How many volunteers does it take to serve breakfast on a farm? When you’re planning to feed over 2,000 visitors, it turns out it takes quite a few. It also takes a great deal of advance planning, cooperation and a bit of money. All those factors began to come together Monday evening at the Douglass Township Hall in Entrican, where Michigan State Extension Officer Nancy Thelen presented the first in a series of meetings that will end with this year’s area Breakfast on the Farm event.

Call them crazy or call them dedicated, but the group of “polar plungers” slated to drop through a hole in the ice Feb. 9 at Clifford Lake Inn is doing its part to raise money for a very good cause — Special Olympics Michigan. According to event organizer Jim Dennis, the annual plunge attracts as many as 100-plus plungers and 400 spectators to the small, inland lake each winter. Depending on weather conditions, he’s hoping to see at least that many turn out for this year’s plunge.

With the busier recreational summer season still awaiting on a warmer horizon, two Montcalm County departments have made requests to better prepare their staff for the future. The Montcalm County Sheriff’s Office and Montcalm County Animal Control are seeking additional funds from the county to pay for positions to help aid in current and future labor situations.

New faces were in new chairs at Wednesday’s Montcalm County Board of Commissioners annual organizational meeting. Ron Blanding of Greenville, Ron Braman of Vestaburg and Steve DeWitt of Coral are the newest faces on the board, having been elected last year. Patrick Q. Carr of Lakeview was re-appointed by his colleagues as longtime chairman of the board, with Ron Retzloff of Crystal appointed vice chairman.

Many West Michigan residents will struggle once again to heat their homes and pay their rent this winter. Officials from EightCAP Inc. are hoping events from the eighth annual Walk for Warmth effort will help ease some of this stress.

Members of the Sheridan Village Council are in the process of putting together a “wish list” of projects for the village. Some items on the list — such as work on the water tower and street improvements — are more pressing than others, however, they all share one thing in common: They cost money.

The Montcalm Center for Behavioral Health has seen many changes during Robert Brown’s tenure as executive director. Staff at the center grew from 41 employees in 1990 to 66 employees currently serving more than 1,300 Montcalm County residents each year through programs such as outpatient therapy, case management and home-based services.

There’s no doubt firefighting can be a dangerous, difficult job. The men and women who put in the time and effort needed to protect the rest of us deserve the best training and equipment possible.

There’s something unnerving about standing in an auditorium full of deaf students. At the podium, a speaker addresses her audience using only hand gestures, while an interpreter quietly speaks the words into a microphone for the benefit of the few present capable of hearing them.

Author Katherine Applegate lives more than 2,300 miles away from Janet Connolly’s third grade classroom at Central Montcalm Upper Elementary School, but thanks to the marvels of modern technology, distance was not a factor in bringing the popular author in front of third and fourth grade students Wednesday afternoon.