As the most strict shutdown phase has begun loosening for many Ohioans, the News asked a half dozen villagers this question: is there anything you’re learning during this period that is meaningful, or surprising?

How are older Yellow Springers faring in this new isolation? To find out, the News spoke to about a dozen villagers, most in their 80s or older.

As part of Gov. Mike DeWine’s March 22 order that Ohioans must stay home, all businesses deemed nonessential were instructed to shut their doors.

On March 14, Evelyn and Tom LaMers will be doing the same thing they’ve been doing the second Saturday of March for the past 27 years — hosting a dinner as part of the Feast for Friends, the Friends Care Community annual  progressive dinner.

A visit to Ayres’ Polecat Road home shows that some of what Ayres rescues is stuff. Known as a man with many friends, he is also known as a fixer of anything, so of course he often fixes things for his friends.

About 50 adults and kids took part in last week’s meal-packing event for the Kid Scouts Hunger Van, which took place at the Senior Center Great Room.

During the year-and-a-half duration of the Dementia Friendly Yellow Springs project, organizers were most surprised by the number of people who approached them to say they personally had a connection to the disease.

Whenever Katie Egart walks into the Dayton Correctional Institution, or DCI, she encounters locked doors.

The 25th Annual McKinney Chili Cook-off takes place Saturday, April 6.

“Sometimes when I’m feeling down, I come in here and think, well, I did make a contribution to different communities at different times,” Alyce Earl Jenkins said in an interview last week. That’s quite an understatement.