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WEDNESDAY Your Hometown Paper Serving Beaman, Conrad, Liscomb, Union & Whitten
WWW.CONRADRECORD.COM
CONRAD, IOWA 50621 - U.S.P.S. 129-760
December 24, 2014
VOLUME 133 NUMBER 32
Dear Santa: (Note: Each year, The Record and BCLUW elementary teachers ask students to write letters to Santa Clause as Christmas nears. These are their responses. We did our best to get everyone’s name right, but some were very difficult to discern.)
Dear Santa, I want an Elsa doll that skates for Christmas! I will leave you a snack! It will be soup and juice! I hope you like it! Thank you, Haylee O’Clair
Dear Santa, I want a car you can sit in that is fake for Christmas! I will leave you a snack! It will be brownies! I hope you like it! Thank you, Jaymey Annekellen
Mrs. Silver’s kindergarten class Dear Santa, I want a toy owl for Christmas! I will leave you a snack! It will be brownies! I hope you like it! Thank you, Ima Wanken
Dear Santa, I want a Cyclone helmet for Christmas! I will leave you a snack! It will be chips! I hope you like it! Thank you, Jayden Muschick
Dear Santa, I want a remote control tank for Christmas! I will leave you a snack! It will be graham crackers! I hope you like it! Thank you, Lole Lehman
Dear Santa, I want a Nerf gun for Christmas! I will leave you a snack! It will be a cheese stick! I hope you like it! Thank you, Victor Rodriguez
Dear Santa, I want remote control cars for Christmas! I will leave you a snack! It will be peanut butter and carrots! Thank you, Patrick McCready
Dear Santa, I want a Barbie for Christmas! I will leave you a snack! It will be mini corn dogs! I hope you like it! Thank you, Pieper Fleming
Dear Santa, I want a super dino for Christmas! I will leave you a snack! It will be mac n’ cheese with cookies! I hope you like it! Thank you, Eathan Petermeier
Dear Santa, I want a Doc McStuffins for Christmas! I will leave you a snack! It will be fruit snacks! I hope you like it! Thank you, Brayleigh Gardner
Dear Santa, I want spy gear for Christmas! I will leave you a snack! It will
See LETTERS ...continued on page 3
Jingle Bells!
“Prancer,” aka Jacob Castell, shows off his dance moves during “Reindeer Names,” one of two Christmasthemed plays that second graders performed on Monday morning. The other second grade class performed “A Flea on Santa’s Tree.” (Rob Maharry/The Record photo)
Jerry Schryver (center) poses for a photo with Conrad Legion Post 681 Commander Bob Daniel and Wayne Bracy on Thursday evening. Schryver, a World War II veteran, was recently honored for 70 years of American Legion membership. (Rob Maharry/The Record photo)
Schryver honored for 70 years of legion membership By ROB MAHARRY The Record CONRAD- Jerry Schryver and his friend Rusty Mathorn were at a movie theater in Ames on December 7, 1941, when they heard about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Schryver, who resides at the Oakview Assisted Living facility in Conrad, enlisted in the Army Air Corps shortly after the attack and served as a flight instructor during World War II, and the Conrad American Legion Post 681 recently honored him for 70 years of membership. Schryver, now 94 years old, was sought after following his basic training because he had already been trained as a pilot at the Niederhauser Airport in Marshalltown, and a great demand for pilots existed as aircrafts became a necessity to the war effort. He spent most of his time in the Army stationed in Enid, Oklahoma, Frederick, Oklahoma and Coffeyville, Kansas, teaching other service members to fly P-38 Lightning planes, and when a local family invited Schryver and a fellow service member over for Christmas dinner, he ended up meeting his wife Wilda. They’ve been together ever since. “That was the beginning for
them,” their son Rusty, who was named in memory of Mathorn, said. After leaving the service as World War II was winding down, Schryver earned a degree in aeronautical engineering from Iowa State University, and he worked in Des Moines for a short time before moving back to Oklahoma to help Wilda’s family on their farm when her father fell ill. They eventually came back to Conrad in 1952, and it just so happened that the late Clifford Green needed a manager at his growing business, Green Products. Schryver readily accepted the position, and when the opportunity arose, he used a Small Business Administration loan to purchase the company in 1972. At the time, Green Products had between 20 and 25 full-time employees. Today, that number is over 120, and it has stayed in the family as his sons Rusty and Matt own and operate the business from its rural Conrad headquarters. “He takes great pride in ownership and what the business has become,” Rusty said. Throughout his life, Schryver has stayed extremely active in the community: in addition to his longtime American Legion membership, he served on the local school board
The Record’s Index Church..............5 Classifieds........7 Legals...............6
Movies.............3 Obituaries........5 Opinion............4
as well as the now-defunct Grundy County school board, and he was instrumental in getting the Conrad Family Aquatic Center and the Oakwood Golf Course up and running. These days, he is one of the very few living World War II veterans in the area, and he and Wilda still live together at Oakview after seven decades of marriage. “He loves people, and he loves community,” Matt said. “Dad was always involved, and I think he always treated people fairly. He liked people.” When asked what made him most proud about his father, Rusty echoed those sentiments and added that he will always remember Jerry as a teacher, whether he was instructing pilots in the Army during WWII or sharing life lessons with his sons. “He let you make mistakes, and he wouldn’t chastise if you made a mistake because he knew that people learned by making mistakes. But he would always ask, ‘Did you learn something?’” Rusty said. “I always thought that that was a great attribute that he had: the way he motivated people and wanted to work with them because he was such a great teacher.”
Comet sports Check out the highlights from last week’s Comet sports, pages 9-10.
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