Halloween celebrations can be a trick or a treat when it comes to food safety. While Halloween offers plenty of make-believe fun, it also brings real food safety risks.

Family Features –– Costumes and candy may be mainstays of Halloween, but decorating is a fun way to set the mood and add a little extra excitement in the weeks leading up to the holiday. These spooktacular ideas can help dial up the drama and delight for all ages.

Family Features –– Whether heading to a party, celebrating on social media or greeting little ghouls and goblins at home, getting the entire family - including the four-legged family members - involved in the Halloween festivities can be the biggest treat of all. However, it’s important to take some precautions to avoid spooking your pets, particularly if you’ll be dressing them for the occasion.

Kim Johnson (right), of Hugo, was this week’s winner of the Hugo News Football Contest after choosing 16 out of 19 games correctly. Above, Johnson collects the $50 weekly prize from Julia King of Shelter Insurance, where she obtained her winning entry blank. Sponsoring this year’s Hugo News Football Contest are: Dr. Wade Rowland DDS, First United Bank, Dyer Quick Lube, AmeriState Bank, Red River Counseling, Sonic, Hugo Lake Marina & Cabins-Little Dixie, Busy Bee, Security First National Bank, First Bank, Pruett’s Food, Superior Wheel & Tire, Shelter Insurance-Julia King, Ed Wallace Ford, Stoned 4 Survival, R.E. McGuire Insurance-Ernie Taylor, Jay Hodge, U.S. Cellular and Hugo Express Pharmacy. Game selections can be found in each Wednesday edition of the Hugo News.

Hugo News Photos / Bobby Hamill Zoe Gilmore was crowned Hugo 2021 Football Homecoming Queen last week. She is pictured with (l to r): Rylee Beason, Tristan Pelletier, Kaylie Driggers and Kayla Loftin.

The greatest pain I could ever have endured was the loss of my mother… but I know now that my healing would begin by helping someone else. It started about six years ago when Mama took a fall. While staying with her a few months in the hospital and rehab, I made the decision to move back home. Mama could no longer walk, but she was vibrant and still full of life. She loved to laugh and talk about her cooking days. She was a great cook and baker. During her younger years, she not only cooked for her eight children, but for the community as well. This great lady was my friend, confidant, role model and hero. Words cannot express how much she loved her children. She instilled in us how to care and love others, even when wronged. We all would laugh among each other and say “Mama is getting us be at up out here in this world, because everyone was not raised by Ms. Brown.”

Former Hugoan Charles Kile has been growing a novel Christian Singles ministry in North Carolina for more than a decade now. Though he has been employed by the state’s Department of Transportation for several decades as a bridge inspector, Kile continues to perfect his Christian outreach programs that focus on singles in the busy east coast community of Raleigh, North Carolina.