KINGSFORD - How would you feel if your loved one was away for almost a year?
How would you feel if they were in harm's way in Afghanistan?
Now think of how you would feel to have them home safe, once again.
That was the scene in the Upper Peninsula Thursday.
"You cry because you're just so overwhelmed with emotion," says Marissa Hebert, the wife of PFC Peter Hebert.
Their tour of duty in Afghanistan sent them away for almost a year.
But the nearly 90 Guardsmen in the 1432nd Engineering Company came home to something overwhelming Thursday afternoon in Kingsford.
"The level of pride this city shows its service members is overwhelming," says PFC Hebert.
SPC Bobby Richards grew up in Wisconsin's Northwoods.
His mother, Missy, lives in Mercer.
It's the second son she's had come back from service in Afghanistan.
"Glad to have him home. And safe," Missy says.
"It's emotional. It's worth it. It's fun. Glad to see everybody came out," says SPC Richards. From those that kissed...to those that cried...to the ones that just needed a hug...putting words to this homecoming was a tough task.
"You're excited, you just thank God that he's home and in one piece," says Marissa Hebert.
WAUSAU - Students at Northcentral Technical College in Wausau got to see Tibetan monks create a work of art steeped in Buddhist history.
The Mandala Sand Art is an ancient Tantric Buddhist tradition dating back thousands of years.
The Tibetan Monks from the Drepung Loseling Monastery are on an international tour called Mystical Arts of Tibet where they create mandalas in front of an audience.
"The colored patterns we are using, we are following the scriptures, the Buddhist scriptures. It's a very old tradition, more than 2,500 years ago," says Geshe Loden, head of the Mystical Arts of Tibet.
The monks' last visit to Northcentral Technical College in 2011 was so popular, they were invited back.
"At NTC we feel like it's important to offer our students a variety of different programming, and one of the things we feel our responsibility to do is expose our students to other cultures, other religions, other ideas," says Director of Student Development Shawn Sullivan.
The monks work hours at a time placing sand delicately in the lines of the intricate pattern.
The mandala will take them four days to complete, but the beautiful creation won't last long.
"After finishing this, making the mandala, we consecrate this completed mandala, and we dismantle it to symbolize the impermanence of all the conditioned things, all the phenomena," says Loden.
The monks' tour raises money for more than 3,000 monasteries in India. They also do it to raise awareness about the plight of Tibetans.
"Lord Buddha had started this, and that tradition keeps going on."
LAC DU FLAMBEAU - Ruby's pantry opened their doors Tuesday in Lac du Flambeau. This is the first time the Ruby's pantry has set up shop there. They decided to come to Lac du Flambeau because of the good turnout in Rhinelander. The food pantry asks that people give a $20 donation.
“It's not your typical food pantry,” says Gloria Cobb, Ruby's Pantry Lac du Flambeau Lead Coordinator. “This is an opportunity to give people dignity, to serve with dignity, and it's a donation base.”
“I mean look at the hustle and bustle going on we've got the community coming together not only Lac du Flambeau but the surrounding community coming together to meet a very basic need and that's to help with hunger,” says Cobb.
The pantry offered items like strawberries, cake mix, and toilet paper. More than 400 people were expected to show up.
“A participant will go through the line with a laundry basket and or box and they will be offered items,” says Cobb. “They can refuse them however we will encourage them to take the item because somebody else that they may know may have a need.”
“They get a certain amount of each item and they go through the line like an assembly line,” says Cobb.
The pantry had more than 21,000 pounds of food to give away.
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