Players on Okarche High School’s boys basketball team, along with team members and school staff, were honored last week in the Oklahoma House of Representatives for winning the 2024 Class A State Championship.
The group was hosted by Reps. Mike Dobrinski and Nick Archer.
Bull riding fans can get an up-close view of the sport on Sunday as the 12th Annual Mustache Bash returns to the Denny-Crump Arena, with opening ceremonies set for 2 p.m.
It's the third year for El Reno to host the event, which started in 2013, and sports 50 professional bull riders in a one-day cash prize event. Fans can bring their own lawn chairs and sit inside the arena. The riding is conducted in a fenced pen but in full view of fans.
Cost to enter the event is $10 for fans ages 6 to 12 years old and $15 for 13 and older. Those under the age of 5 are free.
So what happens if the Cheyenne and Arapaho are successful in finally getting Fort Reno returned to the tribes?
Reggie Wassana has a one-word answer: jobs.
“Someone has to step up and help create an environment that helps build economic opportunity in central and western Oklahoma,” said Wassana, governor of the C&A Tribes. “It can be the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes working with the local communities to help build a promising future for the generations to come. We can’t always rely on the oil and gas industry because it fluctuates up and down.
“The burger must go on,” said Capt. David Baker of the El Reno Fire Department.
“Rain or shine, we have to get it done.”
Grill the world’s biggest onion burger, that is.
El Reno’s Main Street Program held another successful Burger Day Festival as crowds braved rain throughout the grilling process. This was the 36th Annual Fried Onion Burger Day Festival.
The El Reno Chamber of Commerce hosted a National Day of Prayer program last week with both a morning and evening service.
Chamber director Karen Nance said the programs featured music, Scripture readings, flag salutes and various prayers offered by local elected officials and community leaders.
This marked the 73rd year for the National Day of Prayer to be held across the nation. Members of local Boy and Girl Scout troops conducted the Pledge of Allegiance.
Downtown El Reno bustled as food, fun, cars and performers kept 15,000 visitors engaged at the 36th Annual Fried Onion Burger Day Festival last week despite rain throughout much of the day.
Organizers at Wesley United Methodist Church’s 11th Bun Run were happy with having 18 one-mile runners and 105 5K runners. Dr. Dorrie Parrott and Amy Neathery, mission co-chairs, said the $15,500 raised this year will “fund our local and international mission work.”
“Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success.” - Henry Ford
The rightful ownership of Fort Reno has been debated for more than 100 years. But judging from the points laid out in 1999 by the United States Department of the Interior Office of the Solicitor, as well as in 2009 when a federal Court of Appeals did not reach an alternative conclusion, it appears as though the federal government has fought to keep the land from the C&A for one reason, oil.
El Reno High School April Students of the Month are Leyla Estrada, Brooklynn Black, Bailey Schmidt, Raley Wicker-Hartley, William Elledge, Jonas McClure, Jackson Dixon and Jesse Hardy.
Riverside April Citizens of the Month, front row from left, Samuel Powell, Kynlee Long, Braxton Crone, Alx Grant, Dawson Sneed, Isaac Shropshire and Korbyn Kraft; back row, Hazel Blakely, Barrett Moss, Braelynn Hudson, Rafe Rowland, Jaxon Merveldt, Elvee Campbell, Presleigh Mangold and Camila Tores.
Claudine Melton died peacefully at her home in El Reno on Tuesday, May 7, 2024, surrounded by her loving family.
Mass of Christian Burial will be 10 a.m. Saturday, May 11 at Sacred Heart Catholic Church. Services are under the direction of Huber-Benson Funeral Home.
Born Nov. 14, 1928, in Hobart, Okla., Claudine was preceded in death by her husband, Jack A. Melton in 2018.
Following her education in Pampa, Texas, Claudine completed San Jacinto Beauty College in Amarillo, Texas.
