This week's top stories

Pam Emahizer reflects on 27 years at Aurora, 36 in education
Aurora Public Schools is saying goodbye, for now, to another one of its teaching greats.
After 36 years in education, Aurora fourth grade teacher Pam Emahizer will be retiring at the end of this school year.
Though now almost to the end of her time in education, the teacher’s love of the trade started long ago.
“I grew up with a father who was a math teacher in high school, so I’ve had education in my life forever,” she began. “But I didn’t really decide to be a teacher or an educator until my sophomore year in college.”
The Kansas native explained that she had her sights set on pediatric physical therapy originally, but the more she got into it the less she felt like it fit. 

Farmers plan for best despite dry, cold weather
Spring has sprung except for the weather. In the current weather pattern, farmers across the county have to consider when, what and how they will plant this year’s crop. 
Reaching out to a trio of local farmers -- Brandon Hunnicutt of Giltner, Kale Carlson of Marquette and Mitch Oswald on the outskirts of Aurora -- all three shared their hopes, worries and excitement in a peculiar year. 
“(I’m) just looking forward to (it) with all the challenges out there with 2022 weatherwise and high input prices,” Hunnicutt said. 
The weather since winter of 2021 up until now has been problematic for farmers who are eager to plant, they agree. 

Hall tees up new golf cart repair venture
Bruce Hall had been retired from his postal service career for less than six months when he decided to combine a life-long passion for spending time on a golf course with a knack for fixing things.
The end result is a new business officially launched this week called Mulligan Man, an Aurora-based venture which provides sales and service on all makes and models of golf carts. Hall is off and running with his new business, having tested the waters during the past year helping clients part-time from his garage.
“I think it was about February of last year, 2021, when I decided, ‘Okay, let’s do this,”’ Hall recalled. “I started working out of my garage at home and last year worked on over 100 golf carts. My wife would really like to be able to park in the garage and my own truck has been in the garage maybe three times in the last year, so it’s time to venture out.”

Exchange student opens up to new people, experiences
It can be difficult to open up when you’re in a new town, a new school and a new country. But even if she is shy at first, foreign exchange student Kana Yamada was determined to throw herself into the unknown and had conflicting feelings about leaving. 
Both she and her host mother Shelley Carmichael-Smith related the experience they have had this school year. 
“I’m so happy right now because it’s (a) very interesting experience,” Yamada said. “But I always feel like I have to say goodbye to all my friends and family in three months.”
Yamada is from Inazawa, Japan, which is about 11 miles from Nagoya, located in the middle of Honshu Island. Her parents owned and managed a coffee shop in the town. One of her favorite activities back home was to go to the nearby airport to watch planes come and go.

Griffith sets meet records at Dutch Zorn
Gage Griffith is inching closer to those records he’s been chasing this season. 
The Aurora senior hasn’t hit either quite yet, but he was credited with two meet records at Thursday’s Dutch Zorn Invite in Gothenburg. 
Griffith won the discus event with a new season-record throw of 172-01 on his final attempt while also picking up a win in the shot put with a heave of 58-04.25, just short of his personal record.
Aurora coach Gordon Wilson is well aware of the time and effort Griffith has put in before as well as in the first half of the season to get to this point. According to the coach, those really big throws are in there somewhere.

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