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The Team Fitting competition is always a highlight during the Cherry County Fair livestock shows! Youth work in teams of three to fit a beef animal in 20 minutes, then do a salesmanship presentation. Every year, Craig and Katie O’Kief award all participants with halters and the winning teams receive show gear.

Let me just start by saying, I know better. I know that when you receive gifts, you say ‘Thank you’. Typically, for weddings, graduations, and funerals you hand write them. I know this. The thing is, this time, I can’t. We can’t, because I know that we would miss someone, and I just can’t do that. There are so many people who deserve them: first-responders, EMTs, medical staff, friends, family, community members, football teams, students, teachers, church groups, prayer warriors, and thousands of people we’ve never met. When the kids’ car accident happened, people came out of the woodwork: family, friends, first responders, EMTS. It was incredible! We weren’t home, and an entire community came together for our kids, for us. As we were driving to get them, and our pick-up was breaking down, friends filled in, provided everything we needed to get to our kids: a vehicle, a place for the new horse we had just purchased, communication from the side of the gravel road on how our kids were doing, plans for transport, love, and prayers. God was there, too, working through all those magnificent hearts! Family packed bags for an inevitable trip to somewhere bigger for medical support. My sister stepped in to do what she does, and when it was time to leave Valentine after hugs and I love you’s to our girls, we were ready. Snacks, water, a full tank of fuel, a dependable vehicle, we had everything necessary to follow James to Omaha, all provided by friends, family, and a community operating on love. We had a list of places for us to stay a mile long, along with meals, money, and still more prayers by the time we reached our destination. As the rest of the story played out, we continued to be showered with love and support. Encouragement for James’s recovery, prayers for Rylie and Addie, for Ryan and I, too, and Dano followed us every step of the way. There were fundraisers, auctions, tshirts, Web pages to share jokes and pictures from home, and excitement for Cowboy’s progress. We received prayers from all over the world, from people rooting for him and for our family. I will never forget him waking up after being sedated. Dano and I had been talking about the prayer warriors. Cowboy woke up and asked me, “What kind of warriors are they?” As tears filled my eyes, I told him, “The best kind.” James received more mail in that PICU in one day, than the whole floor receives in a week!! It was so awesome, such beautiful expressions of love!! Dano and I started a list of gifts and cards. We wrote down all the addresses, and we fully intended to send the thank-you’s when we came home. However, after Cowboy had his stroke, we lost track of the mail coming in. Ryan and the girls were there, saying their goodbyes. Once the decision was made to donate Cowboy’s organs, a whole other chain of events took place. Live On Nebraska teams came in to start trying to find matches; more imaging and tests were done. Finally, goodbyes and the recovery surgery were scheduled. When all those plans started, Dano and I stopped recording, and we lost track. We kept opening the mail, though. Each card, gift, and message was a bright spot and a welcome break from the waiting. Waiting to say goodbye is hard. We truly couldn’t have done this without all the love and support we received. Friends came to be there for Cowboy’s Hero walk, help us pack his room, and say goodbye. UNMC staff that has become family, pulled strings to allow Dano to go with Ryan and I to say goodbye to Cowboy (only 2 people are supposed to be allowed in the operating room), and after we said our final “I love you’s” we headed home. After Cowboy’s service, we started the list again. It was an incredible celebration, again made possible because of so much love. Friends and family helped compile pictures and orchestrate horses and the coolest escort for Cowboy’s last ride. Our community came together once again to feed the 600 plus people who came to celebrate his life, and my goodness, it was beautiful!!! The love shared with us continues. We are still receiving gifts in the mail, cards full of encouragement, and gifts for the girls, all sent with such incredible amounts of love!! Every phone call, message, handshake, and hug holds us up. Every story, every mention of Cowboy’s name, the memorials gifts, awards in his honor, and pictures shared helps heal our hearts. Thank-you so much for honoring him!! Thank-you for helping him “Live On”!! Thank-you for celebrating his life!! Thank-you for loving him!! Thank-you for loving us!! Thank-you for showing up for our family in our darkest, most terrifying hour. Thank-you for giving of yourselves, and thank-you for sharing love. The love shared is the beauty in the tragedy, the blessing through the tears. Cowboy brought out so much goodness in those around him, and he’s doing it, still!! God is so good. Thank-you for sharing the stories and memories with us. Cowboy made such an impact. We knew he was amazing, but we didn’t realize how many lives he had touched. Please, keep sharing the memories!! Never worry about the tears. They’re there because we miss him, but they aren’t bad. They’re just love. Thank-you also for sharing the gifts of Cowboy’s continued presence, the God-winks, the little whispers sent our way from James and God. Those also heal our hearts. We don’t wonder, because James believed; we know where he is. I will never look at a rainbow the same again, or a butterfly, or a dragonfly, or…a feather. They’re gifts from God, and because you’ve shared them, gifts from you. From the bottom of our hearts, THANK-YOU!! May God bless your lives, as you have blessed ours. May He help you see the joy and find the blessings in all things. May He help us share love as you have all so willingly and so generously shared love with us. Amen. With Love, The Sexsons: Ryan, Jamie, Rylie, Addie, and Cowboy “So faith, hope, love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” Corinthians 13:13

The Nebraska Game and Parks Commission reminds landowners of three changes made to the Special Landowner Deer Season. This season, entering its second year this fall, gives a qualifying landowner a three-day season on his or her property preceding the regular firearm deer season.

Students who attend September webinars eligible to win one of six $500 scholarships Lincoln-EducationQuest Foundation announced the dates and times of a series of virtual events in September and October focused on college planning and financial aid. All events are free.

M Monday, Sept. 12 - Breakfast: Cody- Breakfast burritos, cereal, toast, fruit, juice, and milk.

The Sandhills Peacemakers Quilt Guild met August 22 at 7:00 p.m. for our meeting which was held at the Baptist Church in Valentine.

The Legacy Art Exhibit of the founding and early members of the Sand Painters Art Guild is on display at the Valentine Library until the September 30. The founders of the Sand Painters Art Guild were Alice Cumbow, Veronica Heelan and Betty Kime who organized the club in 1965 and became charter members of the Association of Nebraska Art Clubs at that time. Cumbow was a self-taught artist who did not start creating art until she was in her 50’s and created over 500 pieces of art, many retained by family and friends, others on exhibit throughout the world, the Sheldon at UNL and a museum in Washington, DC. Veronica Heelan, with a degree in fine arts, taught artists, both youth and adult, in the classroom and in her studio on the family ranch. Fabric designed by Betty Kime is in the Museum of Modern Art in Kearney. Betty Kime was very proud of the fact that she brought the first weaving looms to the University of Nebraska in Lincoln. She was a home economist and worked for the Cherry County Extension office. All three had served in all offices during their time after founding the Sand Painters.

AUGUST 31, 2022 — As the new school year is now in full swing, the Nebraska State Patrol and Nebraska Department of Education are reminding parents, students, and schools officials of the options available to report school or student safety issues.

Incidents/Arrests On 08/21/2022 at 8:39 p.m., an officer made contact with two residents in the 500 block of North Macomb Street. The two men, a 54 year old man and 66 year old man, were both cited for city ordinance violations.

The Nebraska Game and Parks Commission reminds landowners of three changes made to the Special Landowner Deer Season. This season, entering its second year this fall, gives a qualifying landowner a three-day season on his or her property preceding the regular firearm deer season.