Fireworks

Fireworks shows light up the night sky on the Fourth of July. Last year there were approximately 9,600 people who were injured from fireworks and treated in hospitals and 4 people died, according to a Norman press release. Children ages 5 to 14 years old are have the highest risk for fireworks related injury, according to the National Fire Protection Association. Darian Johnson’s first experience with fireworks was at 14 years old. Johnson accidentally started a fire in a field and put the fire out by himself. “I have a lot of respect for bottle rockets and for firecrackers in general,” Johnson said. “We used to have Roman candle fights and peoples’ shirts would get caught on fire. We never thought anything of it. I don’t use them as toys anymore. I try to be very cautious.” Before the Independence day celebrations began the National Council on Fireworks Safety released a list of safety tips. The firework safety tips included having a water hose or bucket ready, to be sober when shooting fireworks, never relighting “dud” fireworks, and to supervise children who are using fireworks. Authorities encourages people to be extremely cautious. “Any fireworks that you have, supervised or not, even parents that are standing right next to a kid with fireworks is just like having that parent somewhere else because you never know when that firework is actually going to go off or if it is going to work properly,” David C. Randolph III, fire inspector, said. The Norman Fire Department encourages citizens to view professional pyro technic shows instead of shooting off fireworks and reminds the public that it is illegal to shoot off consumer fireworks within city limits.

A child plays with a sparkler while her parents are nearby.

LibertyFest held the Taste of Edmond at the Festival Marketplace in downtown Edmond Sunday evening.

 “I think it’s the best thing going” Terry Officer, president of LibertyFest, said. “I’d recommend it for any town to have a series of events.”

The Taste of Edmond event serves as the fundraiser for LibertyFest. It mainly goes towards the parade and fireworks show on Wednesday.

 “Come early so you get a good selection in food,” Katrina Jantzen, attendee, said. “And try a little bit of everything but just a little bit because there is a lot to pick from."

For 15 dollars, people could eat food from more than 25 restaurants that had set up booths. The choices offered were Italian food, pizza, Greek food, barbeque, various desserts and others.

 LibertyFest officials do not have to work too hard to get restaurants to donate their food and time.

 “For the most part, they call us,” Officer said. “They enjoy being involved with LibertyFest. I know they were calling here even within the last few days wanting to be a part of LibertyFest.”

 Taste of Edmond also had a musician performing at the event.

 “We try to have somebody every year,” Kari Scheihing, volunteer coordinator, said. “We started that a few years ago. People really like that. It just kind of helps set the ambiance a little bit.”

 Taste of Edmond was the eighth event in the LibertyFest calendar. The next events for LibertyFest are the parade, ParkFest and the fireworks show on Wednesday.

More information about LibertyFest can be found on the LibertyFest website.

Chalk-It-Up

Edmond, Okla., Liberty Fest celebrates 40 years of family festivals this week.

Liberty Fest held its Chalk-It-Up event at the Festival Marketplace in downtown Edmond Friday morning.

 “It’s just fun because it gives them a chance to be creative and dirty and see what other people are doing,” Judi Lippert, grandmother of participants, said. “It’s free so that makes it even better. It’s a good way to get into the Fourth of July spirit.”

Children and adults showed up for the chalk art competition and covered the ground with drawings of Uncle Sam, the Statue of Liberty, flags, eagles and more.

 “Everyone did an outstanding job,” Tyler White, judge, said. “They put in a lot of effort and we had some really great ones.”

 The awards categories were best use of space, most color, most artistic and best overall chalker.

 White had to go back and forth between drawings several times to decide whom to give the awards to. The two drawings that were the hardest for White to decide between were drawings of Uncle Sam and a birthday cake, and Uncle Sam with a surfboard.

 “I wasn’t expecting that much detail in some of them but it was amazing,” White said.

 Liberty Fest added Chalk-It-Up to the events calendar a few years ago.

Chalk-It-Up is a national event that is done through parks and recreation for National Parks and Recreation month.

The next event for Liberty Fest is the car show at 8 a.m. on Saturday.  All of the information for Liberty Fest events are listed on the Liberty Fest website.

Hauntings at the University of Oklahoma

Some students at the University of Oklahoma know Christopher Borthick as an advisor in the Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication. Not everyone knows that Borthick has an investigative hobby that takes him to different places on the weekends. Borthick is a member of the Society of the Haunted, a group that investigates paranormal activity. The group has even been on Animal Planet’s “The Haunted.” The Society of the Haunted conducted an investigation in Ellison Hall on the OU campus. The school yearbook asked the group to investigate the building. “The stories have gone for years that Ellison was haunted,” Borthick said. Some of the staff at OU had experienced the phenomenon while at work. One night Angela Startz was working late with a coworker in Ellison Hall. “At the other end of the hall there were all of these crashing noises,” Startz said. “I leaned out and there wasn’t anybody around.” Susan Bayliss also works in Ellison Hall and was there the night of the investigation. Bayliss has ever had an encounter with the ghosts by herself, but she thinks that is because she is not as open to those kinds of things, Bayliss said. One theory that people had was that there was a ghost of a little boy with roller skates because people would hear rolling sounds against the floor. The rumor was that a young boy on roller skates was hit by a car in front of Ellison Hall and he was taken in to Ellison be treated but died, according to the College of Arts and Sciences site. The Society of the Haunted was not able to make contact with the spirit of the little boy, but made contact with other spirits who had died at Ellison Hall when it used to be a hospital. The rolling sounds are now thought to be from hospital beds rolling down the hallways. Other buildings on the OU campus are also rumored to be haunted. The Society of the Haunted has not investigated any other buildings on campus, but would be willing to investigate if asked, Borthick said. The Society of the Haunted will be traveling to Booneville, Ark. this weekend to conduct another investigation.

A cowboy swings his lasso around to catch his calf in the roping event.

Cowboys and cowgirls filled the arena for the Norman Roundup Club’s annual Open Rodeo this weekend.

The club prides itself on having a family friendly environment and teaching individuals the basics of rodeo events.

“It’s a tradition, I think, that need to be around. It teaches people a lot about themselves and how to accomplish stuff,” James Bartle said.

The participants can be as young as four-years-old to compete. The rodeo started out with the “mutton busters” event for children to ride sheep and donkeys bareback.

“I kind of liked the little pee-wee bare back riding a while ago,” Ricky Cole said.

The Ward Rodeo Company supplied the livestock. Rodeo participants can accumulate points at each rodeo and at the end of the Stampede Rodeo series they win prizes. The winners of each event this weekend won money.

The Open Rodeo is an event that is held every year to keep up the Norman Roundup Club arena. There are also junior rodeos throughout the Spring and Summer months.

“We do several activities, but the Open Rodeo and our Open Barrel Race in the spring is what really keeps our club afloat,” Clifford Chastain, club president, said.

In the fall the roundup club will have a junior rodeo and silent auction to benefit research for juvenile diabetes.

The Norman Roundup Club will be hosting the next of many junior rodeos on July 22.

The Open Rodeo kicks off with "mutton busters" a children's event.

A bronc rider holds on for the eight second qualifying time. 

OU Crawfish Boil

The crawfish boil at the University of Oklahoma brought in twice the number of people than expected.

The crawfish boil on Tuesday, June 19, gave students at the University of Oklahoma the chance to relax and enjoy free food in the Oklahoma Memorial Union courtyard.

            The OU summer session organizes activities ranging from free snow cones, movies, a comedy performance by TJ Miller, a musical performance by Stoney LaRue, a pool party, and more.

            “The main goal of summer programs is to give students who are taking summer classes something to do while they are taking classes, so that they’re not just at home and bored with nothing to do,” Steven Lee, director of summer programs, said.

            The crawfish boil had the biggest turn out than any of the previous events this summer.

            “I think this is triple the amount of people that we’ve had all summer for anything,” Matthew Farley, graduate assistant for the union programming board, said.

            So many people showed up to the crawfish boil that there was not enough catfish or soda for everyone.

            “We expected about 250 and I think we’ve hit about 500, so we’ve doubled what we expected. It’s been great,” Lee said.

            University catering just happened to have ordered twice the amount of crawfish that they were supposed to. Lee describes it as a “miracle”.

            Miguel Gonzalez, a graduate student, took a break from his research to come to the crawfish boil.

            “I think it is pretty cool that they have these events in the summer because usually in the summer it’s kind of lonely and there is not much to do. So I think it is good they think of the people who are still here during the summer,” Gonzalez said.

                        Whitney Felton, senior, is looking taking classes this summer and looks forward to the events planned this summer.

            “The pool party sounds like it’s going to be really fun. And snow cones because everybody likes snow cones.”

            Felton sums up the summer session events as “good weather, good food, good people.”

 Students and faculty line up to fill their plates with crawfish.

Whitney Felton, senior, eats crawfish with her friend.  

Norman Animal Shelter

The Norman Animal Shelter strongly urges people to spay and neuter their pets.

            According to the ASPCA website, only 10 percent of animals that go into shelters are already spayed and neutered. The shelter will not even allow people to adopt a cat or dog unless it has been spayed or neutered first.

            Officer Amy Jones, pet adoption coordinator, says that this summer has been especially cramped in the cat department. As of June 15, the Norman Animal Shelter has taken in 83 cats in the month of June. 

            The breeding season for cats is from mid March to October, and one female cat can have two litters during one breeding season, says Jones.

            “We need people to be more responsible,” Stan Koonce, animal welfare officer, said. “It’s hard to control it.”

            “Even the cat groups we work with are calling us and saying ‘This is crazy!’” Jones said.

            The increase of kitten litters coming into the shelter creates another problem. There is not enough space and some of the kittens are sick. Some of the kittens come in with respiratory problems, feline leukemia, and other major health issues.

            The officers at the shelter try to give the animals the best possible chance for adoption.

            “We try to adopt them out or send them out to the cat rescues, but we have to wait for spaces to open up,” Jones said.

            Jones has three cats with litters that she is holding on to for as long as she can.

            Oklahoma City will be starting a “community cat” program in the near future, but Norman Animal Shelter does not have the money or veterinary staff to implement such a program.

            The staff at the shelter thinks it would be a good thing to be able to do, but it does not look like Norman will be able to implement such a program in the near future.

            The Norman Animal Shelter will be improving it’s facilities and might be able to hold more animals in the future, but it is still important for pet owners to be responsible. Spay and neuter your pets.

 Cages in the cat room at Norman Animal Shelter fill with cats in the summer.

 Kittens wait anxiously to be taken to their new homes. 

Portrait Without A Person 

Sense of Place