Claus.

“What a wonderful way to spend the evening with family and friends,” Mayor Cindy Bartelsmeyer said.

Local businesses, churches and other organizations participated in the parade, with the theme Old Fashioned Christmas this year. Representatives from Mercy Hospital, the Lowell Milken Center, SEK Financial, Westar Energy, Shepherd Autogroup and area 4-H teams, Cub Scout groups, schools, churches, fire and police departments participated in the parade.

Prizes were awarded to Medicalodges, Mercy Hospital and the Fort Scott Church of the Nazarene for their floats.

The parade ended at Skubitz Plaza where the tree was lit. Children could then have their photo taken with Santa Claus at Papa Don’s.

In the past eight months, former Fort Scott Community College professor Marcel Normand completed a biography on the life and impact of fellow teacher Lucile James and how she influenced not just the community, but his own family’s lives.

That book, The Lucile James Story: Portrait of a Remarkable Teacher, will be available at the Fort Scott Community College Thursday December 3, for a book signing event.

Normand said he first met James, raised in Pleasanton, when they both started teaching at the Fort Scott High School when he was just 25 years old and she was 52. Their offices were located near each other, they taught on the same floor and they often shared lunch breaks.

“We just kind of hit it off,” Normand said of when they met, saying theater and deciding who would direct the school play that year became the foundation of their friendship that would last for decades.

Normand married his wife in the next year after meeting James, and their families grew close to one another, with the couples often going dancing together over the weekends.

“We had a family friendship,” Normand described the couples’ bond. “It was much more than a school relationship.”

Normand and James would go on to teach at FSCC and, by the early 1970s, Normand said he knew he would write a book about James one day, as he was inspired by her life and teaching method. Normand said she had a flamboyant and fun attitude that seemed to match her red hair, but could also be disciplined and professional in the classroom.

After James’ husband died in 1974, she would spend about every other weekend with Normand’s family, often enough that their three children would begin to consider her a grandmother. Two of those three children would later take English classes from James at FSCC.

In the 1970s, James had heart surgery as a result of heart disease. In 1985, just months after FSCC hosted an appreciation dinner for James, doctors discovered a malignant tumor on her brain, leading to her death later that year.

Normand referred to the book, which took him about 16 months to write, as a 30^th anniversary edition as it was printed about 30 years after James’ death. Normand encourages family, friends and students of James to read the book as well as those who have only heard about her.

During a meeting last Tuesday, leaders and volunteers in the Fort Scott Circles program received an update of the program, a report on current and upcoming needs and a check from a local family.

Siblings Robert Irby, Mary Rio and Janette Braun attended the meeting and presented a check of $1,694 to the program from the Dr. Pratt and Pauline Irby Endowment Fund, which they had set up in honor of their parents and use to help local charities they believe their parents would have supported.

Irby said he first heard about the program’s needs when he heard a report on the program during the Gordon Parks Celebration in October. Prior to that time, he said Circles was just a name to him.

“I was most struck when you said there was a need for transportation,” Irby said.

Braun, who is a member of the Circles resource team, said she and her siblings decided that need would be a good cause for the fund, recalling when their own father needed help with transportation when he could no longer drive.

“We understood that need,” Braun said, adding she believes her parents would have also supported that cause. “We’d like for it to be used for emergency transportation funding for Circles leaders.”

Those Circle leaders are members of the community who want to improve their way of life and join the program for training and assistance to help them towards that goal.

The current group has eight Circle leaders who will graduate to the next level of the program on Dec. 16. Beginning in the new year, those participants will each need one or two accountability partners who will provide support for them as they strive to reach their goals.

“It’s about being a friend,” Hedges said of the role of those allies. “There aren’t a lot of rules to it.”

The allies are required to attend monthly meetings but can decide how involved they are between those meetings, whether they want to meet with or call the Circle leaders on a more regular basis.

“We do need more allies,” director Jan Hedges said, saying they have about seven or eight signed up right now but need 16. “That is the greatest need right at this minute.”

For those interested in helping, a training session for allies will be held Dec. 8. They are also looking for members of the community who might have an expertise or knowledge they can share with the Circle leaders, such as concerning budgeting, renting homes or other areas.