Stories from Thursday, November 15, 2007

Members of the community are invited to attend a "Benefit Tea with Harp and Heart," on Sunday, Nov. 18 at 3 p.m. The event will be at the home of Gwen Bottoms, 125 Wood St., Greencastle. The benefit will raise funds for the education of poor rural Salvadoran high school and university students who have pledged to return to their own poverty stricken communities to help educate the next generation of El Salvador...

A woman rescued from a burning vehicle by four local teenagers last week died Wednesday, after succumbing to her injuries. Taylor Waldron, 32, sustained serious burns after loosing control of her pick-up truck on U.S. 231 near Fincastle. Passers-by pulled her from the truck before flames engulfed the entire cab. Waldron sustained third-degree burns to more than 45 percent of her body and suffered a broken leg and cervical vertebra...

After trying to introduce bowling into local high school athletics, Alex Alleys has just started a high school bowling program. The program is for the schools of Putnam County. The goal is to field a team of boys and a team of girls for each of the four county schools. At this time, only a team of boys has been filled out from Greencastle. Greencastle girls and both boys and girls from Cloverdale, North Putnam and South Putnam still need participants...

Six Putnam County middle school students have been selected as winners of the 2007 National Philanthropy Week Essay Contest sponsored by the Putnam County Community Foundation. Students in seventh grade in all four school corporations were asked to write about "The Philanthropist I know and Admire the Most." The person in the essay was to be someone the writer knows personally. Entries were received from three schools...

Nov. 15 is National Philanthropy Day, a time designated to celebrate giving. This is a day we can all celebrate even if there's not a Rockefeller anywhere in the family tree. A new report by New Ventures in Philanthropy, an initiative of the Forum of Regional Associations of Grantmakers, reveals that rural philanthropy is a growing trend across the United States, generating billions of dollars for health care, education and other community needs...

First, it learned it would lose one-quarter of its membership at the end of the year, and now the West Central Solid Waste District, operators of recycling programs in Putnam and surrounding counties, has lost its education coordinator. Pam Burgess, who is employed by the district to visit local schools and teach children about recycling, announced her immediate resignation at the recycling board's meeting in Greencastle Wednesday morning. ...

The student councils of South Putnam and Cloverdale are working together this year on the Christmas Toy Drive. The students decided to work together to reach more children in our communities with the toys and good cheer. The students are officially asking for donations of new and slightly used toys to be dropped off at either high school starting Monday, Nov. 19 and ending Tuesday, Dec 11...

Funding for a second fire station and improvements to People Pathways are among the items included in a four-year expense plan currently being considered by the Greencastle City Council. Greencastle Mayor Nancy Michael announced this week that she would like to set aside $130,000 next year to pay for the design phase of a second fire station in town. ...

By JOSIE BODE Staff Writer The Bainbridge Town Council met Wednesday to discuss issues ranging from tornado sirens to snow emergency parking, but confusion over potential ATV restrictions took center stage for the council and local residents. "There will never be a four-wheeler driving up and down the streets of Bainbridge if it's up to me," said council president Mike Smith in a dissenting opinion...

The attorney for George Alexander, the former Putnam County Sheriff's Department ombudsman, filed a motion Tuesday that says his client intends to plead guilty to federal charges that he stole $45,000 in federal grand money, the U.S. Attorney for Southern Indiana announced Wednesday...

Winnng essays in the Putnam County Community Foundation's contest recognizing National Philanthropy Day.