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The Local Best. Chosen By You. From best restaurant to best veterinarian and everything in between - we asked, you nominated and voted your 2026 Best of SEI. Want your voice to be heard and business to be in the running? Best of SEI voting will return in July 2027! Did your business win? CLICK HERE to download the Winner's Badge to use! ★ Best Local Restaurant Janet's Diner facebook.com/janetsdiner Janet's Diner has anchored downtown Dillsboro for years, and it is the kind of place where the food and the people both feel like home. Home-cooked daily specials and the menu runs from farm-fresh burgers and country fried steak to pizza, hoagies and Cincinnati-style chili. The diner even keeps a wall of pre-paid meal receipts so neighbors facing hard times can order a hot meal without worrying about the bill. ★ Best Coffee Emily's Brew Coffee Co. facebook.com/emilysbrewcoffeeco Some places become part of a community's story, and Emily's Brew is one of them. Nestled in the heart of the Versailles Square in Versailles, the sister-owned coffee shop was built on the belief that great coffee has the power to bring people together. Every drink, fresh breakfast and welcoming smile are made possible by an incredible team of baristas who faithfully serve each guest seven days a week. Grounded in community, rooted in Christ and committed to excellent customer service, Emily's Brew has become a place where relationships are built one cup at a time. ★ Best Breakfast State Line Restaurant facebook.com/statelinerestaurantroute50 statelinerestaurant.com State Line Restaurant opened in 1952 as a truck stop on US 50, right where Indiana meets Ohio. It has stayed family-owned ever since, with the Grubers being the 4th family to run it. Breakfast is the main event, served all day alongside lunch and dinner, and regulars come for the homemade strawberry jam and the homemade goetta, available in regular or cajun and made from an old family recipe. Generous portions and friendly prices have kept the parking lot full for more than seventy years. ★ Best Bar / Brewery / Winery The White Rabbit Lounge Facebook: The White Rabbit Lounge The White Rabbit Lounge is a cozy, fun cocktail bar tucked into the corner of the Versailles square. The menu covers craft cocktails, mocktails, draft beer, and scratch-made small bites including wings, melts and flatbreads. Trivia nights and a genuinely wonderful atmosphere have made it a destination for people well outside Ripley County. ★ Best Ice Cream Flavors Ice Cream 812-926-3203 Facebook.com/FlavorsSEindiana Flavors Ice Cream and Deli, established in the mid 195o's as Dairy Aisle, has provided soft serve ice cream to the city of Aurora and surrounding areas for nearly 75 years. For the last 4 years it has been owned and operated by Valerie Wandstrat of Dillsboro Indiana and her dedicated staff. Her passion is growing young people into successful young adults with a strong work ethic. Valerie once said it wouldn't be possible without the support of her wonderful and caring husband David, but then quickly retracted her statement. David and Valerie's son works at Flavors and their daughter is excited to be joining the team when she is old enough. ★ Best Pizza Strong's Brick Oven Pizzeria facebook.com/strongspizza Strong's Brick Oven Pizzeria brings Old World-style pizza to the corner of High and Walnut in downtown Lawrenceburg. Every batch of dough, every sauce and ever: appetizer is made from scratch in house each day, then baked in an Italian brick oven. The award-winning Pizza Alla Vodka has a following, and so do the specialty pies, the wings and the meatball appetizer. Local craft: beers and handcrafted cocktails round out the menu. ★ Best Salon / Massage Service Odyssey Full Service Salon Facebook.com/OdysseyFullServiceSalon Versailles, IN Odyssey Full Service Salon has been serving Versailles for nearly three decades. The team handles cuts, color, highlights and keratin treatments, and the full-service side extends to facials, massage, body wraps and waxing. Once you visit, you'll never second guess why it won best in its category! ★ Best Real Estate Agent / Group Blake Haag Real Estate Group - Keller Williams Realty facebook.com/blakehaagreatlor Broker Blake Haag leads a real estate team across Southeastern Indiana. The group is a regular presence in the community beyond the closing table, regularly hosting community events. From their annual Back to School Bash to the YouKnighted Community Festival, you're sure to find their team busy giving back when they're not selling properties. ★ Best Boutique Farrah Ann's Boutique farrahannsboutique.com Facebook.com/farrahannsboutique Farrah Ann's Boutique is a women's fashion shop with two storefronts and a busy online store shipping out of Southern Indiana. New styles land every week, and the selection run from trendy to classic across apparel, accessories and gifts. In-store events and an active social media presence have built a following well beyond the two locations. ★ Best Veterinarian Bright Veterinary Clinic Facebook: Bright Veterinary Clinic brightvetclinic.com Dr. Steven Hubbard opened Bright Veterinary Clinic in 1988 and has been caring for Dearborn County pets ever since. A 1981 graduate of the Purdue University College of Veterinary Medicine, Dr. Hubbard sees small and large animals, exotics, pocket pets and birds, and works with local wildlife rescue organizations. The clinic's technicians are all graduates of accredited programs and board licensed. A second location, Dearborn County Animal Clinic, extends the practice's reach. ★ Best Wedding Venue or Event Space The Coachman Event Center coachmanaurora.com Facebook.com/CoachmanAurora 1he Coachman Event Venue sits in a downtown Aurora building with roots going back to 187o. Jenn and Sean York, a husband-and-wife team who grew up in the area, took on a full renovation in 2023, creating a 4,200-square-foot space that seats up to 180 guests while keeping the building's history intact. Weddings are the specialty, with getting-ready suites, an on-site bar and a coordinator on hand, though the Yorks also host fundraisers, reunions and the annual Spring Market featuring local vendors. ★ Best Local Plumber, Electrician or Trades Service Clark's Home Services Facebook.com/clarkhomeservice clarkhomeservice.com Clark's Home Services is a small family-owned heating and cooling company serving Southeastern Indiana and surrounding areas. Local owner Tyler Clark and his licensed, insured technicians handle furnace and air conditioner repairs, installations and maintenance, along with indoor air quality work. Same-day service, free second opinions on replacements, and 24/7 emergency availability make them a reliable call when the furnace quits in January. ★ Best Florist / Greenhouse McCabe's Greenhouse & Floral Facebook.com/McCabesFlowers mccabesflowers.com McCabe's Greenhouse & Floral is Lawrenceburg's botanical authority. From custom bouquets to full-service event decor, they bring the aesthetic to every occasion. It's a long-established fixture that blends retail excellence with serious floral artistry. Your plant parent goals start here. ★ Best Lawn / Land Service Fehling Excavating and Land Clearing LLC fehlingexcavating.com Fehling Excavating is a family-owned and operated business, and when you hire them you deal directly with Chase Fehling or his father, Bill. Both are hands-on and personally involved on every job site to make sure the work is done right and on schedule. The company handles commercial, residential and industrial projects across the Tri-State area, from dump truck hauling and demolition to land clearing, excavation, underground utilities and hydroseeding for erosion control. ★ Best Auto Repair Aurora Tire Facebook: Aurora Tire Aurora Tire Center is a family-owned shop that has kept cars on the road in Aurora for decades. Beyond tires, they handle oil changes, brake service, alignments, computer balancing, shocks and struts, and front end work, and they take farm service calls. An overnight key drop and a waiting area make the logistics easy. Customers consistently mention how fast the crew turns around a flat. ★ Best Park / Outdoor Rec Area Versailles State Park At just under 6,000 acres, Versailles State Park is the second largest state park in Indiana, and it has been welcoming visitors since 1943. The Civilian Conservation Corps built much of what is there, and a commemorative statue near the entrance honors that work. The 230-acre lake offers fishing along with rowboat, kayak and canoe rentals, and the park has four hiking trails, nine mountain bike trails, more than 20 miles of horse trails. a seasonal pool and campgrounds ranging from full hookup to primitive. Correction: This article has been updated to correctly note that while State Line Restaurant has always been family-owned, the current owners are the fourth unique family to own the restaurant. Thank You For Supporting Local

One working single mom, one only child, and the daily mystery of how a ten-year-old can be hungry again five minutes after eating. By: Annalee Cochran By 6:38 in the morning, I am clocked in, my emails are answered, and my ten-year-old is either still asleep or already wondering what is for breakfast. I am a working single mom with one child at home. That sounds like fewer mouths to feed until you meet Devin and the hollow legs that apparently came standard with him. Back-to-school season brings homework, permission slips, laundry, sports, church, appointments, and the forty-five-minute commute that never seems shorter just because dinner still needs to happen. Some afternoons I cannot be standing in the kitchen the exact moment he gets hungry. Teaching him to make a snack or pack part of his lunch is not me checking out. It is me raising a capable human who knows that hunger is manageable, wrappers do not walk themselves to the trash, and Mom should not have to make every sandwich until he is thirty. The first rule is to keep the system simple. Green foods are things he can make without heat or a sharp knife: yogurt and granola, fruit and peanut butter, cheese and crackers, a sandwich, or a snack plate. Yellow foods require permission and the skills we have practiced together, such as using the microwave or toaster. Red foods - the stove, oven, raw meat, and large knives - still require an adult. Independence should grow in steps, not in one dramatic afternoon with a smoke alarm. A build-your-own formula helps more than a complicated recipe. For breakfast, choose a grain, a protein, and a fruit. For lunch, choose a main item, a fruit or vegetable, a crunchy side, and one extra. For an after-school snack, combine at least two food groups so the snack has a fighting chance against those hollow legs. A banana alone may be a snack for some children. At my house, it is an appetizer. A little weekend preparation makes weekday independence safer and cheaper. I can wash fruit, portion crackers, cook chicken, make hard-boiled eggs, or freeze individual bowls of taco soup. Devin can assemble a French-bread pizza with cooked chicken, sauce, and cheese while I handle the oven. He can build sandwiches from bread or a wrap, a spread, a fruit or vegetable, and a protein. The goal is not a picture-perfect lunchbox. The goal is food he will actually eat and skills he will still have when I am no longer checking behind him. The goal is not a perfect lunchbox. It is a capable child, a calmer afternoon, and a kitchen that does not look like a tornado made a quesadilla. The kitchen guide also includes the rules that have nothing to do with recipes. Check in with Mom. Do the assigned chore before disappearing into a screen. Clean the counter. Put cold food back in the refrigerator. If siblings, cousins, or friends are there, do not fight over the last snack, do not eat food packed for someone else, and make sure everyone gets a fair share. Being able to feed yourself also means learning to be considerate of the people sharing the kitchen. There will still be crumbs. There will still be days when he claims there is nothing to eat while standing in front of a full refrigerator. But every sandwich made, lunch packed, and mess cleaned up is a small step toward responsibility. For a single parent, that little bit of independence is practical help. For a child, it is confidence. And for both of us, it is one less argument between the school bus and bedtime. Click here to download Annalee's printable "Back-to-School Breakfast, Lunch, & After-School Guide." Annalee Cochran is a Southeast Indiana mom, healthcare administrator, church volunteer, and writer learning to find grace, humor, and practical solutions in ordinary family life.

Submitted by the Dearborn County Retired Teachers Association, an affiliate of the Indiana Retired Teachers Association It started with a single pillowcase dress. In 2010, Jeraldine "Gerry" Barber read about sundresses sewn from pillowcases in a United Methodist Women newsletter. She found a pattern online, made one to show the Thursday morning retired teachers' coffee group at the Lawrenceburg Public Library, and asked whether the group could sew a dozen for a mission team headed to Haiti the following spring. The dozen dresses were just the beginning. The seven women enjoyed the project so much that their Thursday coffee chats gave way to sewing together. Early sundresses were made the size of a standard pillowcase, with seam binding for straps. As donations poured in, the group outgrew its space, and Mary Beth Hedrick, a retired teacher and director of the Lawrenceburg Community Center, opened the facility's doors to them. In 2013, Gerry suggested they add shorts for boys, drawing on a pajama pattern she'd once made for her grandsons. The first pair of boys' shorts followed soon after. Over time, the group adjusted its patterns to create dresses and shorts in sizes for ages 2 to 4, 5 to 9, and 10 to 14, largely because churches packing Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes kept asking for different sizes. Word spread through mission teams, newspaper articles, and neighbors telling neighbors. What began as a favor for one mission trip became a steady pipeline of handmade clothing reaching children in countries around the world. The numbers tell the rest of the story. The group didn't start keeping records until 2018, but since then nearly 15,000 items of clothing have been sewn by the hands and hearts of women right here in Dearborn County and sent to children across the globe. The sewing group is one of the most visible efforts of the Dearborn County Retired Teachers Association, but it's far from the only one. The organization gathers four times a year, on the third Tuesday of April, June, August, and October, for food, fellowship, and fun, and its members pour volunteer hours into the community year-round. It's a community of retired educators who never really stopped serving. In 2026, the group's service focus is Cincinnati Children's Hospital, collecting new books, coloring books, crayons, and other supplies for patients and their siblings. Members also support the Dearborn County Recycling Center, Reality Check programs in local middle schools, elementary enrichment days, and countless quiet individual acts, from baking for neighbors to reading in a grandchild's classroom. The association's foundation extends that impact to teachers directly, awarding sixteen grants to area educators in 2025, with the 2026 recipients to be honored this August. For all that reach, the heart of the effort remains simple and local. Every Thursday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., except during the summer break in June and July and a December pause for the holidays, volunteers gather at the Lawrenceburg Community Center with portable sewing machines, a drink, and a lunch. You don't have to sew to help, and those who can't make Thursdays are welcome to sew from home. Donations of clean pillowcases, sheets, fabric, lace, rick rack, ribbon, buttons, thread, ladies' hankies, cloth napkins, and embroidered pieces are always appreciated. Fabric suitable for boys' shorts, they note, is an ongoing challenge. None of the seven women who gathered over coffee in 2010 imagined any of this. Sixteen years later, the stitches are still adding up. To donate or ask questions, contact Judy Mosier at 513-673-1414, or stop by the Lawrenceburg Community Center on a Thursday between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., starting August 6th. Learn more about the Dearborn County Retired Teachers Association at dearbornrta.org.

As told to SEI Times by Tami Sallee-Thomas Some businesses are built on a plan. This one was built on a lifetime of hobbies, a family farm, and a hundred-year-old recipe box. Tami Sallee-Thomas, a retired special education teacher, opened the Split Oak Farm Store in Guilford almost by accident. For years, friends and coworkers had been asking to buy her farm-fresh eggs. Then came requests for her jams, her salsa, her preserves. She started delivering to them. By the time she opened the store, the business was, in her words, already in the works before the doors ever opened. Her path there wound through several states and four decades. Born in Northern Kentucky, Tami moved to Ohio in fifth grade, graduated from Madeira High School, and earned her bachelor's and master's degrees from Arizona State University, where she met her husband. The couple married in 1983 and returned to the Midwest in 1990 to be near family. Indiana always held a special place in her heart, so she and her husband bought a farm in Rising Sun. They named it Split Oak Farm, after a magnificent oak that had been struck by lightning and split down the middle. Eventually they left that farm and settled in Greendale for twenty years, but they could never get farm life out of their system. When their grown daughters asked them to buy a farm again, one where the whole family could live together, they did just that. Today, four generations share Split Oak Farm & Orchard in Guilford, the name a tribute to that first beloved farm. The store itself grew out of a season of change. As retirement approached, Tami watched women in the online farming community using their homemaking skills to open farm stands and earn a living doing what they loved. It struck her as the natural next step, a way to supplement her retirement income while being a stay-at-home grandmother for her grandchildren and helping her daughters at the same time. She calls it the best of both worlds. Every hobby she had collected since girlhood, from gardening and canning to baking, sewing and crafting, finally came together under one roof. She modeled the store after the country general store her great-grandfather once ran. It carries far more than baked goods: preserves, home goods, health and wellness products, even clothing. Small-batch is the rule, a deliberate choice after she noticed many of her customers, including men and retirees, didn't need large quantities. Their comments and suggestions guide what she stocks next. Getting the word out was the first real hurdle. The farm sits on a dead-end road with little passing traffic, so Tami leaned on the social media skills she first developed in the classroom, where she used a private Facebook group to keep parents connected to their children's learning. Neighbors shared her information, and her hairdresser stocked flyers in the salon. The response, she says, was amazing. Today, she has a lively social media presence where she shares behind the scenes videos of life on the farm and what it takes to operate her business. She believes what resonates most is her commitment to real food, grown organically, free of additives and preservatives, a message rooted in her own health journey. That focus shaped who the store serves. Her goal quickly became helping families who want to put good food on the table but struggle to find the time between work and running kids around. When customers began messaging with specific needs, allergies, and dietary restrictions, she found she could meet most of them, and doing so, she says, makes her heart happy. The balance is the hard part. She admits she gets excited and sometimes takes on too much, though help has come from an unexpected place: her 92-year-old mother-in-law, who lives with the family and still wants to stay productive. She loves doing the dishes and the laundry, which is no small thing given how many dishes a busy farm kitchen can generate. Community has become the heart of it all. A recent addition, a Free Little Library just outside the store, reflects how much Tami has come to love giving back to the neighbors who have shown up for her dream. One of her favorite connections began when a woman with a large flower garden reached out, not looking to sell anything, just hoping to share her blooms rather than let them fade in the field. She asked only for jars to put them in. Now her whimsical arrangements sit in the store free for anyone to enjoy, and the two have become friends. Around the farm, she is known simply as the Flower Fairy. For all the daily work, what Tami finds most rewarding runs deeper than sales. She is passing down skills, knowledge, and recipes learned from her mother, her grandmothers, and her great-grandmother, some of them more than a century old. She is already watching her own daughters cook from those same recipes for their families. She hopes more people will support farm stands and stores, preserving a way of life she worries could be lost to big-box retail. When you buy from a local farmer, she points out, most of that money stays in the community. The food hasn't traveled thousands of miles. It is picked ripe, sold fresh, and often comes with the chance to meet the person who grew it. One customer told her she would rather buy her eggs, even though she knew someone who was giving them away for free, because she knew exactly how the hens were cared for. That trust, she says, really resonated with her. As for how the community can help, her answer is simple: spread the word. In a crazy world, she says, we could all use a little more of that kind of kindness, passed hand to hand, jar to jar, neighbor to neighbor. The Split Oak Farm Store is located at 19327 Turkey Point Rd, Guilford, IN 47022, and is open daily from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Follow along on Facebook (Split Oak Farm Store and Split Oak Farm and Orchard), Instagram (@split_oak_farm_and_orchard), and TikTok (@farm_family_fun).

Somewhere around 2008, Patriot resident Joey Rider sat down and wrote himself a note. He titled it "Operation Freedom." It was, in his words, a guide, a map toward the one thing he had wanted since high school: to work for himself. He had no way of knowing then that the same drive would one day turn toward saving the town he grew up in. A lifelong Patriot resident, Joey opened Rider Realty in 2020, and its success has quietly funded the community projects that followed. For as long as he can remember, he has watched Patriot slowly fade. Dilapidated, vacant homes had begun to eat away at the town's beauty, so around 2019, he and his dad started buying up properties and cleaning them up. Then in 2022 came the Patriot General Store. Joey was afraid the store would close, leaving locals without even a place to buy basic food. Saving it became his first real community project. What he saw inside that store changed everything: neighbors counting out change for a loaf of bread. The need was impossible to ignore. Around that time, Tye Sullivan of the Switzerland County Community Foundation connected Joey with the Cincinnati Freestore Foodbank, which was looking for a place in Patriot to set up a food pantry. When Joey asked who would run it, there was no one. So he decided he would, with the help of the support system that has always been behind him. In February of 2025, the Patriot Passion Project was born. The first food distribution came that August, and the pantry now feeds an average of 180 people every month. Each monthly distribution takes a mountain of prep. Joey orders food from the Freestore Foodbank and meat from Roeschlein Meats, and he has built connections with people in Dearborn County who supply bread and other perishables. The hardest part was the beginning: creating a 501(c)(3), learning the Freestore's systems, and figuring out a monthly "menu" for the distribution bags. The ongoing challenge is money, raising enough to keep the program running. The community has been wonderful with its help and support. We asked Joey what has kept him going, and he did not talk about numbers. He talked about the elderly who come through the food line. That is what reassures him he is doing something that matters. Elderly care is something we could all do better at, in his view. He lights up talking about the young people who volunteer, the ones who will eventually have to carry this work forward. He has met some remarkable people along the way. A couple named Scott and Lisa have volunteered nearly every pantry weekend, and Joey is not sure he would even know them without it. Jim and Carol from Dearborn County donate an incredible amount of food to the surrounding areas. Among the younger volunteers, one stands out: Gabe, who has missed only a single pantry since the beginning and is always helpful and respectful. Gabe will be a freshman at Switzerland County High School this year. The community, in Joey's estimation, gives him far more credit than he deserves. Joey's mission is bigger than one Saturday a month. He wants to see Patriot sustainable and around for at least another 200 years. That means filling the vacant lots with housing, which he hopes will bring new businesses, and maybe someday even some kind of school building back to town. His dream is a day when the food pantry is no longer needed at all. Above everything, he hopes more people get involved by serving on boards, planning events, and investing in the town's future. The Patriot Passion Project distributes food on the fourth Saturday of every month. Joey arrives at 8 a.m. to set up, and distribution runs from 10 a.m. to noon. Volunteers are always welcome. Those who would like to support the effort financially can mail a check to Patriot Passion Project, PO Box 18, Patriot, IN 47038, or send a donation via Venmo to @patriotpassionproject.

By: Mary Gehring from The Bookshelf When you think of Southern Indiana, what comes to mind? Words that might come to mind are family, home, and maybe even hope. Laird Hunt's book Zorrie incorporates those three things that help make Indiana cherished by so many. Born in 1909, Zorrie has her fair share of heartbreaks. The death of both parents, courtesy of diphtheria, and later, the death of her aunt-turned-caretaker, deepens that loss and causes Zorrie to become stoic. She learns to find comfort in a day's work, even when it's physically demanding. She learns flexibility, too, when looking for a job as a woman during the Depression, eventually finding an opportunity at the Radium Dial Company, where she uses radium to paint the faces on wristwatches. Here, workers are encouraged to lick their paintbrushes to get a fine tip, thereby ingesting the radium, and the plant manager leads Zorrie to believe that radium can help any situation, something that comes back full circle later in the book. But the call of home is too strong, and Zorrie eventually returns to Indiana, working where she can and doing what she can until she finds her place again and a family of her own. While Zorrie's story does have plenty of tragedy, a constant vein of optimism runs through its pages. Recognizable Indiana towns are sprinkled throughout, helping readers familiar with the area picture Zorrie's trials and travels. And Hunt's beautiful, sometimes complex syntax makes for an enjoyable read, one that reminds us to find value in a simple life. Fiction. 2021 National Book Award Finalist. Goodreads: 3.8/5 stars. Amazon: 4.2/5 stars. 176 pages. Available in paperback and hardback.

As told to The SEI Times by Franklin "Tim" Foster After a lifetime of service and sacrifice, Greendale Marine Tim Foster is learning to rest Photos provided by Tim Foster Franklin "Tim" Foster has spent most of his life showing up for other people. For his country, for his four daughters, for the men he worked beside on construction sites across the US. Now, after the hardest year of his life, the Greendale Marine is finally learning to do something that has never come naturally to him: slow down. A Dearborn County boyhood Tim's story starts in Dearborn County, in a childhood that wasn't easy. His grandmother helped raise him and was the one who first brought him to church, a faith that would anchor the rest of his life. For a stretch of his boyhood, he lived near Vevay on Lake Geneva. He remembers it fondly: running the lakeshore, exploring, and meeting everyone he could. The military was in his blood. His father had served before a medical discharge, and three older cousins came home from Vietnam when Tim was 14. By then, becoming a Marine already felt like his calling. The Corps and the Kitty Hawk Tim joined the Marine Corps in 1977 and turned 18 in boot camp in California. He trained as a rifleman before drawing sea duty aboard the USS Kitty Hawk, eventually working his way up to assistant brig warden. His service took him on West Pacific cruises to Hawaii, Japan, Thailand, Singapore, Hong Kong, and the Philippines. He flew in helicopters, watched porpoises cut through the open ocean, and saw corners of the world a kid from southeastern Indiana might never have reached. "I got to see a lot of things I wouldn't have seen otherwise," he says. That pride has never left him. Coming home Tim came home in 1981 to a thin job market. He got by on odd jobs and the support of his family. Faith and discipline steadied him through the difficult transition back to civilian life. He earned his black belt in martial arts and later ran his own karate school for five years, coaching students all the way to national championships and teaching the art as something physical, mental, and spiritual all at once. Many of the kids he trained are grown adults now. He married, raised four daughters, and went to work, nearly 50 years of it, in construction. He did carpentry and masonry, and traveled to power plants for chimney work, including a stretch he was proud of: he worked the smokestack side of the job alongside iron workers on plants that were being retrofitted with scrubbers and filters to cut the smoke and emissions going into the air. The work was hard on his body, and today he lives with significant shoulder pain. He kept at it anyway. Then everything changed. One morning in October 2024, Tim woke up unable to breathe, with chest pains he couldn't ignore. A Marine who, like all Marines, had been trained in basic combat first aid (and who had carried a lifelong interest in it), he rarely went to the doctor, but this time he drove himself to the hospital. The diagnosis was a double blow: pneumonia and cancer. Large B-cell lymphoma, a form of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, had already spread to his adrenal glands, liver, and abdomen. It was stage 4. He was 65. Six rounds of the heaviest chemotherapy followed. In March 2025, after months of uncertainty, Tim reached remission. The hard part of getting better Remission didn't end the hardship. Stopping work to fight cancer meant losing his insurance, and he fell behind on his house and car payments. He didn't qualify for unemployment because he wasn't cleared to work. That same year, his furnace gave out, and his family heated the house with space heaters and the kitchen oven. It took the VA six months to reach out to him about coverage. What got them through, he'll tell you, was his community: support from the church, help from neighbors, the steady support of his boss, and temporary disability. An answered prayer Then came the kindness. Tim's daughters were followers of Samuel Weidenhofer, the "Kindness Creator" behind For Your Service: 50 Veterans in 50 States in 50 Days, a national movement to make sure one veteran or veteran's family in every state never has to work again. His daughters nominated him, and when Tim learned this past April that he'd been selected, he wept. Humble to a fault, he says he isn't sure he deserves it, that others have it harder. "It was a prayer answered," he says. "I just had to wait for God's timing." The kindness has kept coming. Some of the donations have already helped Tim catch up on his car and house payments. And when a local HVAC company, Home Comfort Heating and Cooling of Versailles, Indiana, heard his story, owner Kevin came out to inspect the furnace that had failed the winter before and decided to donate a new one outright. Kevin was so moved by Tim's story that he pledged to gift his services to one person in need every year. Learning to rest Today, Tim is retired and on Social Security, though he recently returned to part-time work. His old house still needs help, leaks he can't quite stay ahead of. His boss and his pastor keep reminding him to slow down, and he's trying, day by day, to listen. These days, there's more reason than ever to: his four daughters have given him five granddaughters and two grandsons, a family that keeps growing around him. What he most wants people to understand is the weight that veterans carry. He went into the Corps knowing, and at peace with, what he might be asked to give. He worries that the freedoms so many enjoy without a second thought come at a cost too easily forgotten. He loves the veterans in this community, and more than anything, he wants them to be seen. After a lifetime of giving, Tim Foster is finally being given to. And slowly, gratefully, he's learning to rest. Tim's family has set up a fundraiser to help with his home repairs and medical costs. You can support him here: gofundme.com/f/fys-tim-foster.

Story submitted by Chris Oser What started as a backyard party has become one of southeastern Indiana's biggest acts of generosity. Images from 2025 Oster-Roth & Friends Fest, courtesy of https://oserrothfest.com/photo-links. Some of the best things start by accident. In the fall of 2009, the Oser and Roth families were camping together at Woody's Farm when Cindy and Dan got to talking about the Oser family's annual summer party. Affectionately known as Oser Fest, the gathering had grown so big it had outgrown the family's home. Cindy wondered aloud whether Dwight "Woody" Bucher might be willing to rent out the farm so the party could keep growing. Dan had a better idea: the two families shared so many mutual friends, why not throw it together? And just like that, Oser-Roth Fest was born. But the story was about to become something much bigger than a party. The gift that started it all While planning that first Oser-Roth Fest, the families heard about Blake Kamstra, a local child battling acute lymphoblastic leukemia. His story stayed with them. They started wondering if there might be some way to help, though nothing had been decided yet. Then one day, Dan happened to share Blake's story with a client and friend named Charlie. Charlie didn't hesitate. He stood up, opened his wallet, pulled out a $100 bill, and said, "Give this to Blake." That single gesture lit a spark. Moved, Dan called Cindy and floated an idea: what if they sold T-shirts at the party and raised a little more for Blake? That year, they raised more than $5,000. A $100 bill had become a movement. Nearly $1 million, 83 children, and counting Over the past 16 years, Oser-Roth & Friends Fest has raised nearly $1 million to support 83 children and their families. What began as one act of generosity at a campsite has become a yearly tradition that the whole community rallies around, all to lift up local kids and families facing the hardest seasons of their lives. A new home for year 17 This year marks the 17th annual event, and for the first time, it won't be held at Bucher's Farm. The farm has been a beloved home for the festival for well over a decade, but preparing the property each year has become increasingly demanding. Wanting to make sure the event could thrive both now and for years to come, organizers began searching for a new location after last year's festival and landed on the Lawrenceburg Fairgrounds. The 2026 event takes place Saturday, August 8, from noon to midnight. Guests can look forward to live music all day long, an inflatable play area, games for the kids, and food served throughout the event. There will be plenty of ways to give back, too, including split-the-pot drawings, basket raffles, silent auctions, and more. The day wraps up with a fireworks display presented by Yokum Fireworks and The Flight Line Drones. More information is available at oserrothfest.com. Meet this year's Angels The event's beneficiaries are known, fittingly, as "Angels." Each January, recipients are chosen from a pool of submitted candidates. Most years, six children are selected; this year, organizers chose four, given the uncertainty that came with the venue change. This year's Angels are: Dominic Francis, a 16-year-old sophomore at Oak Hills High School Eli Massie-Cable, a 5-year-old preschool student at Three Rivers Elementary School Tristen Nimitz, a 5-year-old preschool student at Three Rivers Elementary School Abby Ruter, a 4-year-old who attends the Kelly O'Leary Center at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Seventeen years after a camping-trip conversation and a stranger's $100 bill, Oser-Roth & Friends Fest is still doing exactly what it set out to do: turning a good time among friends into real hope for the families who need it most. See you on August 8 at the Lawrenceburg Fairgrounds.

Photo and Review Submitted by Beverly Meyer This review comes to us from the Lawrenceburg Review Club, one of the oldest institutions of its kind in our corner of the state. For roughly 130 years, local women have gathered to read, review, and discuss books alongside the events of the day, to enrich themselves and their families and lift up the whole community. The club's reach goes well beyond its meetings. Its members were the driving force behind the founding of the Lawrenceburg Public Library, which became a reality in 1910 with a building constructed at its current location two years later. This past spring, the club marked its 130th anniversary, and Mayor Kelly Mollaun named May 20th as Review Club Day in Lawrenceburg. It is fitting, then, that a club born to keep reading and learning alive would turn its attention to a book about people doing exactly that with the world's vanishing traditions. Here is Beverly's review as told to The SEI Times. Some traditions survive on the shoulders of a single person. When that person sets down the work, the tradition goes with them. That is the quiet tension running through "Custodians of Wonder," a book by BBC journalist Eliot Stein, who spent seven years traveling the globe to find the last people keeping rare cultural marvels alive. The book profiles ten of these wonders, each tended by someone who refuses to let it slip away. A handful of the stories stand out enough to make you want the whole collection. In Sardinia, the Italian island second in size only to Sicily, Stein tracked down the only woman still known to make a pasta called su filindeu. The craft has passed through a single family. It takes pulling, folding, and stretching semolina into 256 even strands, layering them three deep on a tray, and drying them into thin sheets. Broken into pieces, the pasta is served in mutton broth with pecorino. One family. One living maker. That is how thin the thread can get. Cuba offered a different kind of vanishing act. Stein visited what may be the last cigar shop still keeping the tradition of the "reader," a person who reads aloud to the workers while they roll. It began as a way to educate the rollers and widen their view of the world, turning factories into something like classrooms. The workers choose the books themselves, and being picked as the reader is treated as an honor. The custom is nearly gone now, though its fingerprints remain. Some of the finest cigars carry the names of books, Don Quixote among them. In Ystad, Sweden, the wonder lives at the top of a 13th-century church tower. Roland Borg, 74, has served as the town's night watchman for 57 years. His family has held the post for the last 103 years. Climbing 14 stories to the tower keeper's room, he blows a horn every evening on the quarter hour from nine to one, signaling that all is well. The trouble is plain: Roland is aging out of the climb, and no one has stepped up to follow him. Germany contributes the most charming entry. In Eutin stands a tree that has been matchmaking long before dating apps existed. People across the country mail letters to it, hoping to find love. By 1927 it received so much mail that the town hired a postman and gave the tree its own address. It now draws roughly a thousand letters a year. One man has tended it for more than two decades, even adding a ladder so the mailbox is easier to reach. The etiquette is simple and kind: if you open a letter and decide not to answer, you return it so someone else might. My own favorite is a practice called "telling the bees." Families who kept hives would bring news to them, often through a beekeeper. Couples about to marry introduced their partner for the bees' approval. A death meant draping the hives in black cloth. When a beekeeper died, the new one was introduced to the colony. The belief held that bees kept in the loop would keep making honey. The remaining custodians in the book guard their own corners of the world: the Kannada mirror of India, the slow brewing of shoyu in Japan, African storytellers playing the balafon, the last painter making film posters by hand in oils, and the final rope-bridge master of the Inca tradition in Peru. Stein's larger point sits just under the surface. These wonders are not relics behind glass. They are alive only because someone is still doing the work, and most of them are one quiet exit away from being gone for good. The book is an invitation to notice them while we still can.

Submitted by: Mary Gehring A trip to Batesville might involve food or a movie, but tucked on the corner of Boehringer and Walnut Street is a store that's been around since 1980. At that time, Chris Fairchild bought the Paperback Exchange and wanted to specialize in children's books. Later, Chris added new books and later adult books as the store grew. Chris passed away in 2024, and her daughter Dana took over ownership, keeping Batesville and the surrounding areas reading. At The Bookshelf, we're proud to help celebrate America's 250th by offering these great youth reads! Across the USA with the Very Hungry Caterpillar is a board book featuring the timeless art of Eric Carle while celebrating all of the things that make us America. Look for a bald eagle, sports, mountains, music, and fireworks at the end. The book is geared toward ages 1-3, with a reading level of about 2nd grade. Sing the 50 United States was written by Dr. Seuss Enterprises, and was found in the Dr. Seuss archives in May of 2025 -- just in time to be released for the 250th anniversary of the USA! The book features the famous Cat in the Hat as he struggles to not only name all 50 states, but place them on a map. At the end, you can see original sketches of Seuss's draft of the book. The book is 40 pages and is available in hardcover. The book is geared toward ages 3-10, but if you are a Suess collector, age does not matter! Have you ever wondered where the idea for the flag came from -- or why the eagle holds significance to the United States? And, for that matter, who was Uncle Sam? Learn about these and more - like national monuments and state symbols in Teresa Bateman's Red, White, Blue, and Uncle Who? The Stories Behind Some of America's Patriotic Symbols. The book comes with sketches that go with each topic addressed -- and there are more than 20! Did you know that Benjamin Franklin wanted the national emblem to be the wild turkey? It was "noble and tasty," according to him. Or, learn that there was a contest to design the White House -- and it was won by an architect from South Carolina who was also awarded a $500 prize for his design. Geared toward ages 8-12 and written around a 3-4th grade level, each symbol is explained in about two pages of text, in a reader-friendly format and language. The book is available in hardback. The Bookshelf is honored to be included in the first issue of The SEI Times.

Written and Photographed by Rob Stone Have you ever checked out the back roads of Southeast Indiana? Like, really checked them out? Driven down them with no real destination, looking left and right as you pass through forests and farms? There are so many relics of the past out there. Some abandoned. Some are still in use. Some that fall somewhere in between. I love getting off that Lawrenceburg exit, and instead of heading toward Cincinnati or following U.S. 50, I keep going straight. The traffic disappears, the roads get narrower, and before long, you’re finding places most people drive right past. Let’s go check out that covered bridge again. I want to photograph it in every season. These places change from day to day, or at least their surroundings do. Let’s go visit that little church on the hill that looks much bigger than it really is. Let’s go see Bonnell. Can you cross that creek and make it into the tunnel? Give it a try. Let’s go check out the old courthouse in Wilmington and wonder what stories those walls could tell. One of my favorite drives is North Hogan Road and Soap Hill Road. Plug them into your GPS and then get lost. Point your car toward somewhere you’ve never been before and see what you find. Being from Kentucky, Lawrenceburg has always felt like “out of town” to me, and I can’t really explain why. It just does. I’ve always loved getting away for an afternoon and exploring the area. Have you seen the Liberty Theater lately? Have you stopped and looked at that old Walnut movie theater downtown? It hasn’t shown a film in years, but the marquee is still there, welcoming you to Lawrenceburg like a relic from another era. Have you wandered through Greendale and looked at the old homes near the distillery? Acorn Hall has been on my list to photograph for years. I remember when it received a fresh coat of paint around 2019. Today, it’s looking a little rough around the edges, but I still hope that gem can be saved. Have you ever driven through Aurora? Seen the old vintage Gulf station, the feed store along the railroad tracks, or the historic homes, businesses, and churches around town? Ever stopped to take a closer look at some of those forgotten places and imagine the stories they could tell? Me too. If you’ve never seen these things, then you’ve never really seen this area. I think that’s what I like most about Southeast Indiana. It’s not just the landmarks or the history. It’s the feeling that there is always something else waiting around the next curve in the road. I’ve photographed in a lot of places over the years, but I always find myself coming back to Southeast Indiana. There is something about the back roads, small towns, and bits of local history tucked away around every bend that keeps me interested. And based on the comments, emails, and messages I get, I’m not the only one. If you have the chance, take a drive and explore for yourself. If not, I’ll keep sharing what I find through #RobStoneShoots.

Submitted by Jamie Haney, Library Assistant at the Aurora Public Library District New Reading Room at Dillsboro Library In 1994, 120 people crowded into a Dillsboro town council meeting with a single idea on their minds: their community deserved a public library. It was the kind of turnout that makes a town council take notice. Through a combination of fundraising and plain old elbow grease, those residents turned that idea into reality, and in 1997, the Dillsboro Public Library opened its doors as a branch of the Aurora Public Library District. The early days tell you everything about how much the community wanted it. In a letter to the editor of The Journal-Press that summer, then-director Mary Alice Horton thanked a remarkable roster of supporters. County commissioners, the town council, the library committee, and the Southeastern Indiana Regional Planning Commission had all played a part. So had dozens of individual volunteers who gave their time and energy, along with local businesses, churches, civic clubs, and organizations across Dillsboro that pitched in with contributions and special attention to the project. During its very first two weeks of service, the staff issued 103 new library cards and assisted 643 patrons. Horton called it a first-class library facility and wrote that it was exciting to see the fruits of so much shared effort. Nearly three decades later, the community is gathering again, this time to celebrate how far that little library has come. On June 20th, the Aurora Public Library District will host a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the Dillsboro Public Library to mark the completion of a major building project. Renovations began in April of 2025 and reimagined the space from top to bottom. The expanded library now includes two new private study spaces and two large meeting rooms, a reading room with a cozy fireplace, and an outdoor seating and play area. There is a bigger children's room, a dedicated space for teens, additional restrooms, and updated display shelving in the Local History Room. The project even added a garage for an incoming bookmobile, extending the library's reach beyond its own walls. True to its roots, the ceremony will be a community affair. Jeanne Kinnett will sing the National Anthem, while Doug Baker and Tim Benning raise the flag. Hunter and Lincoln Fox will help with the ribbon cutting, and local author Ron Nicholson will share a poetry reading. Library Board President Ben Turner and Library Director Leslie Sutherlin will both speak about the renovation process and what it means for the years ahead. From 120 determined residents in a town hall to a fully reimagined facility with room to grow, the Dillsboro Public Library remains exactly what its founders hoped it would be: a place built by the community, for the community. The library invites everyone to come check out the new space and pick up a limited-edition Dillsboro Library card while supplies last. Hours are Monday through Friday from 10:00am to 6:00pm and Saturday from 10:00am to 3:00pm Beginning in July, the library will extend its hours on Tuesdays and Thursdays until 8:00pm