Discover the strength of unity and the significance of remembrance as Pastor Andrew Cromwell and Shanna Meier join me, Rob Bentley, in a heartening dialogue about the communal pillars that keep our society compassionate and connected. Immerse yourself in the spirit of the National Day of Prayer, and feel the communal embrace as we reflect on the poignant Homicide Quilt Unveiling and Candlelight Vigil. From the splashes of excitement with the Hanford Piranhas swim team to the cultural tapestry woven at the Kings County's Asian Experiences, we're celebrating the vibrant pulse of our local scene.
Strap in for a journey through our community's calendar, where taste buds and artistic appetites are indulged at the Taste of the Valley and King's Arts Center Spring Show. Keep your fingers on the pulse of Hanford High's baseball triumphs and tribulations, and get ready to lend a helping hand during the Kid's Day for Child Abuse Awareness Month.
You can find the Hanford Insider at www.hanfordinsider.com and on social media at @hanfordinsider Thank you for supporting the show!
Discover the strength of unity and the significance of remembrance as Pastor Andrew Cromwell and Shanna Meier join me, Rob Bentley, in a heartening dialogue about the communal pillars that keep our society compassionate and connected. Immerse yourself in the spirit of the National Day of Prayer, and feel the communal embrace as we reflect on the poignant Homicide Quilt Unveiling and Candlelight Vigil. From the splashes of excitement with the Hanford Piranhas swim team to the cultural tapestry woven at the Kings County's Asian Experiences, we're celebrating the vibrant pulse of our local scene.
Strap in for a journey through our community's calendar, where taste buds and artistic appetites are indulged at the Taste of the Valley and King's Arts Center Spring Show. Keep your fingers on the pulse of Hanford High's baseball triumphs and tribulations, and get ready to lend a helping hand during the Kid's Day for Child Abuse Awareness Month.
You can find the Hanford Insider at www.hanfordinsider.com and on social media at @hanfordinsider Thank you for supporting the show!
Speaker 1:
On this week's episode, we'll hear from Pastor Andrew Cromwell about the upcoming National Day of Prayer, and Shannon Meyer will stop by to share with us about the upcoming Victims' Rights event. Rob will give us a check of the community calendar and I'll be back to update you on all of the high school sports action. This is the Hanford Insider for Monday, april 22nd.
Speaker 2:
Welcome to this episode of the Hanford Insider. I'm your host, rob Bentley. Thanks for listening. In community news, national Victims' Rights Week is being observed this week, shanna.
Speaker 3:
Meyer joins us now to let us know about the big event on Tuesday. Yes, we have. On Tuesday night, April 23rd, we have our National Victims' Rights Week Homicide Quilt Unveiling and Candlelight Vigil. So, basically, loved ones of people that were killed either due to homicide, vehicular crimes, they are able to create a quilt patch in honor of their loved one and we unveil that into it, gets sewn into a quilt and we unveil that at the ceremony. It's a public event, Everyone's able to come. We are adding a candlelight vigil this year just to honor all the victims and victims that came before that as well.
Speaker 2:
And that's happening at the Koinonia Church this year.
Speaker 3:
Yes, the Koinonia Church and their Learning Auditorium.
Speaker 2:
Well, that's great For those people who may not be as familiar with the Victim Witness Program. Can you just a quick few minutes here just kind of share with us about the kind of programs that you offer?
Speaker 3:
Yeah, definitely we are advocates for victims of crime. We are located in the District Attorney's Office so we are part of that prosecution team. But basically we assist victims getting through the court process. We help them navigate that process. It is a very daunting process for somebody that is not familiar with the court system or the justice system. So we help them navigate that, help explain what's going on, let them know what all the court dates are, go to court with them, let them know what their rights are. Not everybody knows that a victim has rights as well. It's not just the defendant that has rights. So we let them know what those are. We help them through that process and we provide court support and resources that may be available to them.
Speaker 2:
Well, the community certainly appreciates all that your staff does for Kings County and you can find them on Facebook at Kings County District Attorney Victim Witness Program. And Shanna, the best of luck this week on all of your events.
Speaker 3:
Oh, thank you so much.
Speaker 2:
The Hanford Piranhas are registering swimmers for the upcoming season. This recreational swim team is for swimmers of all levels so long as they can swim across the pool in any stroke. Even dog paddle Practices start in early May at Hanford High School, with meets being held during the summer. At Sierra Pacific There'll be a parent meeting for those interested at the Sierra Pacific Cafeteria on April 25th at 5.30 pm. You can get more information or register on their website at hanfordpiranhascom. Here are some events coming up on our community calendar.
Speaker 2:
The California High Speed Rail Authority will be holding an open house from 5 to 7 pm this Tuesday at Hanford West High School. The open house will allow community members to learn more about the project and ask questions of staff. I had the pleasure of interviewing Tony Tinoco from the High Speed Rail Project on the October 15th episode of the Insider. Go back and take a listen. There's a lot of good information in that interview.
Speaker 2:
The Carnegie Museum of Kings County presents Kings County's Asian Experiences. The museum is located at 109 East 8th Street and is open each Friday, saturday and Sunday from 1 to 5 pm. Admission is $5 per person with a $10 family maximum. For more information you can visit their website at carne. Hanford Chamber of Commerce. Taste of the Valley will be held at the Civic Center Park on Friday, april 26th. Visit hanfordchambercom for tickets and more information. The opening reception for the King's Arts Center Spring Show is April 26th from 530 to 730. Visit kingsartscenterorg for more information.
Speaker 2:
Kids Day will be held at the Longfield Center on Saturday, april 27th from 9 to 2. There will be games, food, prizes and fun for all. Help celebrate Child Abuse Awareness Month and bring resources to our community. On Sunday, april 28th, there will be a Mother's Day Vendor Fair at Hapar in the Carnegie Museum Garden from 11 to 4. The Hanford Branch of the Kings County Library will be holding their annual spring book sale on May 4th from 10 to 2. Items for sale include new and used books and music CDs. The Salvation Army is happy to announce that their basketball courts have now reopened and they are inviting kids ages 4 to 17 to come out to Youth Game Day on Saturday, may 4th at noon. There will be food and games for all. The Remington will be holding a Mother's Day Vendor Fair on Saturday, may 4th from 10 to 2. The event is open to the public.
Speaker 2:
For you car show enthusiasts, mark your calendars. Now for the Hanford West High School Bandbackers Cars on Campus Car Show on April 27th. The Glide Tidings Church at 10th and Green Drill will be holding a car show fundraiser on May 4th from 9 to 2. And the third annual Carnegie Museum of Kings County Downtown Hanford Car Show will be on June 8th. Registration is now open at carnegiecarshowcom. I'll be grabbing events as I see them on the Hanford Citadel calendar and social media pages. If you have an event coming up and you'd like some help getting the word out, let's work together. Send your information to hanfordinsider at gmailcom. Be sure to subscribe to my weekly newsletter to get a complete calendar of events Coming up. This week is the National Day of Prayer, on Thursday, may 2nd in the Civic Center Park, and I've invited Reverend Andrew Cromwell from the Koinonia Church to tell us a little bit about the event and why it's so important to the community and how you can get involved. Welcome to the show, andrew.
Speaker 4:
Thanks, so much. Thanks for the opportunity to talk about National Day of Prayer.
Speaker 2:
So, andrew, I know this event's going to look a little bit different this year with the remodeling that's taking place in the Civic Auditorium, so you've moved it outside. Can you tell us a little bit about this year's event?
Speaker 4:
100%. You know, national Day of Prayer is a nationwide event and it has been for a very long time, for decades. Locally for us in Kings County, it has historically always happened in the Civic Center, of course, as a luncheon that for about 20 years was spearheaded by just a great lady in the community, a Christian woman, janice Rogers. And this year, because the Civic is closed and actually we were planning on doing this even before we confirmed that the Civic was not going to be available to us, we felt like we wanted to shift to a little bit more of a public place that would be outside in the park in the city center, and we wanted to focus on removing the lunch piece of it, not because it was terrible, just because we wanted to lower barriers for people being involved from the community and it just seemed like it's a little bit easier for people just to be a part, even for a few minutes, of the hour prayer. And so this year what we're doing is we're meeting at noon for about an hour for a time of worship and prayer in the Civic Park.
Speaker 4:
In the Hanford Civic, if you're familiar with it, we're meeting just right behind the old courthouse. There's a stage there. We'll set up some chairs, but we're encouraging people to bring lawn chairs if they're concerned that they might need a place to sit. If we run out of chairs and everyone's invited to be a part, we will have kind of an agenda. We'll do some worship I've got a combined worship team from a couple of different churches that are going to be leading us in worship and then we're just going to spend some time in prayer and we'll have prayer over different themes and some of that will be guided. Some of that will be individual, but overall, what we're seeking to do is to bring as many people from our community of faith together simply to seek the Lord for about an hour in a public place and do it in a way that is attractive to our community and a blessing to our community.
Speaker 2:
So can you tell us a little bit about the King's Christian Leaders Network and how the pastors of the local community band together?
Speaker 4:
Yeah, christian Leaders Network is the current version of what used to be known as the Ministerial Fellowship of Hanford, lemoore, kings County, whatever it was and that group met together regularly and, as you know, as is just kind of typically happens in seasons, that season closed some years ago and for probably five plus years we didn't have an official gathering, a regular gathering of pastors within the community. And then some years ago, I had to go back in my records and see I don't know if it was maybe 2017, 2018, one of the leaders at Adventist Health, the hospital here in town, bucky Weeks he started to sort of finger me a little bit. He said, hey, you need to gather these guys back together, guys and gals within the community, pastors and ministry leaders, because this is really an important group and that had been on my heart for a while. I know it's something that I think is important for pastors to know that they're not alone, and it's also important for pastors to gather together as a group within a community to pray for the community, to understand what God is doing and to remember that we're not islands to ourselves and we're not in competition with one another. And so that resulted in sort of the rebirth of the current version of the Minister's Fellowship, known as the Christian Leaders Network now, and so we've invited all the pastors within Kings County. The majority of those that come right now regularly are hampered a little more because of the outlying areas. It takes a little bit more of a challenge for them to be a part of it.
Speaker 4:
We meet for lunch on the fourth Thursday of the month from 1130 to 1. Pastors, as well as really any Christian ministry leaders, and so the door is open to all those who are Jesus-centered and who have this understanding that we're working together for the good of the community. We meet together for the purpose of encouragement, encouraging one another. I think pastors need to be encouraged. Everyone, of course, always needs to be encouraged, but certainly pastors do, and they have some specific needs, right, and so it's great to be in the room with a group of people who understand that you know they're loved and they're supported uh by others who are also in the ministry.
Speaker 4:
So we we meet and we talk about the needs of the community. We pray for the needs of the community. We often hear from community leaders. We'll uh each month have a theme or uh someone we'll invite from the community, for example, this next time we'll meet we'll have Stephanie Huddleston, the new chief of police of Hanford, who will come and just talk to us about her new position. What's on her heart for the city gives us a chance to hear her heart, ask her questions and then, ultimately and most importantly, to pray for her and to bless her.
Speaker 4:
So the CLN, as we call it, the Christian Leaders Network has been just a great monthly gathering of pastors and Christian leaders that every time I'm in that meeting it makes me feel like okay, we're in this together. God has a plan for this community. He wants to bless Kings County. Okay, we're in this together. God has a plan for this community. He wants to bless Kings County and I get to be a part of a group that we're all working together. Even though we're doing that in different places and different congregations, we're on the same page and we're believing that God has great things in store for this county.
Speaker 2:
So the National Day of Prayer is Thursday, may 2nd in the Civic Center Park from 12 to 1. You're invited to come on down and enjoy some fellowship with other community leaders, and this is sponsored by the King's Christian Leaders Network. And how can they find out more information about the event? I believe there's a website and I know there's a Facebook event page, but do you have any particular leads for people who might want to get involved?
Speaker 4:
Yeah, I mean, we do have a website, kingscountyprayercom, where you can certainly get more information and you can shoot us an email if you'd like to be a part of the event. You don't have to sign up, you just show up simply on that day. We don't have a massive amount of needs in our need just to pray for the community. We have a massive amount of needs in our need just to pray for the community. If someone did want to volunteer or donate to help us with some of the costs involved, they can do that. They can go to the website and reach out. That's also a place where you can get flyers and you can get a video. We're asking all the churches within the community to play that video and to share that flyer. Certainly anybody can do that, just to get the word out, because we'd like to see every church represented, we'd like to see every group represented within the county that day.
Speaker 2:
Well, that's wonderful, andrew. Thank you for coming on the show and thank you to all the pastors in Hanford, lamora, kings County area for making this a possibility for us. Thanks so much.
Speaker 3:
And now it's time for Hanford Insider Sports with Eric Bentley.
Speaker 1:
In baseball action, hanford High continued their solid 2024 season, splitting a pair of games last week. Solid 2024 season splitting a pair of games. Last week it was an 8-4 loss on the road at Tulare Union before bouncing back at home and taking Tulare Union down 3-2. The Bullpups sit at 6-3 in the WYL, 12-9 overall. In similar fashion, sierra Pacific also split their two games, with Washington Union falling 4-1 on the road before taking a 6-5 victory at home.
Speaker 1:
The Golden Bears stay at .500 in league play witha 4-4 record, 14-8 on the season, and Hanford West wasn't able to secure a victory in their two games against Emanuel, falling 14-2 on the road and 4-2 at home. The Huskies are 2-6 in league play and 7-14 overall. As for softball, only one team was able to pick up a victory, as Hanford West was victorious with a non-league win, taking down Exeter 8-2. Unfortunately, the Huskies dropped their other game of the week to Selma, 9-6. They remain at .500 on the year, at 10-10-1 overall, but are still looking to secure their first league win. Hanford High went winless in their two games on the road, falling to Tulare Western and Mission Oak, and Sierra Pacific dropped their two contests, falling in a one-run game against Readley before being bested by Selma. As always, we want to hear from you, so please send any scores, stats or stories to hanfordinsider at gmailcom.
Speaker 2:
I'm Eric Bentley and this has been your Hanford Insider Sports Report. I also need your help by getting the word out about the show, by liking and sharing on social media or just telling a friend For more information about the show. You can find this podcast on Facebook, instagram, threads X and YouTube at Hanford Insider. If you have a show idea, be sure to email me at hanfordinsider at gmailcom and I'll get going on it. I'm looking forward to meeting many of you at the Thursday Night Marketplace on May 2nd in downtown Hanford. Thanks for listening. Have a great week.
Speaker 2:
No-transcript your inbox each week. You can also send me feedback by voicemail through my website by clicking on the microphone icon. I'd love to hear from you. Your comments may even be shared on the show. I also need your help getting the word out about the show by liking and sharing on social media or telling a friend For more information about the show. You can find this podcast on Facebook, instagram, threads X and YouTube at Hanford Insider. If you have a show idea, be sure to email me at hanfordinsider at gmailcom and I'll get going on it. Thanks for listening. Have a great week.