The Good

Nearly 2,400 teachers packed into FireLake Arena in Shawnee for a morning that wasn't about lesson plans or supply lists. It was about them. The Avedis Foundation's 9th annual Celebrate Educators event, held Friday, August 28, brought together educators from 21 districts across Pottawatomie County and neighboring communities like Seminole, Prague, Meeker, Chandler, and Little Axe. The day is free for every teacher, support staff member, and administrator in the Foundation's s

There's a certain kind of confidence it takes for a high schooler to stand in front of a room full of statewide health leaders and make the case that teenagers deserve a seat at the table. This week, a Shawnee junior did exactly that. Khloe De La Garza, a student at Shawnee High School, took the stage at the Oklahoma Public Health Association's annual conference alongside her Youth Action Health Leadership (YAHL) team. Their message was simple: teen voices can drive meaningfu

The Monday before fall classes even started, hundreds of Oklahoma Baptist University students traded dorm move-in for yard work, cleaning, and care packages in the Shawnee community. About 450 OBU students and employees, including a large wave of incoming freshmen and transfers, took part in the university's annual Serve Shawnee event on August 24. Teams fanned out to more than 18 locations across Shawnee and the surrounding Pottawatomie County area, lending a hand at places

If you've driven by the Tecumseh High School ag building lately, you may have noticed a landscaping upgrade. And it's all thanks to the hard work of Tecumseh FFA students. Over the course of several weeks in May, students from across the agriculture program rolled up their sleeves and gave the entrance a complete makeover. Students dug up old grass, leveled the ground, built new beds and benches from scratch, and hand-picked the foliage that now welcomes visitors to the build