Winter will be celebrated in the Panhandle this weekend as Winterfest returns to downtown Howard City.

The third annual event features a variety of old and new family-friendly activities Friday and Saturday. Panhandle Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Marianne VanBennekom said one of the new events is a snow treasure dig at 1 p.m. Saturday near the Timothy C. Hauenstein Reynolds Township Library. The event is for three age groups of children and features hidden treasures buried in mounds of snow.

The Mobil gas station’s EZ Mart convenience store in Greenville was broken into and robbed late Tuesday night or early Wednesday morning. According to lead clerk Mary Mangus, the break-in at 115 E. Washington St. (M-57) occurred between 11 p.m. Tuesday and 4 a.m. Wednesday, when the store was closed.

Read The Daily News Funeral Notices for Thursday, Jan. 19, 2012

Dr. Edward Lepley had a way with animals — and their owners. The longtime Montcalm County veterinarian is being remembered fondly after he died last Thursday at his home in Stanwood. He was 73 years old. As a youth, Lepley excelled academically, as well as on the basketball court and football field.

Gov. Rick Snyder centered his second State of the State address Wednesday night on building on the successes of 2011 and continuing to improve in 2012. Speaking in an upbeat manner, Snyder did not announce any major changes for the upcoming year and kept his topics on issues from 2011, stating he wants to instead focus on finishing “what we started.”

The snow fell silently and softly over two nights, most spectacularly in the game reserve immediately north of Belding. It clung to the shrubbery and trees, an exquisite latticework of branches coaxing the eye into a world of reverie. A study in black and white, it framed a canopy of enchantment, evoking memories of an old fashion magazine that featured elongated, impressionistic drawings of women, as tall as trees and as slender as serpents. Rightly or wrongly I remember it as the old “Madamasoille,” but the current “New Yorker” sports similarly drawn cartoons linked to humor beyond my ken.

It may have looked easy for Greenville’s wrestling team to get a pair of wins Wednesday night, but one wasn’t so easy to do. The one that wasn’t so easy was against Northview, the host of the quadrangular. But the Yellow Jackets prevailed 46-19. They then defeated a shorthanded Grand Rapids Union team 77-3.

Greenville wrestling coach Paul Johnson is in the annals of wrestling history now. Johnson secured his 500th career dual-meet victory Wednesday night when the Yellow Jackets beat Northview 46-19. “I thought about it. I kept thinking, I was at 482 at the start of the season,” Johnson said. “Like everybody else, I’m kind of prone to think to get to another 100 is a big deal.”

As construction workers begin the battle against freezing temperatures, high winds and several inches of fresh snow, progress on the new Legacy Field football stadium at Greenville High School is continuing. Superintendent Pete Haines said all work on the new stadium is on schedule and crews have yet to have to use any “weather days,” taking time off due to weather conditions thanks to a mild start to the winter season.

On Monday, The Daily News commented on the Michigan Senate Democrats proposal for a new version of the Michigan Promise, a state-of-Michigan version of the Kalamazoo Promise. Kalamazoo’s privately funded program guarantees scholarship grants to graduates of that city’s public schools.