(BPT) - Two-time Super Bowl Champion, Kendall Simmons, is one of almost 26 million people in the United States living with diabetes.[1] Diagnosed after his NFL rookie season in 2003, Kendall was in unfamiliar territory.

Dale Malone, owner of Daisy Dukes & Cowboy Boots, recently presented Valarie Swanson, executive director of the Pettis County chapter of the American Red Cross, $6,185.90 that was collected for the Moore, Okla., tornado victims over the Memorial Day weekend fundraiser. Major supporters of the effort were Dukes & Boots, Family Pawn, Mid-Missouri Outlaws, County Distributing, Dairy Queen, Grellner Sales and Yeager Cycle.

The Warrensburg Community Band, under the direction of conductor Dr. Russell Coleman, will begin its season with the annual fundraising concert at 6 p.m. June 23 at the Montserrat Vineyards.

Reservations are now being accepted for the Liberty Center Association for the Arts fundraiser “A Midsummer Night’s Soiree.”

Early Sedalia saw itself as a thriving, “live,” city, “worshipping the new business gospel.” Its prosperity was apparent, according to the 1882 History of Pettis County, in Sedalia’s “fine, broad, paved streets, substantial two- and three-story brick business houses and dwellings, churches, and schools.”

Jan Smith, director of volunteer services at the Missouri Veterans Home in Warrensburg, retired on Saturday. She had held the position for more than seven years, and was one of the organization’s most high-profile community liaisons. She also served a key advisory role on the nonprofit Veterans Assistance League (VAL) Board of Directors.

The Swine Pavilion was built in 1901 to show pigs during the Missouri State Fair, and refurbished in 1922. It’s doubtful that live music was on the minds of the builders. And yet, for the second-straight year, the Swine Pavilion became the home base of the Lions Club’s Mo Blues, Cruise & BBQ on Saturday.

As is the case with many Relay For Life participants, cancer has invaded the life of Mindy Lefevers and her teammates on the Marilyn’s Warriors squad.

A fundraiser to help send American Legion Post 642 Color Guard to the national convention competition in Houston will be June 8 at Bottom’s Up, formerly Cruiser’s, at 200 Industrial Drive. The national competition will be Aug. 23.

Fans of local barbecue and live music will have it made this weekend as the annual Mo Blues Cruise & BBQ comes to the Missouri State Fairgrounds on Saturday.

The Smith-Cotton Lady Tigers soccer team recently raised $9,155 for the Bothwell Foundation’s Gene Loveall Cancer Services Fund. The money will be used for patient programs at the Susan O’Brien Fischer Cancer Center at Bothwell Regional Health Center. The team raised the contributions through a live auction, a silent auction, T-shirt sales and a benefit game played April 18 at Susie Ditzfeld Field. The fundraiser was coordinated by S-C soccer parents Leisa Gero, mother of S-C senior soccer player Tayler Gero, and Darrin Goodson, father of S-C junior soccer player Alexia Goodson. The event has raised $32,609 over the past four years.

The Morgan County Caring for Kids Coalition are hosting a jail/bail and hot dog sale from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. June 1 at the West Vue Market in Versailles.

Dave Clippert wants to keep others from spending time where he ended up last Saturday — in the emergency room at Bothwell Regional Health Center.

COLE CAMP HIGH SCHOOL

Dukes & Boots will host a fundraiser this week for the victims of the EF5 tornado that hit Moore, Okla. on Monday.

Volunteers are needed to assist groups who place flags by the graves of deceased veterans for Memorial Day weekend.

My wife and I strongly support the comprehensive smoking ban ordinance the Sedalia City Council is considering. We hope the council will see the value in passing and enforcing this ordinance for the welfare of all citizens and visitors.

(BPT) - Summer provides a much-needed break for families and a perfect opportunity to make a difference in the community. Depending on interest and time, there are many different ways to get involved or make a charitable contribution, including the following:

The Sedalia Noonday Optimist Club will host its ninth annual Optimist Club Golf Fundraiser at 9 a.m. June 1 at Royal Oaks Golf Course near Knob Noster.

Hundreds of rubber ducks in the Amigos de Cristo Lutheran Church Duck Race are herded Saturday by volunteers equipped with paddles, from bottom, Jose Alicea, Dalton Shepard, Bryce Chalfant and Adrian Sotella, The boys are directing the ducks to an area shaped by floating noodles to resemble a funnel, top of picture, where the bobbing flock will be squeezed into a single line. The first 30 ducks pulled out are winners of the first of three heats. Ninety ducks will compete in a final race and the first 30 will win their ÒadoptersÓ a prize, said Nicole Gadt, an AmeriCorps VISTA volunteer and organizer of the fundraising event. The ducks were adopted for $5 apiece or $25 for a flock of six by visitors to the event. Each duck was marked with an identifying number. The top prize is a hot air balloon ride for two donated by RE/MAX of Sedalia.

There’s still time to pre-register for the Boys & Girls Clubs of West Central Missouri’s second annual Race 4 Reasons, set for Saturday.  

Call it an invasion of the yellow rubber ducks.