This coming Thursday, April 5th, rain or shine, our Valley Home community will echo to the to the sound of jogging feet as our Valley Home students participate in the annual school Jog-A-Thon, at the Pioneer Ave. campus. This year something new has been added with students being encouraged to decorate their own shirt. We will let you know the winner in next week’s column. We are told that there will also be other contests that day as well, such as craziest socks, most spirited, and crazy hair. These contests being held on Jog-A-Long day are just for 4th-8th grade students, however, the best decorated shirt is for the entire student body. Weather permitting, we suggest you bring along a comfortable seat to sit upon, relax, and enjoy an opportunity to watch our students, place their best foot forward as they circle the track.
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Just a reminder that if you forgot to mark Saturday, April 7th on your calendar, we will be enjoying a visit from the Easter Bunny and his Valley Home 4-H helpers for the Annual Easter Egg Hunt. We are told that the Hunt will commence at 10:30 a.m. Please note that that this is a new time from years past! Hundreds of eggs will be hidden at the old school and lots of great prizes to be found in special prize eggs. Prizes will be given for the best Easter hats, and for finding one of the many hidden egg prizes. Please note that there will be an area designated for small children and adults will be allowed to help little ones find eggs...the rest of the egg hunting areas will be for children only! No adults will be allowed during the egg hunt! This is to make it fair for everyone involved. Everyone is invited. Please come out and have a great time. Rain or shine, hope to see you all there!
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Valley Home’s Ron and Darlene Brady just returned home from a fun filled trip to the Giants Spring training in Arizona. They were able to get up close and personal with several Giants players. Those two Bradys are indeed very young at heart!
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It was great seeing Gunter Brisi, who was home recently on spring Break from Chico State. Gunter is really enjoying being at Chico. This summer he will participate in his last Stanislaus county Fair as an exhibitor. Valley Home is very proud of you Gunter!
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Wednesday, April 11 at 11:00 there will be a community clean up at the Valley Home Community Park. We will be pulling weeds, picking up trash and cleaning up. Everyone is welcome to come help. Any questions, please call Winnie at 605-4843.
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Our Valley Home 4-H members are gearing up to hosting a Petting Zoo on April 12th in Oakdale. Watch next week’s column for time and place.
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Happy Birthday wishes go this week to Ashley Barreto who celebrated her 14th birthday on March 31st!
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Mary Beth Carpenter celebrated her 18th birthday on April 1st. Happy Birthday wishes to you Mary Beth! Our son Mike and grandson Jeff Burghardt had a great time “stripping the deck” and performing other chores last weekend as part of their volunteer work on the retired battleship USS Iowa (BB61)that is temporarily docked at a Richmond pier.  Both men have become members of the historic ship’s support group and are working on the battleship to prepare it for the cruise down to San Pedro where it will be docked as a museum for public education and entertainment. They are looking forward to more work days on the beautiful ship and hope to be one of those who will be aboard when it arrives at its new homeport. Mike is a retired Chief Electricians Mate and Jeff has developed a great interest in the history of the Navy’s largest fighting ships - the battleships and the carriers. Maybe that is because his father spent many duty years in the USS Enterprise’s nuclear propulsion department and was the USS Enterprise “Sailor of the Year” for one of them.