KI BOIS Head Start Special Activity Day!

(Staff photo by Doug Russel)
Children play under a multi-colored parachute during a special activity day for KI BOIS Head Start students on April 7.

(more photos in this week's Stigler News Sentinel)

Tie a blue ribbon Ceremony focuses attention on child abuse

(Staff photo by Doug Russel) By Doug Russel

District Attorney Farley Ward and others join to dedicate a Blue Ribbon Tree at Veterans Park in Stigler.

It happens far too often: a family is under stress, a family member snaps — and a young child suffers for it.
There were more than 8,000 confirmed cases of child abuse in Oklahoma in 2008, and 41 child deaths from confirmed neglect or abuse in 2009.
And it happens everywhere, in big cities and small towns, in suburbs and on farms, in every county in the state. Including Haskell County.
"As a prosecutor, I've seen too many of these cases," said District Attorney Farley Ward, speaking at a dedication of a Blue Ribbon Tree at Veterans Park in Stigler. Many times the child victim doesn't want anything to happen to his or her abuser, no matter how bad the abuse. "It's one of the most difficult types of cases to present," Ward said.
The Blue Ribbon Tree is a symbol to bring attention to child abuse. April is Child Abuse Prevention Month."(more on this story in this week's Stigler News Sentinel)

ACT NOW! to be part of the solution

(Submitted photo by Dason Browning) by:Doug Russel News Editor

I used to have a first sergeant that liked to say, "If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem."
And we have a major problem. Tons of litter lines our roads and shorelines, polluting our land and our water.
Oklahoma is not a trash dump, no matter what some uncaring people seem to think. This weekend volunteers from across Oklahoma will be joining to clean up the Sooner State, and every bit of help is needed.
Organizations across the state are hosting events to clean up litter this Saturday, for the official Trash Off Day in Oklahoma. Locally, the Stigler-Haskell County Chamber of Commerce is planning to clean up the park around Lake John Wells, the staffs of the Stigler News-Sentinel and Stigler Printing are hosting a clean up effort on the shores of the river near the Whitefield bridge, and an organization known as Team Up to Clean Up is planning to clean up around Eufaula.
"It takes everyone working together," said Sonny Wilkinson, projects manager of Keep Oklahoma Beautiful. "The places don't get trashed overnight, but you can really do a lot in one day if everyone works together."
With that in mind, every Trash Off project around needs volunteers.
For the Whitefield bridge project, volunteers are asked to meet at the newspaper office, 204 S. Broadway, Stigler, to shuttle out to the bridge. (more on this story in this week's Stigler News Sentinel)

Hall of famer former resident inducted into Women's Hall of Fame

from staff reports

Former Stigler resident Ardina Moore was inducted April 7 into the Oklahoma Women's Hall of Fame.
The Women's Hall of Fame was established in 1982 through the Governor's Commission on the Status of Women.
According to the Oklahoma Commision on the Status of Women, Moore "came into the world known as 'Ma-shru-Ghe-Ta,' Eagle Feather that Gets Up!
"The oldest grandchild of Minnie and Chief Victor Griffin, the last chief of the Quapaw Tribe, her grandfather instilled in her the need for education as he could see that this was the only way the tribe could survive. (more on this story in this week's Stigler News Sentinel)