Most children enjoy summer camp and this year in Rutherford County the consensus from one group of campers is no different.

Nine Special Olympic Rutherford County Athletes have returned home after participating in the Special Olympic North Carolina Summer Games June 3-5 in Raleigh.

Rutherford County's Olympians were the Rutherford Rollers bowling team. Athletes were Dakota Collins, Brendan Thompson, Billy Callahan, Yanessa Ortiz, Amber Dysart, Michael Cobb, Kato Porter and Steven Camp.

The votes have been tallied and recounted and the winners for the 2022 RecycleBots Challenge have been chosen. Keep Rutherford County Beautiful (KRCB) is thrilled to have the broad and creative field of over 90 entries from Rutherford County third-graders. It made for a tough, but impressive judging process.

Former Lt. Governor Walter Dalton described Rev. Billy Honeycutt as an "angel among us" during an informal recognition ceremony in his honor recently.

Beginning at 9 a.m. Monday, the public is invited to join the annual Memorial Day Service to be held at the Veterans Memorial, followed by a followed by a complimentary continental breakfast.

A common phrase mentioned by coaches, parents and members of the Omegabytes robotic team when they were in Houston, Texas recently for the international championship was, "We Belong Here."

The law enforcement community gathered Sunday, April 24 to remember State Trooper John Horton of Rutherford County. Horton died in the line of duty in January in Mooresboro.

Nearly 20 years ago Bobby and Helen Lynch of Gilkey had a desire to help feed the public.

As members of St. Gabriel's Episcopal Church, Ridgecrest Street in Rutherfordton the couple started the weekly Jericho Road Soup Kitchen with one can of green beans, luncheon meat and five pounds of potatoes.

Addi Byers is an 11-year-old sixth grader at Thomas Jefferson but she is far from a typical young school girl. Her mother, Melanie calls her a "heart warrior."

On March 15, the petite red-head underwent heart transplant surgery at Levine Children's home, Atrium Health in Charlotte and since then and for the first time in five years, Addie has a "fully functioning heart."

Ben Kennedy is the first to admit he's been in a lot of serious trouble during his life that resulted in incarceration in a maximum security prison because of violent behavior. From age 18 to 30 he was in and out of prison. He was also a drug user and was on meth.

From its humble beginning in a white frame wooden church building to the sprawling campus of Florence Baptist Church in Forest City today - the mission of the church has not changed in the past 100 years. Members are challenged to bring all the people together for worship, study, fellowship, training and then go out and share the message.

The Tide 5 Southern Region group, headquartered in Vicksburg, Mississippi, arrived the first week of March and will be in Rutherford County until the first of May.

As a threat of rain was becoming more evident, the Leadership Rutherford Class of 2021-22 didn't allow a few raindrops spoil their excitement.

Standing beside the Ruff'ton Roots garden in Rutherfordton, the Leadership Class officially opened the Rutherford Rise Blessing Box near Rutherford Regional Medical Center.

UKRAINE RELIEF FUND

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Sitting at the dining room table with her card playing teammates Friday morning at the Rutherford County Senior Center, all the attention was directed to Fern Mohr. She was honored with a 100th birthday party that included cards, cakes and plenty of well wishes and hugs. She turned 100 on Saturday, February 19.

Spencer Baptist Church hosted a Night to Shine 2022, sponsored by the Tim Tebow Foundation in the parking lot of the church Friday night, Feb. 11.

An Ellenboro actress has been selected to direct The Last Door, a faith-based film that follows a man on his journey to understanding the importance of blind faith.

Eight young adults arrived in Rutherford County a few days after the January 16 snow event and soon began working to help with urgent housing needs such as roofing and building handicapped ramps for low income people here.

A Rutherford County native, Montana Bright, who is an operating room nurse at Atrium Health in Charlotte spends part of her free time at her part-time job as a Honey Bee dancer for the Charlotte Hornets.

A 16-year-old student at Thomas Jefferson Classical Academy, Maylan Maxwell, has written a cookbook with all proceeds going to purchase supplies for the Cleveland County Boys and Girls club.

A Rutherford County man traveled to Mayfield, Kentucky just before Christmas to take supplies to tornado victims that were donated from people across the county.

Unity in the Community, a faith-based group headquartered in Polk County that reaches over the county line into Rutherford, works to improve the lives of residents across Polk County and surrounding areas by providing activities and services for entire families.