News

Initially developed five years ago as part of a student’s service-learning project, the Redlands Community College Student Food Pantry opened its doors to meet the needs of its students who were experiencing food insecurity.

Now, as one of six Oklahoma public colleges and universities selected to receive an inaugural grant through the Oklahoma Hunger-Free Campus Act pilot program, Redlands intends to expand the service and streamline the operation.

Dolores Williams and Cynthia Bennett were longtime educators with El Reno Public Schools. When these two women passed away, their families asked that memorials be sent to El Reno Public School Foundation, focusing on Rose Witcher and Hillcrest libraries.

Understanding the impact these two had on all grade levels, the Foundation requested a grant from the Mary Kay Ashbrook Foundation

Last week’s annual Letter Carriers Food Drive delivered in a good way.

Letter carrier Janice Cox coordinates the drive for El Reno. The food donated by the community and picked up by local letter carriers goes to The Lord’s Harvest food ministry. This year’s total of more than 5,300 pounds of food is in line with previous years, said Nikki Pruitt, founder and director of The Lord’s Harvest. Pruitt said she expects more donated food to arrive later.

“We usually get another 200 to 300 pounds of food donated later, after the drive,” Pruitt said.

The 2023 valedictorians for El Reno High School are Bailey Denwalt, Brady Hardaway, Hayden Hefner, Tanner McDaniel, Madison Patswald and Ty Vincent.

These students earned this distinction by obtaining all A’s during their high school career and taking 13 Pre-AP and AP courses with an AP course in each core subject.

Abigail Fraire is the 2023 salutatorian. She took the same number of Pre-AP and AP classes and has the next highest GPA.

El Reno High School held an assembly last week to honor the four El Reno students who represented the district at the 2023 Special Olympics Oklahoma Summer Games held in Stillwater.

OKLAHOMA CITY – El Reno resident Jerry Stafford was recognized as the Veteran of the Week in the Oklahoma House of Representatives on Monday by Reps. Rhonda Baker, R-Yukon, Jay Steagall, R-Yukon, and Denise Crosswhite Hader, R-Piedmont.

Stafford enlisted in the U.S. Navy at the age of 18 and served from 1955 to 1965 aboard the USS Ranger aircraft carrier, hanging bombs, rockets and nuclear weapons.

The family of the late Cliff Johnson donated this horse-drawn road grader to the Canadian County Historical Museum last week.

The grader was said to have been used to help build portions of Route 66.