BREDA — What special present do you give a vintage-car enthusiast to celebrate a milestone birthday?

Having the Carroll Softball Complex fields idle until recently because of the coronavirus pandemic gave Carroll Rotary Club members and other volunteers an opportunity to step up to the plate and give the concession stand and dugouts a much-needed new coat of paint.

Steven Heuton pulls the rope of his lawn mower to start up the engine. The summer sun is hot, but with breaks for ice-cold water, the 10-year-old gets the job done, navigating trees, hills and sheds as he mows lawns for free.

Restaurants may have closed their doors for weeks due to the coronavirus pandemic; however, a coffee group of retired Carroll men has found a comfortable new home.

A chance encounter, and a warm conversation, with one of television’s familiar faces has inspired a former Carroll mayor to attempt some look-alike fun as he’s camped indoors during the coronavirus crisis.

True blue to the very end. Deb Davis’ career took an unwanted, sudden turn, but she always remained a police officer at heart.

Jonathan Law was on his way to a meeting in Jefferson when he spotted what appeared at first to be a deer just off the shoulder of U.S. Highway 30.

With Brett Eischeid’s love for motorcycling in mind, his family and friends weren’t going to let him miss this ride.

Every week, Lou Forward had the same routine: drive into Carroll, go to the grocery store, stop at the bank and drop off cans at the Carroll Redemption Center.

When Sammie Walsh, 17, stopped to tie her shoe while exploring Cusco, Peru, this summer, two women in colorful dresses swarmed her and pressed a baby alpaca into her arms.

Ready with her strategy, Whitney Reever of Glidden walked Frankie, her 1,250-pound, 18-month-old Maine-Angus heifer, into the show ring at the Iowa State Fair last month.

At the end of the growing season, when the corn and soy beans are ready to be gathered, Nathan Kroeger is eager to get to work.

On a recent sunny day in Carroll, four college students picked up gum wrappers, scraps of paper and other trash around the Carroll Recreation Center and Carroll Athletic Field, chattering in Estonian all the while.