Community and Region Come Together for Julia Moore

When Donald Moore passed away prematurely of cancer, his wife, Julia (Hardy) Moore was left to take care of five children by herself. But since then, the community and region have come together to help her build a new house in Worth County northwest of Grant City. Moore said that the upstairs and the exterior were framed, the roof trusses were put on, the sheeting was put on, and some of the tar paper was put on as well. The house is being built on land donated by her parents, David and Carolyn Hardy.
The house is being built with almost all volunteer labor, with volunteers from the community, the Missouri State Highway Patrol, and the Missouri Baptist Builders Association coming in. At first, Moore’s three sisters, Jane, Susie, and Cindy, along with some of Donald’s friends from the seminary where he attended in Texas and people all over the country who were touched by her story sought to nominate her for Extreme Home Makeover. However, when that did not work out, Moore said that she turned to God in prayer.
She said her prayers were answered in January when that she came upon the book of Jeremiah, where the Lord told Jeremiah that he knew all the plans that he had for him. Moore then said that right then that she knew that the Lord was going to help her. A few weeks later, she got a call from Charles McCrary of the Missouri Baptist Builders Association, who agreed to donate labor to build the house.
Since then, men from St. Joseph, Savannah, Lees Summit, Edgarton, Macon, Albany, and Cameron have come to work on the new home. Among the people from Macon working is Larry Murdock a former Worth County grad and classmate of Julia’s father David Hardy. The number of people working on the project varies from day to day; however, 21 people worked on the house last Tuesday. In addition, there have been many local people helping as well. Dennis Downing drew up the plans for the house; Brian Monticue has helped with the construction as well. Among other local volunteers helping with the project have been Len Green, Jubal Summers, Jeff Blaine, Jerry Roach, Brad Gabriel, David Seat, and Michael Ruckman. Judd Summers has donated equipment for the project. Julia said that the quality of the work was "top-notch" and that they would make sure that everything was right for the project.
In addition, several area ministers have done devotionals for the workers, including Leland May of the First Baptist Church of Albany and Dirk Buffington, the new minister for the Grant City Christian Church. The CTA, the Worth County School, Sheila Hunt, and other people have donated food for the workers, while Mary Kay Hunt, Allen & Robin Andrews, and Pat & Sue Hardy have housed workers overnight. Mary Seat has coordinated the food help for the project as well as provide meals. Janie Gabriel, sister of Julia, has taken pictures of the project and posted them online. "Just about every church in the county is involved in some way," said Moore.
Moore, currently a teacher at Worth County, said that juggling teaching, raising five children, and working on the house project was difficult. "But it goes back to something Donald would say," she said. "I wouldn’t have picked this situation, but now that I’m here, I wouldn’t change a thing." She said that she wanted to keep Donald here and that she struggled with the issue constantly. "But there is a day and hour appointed for everyone," she said. "It’s truly in God’s hands."

Jack Remembers for 11-12-08

Deven Andrew Fulks was born three years ago last Sunday. He had a birthday party at the Broadway Grill, a restaurant run by his grandparents on Sunday afternoon when the restaurant was closed. The place was packed.
That kid got everything, toy trucks, clothes, a Spiderman toothbrush, a herd of horses, markers, games, books, and a battery operated John Deere tractor that he can ride on and it even pulls a trailer.
I watch Deven at church before the service while the choir is practicing. His grandmother is the church organist. Deven helps me put candy in a dish for the kids. One Sunday he sat patiently while I tried to get a package of Hershey Miniature Chocolates open. He desperately needed one of those Hershey bars. The only problem was that I couldn’t get the thing open. I was pulling on that plastic package and finally Deven said, "Bite it, Jack, bite it!"
One Sunday the candy bowl was empty and the preacher came by and said, "Jack, I had to dump your candy out. It was full of ants." Hearing that, Deven said, "We’ve got ants at our house, too." His mother doesn’t appreciate me telling that story.
This boy got more toys Sunday afternoon than my three kids had their entire childhood. I don’t really believe it’s a good idea for a three year old to get that many toys. What are they going to expect the next birthday and the year after that. By the time they are sixteen you’d have to buy the kid a Mercedes Benz convertible. They cleared a path through the restaurant for this boy to drive the tractor and he was flying down the isle when all of a sudden he hit the table with the ketchup bottles and they landed on the floor making a heck of a mess. Well, it serves them right. Buying all those expensive toys.
Whoa! Wait a minute! It was my wife Laura and I who gave him the battery operated John Deere tractor.

Registration for Winter Wheat School begins

Registration for Winter Wheat School Begins
Registration is now open for a winter wheat school to be offered Friday, December 12 at the Lions Hall in Forest City. The school will be held from 8:30AM to 5PM. This school is for growers who grow hard and soft red winter wheat in Northwest Missouri.
The school will focus on wheat management decisions before planting, through the growing season and harvest. We will be running a simulation which decisions will be made by growers and then discuss the impact of those decisions on the crop.
The simulation will have growers using example fields to grow wheat and make decisions. If growers would like to bring their own field information, soil test records, variety, planting date and rate information from this fall planting, this could also be used.
The school will be taught by Wayne Flanary, Regional Agronomist. There is a fee for the school. For further information, please contact Wayne Flanary, University of Missouri Extension at 660-446-3724.

Opinion: John McCain for President

Opinion Pieces are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the Sheridan Express.

By Chandra Hopkins


Thankfully, the election process is about to wind down! I know we are all tired of the ads, the claims and the counterclaims, the flowery rhetoric and the billions of promises that will never be kept no matter who is elected. With all of this "junk" we have to sift through, no doubt many will wonder if it is even worth it to go to the polls.
It is our duty to participate in this important process. Many have fought for the right to cast their ballot and for all Americans to do the same. It is also important to be an informed voter. It is our responsibility to make sure that we know who and what we are voting for. Every election is important but this election is one of the most serious we have faced. We are faced with electing a leader of this great nation at a time in history when the consequences of our actions will have an enormous effect on generations to come. How then, are we to choose who would be the best leader based on all the political campaigns? It is hard to sort through and find the truth. When the truth is hard to find the best place to find it is in the facts. Facts cannot be changed and they will not go away. They are what they are.
Neither candidate running for president was my choice. I disagree with them both on several issues. However, there is a clear choice. No matter what the talking heads and spin doctors say, there are facts that cannot be ignored. Barrack Obama is a candidate that scares the daylights out of me. There are so many issues that are deal breakers just by themselves! No matter how many times Obama's supporters tell you that things you question are irrelevant to his presidency, the issues remain and must be considered. How many of us would sit in a church for 20 years listening to our minister spew hate and tell us how horrible our country was? How many of us would sit on a so called educational foundation with someone who bombed our pentagon and ran an underground domestic terrorist organization and have that very person launch our political campaign from his living room? How many of us would be so naive to think that Iran is just a little country who couldn't hurt us? How many of us would have the nerve to run for president of the greatest country in the world and go to Germany and tell them how bad the United States is and to constantly run our country down? How many of us would let a baby born alive when an abortion is botched and want a law to let that child die because that was the original intent of having an abortion?
Doesn't it make you a little nervous that Barack Obama attracts people like Rev. Wright, Louis Farrakhan, Father Pflager, Bernadine Dorn, Bill Ayers, Hugo Chavez (dictator of Venezuela) Fidel Castro, the American Communist party, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (crazy man leader of Iran), the Hollywood leftist crazies and a host of other socialists, Marxist wing nuts? What is it about him that they subscribe to? I would venture to say that Mr Obama has the same ideas about "sharing the wealth" that socialists share. Give your money to the government and they will see to it that it is shared equally as they see fit to all Americans. Is that really what you want? Obama is running on "hope and change".....if he is elected we can "hope" that we all have a little "change" left when he gets finished "redistributing" our hard earned paychecks!! There are so very many flaws in his thinking that it would take more than a newspaper column to get it all covered. If you consider just the few things I have mentioned, there should be no doubt that there is sufficient reasons to vote for John McCain.
John McCain loves this country. It is abundantly apparent and is not something you have to wonder about. He would always have the best interests of our country in the forefront of all his decisions. We may not always agree with him but I would always be comfortable in knowing that he will be making decisions for the people of this great country and will not be thinking about being a global president. We are electing the president of the United States not the next president of the world!! Obama has delusions of turning America into Europe and of himself being the world's leader. John McCain knows that we are a capitalistic country and that socialism will not work. Our forefathers didn't set out to make us like Europe...that is why they founded a free country!
Barack Hussein Obama is an extreme socialist liberal. He is someone who is constantly apologizing for our actions and blaming America for all that is bad in the world. Liberalism has run amok enough in our country! If Obama would be elected, there would be no way to stop the insanity with congress being controlled with the likes of Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid and the other liberals in charge. It is time to take it back and reclaim it for the most blessed, most generous and greatest country in the world! I urge you to vote for the man who loves his country and has proven it, who has the most common sense ideas and who will stand up for the ideals our founding fathers set forth for us years ago. For our country's sake, vote for John McCain.

Jack Remembers for 10-29-08

My oldest son, Dr. Steven Hackley, got bored in high school and dropped out at the end of his Junior year. Luckily, he was accepted at MU without a high school diploma. He is now a Professor at the University of Missouri at Columbia in the Psychology Department. He does research and also teaches undergraduate and graduate students. He is the Past President of the world-wide Society for Psycho-physiological Research.
When Steve was a young boy he helped my dad milk cows. He was paid $1.00 per milking and he saved virtually every penny he earned. He had quite a bit of money saved up and decided he would like to take lessons and learn how to fly. He rode his bicycle four miles to the East Kansas City Airport located at Grain Valley. He had parked his bicycle and was looking in a plane parked next to the airport office when the management came out, ran him off, and told him not to come back. He talked his mother into driving him once a week twenty-one miles to the Higginsville Airport, located off I-70 and operated by Marshall Branson, who took an interest in Steve. Marshall was a compassionate and patient instructor and got Steve ready to solo on his 16th birthday, which was the legal age.
I called the Kansas City Star and told them my son was going to both solo an airplane and get his driver’s license on the same day. Branson flew the Cessna 150 from Higginsville to the Grain Valley airport to meet Steve. With the Kansas City Star reporter and Steve’s family watching from the ground, Steve completed his solo flight. The next stop was the Independence License Bureau, where he took his driver’s test, once again with his family and the Kansas City Star reporter looking on. Upon completion of the driver’s test, the examiner announced to the onlookers that the newly 16 year old pilot had flunked the test.

37529 Missourians May Overpay for Plan D

Medicare estimates that 37,529 eligible Missourians have not signed up for a program that would help them pay for Medicare Part D and drastically reduce their prescription drug costs.
The program is known as "Extra Help for Medicare Part D," or the "Low-Income Subsidy." It pays 75 percent or more of prescription drug costs associated with Medicare Part D, the federally subsidized prescription drug program.
Carol Beahan, director of the nonprofit CLAIM program, would like to see more people enroll in the program.
"Many people don’t think they can afford Medicare drug coverage, because it does require cost sharing. That’s what the Extra Help program is for. People shouldn’t have to make a choice between buying groceries, or buying their medicine. Tight budgets shouldn’t force people to sacrifice their health," Beahan said.
"Some simply may not know they could be eligible for the program. Others might see the program as a handout; but I tell them that every week they have paid for the benefit already. Now’s the time to use it," Beahan said.
Applications for the Extra Help program can be requested by phone by calling Social Security at 1-800-772-1213. It can also be completed online at www.socialsecurity.gov or at your local Social Security office.

Time to Change Batteries in Smoke Detectors

As the fall time change approaches American Red Cross and the Sheridan Fire Department wants to remind residents to make another change that could save their lives - changing the batteries in their smoke alarms.

Saturday, November is “change your clock, change your battery” day and on that day it is recommended that everyone put a new battery in their smoke detector. The Red Cross and Sheridan Fire Department will be coordinating visits to homes of seniors and others who need help changing the battery in their smoke detector. Also, anyone who does not have a smoke detector in their home, the American Red Cross will provide a detector and a Firefighter will assist with installation. To schedule assistance with your smoke detector, please call the American Red Cross by Thursday, October 30 at 1-800-378-8438.

“A working smoke alarm provides an early warning and critical extra second to escape,” said Kevin Kirby, Executive Director. “This is particularly important for those most at risk of dying in a home fire, such as children and seniors.”

Children are particularly vulnerable during home fires. Children ages five and under are twice as likely as the population as a whole to die in home fires. 80% of child fire fatalities occur in homes without working smoke alarms.

Adults ages 65 and older are two times more likely to die in a home fire; those ages 75 and up are three times more likely and those ages 85 and up are 4.5 times more likely to die in a home fire.

Although 92 percent of American homes have smoke alarms, non-working smoke alarms are so common that they are robbing residents of the protective benefits these critical home fire safety devices were designed to provide. The most commonly cited cause of non-working smoke alarms: worn or missing batteries.

Changing smoke alarm batteries once a year is one of the simplest, most effective ways to reduce these tragic deaths and injuries. In fact, a working smoke alarm nearly cuts in half the risk of dying in a home fire.