Mark’s Musings – June 06, 2012
Mark Fortune
With all of the heartache, sadness and just plain negative news in today’s world, Saturday evening at Coshocton High School certainly defied that trend in a big way. At last year’s annual Miss Jennifer’s Dance recital, Staff Sergeant John Lonsberry was leaving for Afghanistan. This year was much more heartwarming as members of the 1484th Transportation Company based in Akron, returned home to their loved ones, including Lonsberry.
Special care and attention was given at this year’s dance recital to not only welcome Staff Sergeant Lonsberry home in a big way – but to have him walk on stage and surprise daughter Leah as she prepared to dance. This was cool. In fact, I must say that it was absolutely one of the neatest things I have had the pleasure of covering for The Beacon. With tears of joy streaming down her face, Leah embraced her father in a welcome home hug to beat all hugs. Following their embrace, the dance team performed several patriotic routines to the roar and applause of the crowd.
As Staff Sergeant Lonsberry stood in front of a large American flag – a flag that, I might add, flew above the Task Force Raven base in Kandahar, Afghanistan, the dancers smiled, performed and waved small American flags. Later, the entire Lonsberry family joined John on stage to the delight of the applauding audience. It was truly a magnificent evening. For those that took the time to prepare the welcome home signs and somehow work out the many details and arrangements for this – bravo.
Several local high school athletes competed at the state level in track this past weekend – with Ridgewood pole vaulter’s Chris Saylor and Meghan Cunningham earning All Ohio honors – River View pole vaulter Kaitlyn Martin earning All Ohio honors (finishing in the top eight), and River View’s Ethan Widder and Coshocton’s Emily Clark also faring well. In fact, just getting to the state meet is a tremendous accomplishment for these young people. You can read more about these young people in this edition of The Beacon.
Speaking of accomplishments, those that follow girl’s softball know that the River View Lady Bears had a tremendous season – finishing one win shy of making the state tournament. Nice job, coaches, fans, parents and players. Congratulations on a fantastic season!
Isn’t it great to see the work being done on the Three Rivers Bridge! Wow, this is impressive. Kudos to the Restore America folks and to Hathaway Construction for making this happen. It will truly make the entrance to our community a more positive one.
Across the county, people are cleaning up, fixing up, sprucing up and improving. Buildings are being renovated, painted, and re-opening as another business. All of these combine to make Coshocton County a better place to live, work and play. It’s a positive thing.
Category: Mark's Musings
