Torey Hett of Marion shares a light moment with Ryan Chalmers during the Challenge Games in Derby. Chambers is traveling across the country in his racing wheelchair. In the upper left photo, Chalmers shows his traveling form as he rolls along the highway.

When Ryan Chalmers, 24, arrived in Newton on Saturday, it marked the 35th day of his 71-day journey across America in his racing wheelchair.

Although Chalmers planned to continue through Marion County on Saturday, Torey Hett of Marion asked if he might consider staying until Sunday morning and take part in the Challenge Games at Derby.

Like Hett, Chalmers also was born with spina bifida, which is an incomplete closure of the spinal column, and means they do not have complete use of their legs.

With Chalmers averaging 60 to 70 miles a day since starting his journey April 6, one of the first questions Hett asked Chalmers was if he became sore traveling those distances.

“He told me the first week he was, but that now he is getting used to it,” Hett said.

Amy, Christian and Damian Ratzlaff have endured a long journey on the way to getting Christian’s left knee back to health.

It appears one Hillsboro High School student-athlete will have a senior basketball season after all, thanks to an innovative surgical procedure to restore his dying knee.

“I feel my senior year will be great, and I’ll be ready to go because I have time to prepare for it,” said Christian Ratzlaff, who was forced to sit out his junior season this winter. “After that, I’d love to keep playing. It’s nice that I have that option now.”

As recently as a couple of months ago, that prospect seemed unlikely. Not only was Christian’s high school athletic career in jeopardy, but he was facing the possibility of a future without pursuing the physical activities he loves—and even worse.

“They were telling us he would be hoping just to walk right again,” his father, Damian, said about the speculation of one specialist. “It was like nothing will be the same if (the knee) gets to that degree.”

The culprit was Osteochon­dritis dissecans, or OCD, a joint disease that resulted in a loss of blood flow to the lower tip of Christian’s femur, near the knee, which in turn caused that part of the bone to die.

“When bone dies, cartilage doesn’t want to be attached anymore,” said Amy, his mother. “So the cartilage starts to detach itself because there’s no (blood) source for it.”

Ed Riffel holds one of the 43 street signs he and wife Connie have repainted for the roads around Marion County Lake. ““It gave me something to do this winter and it was an improvement and showed pride in our lake,” he said.

Ed and Connie Riffel, residents at Marion County Park and Lake, have spent the last few months repairing and repainting street signs around the lake even before too many people noticed.

“I don’t really like recognition,” Ed Riffel said about volunteering his time. “It gave me something to do this winter and it was an improvement and showed pride in our lake.”

The couple moved to the lake at the end of August last year.

“We moved from Newton and bought this house,” pointing to their retirement home on Lakeshore Drive.

Hillsboro’s Evan Ollenburger tees off at Hole No. 5 on the Hillsboro Municipal Course during Friday’s Marion County Invitational tournament co-hosted with Marion.

Graduation time has arrived for high school seniors in Marion County. Commencement ceremonies begin this weekend in Marion and next week at Hillsboro, Canton-Galva, Centre and Peabody-Burns.

Marion

Marion High School’s 58 graduates are considered one of the larger classes walking to “Pomp and Circumstance,” according to school officials.

Baccalaureate is at 7:30 p.m. Wednes­day, May 8, with the commencement ceremony at 4 p.m. Saturday, May 11, at the Marion Sports and Aquatic Center.

Elizabeth Goentzel and Ryan Nelson are this year’s valedictorians. Isaac Baldwin is the salutatorian.

All three students will address the graduates.

This year’s colors at MHS are orange and white.