MISSIONS TRIP:

Yancy Sagastume, owner of Brothers Pizza in Howard, is planning a missions trip to Honduras and is leaving on Feb. 27. Yancy would like to pack a suit case full of supplies and medicines to take along for the medical clinic in San Luis.

If you can donate to Yancy’s cause, please bring your over the counter items to Yancy at the pizza shop before Feb. 24. Items needed are cough drops, decongestants, eye drops, ear drops for wax removal and swimmer’s ear, Tylenol, Advil, Aleve, Tums, Rolaids, wart medicine, creams for skin conditions, antifungal creams like Neosporin, hydrocortisone creams, zip-lock baggies, band-aids and tooth paste. Please make sure the products have a valid expiration date for the products to be used.

STATE PARK EVENTS:

Bald Eagle State Park will have a Full Moon Hike on Tuesday, Feb. 10, in the evening from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Hikers will get to spend an evening on the trails as the full moon rises above. This “super moon” will be extra special because it will be the closest and largest of all the full moons in 2019. Participants will be hiking about two miles on Skyline Trail. Dress in layers for the outdoor temperatures. The hike will be held if weather permits and there is no rain, total cloud cover or hazardous road conditions. Meet at the Nature Inn prior to the hike that begins at 6 o’clock.

A Winter Bird Walk will be held on Wednesday, Feb. 20, from 9-10 a.m. You’ll have an opportunity to experience a morning of bird watching and to become acquainted with the birds that migrate through or live right here in our state park.

This program will consist of some feeder watching and a short walk to look for birds and at the conclusion you’ll be able to see where the bald eagles nest. Dress for the outdoor temperatures and bring your binoculars if you wish. Meet at the Nature Inn.

For more information about these or other state park events call 814-625-9369.

COMING SOON:

Howard Area Lions Food Bank distribution will be on Feb. 18 for Beech Creek area residents and those Centre County residents who missed their date earlier this month. The Food Bank headquarters is at the former Beech Creek Elementary School and distribution is from 2-4 p.m. If you have an empty box to bring back that the Lions Club can reuse each month for packing the food aid please bring it along.

Howard United Methodist Church will offer a Soup Sale Luncheon on Thursday, Feb. 21, at the church fellowship hall. The luncheon runs from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and features a bowl of soup with a roll, a piece of pie and a beverage for $6. Take-out quarts of soup in freezable containers can also be ordered beforehand by calling Patti at 814-625-2182. Proceeds from the soup sale will go towards local outreach needs of the community.

The Orviston Community Club will offer a chicken and waffle supper on Feb. 23 from 4-7 p.m. A meal will be $7 and the proceeds will go towards the grand finale fireworks show at the Orviston Festival in July.

The chicken and waffles will be served from 4-7 p.m. at the Beech Creek Fire Company social hall. Tickets can be purchased in advance by contacting Brenda at 570-660-5283 or Dave at 814-404-0357. You may also contact Wes and Missie at 570-962-2916 for meal tickets or to volunteer to help sell raffle tickets for the festival drawing, too.

Howard Area Lions Bingo will be held on Feb. 28. Doors and the kitchen open at 5 p.m. and bingo games start at 6:30. Lions Bingo is held the second and fourth Thursday evenings at the Beech Creek Fire Company social hall. Our local Lions Club uses the bingo evenings as a fundraiser so that they can help others in our community when the need arises.

Howard Area Civic Club will have their bingo featuring handmade furniture and country decor on March 3 at the Howard fire hall from 2-6 p.m. Tickets are $25 each. In addition to the regular bingo games and the special games there will be a Chinese auction, rip tickets and 50/50 raffles. The Civic Club is asking for donations from businesses either in the form of a Chinese auction prize or a monetary gift. This bingo is a popular event in Howard so get your tickets early since there is limited seating of about 200 participants.

Tickets are available at Insurance Office, Inc. on Walnut Street during weekday hours or by calling Dorothy at 814-482-8018.

Nittany Valley Amish Benefit Dinner will be held on March 30 at the Hublersburg fire hall from noon to 7 p.m. You can pick your time slot to eat a traditional Amish home cooked wedding style meal. Call Katie Beiler at 814-383-2008 or John Glick at 814-383-0180 for more info or to arrange your meal time slot. Walk-ins are welcome and take-out meals are available, too! Proceeds from the meal benefit the Amish schools.

DEFENSIVE DRIVING:

A 55 Alive Defensive Driver course can and does save people on their auto insurance premiums. We are looking to see if there are people in our local area who may want to sign up for an 8 hour course or the 4 hour refresher course. The 8 hour course would be held at two dates of 4 hours each and once the new course or the refresher is completed the discount on your auto insurance premium is good for three years.

The course fee is $20 for non AARP members or $15 for those bringing their AARP memberships card to the course session. You will save much more over the three year period than the fee for the course, so it certainly is a bargain.

Don’t be scared to sign up for the courses because there are no tests so you cannot flunk anything, and the instructor is very friendly and allows open discussion, questions and comments during the course time.

If you’d like to sign up to attend please call Insurance Office, Inc. in Howard at 814-625-2488 during weekday business hours and we will add your name to the list of potential participants. We would like to get at least 10 names and their phone numbers on the list before we could have the instructor set the dates for the courses and then we’d be in touch with you to confirm your seating reservation.

These courses are open to any local residents who are 55 years of age who want to save on their auto insurance rates.

BRIDGE WORK:

The little bridge over Lick Run at what locals call the Howard Narrows (Route 26 between Howard and Jacksonville) will be replaced sometime in March. The narrow bridge will be reduced to one lane traffic and will be controlled by a traffic light during the bridge replacement period. Plan now for an alternate route to save on travel delays.

The railroad bridge in Howard will be resurfaced sometime in June or July. The bridge will be closed completely to all traffic. Even the sidewalks will be off limits for pedestrians to use. The bridge would be closed for about 14 days until the restoration work would be completed.

Howard Fire Company is working already to make sure there is adequate protection during the bridge closures.

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Howard Happenings is written and compiled by Tammy Coakley who can be reached by emailing to tammy@ioiofficeinc.com or by calling 814-625-2684.