Every so often I run inot people, mostly young children, who ask good questions that sometimes make me even think for a moment.
Such was the case last week when I attended Ash Wednesday services and heard some children asking about the ashes. In between kids exchanging hearts and treats for Valentine’s Day and adults giving roses, they were also having the sign of the cross smudged with ashes on their foreheads.

Looking at the Kasson-Mantorville wrestling team’s schedule at the beginning of the season, it was clear that the KoMets would have another road to return to the state tournament.

The annual KoMets vs. Cancer campaign had raised $18,605 as of Tuesday, event coordinator Michele Lindquist said.
This year’s goal was to raise $15,000. Just more than $20,000 was raised during the 2017 event. 

The Kasson-Mantorville Middle School Drama Department will present Patrick Derksen’s detective comedy, “A Lighter Shade of Noir” at the Minnesota WiFi Performing Arts Center at Kasson-Mantorville High School. 
Show times are 12:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 23 (a student and senior matinee); 7 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 24; and 2 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 25.

The 20th-annual Dodge County Expo will be held from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, March 24 at Triton High School in Dodge Center.

Lorraine Bolster has been a calm influence at Kasson Eye Care since she started work early in 1986 – two weeks after the office opened.

Dodge County’s top emergency management official has received a prestigious statewide honor.
Homeland Security and Emergency Management has named Matt Maas as the Emergency Management Professional of the Year. He received the award Feb. 15 at the HSEM Governor’s Conference in Brooklyn Center. 

Owatonna High School has named Marc Achterkirch to be its new activities director, the school announced on Friday in a news release.
Current activities director Ryan Swanson said he chose Achterkirch as his replacement because he puts the students first, he doesn’t get caught up in politics and he always does the right thing.

It looked like a scene out of a movie. There were lights flashing, the power was shut off, and panicked residents were running through the fallen debris. 
Last Thursday night’s final CERT training drill certainly had the realism down. Among the volunteer actors was a woman searching frantically for her lost baby, a man trapped under a piece of plywood, and several others who appeared in dire need of medical attention.