Go back in time with us with this classic press release - meet Robert "Mitch" Rice

Cancer survivor is back at work with a little help from his friends

Rice in the driver's seat of the rock moving equipment.

SKIATOOK ─ Robert Rice, known as “Mitch” to friends, was not worried when he went to the hospital in Feb. 2006 for throat surgery to treat a common type of squamous cell cancer.

“Mitch figured he’d be off work a couple of days and get right back to it,” according to Connie Ketcham, Mitch’s sweetheart of16 years, “but that’s when things began to really go wrong.”

Rice had a severe allergic reaction to Heparin, an injectable anticoagulant prescribed before surgery to dissolve an arterial clot. As a result, doctors and nurses at OU Medical Center in Oklahoma City worked around the clock to treat him for a series of medical emergencies. In addition to the laryngectomy surgery to remove his voice box, Rice had a heart attack, suspected stroke, kidney failure, impaired circulation and lapsed into a nine-day coma.

Go back in time with us with this classic press release - meet Bud Averyt

Visual problem can’t stop Chelsea gun repair businessman

CHELSEA, OKLA. – Albert Averyt, known as Bud, couldn’t afford a hunting rifle, so at age 17, he bought and converted a military rifle.

“The first thing I did was cut off the stock, cut off the barrel and crowned it,” Averyt said, smiling a little as he remembered the process. “I had to bend the bolt handle because I added a scope, contoured the receiver, and drilled and tapped holes for the scope mount.”

And so a gunsmith was born thanks to “a little common sense and a lot of reading.”

Thirty-eight years later, Averyt is still doing everything from rebarreling a rifle to building custom guns.

DRS offers free summer training for young jobseekers with disabilities

OKLAHOMA CITY – Career planning and on-the-job training will continue for Oklahoma students with disabilities when school ends, thanks to Transition School to Work.

Students from across the state are signing up for innovative job training programs offered free of charge by Vocational Rehabilitation and Visual services.

VR and VS are divisions of the Oklahoma Department of Rehabilitation Services.

OSD to graduate eight on May 22

SULPHUR – Eight seniors from Oklahoma School for the Deaf will graduate in a commencement ceremony set for 1 p.m. Wednesday, May 22, in the OSD gym, at 1100 East Oklahoma Street in Sulphur.

The OSD 2019 graduating class valedictorian was Ezra Hart and the salutatorian was Haden Denney.

The class includes Denney of Midwest City, Dylan Dickson of Shawnee, Dylan Evans of Sulphur, Hart of Ada, Braiden Hilton of Keota, Brandyn Mieritz of McAlester, Miracle Pearson of Midwest City and Rosalinda Reyes of Oklahoma City.

Three School for the Blind students will compete in national Braille Challenge®

MUSKOGEE, Okla. – Three Oklahoma School for the Blind champions will represent the state in the national Braille Challenge® competition in Los Angeles this summer.

The finalists are: Katelynn Zampella, Richelle Zampella, both from Muskogee, and Hunter Kelley from Claremore.

The OSB students were selected based on their scores in the Oklahoma Regional Braille Challenge® held at OSB in March. Braille students in grades one through 12 participated at the regional level.

Oklahoma Department of Rehabilitation Services