There is a gaping hole in Shawn Hargis’ bed where, each night, her son Vaughn used to sit alongside his sister Raye and hash out the day.

The close-knit trio started and ended most days that way, piling into the bed to share stories from the day and look ahead to the future.

“We were always talking,” said Shawn.

Sometimes Vaughn chattered so much that his family didn’t dare interrupt him.

Ellen Degler is a triple threat, competing at an All Lake-Conference and All-State level in three sports at Chaska.

Not only that, the senior plays violin in orchestras and clarinet in the marching and concert bands, is active in 4-H and competing at the county and state fairs.

It makes sense than, that she collect an award to reflect her many talents.

Degler received the Triple-A Award for Region 2AA in an on-court ceremony at the state boys basketball tournament on March 27.

Stacy Carskaden, Chaska High School class of 1976, is one of eight inductees into the CHS Hall of Fame this year.

A pioneer in female high school athletics, Carskaden excelled in volleyball, basketball and track and field.

Nine members of Chanhassen Boy Scout Troop 303 set sail on the adventure of a lifetime last July. The group of 14- and 15-year-olds got the rare opportunity to live and work on a 45-foot sailboat.

Their adventure is the featured story in the March issue of Boy’s Life, the official magazine of the Boy Scouts.

The group hit the open seas with the Boy Scouts of America’s adventure camp Florida National High Adventure Sea Base. They set sail off the coast of the Florida Keys in two different boats and went wherever the wind took them for an entire week.

There’s something in the water in Clover Ridge – or at least one might presume by the caravan of diaper bags and car seats headed into Angie Kubik’s home last week.

In the last six months, 10 babies have been born to women on and around Grimm Road. This was no pregnancy pact, laughed Sarah Heyer, but more of a happy coincidence. The group of moms and kids now try to get together once a month to catch up with one another and see how much the little ones are growing.

“This neighborhood is really tight knit,” said Heyer, mom to baby No. 2 Natalie.

Ryan Dungey was just 5 years old when his father Troy plopped him on his first dirt bike.

At an age when most kids are learning to ride a regular bicycle, Dungey was already motoring around the family’s Belle Plaine yard.

“Oh yeah, you can even put training wheels on,” he answered when asked if they make dirt bikes for kids that young.

For Dungey, it was love at first ride.

“It was fun. I enjoyed it,” he recalled. “There’s nothing like riding a dirt bike.”

Gary Hjellming was just 10 years old when a television chef donning a tall white hat and a gold medallion sparked his interest in the culinary arts.

“I thought that’s kind of cool,” he recalled.

Hjellming, of Burnsville, is now the head pastry chef at Oak Ridge Hotel and Conference Center in Chaska. Almost four decades after making that fateful decision to enter the world of food, Hjellming still doesn’t regret his choice.

Former Chaska Rotary President Dan Workman was presented with the George C. Klein “Service Above Self” Award Saturday night at the annual Chaska Rotary banquet held at the Oak Ridge Conference Center.

The Klein Award is given to individuals that display service above self in the community. This year marks the 31st year of the Klein Award.

Former Mayor Bob Roepke presented Workman with the award Saturday, saying, “He stands among those people who have left an imprint on our community through his actions.”

For one week earlier this month, local doctors were on hand in Haiti to see first hand some of the devastation caused by the recent earthquake.

Three physicians from Ridgeview Medical Center in Waconia made the trek to Limbe some 75 miles north of the earthquake’s epicenter. Among them were Dr. Jeffry Twidwell, urology; Dr. David Larson, emergency medicine; and Dr. Paul Savaryn, anesthesia. The trio, along with several other physicians from the metro area, volunteered their services at the Hôpital Bon Samaritain.

The historic Athletic Park baseball field may be covered with snow right now, but in Wally Quass’s version, it’s always summer.

Quass, a longtime Chaska resident and former owner of Wally’s Sports in downtown, recently completed a miniature model of Athletic Park’s grandstand and field. In total, the project took about three weeks to finish. He started by drawing plans out on paper and then, using miniature power tools, brought his vision to life.