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Area first responders will compete for a good cause this Friday as they co-host the Battle of the Badges Blood Drive, to be held from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Pritchard Community Center in Elizabethtown.

“This year, Paul Davis has jumped on board to help co-sponsor the event,” said American Red Cross Account Manager Tammy Ritchie. “They will be there that day giving out some goodie bags. We have all kinds of things going on that day, Battle of the Badges t-shirts. Every donor that comes in will receive a $15 e-gift card and they’ll get to choose what place they’d like or what merchant.”

Battle of the Badges is a friendly competition between police, fire, and EMS. As you go in to register for the blood drive, you’ll vote for one of the three entities.

Ritchie says walk-ins will be accepted, but preregistering is easy.

“They can go online and sign up at RedCrossBlood.org,” Ritchie said. “They can put in the zip code, or they can put in BOBElizabethtown for Battle of the Badges Elizabethtown, and that will take you right to the schedule.”

Now is a good time to help the Red Cross stay prepared.

“We just really need the community support,” Ritchie said. “Summer will be here sooner than we think, and the need for blood always goes up during that time of year.”

Visit redcrossblood.org for more information.

Elizabethtown Independent School District Director of Communications Chuck Jones says it wasn’t looking like the district’s Summer Meals Program would be able to take place, but then the community stepped up.

“We put out a thing that we may not be able to do it,” Jones said. “We kept looking at ways, and we just had a ton of people step up to volunteer and give their time and help us out and allow us to do this.”

Jones also said EIS Food Services Director Marty Adams never gave up on the program.

“She worked tirelessly to make sure that this was possible and she never quit, and that’s a big reason why our summer program is going to go on,” Jones said.

The program is open to all EIS students and runs today through July 26.

“They can come to Morningside Elementary, 7 to 8 a.m. for breakfast, and 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. for lunch, and that’s Monday through Friday,” Jones said.

EIS will also be offering lunches at several mobile locations. Times and sites can be found on the Elizabethtown Independent School District Facebook page. Contact EIS for more information.

Three people are in custody and a dog is in a shelter after an incident in Grayson County.

John D. Absher of Bunker Hill, Indiana, Casey M. Lester of Tollesboro, and Richard W. May of Harold each face charges of first degree Possession of a Controlled Substance, and Absher and Lester had multiple warrants out for their arrests.

According to the Grayson County Sheriff’s Office, shortly after 8 a.m. on June 6 Sheriff Norman Chaffins responded to a report of two people sleeping in the backseat of a car that was parked in the middle of U.S. 62 in Clarkson in front of the beekeeping facility, with a dog in the front seat. The occupants were awakened by the dog barking as the sheriff approached. The two occupants, later identified as Absher and Lester, provided names or identification the sheriff’s office later determined to be false.

May then approached the vehicle with a gallon of gas, stating that the vehicle was in the middle of the road after it ran out of gas. The sheriff’s office says May then began vomiting in the roadway, at which time Absher collapsed due to a seizure. Lester told Chaffins she believed Absher had used opioids earlier that morning. Chaffins administered naloxone and Grayson County EMS transported Absher to Owensboro Health Twin Lakes Hospital. He was later transported to Norton’s Hospital in Louisville. A search of the vehicle revealed the presence of methamphetamine.

Lester and May were lodged in the Grayson County Detention Center. Absher was moved to the detention center from the hospital after he was medically cleared to be incarcerated. The dog was transported to the Grayson County Animal Shelter.