Community

Facing some stiff competition, Seb Goplin and Shane Walford proved last week that they know a thing or two about cars.

The Oregon High School students earned scholarships and other prizes last Wednesday when they finished second in Wisconsin’s 2013 Ford/AAA Student Auto Skills Competition at the Milwaukee Area Technical College in Mequon.

The competition required 10, two-student teams from around the state to diagnose and repair identical “bugs” in 2013 Ford Focus sedans in under 90 minutes.

Goplin, a junior, and Walford, a senior, were one of just two teams to fix their car in the time allotted. The other team, from Grafton High School, won only because they were slightly faster, said OHS technology and engineering teacher Ned Lease.

“It’s a really big honor,” Lease said.

The team of Goplin and Walford qualified for the competition by collectively scoring in the top 10 statewide on a written exam in February.

Oregon resident Melissa VanderSanden will serve as the 2013 Dane County Fairest of the Fair.

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During the selection process on May 5, she was chosen from a pool of eight candidates based on an interview, ability to create and execute a mock radio commercial and public speaking skills featuring general fair knowledge.

She will serve as the official youth ambassador for the Dane County Fair, July 17-21, and will make multiple appearances across the county to promote the Fair and the participating youth exhibitors.

It was a fundraiser for Custom Canines Service Dog Academy, and their goal was to raise $40,000 to pay for training companion service dogs for kids with autism who are on the service’s waiting list in the next year.

Lisa and Jeff Arndt didn’t reach the fundraising target, but they did accomplish another goal: cycling coast to coast – almost 3,000 miles in 47 days of riding. And they managed to raise about $10,000 for the service dog academy in Madison.

Along the way, the Arndts learned much about parts of the country they’d never seen. And Lisa, in particular, learned that she’s tougher than she knew.

“We’ve kind of talked about doing another ride in another section of the country, maybe going north to south,” she said last week, a day after returning from Florida. “It’s amazing that I’m even talking like that, whereas two months ago I didn’t know if I could complete a whole day. But I’m so glad we did it.”

Mackenzie Turbidy got his first taste of theater last winter, when he played the role of Tic Toc the Time Machine in the Oregon High School production of “Ozma of Oz: A Tale of Time,” in February.

On Thursday, Turbidy will tackle a new theatrical challenge when he directs “Basest of Companions,” a play he wrote in just under two months after “Ozma” wrapped up.

Tickets are free, though organizers are suggesting a $5 donation to benefit a Hawaii-based non-profit organization, Far Corners Community Musical Theater, that helps stage dramatic productions in poor or isolated communities worldwide. OHS drama supervisor Kathleen Tissot is directing and producing a Far Corners play in Costa Rica for the group this summer.

The suggested donation was Turbidy’s idea, Tissot said.

“He’s a super creative guy and humble and I think it was really big-hearted of him to offer that,” Tissot said.

If you missed the annual Rudy Burkhalter Memorial Jamboree last weekend, it’s not your fault. For the first time in 35 years, the gathering of area accordionists did not take place.

Burkhalter and some friends started the jamboree in 1978 as a way to get together and play their accordions and concertinas.

The event was held in the Oregon High School Performing Arts Center since about 2001 – no one seems to know for sure what year it was first held in Oregon – but the group of players is getting on in years and decided last year to disband the event.

After Burkhalter – who started the well-known Burkhalter Travel in Madison – passed away in 1994, the jamboree became a memorial for the master accordionist.

Eighty-seven-year-old Don McDermott, of Madison, was one of the founding members of the jamboree and has fond memories of it.

A car show next weekend organized by an Oregon man will double as a fundraiser to find a cure for two digestive diseases.

The third annual “Cruizin’ for a Cure” Car and Bike Show to benefit the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of America will be held from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, May 11, outside Prairie View Elementary School, 300 Soden Dr. The rain date is May 12.

The show’s founder and organizer is 21-year-old Justin Frederick, a 2009 Oregon High School graduate and car enthusiast who eight years ago was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis, a painful, chronic disorder of the large intestine.

Frederick, a Realtor, developed the show to generate money to further research.

The inaugural show drew about 30 cars, but that grew to 70 at last year’s event that raised more than $2,400, Frederick said.

Railroad enthusiasts will be in Brooklyn this weekend for the 17th annual “Depot Days” heritage festival.

The event runs from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, April 27, and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, April 28. It features “speeder car” rides, model train exhibits, a car show, a raffle and plenty of food.

This year’s event is bringing back a vintage car show for the second year. The show will run from 1-4 p.m. Saturday, with off street parking downtown. Participants should check-in by 12:30 p.m. at 100 E. Main St., with the first 20 cars receiving commemorative dash plaques. For more information call Rich Walford at 455-1713.

The half-hour “speeder car” rides take place on a former railroad maintenance vehicle, powered by a gasoline engine, on the train tracks. Tickets are $7 for adults and $3 for kids ages 10 and under and are on sale downtown near the tracks during the festival. Rides leave on the hour.

A group that wants to help develop a major new Dane County park in the Town of Oregon is looking for volunteers.

The “Friends of Anderson Park” group will hold its first meeting at 10:30 a.m. Saturday at the Oregon Public Library.

Located just south of the village of Oregon, the Anderson Farm County Park has been in the works for years and could eventually convert several hundred acres of mostly farmland into a park replete with hiking and biking trails, a 40-acre off-leash area for dogs, a baseball diamond and start-up plots for small-scale vegetable farmers.

The park is named for Lyman Anderson, the revered politician and local farmer who died in 2005 after a long career in town, county and state government.

In a news release, group founder and town resident Roe Parker said the group will focus on the restoration or preservation of the land’s woodlands and prairie areas, under guidance from county officials.

The Oregon High School “Shadow Indoor Percussion” team reached a new high last weekend when it competed in the World Guard International’s world championships in Dayton, Ohio.

Led by artistic director Dave Skogen, the OHS group of about three-dozen student percussionists placed seventh out of 12 teams that competed in the independent marching class A finals.

It marked the first time an OHS team reached the finals, a goal set when the group first formed in 2009, Skogen said. Unlike the OHS squad, many of the top teams included college-aged students.

The team’s final score of 88.33 was the highest an OHS team had ever recorded at the event, he said.

To qualify, the group competed at regional competitions earlier this year in Minneapolis and Indianapolis, finishing first and second, respectively. It also had to pass through a preliminary competition last week that included roughly 30 teams.

An Oregon program that helps local residents in need got a big boost recently.

Oregon residents and churches raised more than $10,000 in donations between November and March to the “Helping Hands Fund” administered by St. John’s Lutheran Church.

That earned the fund a $5,000 matching grant from the Thrivent Financial for Lutherans Foundation, which had already provided a $5,000 grant to the fund last fall. Add it up and the fund swelled by more than $20,000 in less than six months.

“That’s a lot of money, and yet it goes so fast because the need is there,” said St. John’s lead pastor Paul Markquart.

Last year, coordinators doled out $12,100 to about 100 families in the Oregon School District to help pay for rent, utility bills or other necessities, said St. John’s financial accountant Shirley Schiffner.