The Ozark County Fire Chiefs Association is selling these promotional decals for a minimum $5 donation to raise funds for materials and supplies used in the training sessions and classes that are held here for Ozark County firefighters. The decals, designed to be displayed on the windows of vehicles, homes and offices, may be purchased at the Times office or by mail (see details, page A10).

A rainbow appears in the spray from the hose on the Gainesville VFD ladder truck as it responded with Theodosia Area and Pontiac / Price Place VFDs to a structure fire Monday afternoon in Theodosia.

Gainesville resident Jodi Leeker, director of Behavior Health at Baxter Regional Medical Center in Mountain Home, Arkansas, happily posted this photo after she got her first covid-19 vaccination at the hospital. She will get the second of two shots in three weeks. Registered nurse Jodi Bodenhamer gave Leeker the shot.

Above left: Several Ozark County firefighters signed a firefighter’s helmet to encourage Brody Shelby as he recovered from surgery last week in Springfield to remove a brain tumor. Center and right: The ladder of a Springfield Fire Department firetruck was extended to Brody’s fourth-floor room at Mercy Hospital Friday so Firefighter Caleb Elliot could climb up and show him the big Christmas card SFD firefighters had signed for him. Word about Brody’s fight against brain cancer has spread within the firefighting world, and gifts have come in from several departments, including a South Carolina department where Brody’s stepdad, James Walley Jr., used to work, and from as far away as South Australia.

If not for this little red glass bell Christmas ornament, Wayne and Doris Sayles’ lives might have gone in different directions, and “none of what [we] enjoy together today would have materialized as it did,” says Wayne.

The annual foster care Christmas event transitioned from its traditional Christmas dinner and party to a covid-era, life-sized scavenger hunt based on the Candy Land board game. The effort also provided wish list gift items for 175 children in Ozark, Douglas and Wright counties’ foster care program. The event is organized by Stacy Garrison, left, and a group of Division of Family Services workers. Above, from left: volunteers Candace Mayberry, Ashley Volner, Brianne Bryson, Melanie Hanger, Kayla Premer and Kendra Ritchie.