Church of the Good Shepherd volunteers helped spruce up a handicapped ramp.

A group of 28 people from Church of the Good Shepherd in Davidson spent their “vacation with a purpose” in Galloway, W. Va., last week. On the mission trip, local church members helped build a new entryway for Fountain of Love Ministries in Galloway. “Now the church can swing open both of its doors. Our prayer is that the new entry will signal a renewal for the church and the community it serves,” said a report on the mission trip blog, mission09.wordpress.com

Bob Maier

The front room of Bob Maier’s Walnut Street home may not look the part, but it’s on the front lines of the fight for free speech and information half a world away, in Afghanistan. From here, Mr. Maier helps edit an independent news blog called KabulPress.org, which publishes news and commentary about what’s going on in the conflict-torn country. Read the full story

Davidson College senior writer John Syme, class of 1982, is making his way across the U.S. to the Grand Canyon. Late this week he was in Tennessee, Arkansas and Oklahoma, cruising the highways, including a famous old route, with his dog Dodger in his 1967 Comet. In Memphis, he met a 1993 alumn. Catch up with his latest posts.

John, Dodger and the 1967 Comet.

With his 1967 Mercury Comet Caliente ragtop back in running order (including a rebuilt engine), and his dog Dodger in the passenger seat, Davidson’s John Syme left Saturday on a cross-country adventure. He’s retracing a similar 1989 tour in the Comet  – and making at least one side trip he missed, to the Grand Canyon.

As you surf the web in your down time this summer, follow the travels of Mr. Syme, a 1985 Davidson grad who is now a a senior writer in the Office of College Communications. Read the full story

DavidsonNews.net introduces a new feature: Local news feeds from blogs and websites in and around Davidson, at davidsonnews.net/localfeeds. Have a site to suggest? Send it to editor@davidsonnews.net.

davidsonnews.net/localfeeds

"Now - what'll I do?" Click to see more on Around the D.

Alas, with so much news going on in Davidson this week, I’m afraid we haven’t had time to come up with any creative ways to mark April Fool’s Day today. So we’ll point you elsewhere for a laugh:

Our friends at the Davidson College Archives offer up a bit of fun for April Fool’s Day on their Around the D blog: some student humor and cartoons from campus publications in the 1930s.

Elsewhere: Read the full story

Karyn Jester

Second in an occasional series featuring local blogs and bloggers. Have a suggestion for a future profile? Send it to editor@davidsonnews.net.

What’s going on at the Davidson public library branch? Lots! And now there’s an easy way to keep track of it all, through a blog written by library assistant Karyn Jester. Ms. Jester has worked at the library since July. She updates the blog a couple of times a week with information about library programs and events.

www.davidsonlibrary.wordpress.com

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Blodgett

First in an occasional series featuring local blogs and bloggers. Have a suggestion for a future profile? Send it to editor@davidsonnews.net.

If you have even the slightest interest in town or college history, you’ve probably come across Jan Blodgett. She’s Davidson College’s archivist, a historian and, now, a blogger, with a website called “Around the D.”

blogs.davidson.edu/aroundthed/

Read the full story