Archives of Community

meet along the way: Fran Scholl

At 12 years old, Fran Scholl knew she wanted to be in the military. What she didn’t know was how unusual that was for a young girl in 1968. As the oldest girl in a family with 11 kids, she grew up feeding and rocking her younger siblings. Mothering and nurturing were second nature to […]
1 year ago

Make a Difference for Others: Plan a community betterment project

By Sydney Waters Being an events coordinator for Old Town Cape is rewarding in so many ways. It truly is a career that combines structure and creativity in the most intricate web, and I feel very honored to have found and fit this position. We have established that sustainability of downtown Cape Girardeau is directly […]
1 year ago

meet along the way: Katie Britt

By Nicolette Baker This story was originally published in the Summer 2022 issue of mind + body. It’s an almost universal start to the morning: a hot (or cold!) cup of coffee. Milk, cream, sugar or black — however you take your coffee, everyone has their preferences. Katie Britt starts each day with a French […]
2 years ago

meet along the way: Christina Lane

By Jasmine Jones This story was first published in the August 2022 issue of “The Best Years.” Recipes tell the stories of communities and the people who shape them. Each recipe is more than a list of ingredients and steps: It is a written legacy of the individual who created the dish, their family and […]
2 years ago

meet along the way: Nora Speight

This story was first published as “Faces of Southeast Missouri: Nora Speight” in the July 2022 issue of “The Best Years.” Nora Speight’s love of flowers comes from her grandfather she calls “Paw Paw.” He lived on a farm in Marston, Mo., where Speight got paid $3 to pick 100 pounds of cotton as a […]
2 years ago

meet along the way: Rania Roumany

By Jasmine Jones This story was first published in the July 2022 issue of “The Best Years.” Recipes tell the stories of communities and the people who shape them. Each recipe is more than a list of ingredients and steps: It is a written legacy of the individual who created the dish, their family and […]
2 years ago

meet along the way: Marilee Roethemeyer

By Jasmine Jones This story was first published in the June 2022 issue of “The Best Years.” Church and civic group cookbooks tell the stories of their community and the people who shape them. Each recipe in these cookbooks is more than a list of ingredients and steps: It is a written legacy of the […]
2 years ago

meet along the way: Gail Lowrance

By Lizzy Stock This story was first published in the June 2022 issue of “The Best Years.” When Gail Lowrance retired from teaching special education in 2014, she spent a summer in a tiny town in California where everyone knew each other by name. On her third day there, a bookstore owner recognized her by […]
2 years ago

Taking a Step: All-female drumline leads band at Perryville High School

Drums are loud. They are visual. They are large and cumbersome, and they keep the band together. Historically, they are a male-dominated position within the band. But the Perryville High School Marching Buccaneers Drumline in Perryville, Mo., is changing that. During the 2021-22 school year, the drumline has been comprised of all female drummers, and […]
2 years ago

Pet Peeves: What ticks you off?

When we came across a list of pet peeves by Cher, it gave us great insight into who she is as a person, and it also gave us a beautiful realization: The things we don’t like tell us just as much about ourselves as the things we do.  So in these pages, we get to […]
2 years ago