Trish Hogan’s grandson Jaydon Thompson wanted to keep a soft cuddly fleece blanket he found at her home.
That prompted Hogan to learn how to make a fleece blanket, and then she began thinking about children in foster care who don’t have anything — blanket or otherwise — of their own.
Hogan has been supplying fleece for blankets that are given to children who are in foster care and homeless throughout Minnesota for the past year.
The blankets are a chance for people to give children something that is “their very own to cuddle with,” Hogan said while in Lakeville Tuesday.

Koochiching completes retally

With just a fifth of the state’s precincts left to go in Minnesota’s Senate recount, supporters of Democrat Al Franken and Republican Norm Coleman remain in the hunt for ballots that could tip the balance to their candidate.
Tensions rose on Monday at sites where ballots were getting a second look, with the campaigns each accusing the other of running up the challenges.

A fourth phase of the Koochiching County Forest Legacy Project is planned, while phases two and three are underway in an attempt to protect access to the land for future use.
The Koochiching County Board agreed Tuesday to support phase four, which is expected to include a total of 13,500 acres. About 3,000 acres of the 13,500 are located in the county, west of the Nett Lake Reservation, according to Art Norton, Itasca field representative with The Nature Conservancy. Norton added that plans for phase four haven’t been finalized.

Editor’s note: Joan Pearson’s first graders at West End Elementary recently shared with The Journal their ideas of how to cook a turkey.

Devin
I think you pick all the feathers off and then you, I don’t know what you do next. Then you cook it in the oven. You put it on a plate and then you put it in the oven. Then you take it out after five minutes. It beeps when it’s done. Then you eat it. Sometimes I have mashed potatoes and I think that is all I can know about. Oh yeah, sometimes we have coleslaw and that’s all.

Samuel

Holiday change
The TV Guide published each week in The Daily Journal will be included in Friday’s edition as a result of the Thursday holiday.

Chili feed planned for Friday
A chili feed is scheduled to take place before the “‘Twas the Lights Before Christmas Parade” Friday.
Residents, volunteers and staff from the Good Samaritan-International Falls will serve chili from 4:30- 6:30 p.m. in the Army Recruiting Building, located next to City Drug downtown.

Sophomore captain scores five goals to help seventh-grade goalie tally first win

Sydney Gordon tallied five goals and the Falls Broncos notched their first victory of season Tuesday in a 6-0 drubbing of Park Rapids Area.
Gordon had two goals in each of the first two periods and capped the blowout with a short-handed tally after teammate Abbey Fox scored earlier in the third.
It’s nice to win,” Broncos coach Bruce Elson said.
“The girls played hard. Everybody got a shift today and it’s nice to see everyone work hard.”

Rainy River Community College women’s hockey players Megan Pinette and Lynsey Pitura finished well over the weekend in a skills competition at the South Dakota State Tournament.
Pinette zoomed to a first-place finish in the fastest skater competition after finishing a lap around the rink in 16.71 seconds.
Pitura was second in the hardest slap shot competition with a shot that registered 65 mph.
The Voyageurs have also added a game to the schedule, playing host Dec. 5 to the University of Minnesota Duluth. RRCC defeated the Bulldogs for the national championship last season.

With Tuesday’s 6-0 victory, the Broncos girls hockey team improved to 5-1-1 all-time against Park Rapids. Historically, the Broncos have also had good success against Lake of the Woods-Indus (8-1), East Grand Forks (9-6-1) and Greenway-Nashwauk-Keewatin (5-3-2). FHS is undefeated against East Range (7-0) and holds 1-0 all-time records over Central Wisconsin, Fond du Lac-Waupan (Wis.), Long Prairie-Grey Eagle, River Lakes, Rochester Century, Rochester John Marshall and Tartan.

Falls High School announced its first quarter honor roll. The quarter ended Oct. 31.

By Tiffany Madsen, Invest Early

Grocery lists, cleaning chores and party planning are big parts of our holiday season, and sometimes the little people in our lives are just along for the ride, at times agreeably and sometimes not. Try this year to include your child in the festivity planning and show them their contribution is important to making the day successful. You may find they have a knack for turkey party planning and they will be excited to start the day.