BFR offers the challenge of 2011 - you may become the longest loser! (Which, in this challenge, is a good thing.) The challenge begins the week of Jan. 17.

Here's how it works:

Persons competing for the title must weigh-in between Jan. 17 and 21.

Your dream of a white Christmas came true. It did snow - ever so slightly - on Christmas Day. Here's the highs, lows and trace of snow report for the past seven days from Guy Verhoff, Pandora weather observer.

The Board of Trustees of Bluffton Public Library will hold its annual reorganization meeting on Wednesday, Jan. 5, 2011, at 6:30 p.m., in the library's Riley Room.

The purpose of the meeting is to elect officers, set the 2011 meeting schedule and approve temporary authorizations for 2011. Library board meetings are open to the public.

For more information, visit the library or call 419-358-5016.

Ready for a little between Christmas and New Year's holiday entertainment? There are plenty of basketball games featuring Pirates and Beavers from Dec. 27 to Dec. 30.

Four Bluffton teams are involved in basketball holiday tournaments played in Bluffton or Lima in late December. Here's the schedules:

Bluffton University McDonald's Tournament
Founders Hall

Dec. 29
6 p.m. - Pittsburgh-Greensburg (PA) vs. Westminster (PA)
Second game - Bluffton vs. Wright State-Lake

Joan Fredericks remembers when she "wanted to get her fingernails done." But, there was no such business in Bluffton, so she did something about it. She started her own nails shop.

Five years later, Nails by Joan grew and expanded. Now, the 417 N. Main St. business has a new name, many new services and much more room to handle customer needs.

What kind of an animal drives this vehicle? The Icon spotted this plate in the parking lot at Groves Bears and Antiques

Mary Avon Sommers, 90, of Pandora died at 12:50 a.m. Dec. 26, 2010 at Bluffton Hospital. She was born Feb. 21, 1920 in Pleasant Township, Putnam County, to Alvin and Avon Geiger Lugibihl. On Dec. 15, 1939, she married Donavin Sommers and he preceded her in death on May 1, 1997.

Mrs. Sommers was a homemaker. She had worked at the Pandora-Gilboa school cafeteria, Welty-Schumacher Egg Co., Pandora, and the Imperial Discount Grocery, Bluffton.

She was a member of the Ebenezer Mennonite Church, Bluffton, and a graduate of Pandora High School.