A date for ‘The War’Ben Vander Kooi sent out an e-mail last week to fellow BMAT board members to let them know he had received a phone call from the New York firm handling the publicity for the Ken Burns PBS television miniseries which was filmed in Luverne last summer.The coordinator making the arrangement requested we reserve the Palace Theatre for the evening of Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2007, for the Midwest premier of the film.That was good news, but the best news was yet to come.Not only is Ken Burns himself planning on attending the showing, his fellow co-producer, Tom Hanks, would like to attend also.The multi-academy-award winner and most recently the star of "The Da Vinci Code," along with his co-producing role in "The War," will also be the voice of Al Macintosh, former publisher of the Rock County Star Herald, whose columns about the war are used in the film.To refresh your memory, Luverne is one of four cities and small towns highlighted in the film. The other three are Sacramento, Calif., Waterbury, Conn., and Mobile, Ala.Final plans come together for Relay for LifeThe 2006 Relay for Life will take place in the Luverne City Park on June 16. The event will again host 19 teams, the same number as last year.According to Glenda Schomacker, a couple of teams that had been around for a few years dropped out this year, but there was an equal number of new teams that want to start a tradition.One thing they are still looking for is some entertainment. If you would like to lend your particular talents to the evening, contact either Glenda Schomacker or Vivian Holst.This is the sixth year for the annual event.Last year the organization raised more than $77,000.LHS seniors share plans for futureFor Luverne grads who shared their future plans, SDSU seems to be the most popular choice for post-secondary education.Eleven members of the LHS class of ’06 plan to attend the Brookings school.According to the most recent issue of the Luverne High School newspaper, The Echo, other popular choices include Southeast Tech with seven, North Dakota State University with six, SMSU (Marshall) at four and the University of Minnesota Twin Cities Campus with four.Other schools with one or two students attending include Augustana, Bemidji State University, Bethel, College of Saint Catherine, Concordia Moorhead, Concordia (Seward, Neb.), Knox College, Le Cordon Bleu, Minnesota West Pipestone, Minnesota West Worthington, Northwestern, North Hennepin Community College, Presentation College, Ridgewater Tech, School of Mines and Technology, St. Cloud State, St. Mary’s (Winona), St. Olaf, Stewart’s and University of Sioux Falls.One plans to attend a University in Mexico, two are undecided, three plan military options and one plans to go straight into the work force.Of the 85 LHS graduates, 65 responded to the survey.