President Rachel Karger displays certificates Alpha Iota received at the OSO Convention in June. Member Jennifer Green looks on.

The Pride of Chandler Marching Band from Chandler High School competed at the Deer Creek Invitational Marching Festival on Sept. 20 at Deer Creek, performing its program “The Ballad of Georgia Graves.” The band placed 14th out of 18 bands in the preliminaries, just barely missing out on the finals. The band will next compete in the Blue and Gold Marching Classic in Holdenville on Sept. 27, along with The Spirit of Stroud marching band and the McLoud high school marching band. Photo/Jennifer Pryor

Stroud’s elementary cross country team had its annual end-of-the-season glow run last week. The runners get glow sticks and glow items to wear, run a short 1-mile course around campus and finish with ice cream sundaes. Below is Cayenne Martin. Right, coach Kelly Brown poses with a unicorn (Laney Manion) and shark (Sophie Young), both of whom accompanied the runners on the course. Photos/Beth Young

MIKE McCORMICK Staff Column

DEAR - elementary reading for fun

Blake Weeks 1.5” X 4.5”

Runner Lexi Martzall cuts the ribbon held up by Superintendent Scott Baade (left) and High School Principal Freddie Hall (right) on the new track facility at Chandler Public Schools. The building contains locker rooms, a coaches’ office and a concession stand. It’s located next to the track and behind the softball field at the high school complex. Photo/ Emily Kalka

Rolling Thunder at Meeker library

Stepping forward