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Our Community;
Our Celebrations
4/10/08
Eric Torgerson, a senior at Blackfoot High School, has announced his intention to attend Dordt College and join the Defender football and baseball programs
Ike finely turns 20 after 80 years
Chris Abend inducted into Hall of Fame
Chris Abend is following in the footsteps of his father, Hal, founder of a business that started as Idaho Potato Packers and became Nonpareil Inc., one of the largest employers in Bingham County.
As CEO he has taken a business that had good roots, and with a good understanding of the changing potato market, knew what he had to do to keep it a leader in the industry.
Abend said he was included in his family’s business deals from a very young age, and jokes that he has to keep the company growing or be unemployed. “Nonpareil is all I know,” he said.
With farming operations in Blackfoot, the Fort Hall Indian Reservation, Mountain Home and Nebraska, the company grows the potatoes needed for its fresh pack shed and processing plant at Blackfoot.
Their dehydrated products are marketed through major companies, and they’re now working on a private label.
His ability to put himself in the consumer’s shoes has Abend constantly exploring new ideas — like bags of potatoes bearing photos of the official Nascar race cars being sold in towns where the races are held.
Or partnering with a company in the United Kingdom to supply Nonpareil potatoes in stores that will carry only fresh foods.
When Chris joins his father in the Potato Museum Hall of Fame, he will do so as the CEO leading a 50-year-old company into the future.
Ike Ikard turns 20
Happy 20th Birthday?
Tuesday, 19 February 2008
By: Richard Toynton
BLACKFOOT — "Leapling" Ike Ikard, who was born in 1928, said, "I am just turning 20 on the 29th. I suppose that's a bit unusual for a 55-year member of the Local 648 plumbers and pipe fitters union in Pocatello and 49-year member of the Grove City Masonic Lodge."
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MORNING NEWS — RICHARD TOYNTON
“Leapling” Ike Ikard, almost 20 years old according to the Gregorian calendar, holds up a photograph of himself when he was 11 years old in the Grove City Masonic Lodge #33. Although he has lived through almost 80 winters, he will celebrate his 20th calendar birthday Feb. 29 at the Shilling House from 7 to 9 p.m. with friends, refreshments and a cake displaying “Happy 20th Birthday.”
Ikard was born on Feb. 29 during a leap year, which only occurs every four years, except for years that are exactly divisible by 100. However, the centurial years that are exactly divisible by 400 are still leap years. For example, the year 1900 is not a leap year, but the year 2000 is.
Leap years exist to keep the calendar year synchronized with the astronomical year because the length of time that the sun, as seen from the Earth, takes to to return to the same path among the stars is almost six hours longer than 365 days.
He said he wasn't able to celebrate a calendar birthday until he was alive for 16 years. "I couldn't remember my first because I was 4. My sister had the mumps when I turned 8. I had chicken pox when I was 12."
In spite of not being able to celebrate as many birthdays that fall on the calendar as most people, he said that when he got a little older he often celebrated his birthday on the days surrounding the elusive date of Feb. 29. Celebrations occurred on Feb. 28, March 1 and sometimes March 2, also.
"After becoming so old, having a birthday only every four years is real nice," he said. "It got to be a problem because my wife has a birthday every year," he said, laughing.
He married Dot, his wife, 57 years ago in Oklahoma, and has one son, Mike. "He caught the old car bug from me," Ikard said about his and his son's shared passion for restoring old cars.
Ikard said he doesn't know exactly how many cars he has, but he knows that he has 31 in his new 60 feet by 100 feet shop. He said he'll finish restoring a 1956 Lincoln Continental Mark II some time in May, just in time for a family reunion.
After his move from Oklahoma, Ikard got a job in 1955 with a contractor at the INL desert Site as a pipe fitter and welder. "It was one of the most miserable jobs I ever had," he said, adding that he tried to pack up and leave Idaho, but his wife talked him out of it. "I sure am glad she did. I've met a lot of real good friends."
The 1950s economy did allow him to leave his miserable job, and he said he finally found great happiness in his industry. "In the '50s it was just one job after another." He retired from the welding and pipe fitting industry in 1990.
Everyone will get two chances to meet Ikard and find out what it's like to be born on the day that's infrequently on the calendar. He's having a small public birthday party from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Shilling House at 81 N. Shilling Ave. where cake and light refreshments will be served, and he'll be enjoying the all-your-can-eat Grove City Masonic Lodge #33 Scholarship Breakfast event from 8 to 11 a.m. Saturday at 7 NW Main St.
Ikard said gifts aren't necessary at his party and attendance is all that's required.
The masons host the Scholarship Breakfast every other month and put profits made from tickets into a scholarship fund. Pancakes, biscuits and gravy, sausage and eggs will be served.
Lodge member Larry Christian said the scholarship amount has increased by $100 since the last breakfast because of great event attendance. Two $500 scholarships are available, and may be applied for by Blackfoot and Snake River high school students. Christian said the scholarships are made available to those who wouldn't normally be able to receive scholarships, and the schools' counselors have the applications.
Tickets to the breakfast are $5 per person and $15 per family. Advance tickets are available by calling Christian at 680-5005.
Last Updated ( Wednesday, 20 February 2008 )
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