For faith, family and the drive to help others, Dakota Valley student Tyler Schutte visited West Africa for a memory making trip. It was an experience that showed him first-hand how far kindness can go, especially in a third world country. Schutte travelled to Bamako in Mali, with his parents, Kyle and Stephanie of Dakota Dunes, this past February for 10 days. The trio stayed with the operators of ASEMALI orphanage and provided love and service to those in need.

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Four Huskies participated in the AAU state wrestling tournament in Aberdeen on March 25-26. The event took place at Northern State University in Wachs Arena.

Since purchasing the land in 2012, Valley Ag has been working on making the Spink location of their company complete. Well, they are finally done with construction and celebrated with an Open House March 23.

March 18-19 marked a new milestone for V.I.P. Gymnastics, Ninja and Cheer as they hosted the state club gymnastics meet. Over a year in the making, the meet was almost cancelled due to weather, equipment delays and scheduling.

St. Thomas More: “This was a back-and-forth, physical game, and our kids came out on the biggest stage and weren’t intimidated in the least. We led from start to finish and played great defense across the board. At the end of the game, we talked about fouling but there were too many scenarios that could allow them to win instead of just tie, so we played it out. Hollenbeck is a great player and made a great shot to tie the game. However, our guys didn’t panic and went out and executed on the final play to hit what turned out to be probably the most memorable shot of the tournament. Devon Schmitz played great and set the school record for most made 3’s in a game without a miss, going 6/6 from deep. Evan, Easton, Alex and Garrett really played well for us too and helped us maintain the lead the entire game. Overall, we didn’t play great offensively but we found a way to battle through the most physical game in the state tournament and come out with a win. For this being the first time, these guys have been in that atmosphere in basketball, we were extremely proud of them for their execution, grit, determination and overall success.”

Edward Jones Financial Advisor Jon Hauger of Dakota Dunes has been named to Barron’s magazine’s 2023 list of Top 1,200 Financial Advisors. He ranked No. 6 in South Dakota. Hauger has served area investors for the past 23 years. He is one of 11 Edward Jones financial advisors to be named to the 2023 Top 1,200 ranking, which is published in the March 13 issue of Barron’s.

Barb Haberling of Elk Point was honored during halftime at the South Dakota State A Boys Basketball tournament of the Elk Point-Jefferson game. She received the South Dakota High School Activities Association Distinguished Service award.

By Beth Sherard-Hutcheson times1reporter@gmail.com The Jefferson City Council convened as the Board of Equalization to hear one grievance over the assessed valuation of their property. The City of Jefferson saw an increase of 10 percent on assessed values.