By John Schaffner

Last Saturday’s snowstorm certainly wasn’t the worst we’ve seen, but it was a pretty good one. I have a special request, since the storm on Saturday was predicted well ahead of time. If you receive a Beacon in your driveway, and you know snow is coming and you know you will need to use your snowblower to clear your driveway, PLEASE, even if you choose not to read it, pick it up! We certainly don’t want to cause problems with papers getting hung up in your snowblower. Thank you.

The Wish Upon A Cure Princess Party benefiting the American Cancer Society will be held Saturday, March 18 at the Community Market VFW Hall in Oak Harbor. There will be food, games, activities and raffle prizes plus an appearance by Cinderella and Belle from Beauty and the Beast. Tickets are $15 per child, limited to the first 75.

For tickets contact Tami Coppes at 419-270-2194. They will be selling tickets for raffles at the party for $1 per ticket, 6 for $5 and 15 for $10. After they sell out of all 75 tickets there will be a drawing and two little girls will win a Belle or a Cinderella dress to wear to the party! The princesses attending will need to bring their ticket to be entered into a special drawing at the party.

Ernie Owen of Sandusky is our winner this week in our “Find Wylie” contest. He was chosen from among 75 contestants who found our friendly fish hiding in the ad for the U.S. Power Squadron on page 3B in last week’s Beacon. So Ernie is the winner of a $25 gas card graciously donated by Friendship Stores. Each week we hide Wylie Walleye in an ad and our readers, when one of them finds him, can either bring in a contest entry cut out of the paper or log onto our website … www.thebeacon.net … and let us know where he is, thus entering, and possibly winning the contest.

Two local students have been named to the Dean’s list at two universities. Michael Lay of Port Clinton, a Software Engineering student at Michigan Tech (located on a peninsula that juts out into Lake Superior) was honored. So was Lauren Wheeler, also of Port Clinton, who is a nursing student at Mercy College in Toledo.

Check out The Beacon’s newly reformatted and redesigned Web Site, www.thebeacon.net. One of our specialized business services is Destination Designs, a custom Web Site Design company. Particular thanks goes to our favorite intern, Dalton Chapman of Marblehead.

It is Girl Scout Cookie season! Enjoy!

The Magruder Hospital Foundation will host a painting fundraiser event at Rosie’s in downtown Port Clinton on Thursday, Jan. 31 from 6-8 p.m.  Doors will open at 5:30 p.m. for an evening of fun, art and socializing. Tickets are $40 per person and attendees will be painting a monogram on canvas.  Food and drinks will be available for purchase.

Proceeds from the event will be used to benefit the Employee Giving Campaign Paved Walking Trail Project. RSVP with letter choice for monogram by Jan. 28 to Magruder Hospital’s Director of Development at 419-734-3131 (Ext. 3147) or mmueller@magruderhospital.com.

Port Clinton High School and Middle School are offering FREE admission for home athletic events for government staff (Coast Guard, Border Patrol and others) impacted by the partial Federal Government shutdown. Just show your government ID and the whole family receives FREE admission.

This time of year, The Beacon starts getting a little “skinny,” thanks to our seasonal marketplace. However, we want to encourage all of our readers to please regularly check out our website, www.thebeacon.net. What we can’t fit on the pages of the newspaper, we will always try to fit on the pages of our website. Thanks.