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Our doors always open to veterans

When you look at the calendar, it seems like time is flying — not only in weeks and months, but definitely in years. This September will mark twenty-five years since the terrorist attacks on 9/11, a day that reshaped our nation and the lives of countless service members and families. In our work serving veterans in this area, the passing of time becomes very real. We are still meeting a surprising number of Vietnam Veterans who have either not been to the office for many years or have never stepped into the VA system at all. It amazes us because so much help is available, and it ...

Graduation: A time for well chosen words of wisdom

Under normal daily circumstances most people aren’t inclined to give advice because they don’t want to seem like a “know it all”. The graduation season in May is often an exception to the rule, especially for people my age and older. We enjoy seeing grandchildren of relatives and close friends take an important step toward being an adult. We want to help them in a small way. For that reason we will sometimes say a few words about our own experiences in life, things we’ve learned over the years. There’s a scene from the 1967 movie The Graduate in which a graduation ...

Senior year — greatest time of your life

It is that time of year where we are going to a lot of open houses celebrating graduations. I have listened to many warm, funny and nostalgic stories of senior years in high school. That took me back to my last year of high school, which totally revolved around sports, since that was my ...

Celebrating success as countdown to Sept. 1 begins

As we enter the final month of the 2025-26 school year, I want to extend my heartfelt gratitude to our Marshall community. Even though we’ve faced challenges this year, our students, staff, and families have shown remarkable resilience, collaboration, and joy. We are closing out a very successful year—and there is so much to celebrate across every building. Preschool and early childhood center Our youngest learners have had a month full of connection and celebration. We welcomed grandparents and special grownups for Goodies with GrownUps, a special morning of sharing stories, ...

Going Dutch

You might think that a town with a name like Orange City would have vast orchards of citrus trees, but you would be mistaken. So much for truth in advertising. This isn’t terribly surprising given that Orange City is in northwestern Iowa, far from the citrus-growing region. But Orange City makes up for it with vast numbers of tulips. The large number of bulb-based flowers in Orange City might cause you to think that the town is closely associated with Holland, and you would be correct. One out of two isn’t bad. Orange City celebrates its Dutch heritage with their annual Tulip ...

God fills our world with color

If our worth is to be measured by our lawns, I am in trouble. You’ve seen those perfectly manicured lawns in the nice parts of town. Then there are farmyards that look like the cover of Country Living magazine. Our lawn is there because something needs to grow between the buildings and the fields. Some of it was seeded to lawn grasses in a distant past. Some of it’s just what grew there. All that said, in my simple-minded way, the yard looked spectacular this spring. Everything greened up as winter withdrew. A two-inch rain lushed it up. Amid the vivid green were bright ...