District Six National Barrel Horse Association members competed at the 2006 state finals in Huron May 26 and 27, 2007, with 206 barrel racers in the open, 64 barrel in the youth and 31 senior barrel racers.

Four state championship saddles were awarded in the open division. Two were won by local area cowgirls. Stephanie O'Connell of Philip won the 3-D saddle and Chelsea Shearer of Wall won the 1-D saddle.

First go of the open

Open 1D: 1. Chelsea Shearer. 5. Jodie O'Bryan. 10. Jodie O'Bryan. 12. Lissa Papousek.

Open 2D: 4. Shannon Olson. 11. Jamie Iverson.

The Pennington County 4-H Rodeo was held on Saturday, June 16, at the Wall Rodeo Arena. Approximately 217 youth participated. The contestants are from the area towns of Philip, Wall, Quinn, Belle Fourche, Martin, Dupree, Interior, Sturgis, Hermosa, Fairburn, Spearfish, New Underwood, Rapid City, Midland, Kadoka, Edgemont and Buffalo Gap.

The Junior Junior Division ranges in age from eight to 10 and do not qualify for the state finals. The Junior Division may be from ages eight to 14 and the Senior Division is from 14 to 19.

The Philip Centennial Celebration included a team roping competition on June 16. Action drew cowboys and cowgirls from the region to compete for top places in three different divisions. For the open roping division, there were 55 teams; for the draw pot division there were 65 teams; and for the Number 11 roping division, there were 54 registered teams.

In addition to the regular anticipated winnings, free Steak Out tickets were given to first place teams for each roping.

The fifth annual Spud Gittings Memorial Golf Tournament took place on Sunday, June 17, with 22 three-person teams.

Every year this tournament gets bigger, and this year it brought in over $700 to fund the Jamie Gittings Memorial Scholarship at the Philip High School. There were donations given by Irv Jones of Jones' Bottle and Vet and Matt Mangulis.

The American Family Two Person Scramble golf tournament teed off at 12:00 noon on Saturday, June 9, at the Lake Waggoner Golf Course north of Philip.

Twenty-one teams participated in the three flights, with contestants coming from Pierre, Faith, Wall, Cottonwood and Philip.

Helen Boyd, age 87, of Kadoka, died Friday, June 15, 2007, as a result of a car accident north of Faith.

Helen Mednansky was born October 8, 1919, on a farm-ranch near Cottonwood, SD, the daughter of Michael and Emma (Mickaletz) Mednansky. As a child she moved with her family to a farm-ranch north of Kadoka, attending school in Kadoka.

Helen was united in marriage to Otto Roy Bork on November 21, 1937 in Kadoka. They made their home near Midland prior to moving to a farm north of Stamford, SD. They owned and operated the farm and ranch until his death on December 21, 1952.

Lois M. Fode, after battling cancer for 14 months, passed away on June 2nd, 2007, at the young age of 72.

She was born to Dallas and Dorothy Vaughn in rural Gregory, SD, on September 3, 1934. Lois married Fred Fode on November 1st, 1953, at Lutheran Parsonage in Burke, SD.

Budget talk filled the special meeting held by the Haakon County Commissioners on Wednesday, June 13.

The budget was presented to the commissioners for discussion at the meeting.

The much anticipated Match-ed Bronc Ride lived up to and surpassed all expectations Thursday night, June 14.

Twenty-five top quality saddle bronc riders were pitted against some very young and inexperience broncs in the first two gos. While those rides made for some great photos the scores were on the low side. Eight of the 25 lost the match to their rides. Another two riders failed to break a score of sixty and seven didn't break 70.

All over town, exclamations of joy and an abundance of hugs were heard and seen as classmates from the past 90 years gathered at the All-School Reunion.

Bringing the reunion together with the Centennial Celebration made both events bigger and more enjoyable for those attending.

Marcia West, reunion coordinator, said she had 1,300 preregistered alumni before June 14, the first day of registration. Alumni were able to register at the high school gym Friday and Saturday. About 200 people registered during that time.