Another Cemetery Fundraising lunch has come and gone. Thanks to the hard working volunteers and the good turn out on the part of both the townsfolk and the out of town visitors, it was a success. The menu consisted of pulled pork and sausage with sides of potato salad and coleslaw. Desserts for both the lunch and the bake sale were supplied by the local women. Many donations were received by mail, sent in by people that are making their homes elsewhere but still take the time to help out with the upkeep of the Ryan Cemetery. The contract for mowing this year has been awarded to the Wesley Martin family. Several years ago they worked for the contract holder and proved themselves more than capable of doing a good job. I’m sure that their standards will be maintained. Dustan Bryant did the cooking again this year, I think that most folks will agree that Dustan might have figured out how to smoke meat. Ol’ Dusty spent most of Saturday night and early Sunday morning tending to his cooker, so if you get the opportunity, say thank you to Dustan for the fine work that he does every year. Councilwoman Tammy Cotton and her band of merrymakers spent a lot of time and effort planning and preparing for this event and then spent a lot of Saturday evening cooking for the bake sale. I never did see this rum cake that she was talking about. A special thank you goes out to Tammy’s friend Holly for all of her hard work. Holly comes to Ryan every year to lend a helping hand with the event. After the meal and bake sale, the names of the raffle winners were drawn by an honest disinterested third party. Each winner got a $25 gift certificate to one of the local businesses, if you won you will be notified or you can check with Town Hall.
The summer reading program will be starting on June 16th and will be on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10:00 am until 12:00 pm at the Ryan Sr. Citizens Center. Mrs. T. J. Dewbre said that you can go to her Facebook page and find the Amazon wish list if you would like to help out, also volunteers are always welcome and they can use more arts and crafts supplies. Lunches will be provided. June’s theme will be insects so the kids will be learning more about all the creepy and crawly things. Most of the activities will be at the Sr. Citizens Center but there will be ample opportunity to be going outdoors.
I went looking for further inspiration for something for this week’s column and I found it in the guise of a fellow named Mike Rowe and a show called “Returning The Favor”. His description of the show is that they go out looking for do-gooders. They search out, celebrate and try to understand people whose efforts are spent trying to make the lives of people in their communities better. I have watched veterans helping other vets. One woman that owns a restaurant and during the pandemic she had to close, so her and her friends handed out meals to people that might miss a meal otherwise. Another woman that is rescuing both urban children and abused animals. Teaching children responsibility and the animals to trust humans again. One episode was about a man that converted his family owned whiskey distillery so that they could supply hand sanitizer. All of these folks function on donations and that is where Mike and his group come in, sometimes they give them equipement and sometimes money and sometimes both. If you are a sucker for a feel good story, this is a good place to go.
Be kind to one another.
