​       Area youngsters enjoy ice cream served by the Grinnell Optimist Club during the National Night Out on Aug. 5. Pictured are, from left: Sophia Yates, 6, Mavis Navarro, 5, and Own Puls, 10.

By J.O. Parker
 
        Grinnell’s Central Park was a buzz with families and children enjoying ice cream and seeing the fire trucks, ambulances and police and sheriff cars at the National Night Out on Tuesday, Aug. 5.
      National Night Out is held annually in 17,000 plus communities in all 50 states, U.S. territories, Canadian cities and military bases worldwide on the first Tuesday in August. It was first held in Grinnell around 2006.
         The annual event was founded in 1984 in Philadelphia, Penn. as a community-building campaign that promotes police and fire community partnerships and neighborhood camaraderie. According to Wikipedia, more than 38 million people enjoy participating in the annual event.
          At the Grinnell event, the Optimist Club served 16 gallons of vanilla and chocolate ice cream and soft drinks to families and youngsters. Lee McFee, a long-time Grinnell Optimist Club member, said the club has been serving the ice cream since the event started nearly 20 years ago.
       The Grinnell Fire and Ambulance Departments, Grinnell Police Department, Poweshiek County Sheriff’s Office and the Poweshiek County Emergency Management was on hand to meet with families and youth.
         When asked about the importance of the National Night Out event, Grinnell Police Chief Michael “Mac” McClelland said look around at all the people here.
       “Every year it gets bigger and bigger,” he said, as he met and talked with youngsters and their families. “It’s nice to see the community come together and forget about the bad stuff.”
         Officers and deputies with the Grinnell Police Department and Poweshiek County Sheriff’s Office handed out coloring books, safety literature, stick-on police badges, pencils and police hats to area youngsters. They all had a chance to sit in a police car and have their photo taken.
           The Grinnell Fire Department was handing out bright red fire helmets, coloring books, glow in the dark Frisbee disks, sunglasses, crayons and other goodies to youngsters and their families.
           Folks were able to see the inside of an ambulance and area youngsters got a chance to sit in a real fire engine. The Grinnell Fire Department Ladder Truck was on display and families got to watch department volunteers pull themselves to the top of the ladder and back down using rappelling gear.
          “There are some pretty nice fire trucks and ambulances,” said Larry Gorsuch of Grinnell, who was resting on a bench nearby. “I’m glad to see all the life-saving equipment.”
           Elysium Schuster, 10, was enjoying the evening playing a cops and criminals game with her friends. The youngsters came up with their own crime and were working together to solve it.
        “Part of our belief is to bring out the best in ourselves, the community and youth,” said Joleen Jorgensen, a member of the Grinnell Optimist Club, who was serving soft drinks. “Having respect for the law is very important for our organization.”
         “I’m especially proud of an organization that makes special effort to serve the youth and young families in the Grinnell community,” said Kent Reed, a first year member of the Grinnell Optimist Club, who was helping serve ice cream.
            Representatives with Chains Interrupted from Cedar Rapids was on hand sharing information with youth and families about human trafficking and online exploitation of youth.
           “We like to go into communities and schools and educate them about human trafficking,” said Nikki Stallman, who was working with Allison, a summer intern. “We talk about human trafficking and exploitation through awareness, prevention and advocacy.”
          “It’s a great event,” said Poweshiek County Sheriff Matt Maschmann. “It’s a great experience for the kids to see us in a positive manner.”
        “It was a good event and it was good weather,” said Corey Latcham, a member of the Grinnell Optimist Club.

      BGM Elementary students are welcomed back from summer break by principal Mary Sherwood and the school's Bear mascot on the first day of school on Monday, Aug. 25.

        Will Slagle is joined by his parents, Don and Jennifer Slagle, after a Grinnell football game last year. Since January, Will has received 12 verbal commits from D1 schools for the class of 2027. He will be a junior this fall at Grinnell. He has yet to decide what school he will attend and play football. (submitted photo).

By J.O. Parker
 
        Grinnell’s Will Slagle is one tough cookie.
      At 6’ 4” and 300-pounds, Slagle is a tough competitor and has the muscle to move a mountain on the offensive and defensive lines for the Tigers.
       His prowess has coaches from major D1 school football programs from across the nation knocking on his front door.
      On 3, one of several recruiting website companies for high school students, has rated Slagle as a Top 3 recruit in the state of Iowa in all position for the 2027 class.
        “I’m ranked number 1 for offensive line and number 5 in Iowa for defensive line,” said Slagle, who enters his junior campaign on the gridiron this fall at Grinnell.
         Other recruiting websites that have ranked Slagle include 247 Sports, Rivals and Prep Redzone.
Slagle has received verbal commits to play football from Iowa State, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, Kansas State, Missouri, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Northwestern, Stanford, Arkansas and Auburn.
        Stanford is one of several schools who have sent a representative to Grinnell to meet and visit with the budding football star.
        And he’s made several visits to schools in the Midwest, including Iowa State and Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska and others.
        Arizona State, Ohio State, Tennessee and Vanderbilt have also expressed an interest in Slagle, but have not given him a verbal offer.
         All the buzz about Slagle’s future came about thanks in part to J.C. Moreau of Iowa City. Slagle works out with Moreau during the spring months and he helped get his name on the radar.
         “He sent out some of my tapes and got me noticed,” said Slagle.
       Moreau is the founder and sports performance coach and consultant at Strength U, a company that provides sports performance training for youth and high school students. He is the former director of strength and conditioning at the University of Iowa and two other universities.
          Iowa State was the first university to offer Slagle a verbal commit in January. And it just grew from there and soon other schools were taking notice.
        In addition to sending out tapes, Slagle has a Twitter account were coaches can watch tape of him playing online.
        Even though his dad, Don, and uncle, Dean, both played for the Cyclones, Slagle hasn’t announced his decision where he is going to play at this time.
       “I can commit and make my decision official at any time,” he said. “But for now, I’m looking at my options.”
          Slagle said he wants to study agronomy and/or business.
          He is the son of Don and Jennifer Slagle.
          “I love the sport of football,” he said. “Being able to play football at a D1 school is a great opportunity.”

         Will Slagle is joined by his sister, Anna Slagle, after a Grinnell football game last year. On 3, one of several recruiting website companies for high school students has rated Slagle as a Top 3 recruit in the state of Iowa in all position for the 2027 class. He is rated number one offensive line player in the state and the number five player in the state on defense. (submitted photo).

       Braxton Brand of rural Searsboro has started his own business, Brand Aerial, LLC. offers crop spraying services using a drone. He started the business this year and sprays herbicide, fertilizer, insecticide and fungicide. “When I fly close to the crops, it moves the canopy (the aboveground portion of a plant or crop) around more and allows for more penetration in the soil,” he said. (submitted photo).

By J.O. Parker
 
         Braxton Brand is an enterprising young man.
         Braxton, the oldest son of Cory and Heidi Brand of rural Searsboro, has started his own company, Brand Aerial, LLC.
        Braxton travels around Central Iowa offering field spraying services using a drone. This includes spraying herbicide (used to kill unwanted plants growing in crops), fertilizer (adding nutrients to crops), insecticide (used to kill unwanted bugs in crops) and fungicide (used to kill diseases in crops).
         It all started a year ago when Braxton started making farm videos at his parent’s farm using a small drone and putting them to music on social media.
           The videos gained a following and peaked Braxton’s interest in doing more with drones. That’s when he saw others using drones in farming.
            “I thought it was something that I could do,” he said.
            That led Braxton to purchasing a drone, a very large drone
           His drone stretches 12-foot across and carries a 12-gallon tank that he uses to spray corn, soybeans or other crops.
        His drone is so big that he has to carry it on a specially equipped trailer that also serves as a base platform for operating the drone.
            He first began offering spraying services in the spring of this year.
          When asked what the advantage is to using a drone verses a plane or helicopter to spray a field, Braxton said he is able to get closer to the crop, greatly increasing the accuracy of covering the field.
            “When I fly close to the crops, it moves the canopy (the aboveground portion of a plant or crop) around more and allows for more penetration in the soil,” he said.
              In order to fly a drone outside of recreational use, Braxton had to earn his remote pilot license from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) along with gaining several exemptions to us his drone for other operations.
            For instance, he has an exemption allowing him to fly his drone at night. The legal window to fly a drone is one-half hour before sunrise and one-half hour after sunset.
               Braxton believes drones are the future of agriculture.
                “I believe in the upcoming years, we will see drones get bigger and more of them,” said Braxton.
He picks up business mostly by word of mouth.
           Braxton said next year, plans are to add two more drones to his spraying operation and that he is currently looking for pilots.
                To learn more about Brand Aerial, LLC services, contact Braxton at 641-325-2294.