JEREMY WALTNER - PUBLISHER They play each other every Fourth of July in Menno, often square off in the District 6 Amateur Baseball Tournament, and now two old South Central League rivals find themselves in the same place yet again — this time in Mitchell.

JEREMY WALTNER - PUBLISHER There was something in the air Friday night, July 29. Paul Wynia could just feel it. “You could sense this excitement; the town was just abuzz,” said Wynia, who next month will mark 40 years as a resident of Freeman. “There were a lot of people out and about and you could tell that something special was going on. There was this feeling of electricity.”

JEREMY WALTNER - PUBLISHER Two amateur baseball greats with ties to the Freeman community will be inducted into the South Dakota Amateur Baseball Hall of Fame who will be recognized Saturday, Aug. 6 during the South Dakota State Amateur Baseball Tournament in Mitchell, and at a hall of fame banquet in Tabor Saturday, Nov. 5.

JEREMY WALTNER - PUBLISHER For those who like chislic and beer, the grounds of the Freeman Prairie Arboretum will be a haven this Saturday, July 30 when the fourth South Dakota Chislic Festival returns to the community.

JEREMY WALTNER - PUBLISHER Sam Sorensen was late in his first term as the mayor of Freeman when he suggested the city build a Frisbee golf course on the grounds of the Swimming Pool Park — an idea that never materialized. It was only a matter of time.

JEREMY WALTNER - PUBLISHER Laverne Diede didn’t have any notion that she would become a coach. The Scotland native had come to Freeman Public in 1960 to teach sixth grade and took over as the district’s first-ever elementary school principal a decade later. Not long after that she was named girls track coach at the encouragement — no, the strong urging — of the district superintendent.

JEREMY WALTNER - PUBLISHER It was a small but important thing that offers a glimpse inside the planning that nobody thinks about. Last year, two days before the South Dakota Chislic Festival returned to the Freeman Prairie Arboretum, rain fell across the region and wet the grounds of the community, including the gravel walking path/service road that runs just north of where the row of food vendors would set up that Saturday.

JEREMY WALTNER - PUBLISHER Over the course of its nearly three-decade run, from 1993 to 2019, the Freeman Area Children’s Choir (FACC) provided a musical and theatrical opportunity and experience for 327 students from this community and the surrounding area. Among them was Menno native Amber Mehlhaf, who was involved in the FACC for four seasons — from fifth through eighth grade.

  JEREMY WALTNER - PUBLISHER Ever since its debut in 1987, the Mennonite Central Committee relief sale designed to raise funds for worldwide assistance has provided an opportunity for men, women and children of all ages to come together for a common cause. It has generated hundreds of thousands of dollars that has been used in immeasurable ways to benefit those in need around the globe. But it has also done something else — help keep the organization that has been around for more than 100 years in the public eye.

JEREMY WALTNER - PUBLISHER Meeting in regular session last Tuesday night, July 5, the city of Freeman issued watering restrictions effective immediately and until further notice.