Thirty Lawrence firefighters and 33 first responders from surrounding areas participated April 22 in fire training safety with Black Hills Energy. The firefighters used water and Purple K, a fire extinguishing powder, to douse the blazes. Submitted by Monique Pope.

Mia Romano, 14, goalkeeper for the Sporting Kaw Valley-U14 Team Stride, Girls Premier League in Lawrence, makes a big save at the April 26 Challenger Cup in Shawnee. Mia had a clean sheet (no goals scored on her) and the team won the championship in its division. Submitted by Pete Romano.

The staff from the Kids First Preschool at FUMC held a team Relay for Life fundraiser at Runza on April 22 in preparation for the Relay event on June 13. Those who had fun helping out at lunch were, back row: Carisa Stejskal, Lisa Marsden, Wendy Powell, Amy Stramberg, Gwen Beeley, Cathy Ison, and Patti Winn; front row: Patsy Huffman, Leslie Marsh, Eve Loos, Betsy Kelly and Kathy Willis. Submitted by Betsy Kelly.

Ron and Dee Miller, left, recently hosted an Easter egg hunt that included Kansas University grad student E. Zhang, Norm White and Dot Nary. Submitted by Ron Miller.

Fifth-graders at Prairie Park School are pictured April 17 withMichele Haider-Markel and "adopted" Southwest Airlines pilot Ken Oliverof Lawrence. Fifth-graders at Prairie Park and New York schools trackedtheir class mascot as he traveled with a pilot for a month. The classreceived daily emails about their mascot's travels and learned aboutgeography, meteorology and aerodynamics. The month was capped off with apaper airplane contest. Submitted by Ken Oliver.

More than 30 Lawrence pickleball players recently gathered at East Lawrence Recreation Center for the 2nd Semi-Annual Just-for-Fun Tournament. Led by Paige Carney, the event was organized and operated by the most competitive local players, with the only-slightly-less-competitive players playing the round robin tournament. Everyone had a blast! Submitted by Evan Jorn.