Horizon Health Foundation helps protect the overall wellness of your rural communities through programs supporting the quality care initiatives of Horizon Health Care. Horizon is the farmers, grandparents and children you meet in your local communities every day.

Who is the oldest person you know in South Dakota? Each year, the South Dakota Health Care Association’s (SDHCA) Century Clubsm seeks to find the answer! If you know of a South Dakotan born in 1914 or earlier, making this person at least 109 years young, he or she may be our state’s oldest living person. SDHCA would like to honor him or her with the 2023 Centenarian of the Year award.

The Elk Point-Jefferson 6th-12th grade Life Skills Special Education class recently participated in an Inclusion Field Trip in Vermillion. They weren’t the only school to attend, however, Beresford’s High School class also participated on May 4.

Union County now has 30 days to travel to Laredo, TX and pick up murder suspect Alfredo Castellanos-Rosales. Castellanos-Rosales was charged with first- and second-degree murder of 23-year-old Jordan Beardshear who was found inside her Dakota Dunes apartment April 26.

The South Dakota Department of Education has made available an application for its new Teacher Apprenticeship Pathway. The department, and its partners, will pilot the program beginning in the 2023-24 school year.

With very few items for discussion, the Dakota Dunes Community Improvement District Board of Supervisors met for just over an hour on May 15. Two items were approved during the meeting.

The Dakota Valley School Board received an update from all of the school’s administrators on happenings in their respective buildings and departments at their meeting May 9. Kristi Maloney • Elementary Principal The elementary building partnered with local colleges and universities to provide experience for those pursuing a degree in education.

The Elk Point-Jefferson graduating class of 2023 crossed the stage and received their diplomas Saturday, May 20 at 2 p.m. The 54 graduates walked into the high school gymnasium welcomed by the EPJ Concert Band.

Jenny Smith could be found in the summer time playing dentist with her cousins. That passion led into her adulthood and has been shown through the awards she’s received the last two years in a row.

In a game of dog versus dog, the Elk Point-Jefferson Huskies travelled to Madison to take on the Bulldogs Tuesday, May 16. The travel turned out to be detrimental to the Huskies as they couldn’t get into the swing of things.