The recent “make-over” at Firemen’s Park certainly was not for cosmetic purposes, as the weekend Charity Tractor Pull demonstrated loud and clear, you might say.

It seemed like a miracle when they finished all the work on the parking lot...new roads and all...right on time for its premier event. As if those huge, newly placed grandstands weren’t miracle enough.

Thousands turned out for the mammoth, two-night event, and it seemed like a large segment came complete with tractors and trucks.

It was actually a stunning sight to look down at the park from the Lake Avenue entrance to the high school parking lot.

The first thought I had was where else can you find a community this size playing host to such a major attraction, with an even more major reason for doing it.

After all the pulling, and cheering, and sweating, and, yes, even the noise, the most important ingredient left when it ended was the fact that many, many needy folks will receive help they only dreamed about because of those two exciting nights.

To some of them it will seem like magic.

Frankly, that’s appropriate, because Don Slama and his hard working helpers, along with our workaholic firemen, are all magicians when it comes to serving the folks who call this area their home.

It’s nothing new to them either and, God willing, that spirit will remain here forever. In fact, it is about to renew itself over the Labor Day weekend, same place and many of the same volunteers.

You can add the annual HOPE Walk and many other charitable efforts to the “In Hillsboro, We Care” list. It’s what makes this place something really special.

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One of the nice things about attending the current School Board meetings is the chance to get an “inside” look at the remodeling being accomplished.

In order to get to the high school library where Monday night’s meeting was held, visitors have to travel through a maze made up of construction and cleaning equipment, some occasional desks, some piled up lockers, and a few workers who look like they may have been lost inside the building for days.

Has anyone seen Randy Darcy lately, by the way?

Word is, when all this is behind us, the former Distance Learning Lab is going to be converted into a conference room that will be ideal for School Board Meetings.

I saw a glimpse of it while battling through the maze, although it definitely is still in the planning stage. It will be a nice room some day and it’s original name may still apply. It certainly will be a place for learning, especially for reporters, and its distance inside the maze was about half way to Monday night’s meeting.