Stories from Wednesday, March 21, 2012

This year is the 75th anniversary of Theodor Geisel's first book, "And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street." It's worth celebrating. Dr. Seuss changed reading and the way it was taught. You can look it up. To quote one pundit: He slew Dick and Jane...

To the Editor: The board of the Humane Society of Putnam County wishes to express its gratitude to everyone who participated in making the first week of operations in its relocated thrift store, Rescued Treasures, such a resounding success. Moving and settling into a new retail location are never easy tasks, especially when done completely with unpaid labor. More than 500 volunteer hours were spent in preparation for our new store...

The Putnam County Museum will be closed from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday, March 24 for the memorial service (1 p.m. at Meharry Hall in DePauw University's East College) of emeritus museum board member Sally H. Gray. The museum will be open 2-4 p.m. in her honor following the memorial service on Saturday...

BRUNERSTOWN -- Firefighters from 11 departments spent all of Tuesday afternoon battling a blaze that destroyed a rural Parke County home. Putnam County 911 Dispatch received a call of a house fire at 292 S. CR 900 West at 11:22 a.m. The first responders on scene found the front of the house fully engulfed in flames and part of the second floor collapsed...

The North Putnam Middle School sixth grade will be hosting a 5K Run/Walk on April 7 at 9 a.m., with registration at 8 a.m., to benefit the outdoor educational experience of North Putnam Middle School sixth graders. The outdoor educational experience focuses on leadership and community building skills...

DePauw University's recently approved Trap and Skeet Club is off to a running start. The university granted permission to form the club on Feb. 5. Within a week, more than 85 students had joined and 30 attended the initial shooting event. The need for the club and desire among students to support it are evident...

TERRE HAUTE -- Youngsters who exemplify the term "precocious" can seldom spell the word that perhaps defines them best. But that certainly isn't true for 10-year-old Addison Hughes, the South Putnam Central Elementary School fifth-grade spelling sensation...

Remember.com, an online repository for memories, has launched its beta platform to DePauw University, which is celebrating the 175th anniversary of its founding this year. The start-up company, based in Indianapolis, has built a platform to share and preserve the memories of any person, place or topic in the world. DePauw is the first topic on Remember.com, the first online memory bank...

Editor's note: This story is about highly motivated foreign students from such diverse countries as Thailand, South Korea, Germany, France and Norway and is printed here in hopes a potential county family will reach out and offer one or more of these talented, English-speaking students a caring home in one of the following school districts -- North Putnam, Greencastle, South Putnam, Cloverdale, Brazil or Clinton or any other nearby communities -- during the 2012-13 school year, beginning in mid to late August. ...

The South Putnam Youth Football League came to the school board for support of its new program during Monday evening's meeting. As the football league is going through a transition of power, president and treasurer Nick Teeters updated the board on its current status...

Barbara Jane Jones, 68, of Roachdale, passed away at her home on Wednesday, March 21, 2012. Barbara was born on June 17, 1943 in Plainville to Chester and Garnett McCallian Edwards. She graduated from Plainville High School in 1961 and the Chicago School of Beauty in 1963. She was North Putnam treasurer for 15 years and worked for the town of Roachdale for 19 years.