Independence Bulletin Journal

by ANELIA K. DIMITROVA

BY ANELIA K. DIMITROVAAbout two dozen veterans, mostly WW||,gathered at the veterans memorial at the city park in Readlyn,Iowa,to show solidarity with Sunday's veterans march in Washington, D. C.They sang The Battle Hymn of the Republic and talked about their frustrations worth the treatment of military during the shutdown."They are going out of their way to make it hurt, " says Louie Hartman, a mother of a serving son who just returned from his third deployment in Afghanistan.Akd, the iRoving Reporter who lives her beat

By ANELIA K. DIMITROVASunflowers don't just sprout in fields in Iowa.At Holmes Junior High in Cedar Falls on Friday, about 600 of them sprung from the gym floor, as students and teachers streamed into the gathering space to boost the spirits of one of their own, who wasn't among them.Will Reinart, an eighth-grader, whose twin brother, Sam, goes to the same school, underwent a stem cell bone marrow transplant on Thursday. He is fighting leukemia, and many of his friends and classmates, who miss him at school, have wanted to help him, but didn't know how.That changed one day when three of the classmates he's had since first grade, Leah Fairchild, Elise Leasure and Olivia Powers, and their friend, Maddie Schmidt, decided to take matters into their own hands. They decided to rally for their friend to make everyone aware of the hardships he has to endure.With guidance from art teacher Andrew McCormick, the teens made and sold yellow paper hats for a quarter each to raise money for the family. At first, donations started trickling in, as students and staff bought hats. Then a generous donor chipped in $500.On the last school day in September, which is Child Cancer Awareness Month, the school sent a heartfelt cheer to Will with an assembly, the culmination of weeks of hard work.Mr. McCormick announced that the coffers had filled up with $1,060, more than the organizers' ever expected, an accomplishment that brought an avalanche of applause from the bleachers.The students practiced, and then performed, a signature saying from Will's favorite cartoon show called, "Regular Show." In it, two characters, Mordecai and Rigby, often say,"Ooooooh, snap!"In the students' "official" rendition of the saying, with hundreds of teenage voices shouting at lung capacity, the words resonated far and wide throughout the school and beyond its walls.The auditorium erupted in applause and foot stomping after everyone threw their hat into the air.As the hats fell to the floor like autumn leaves, David Welter, the school principal, a cancer survivor himself, brought the audience down to earth by sharing a story about his own journey.He described how when he was waiting for his regular checkup at his doctor's office in Iowa City recently, he saw a young mother, whose leg was amputated as a result of cancer. She was upbeat and surrounded by her kids and parents.The students quieted even more when Mr. Welter talked about an inmate in an orange jumpsuit and shackles, who sat on his other side. The man told the principal that he lost all who cared for him because he loved his addiction more than his friends and family,.He said he wished he had a chance to do it over again, but his prospects were grim."I shared a verse with him, and he shared that he wasn't much into the Bible," Mr. Welter said. "But he sure wished he had someone in his life who could give him some of the love and support the young mother and I had been talking about as we faced our battles with cancer. I then shared with him that there was someone who cared about him, and all it took was him accepting His love and caring."Tearing up, the principal continued:"Will, just look around, you have all of us in your dugout, pulling for you to rebuild and come back even stronger than ever. Our thoughts and prayers are with you, Will!"Speaking to the Cedar Falls Times on Friday morning after the rally, Will's mom, Susan Reinart, said, "It makes him feel really good that so many people care."

A Waterloo man was detained after crashing his Dodge Ram on the front lawn of a rural Cedar Falls residence and fleeing in the corn fields.