By Angie Hall

My mother recently received a phone call telling her she won a $2.5 million dollar prize in a contest from Las Vegas that she signed up for at Walmart. The caller indicated that he was verifying information so that they could then forward her a check. All he needed was her address and a $700 check or her credit card number so that he could process the winnings and forward them to her. 

Thank goodness she knew from the get go that this was a scam and she immediately hung up on the caller. Seniors are typically more vulnerable to scams and should take care to protect their vital information.

1. Avoid Solicitors – be very skeptical of strangers who call out of nowhere or show up at your door trying to give away something “free”. Just hang up or shut the door.
2. Hesitate to give out personal information over the phone or on the internet – social security number, bank account information, or credit/debit card number. Legitimate companies will not ask for this over the phone or internet.
3. Monitor your money – really look over your bank statements and credit card statements.

If you are not sure or if it sounds to good to be true it probably is.

Brook Curtis

On March 3, 2012, 66 men and women along with their dogs took off for “The Last Great Race.” It is the 35th running of the Iditarod, which takes place in Alaska beginning in Anchorage and ending in Nome. The men, women and sled dog teams will travel roughly 975 miles through Alaska terrain with 26 different checkpoints. 

At each checkpoint the mushers have the option to rest for the night or continue through. If they choose to stop, there are medics available for the mushers and/or their dogs. Dogs are continuously fed and warmed throughout the course at many of the checkpoints. The race will last approximately 2 weeks for all the teams to complete the trail. Martin Buser, who in 2002 completed the race in 8 days, 22 hours, 42 minutes and 19 seconds, holds the current record for the Race. A Red Lantern award is given to the musher that crosses the finish line last. 

A Junior Iditarod is held before the race, which lasts about 2 days. This year the race was won by Conway Seavey, whose brother, father and grandfather are all competing in “The Last Great Race.”

For more information and to check the progress of the teams visit: http://iditarod.com

By Dolly Wilkerson

When we moved to Wapakoneta, Ohio 5 years ago we didn’t realize at first that it was the home of one of the legendary astronauts, Neil Armstrong. Since then we’ve learned a lot and become arm chair followers of the space program. Ohio seems to be somewhat of a “hotbed” for astronauts. Prior to moving to “Wapak” we lived in the Canton, Ohio area and found out that John Glenn was from a nearby city, New Concord, and they held an annual celebration in his honor.

There are a lot of things going on in Ohio that most people don’t realize. For instance, did you know that there are 24 astronauts from Ohio? Can you name them?

50 years ago, we were practicing bomb raid drills and hiding under desks and learning about the “Cold War”. We were young but we were taught about the very terrible possibilities of a war with the Soviets. We were also very aware of the “space-race” and we knew the names of all of the astronauts. They were our national heroes and we all looked up to them. 

We knew also, that we were behind and the Russians were first into space. I remember JFK’s challenge to beat the Russians in a passionate speech that set the direction for NASA for the foreseeable future. It was 50 years ago February 20^th that John Glenn heard the call and became one of our first space-race heroes by orbiting the Earth not once but three times to take the lead in the race away from the Soviets and secured the U.S. as a legitimate Superpower.

On the 50th anniversary of his historic space flight, former U.S. Sen. John Glenn spoke at Ohio State and offered memories of the space program’s earliest days and his hopes for its future. He was there to promote the NASA Future Forum and expressed his disappointment with the cancellation of the space shuttle program.

“I just think it’s very unseemly for our nation, and I don’t like it,” Glenn said. We are currently forced to hitch rides into space with our former arch-enemies, the Russians aboard their Soyuz spacecraft.

Fortunately, the space program isn’t completely dead. We are building a new generation of rockets that will be ready to take us back I to space by 2017. Bolden said that he is hopeful that private U.S. companies will be able to pick up the slack and construct rockets to be used by a new generation of NASA astronauts. Plans call for having a U.S. space vehicle by 2017.

“We need to use our own resources to get back into space. We need to rely on ourselves and not on a foreign partner” said NASA chief administrator Charles Bolden.