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Editorial

Lights at Kennedy makes season bright

As Christmas approaches, the campground at John F. Kennedy Memorial Park is once again being transformed into a holiday wonderland. The 20th annual Lights at Kennedy will help make the season more festive for area residents and visitors. Additionally, the event raises money to support local service groups. The light display, featuring multiple different exhibits, debuts Friday night. It will also be open Saturday and Sunday. In addition to this weekend, the upcoming dates are Dec. 15-17 and Dec. 22-23. The display will be open from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. on each of those days. Free ...

A Time for Angels helps those who mourn

The death of a loved one is the emotional equivalent of getting hit by a train. There’s almost nothing that can create the bewildering range of emotions that the death of a loved one can generate. The range of emotions can include anger, fear, sadness, loneliness and other feelings that defy ordinary description. And those emotions can hit hardest during the holiday season. The staff of Gunderson Funeral Home and Cremation Services is well aware of that. So for 25 years, they have organized an event called A Time for Angels to help soothe the pain of people who have experienced a ...

Video highlights local farmers, agribusiness

The great things local farmers and agribusinesses are doing are highlighted in a film that will be viewed worldwide online. It’s called “Fort Dodge is Incredible.” It was produced by Land O’Lakes and NEW Cooperative. Its imagery includes combines churning through bountiful fields and sweeping overhead vistas of downtown. Included are voice-overs by area farmers Brian Wagner and Laura Bunda; Dan Dix, general manager of NEW Cooperative; Emily Stucky, co-owner of Community Orchard; and Jesse Ulrich, president of Iowa Central Community College. It drives home the point that Fort ...

Shared Thanksgiving is fine tradition

Thanksgiving is a uniquely American holiday that features family, food, and yes, the occasional football game. In the spirit of the holiday, thousands of people in the Fort Dodge region gathered around tables with relatives and friends for a traditional feast on Thursday. Dining room tables throughout the area were laden with turkeys, stuffing, corn, cranberries, green bean casseroles, pies and all kinds of other delicious things. But some of our neighbors couldn’t afford such a meal. Perhaps some lost a job; perhaps others had been hit with unexpected and high medical bills. ...

Today is Small Business Saturday

Shoppers, including many who hit the big box stores in an early morning frenzy Friday, are encouraged to spend today checking out the unique things offered by our community’s small shops. In Fort Dodge, many of those small shops are downtown. Nationwide, today is known as Small Business Saturday. It’s a long-standing effort to encourage people to spend some of their Christmas-shopping dollars with small stores. Small businesses employ about 50 percent of people working in private sector jobs. And it is small businesses, not big online retailers, who sponsor our kids’ sports ...

Let us give thanks

Sometimes in America, it seems as if we actually enjoy advertising our trials and difficulties. And, yes, we have had plenty of them this year. There were really trying times in the early days of our nation also. That is why America’s first formal Thanksgiving observance had far more significance to our people than today’s often perfunctory observance. With all our troubles, we Americans are among the very few people in the world who feel it necessary to officially observe a day of thanksgiving. The words of George Washington, our first president, recognized that need. His ...