Ripley Publishing Company, Inc.

Ripley County Parks and Recreation held their Christmas in July event which included ice skating in building 1 of the fairgrounds on Sat., July 4. Twins, Ella and Ava Menchhofer, 10, are shown directing their grandfather, Owen Menchhofer, off of the rink. Skating to the left are Mac, 6, and Emersyn Marcum, 8, and taking breaks to the right are Gracie Downey, 8, and Willow Menchhofer, 7.

Josie Lemmons, WRBI Intern, assisted wiith the photobooth while Chris Kissel, Teha, Doug, Kara and Brandi Merkel posed for the camera. The photobooth was set up in the Ripley County Chamber of Commerce booth at the 25th Annual Chamber Fireworks event.

A Sunman family set up camp on the parade route early on Saturday morning, July 4 at Milan. Cody and Jessica Kohrman noted they were missing their 17-year-old daughter, Madelyn, who is in Africa this summer doing missionary work. Their other children surrounded them including Ethan, 14, Rett, 5, Joanna 10, and Ava, 13. Soon they invited more people to sit with them including Jim Mulford of Elrod and Annis Luke of Dillsboro, who was watching for her great niece, Stella Schmaltz in the parade. As the parade time got closer, more people had gathered with the Kohrmans, who are from Sunman. Jessica said, “This is what community is all about!”