Menno's Dylan Lehr is pictured during the national anthem prior to the Mad Frogs' Fourth of July baseball game against Freeman on a warm but comfortable Saturday night. Menno won the traditional Independence Day game 12-5 to improve to 9-4 on the season. The Blacksox will take a 5-11 record into tonight's home game against Tabor that will be part of Freeman's celebration. Youth softball games begin at 12 p.m., with baseball games to follow beginning at 3 p.m.

The color guard made up of American Legion chapters from Menno, Tabor, Wagner and Yankton, as well as the VFW from Scotland, lead the Fourth of July parade down Fifth Street in Menno Ssturday morning. The traditional and popular celebration drew hundreds of guests and included 60 entries from Menno and surrounding communities. A Menno FFA pork loin feed in the city park followed; baseball and fireworks is on tap for tonight and Freeman will celebrated Independence Day on Sunday afternoon and evening.

Those hoping to land a parking spot along the first base line for this Sunday's baseball game will have a tough time finding one. Even by the middle part of this week, vehicles were lined up in anticipation of Freeman's Indepedence Day celebration on July 5. Activities get underway with girls softball games at 12 p.m. and will continue throughout the afternoon and evening. The Blacksox will take the field against Tabor starting at 7:30 p.m., with fireworks to follow.

Andre Eisenbeis helps a customer at the Freeman Farmers Market Wednesday evening, July 1. The local farmers market is held every Wedensday during the spring/summer produce season from 5 to 7 p.m. on the east side of the Freeman Shopping Center parking lot.

This was the scene inside the Freeman High School gym Wednesday morning as workers install new bleachers. This is the second phase of a major capital improvement project giving the gym a new look; the court was stripped, sanded and painted this past spring.

Voters living in the Menno School District are voting today in the Menno School Board Election, where Bryan Kludt and Jon Schempp and challenging incumbents Justin Plooster and Mary Schoenfish. Results will be posted later tonight.

The Canistota/Freeman 10u Sticks won the Yankton Twins Invitational Sunday night, June 27, coming back to defeat West Lyon 6-4 for the title. The Sticks also defeated Sioux City and Watertown en route to the championship that came one day of the 12u Sticks finished runner-up in their division of the tournament.

The Canistota/Freeman 12u Sticks finished second at the 2020 Yankton Twins Invitational at the Seratoma ballfields in Yankton Saturday, June 27. The Sticks went 2-1 in the tournament, losing only to Madison 6-4 in the final inning of the game. The Sticks 10u team is playing in the same tournament today, Sunday, June 28, and won their first two games. They will play for the championship tonight at 6:30.

Carolyn Preheim tops cheese pockets with white sauce for a to-go order Friday evening, June 26 as part of the Schmeckfest drive-thru event. More than 200 orders for a meal were placed online and then filled from 5 to 7:30 p.m. on Saturday as a stream of cars circled in and out of the school's parking lot. In addition to the meals, volunteers working inside the Link sold other items like frozen Schmeckfest sausage, kuchen and other Schmeckfest Country Kitchen items. The drive-thru was held in response to the cancelation of the 2020 "festival of tasting" because of the coronavirus. 

Prep work is underway at the corner of Fifth and Main, where the city is moving forward with a project that will see the intersection repaired. That includes a new manhole and concrete that will tie into the work that was done when the city rebuilt Sixth and Fifth streets 10 years ago. The project is expected to take a couple of weeks.