Max Chen plays among the blue flags displayed on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, March 16, 2023. March is National Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month. Advocates planted 27,000 blue flags near the Washington Monument as a tribute to those lost to colon cancer. Chen and his family are from Dallas, Texas and were vacationing in the Washington, D.C. area during the time of this photo.
Rebecca Lutz (left) and Lucas Hjelm (right) share an intimate moment while rehearsing in the school halls before performing on stage at Nelson County High School's "Spring Variety Show" produced by the Cardinal Theater Association at the high school in Bardstown, Kentucky, on May 1, 2021. Lutz and Hjelm wore clear face shields as a form of protection from the Covid-19 virus.
Sunlight highlights one of the monks at the Abbey of Gesthsemani during Vespers on March 29, 2023 in New Haven, Kentucky. The monks observe the Liturgy of the Hours with seven hours of prayer, hymns, and psalms reciting each day: 3:15 a.m. Vigils, 5:45 a.m. Lauds, 6:15 a.m. Eucharist, 7:30 a.m. Terce, 12:15 p.m. Sext, 2:15 p.m. None, 5:30 p.m. Vespers, and 7:30 p.m. Compline. Approximately 40 Trappist monks live at the monastery where they have lived, prayed, and worked for over 170 years.
Jonas Fallon-Mokhiber, left, and Case Denooyer look for skipping stones Wednesday evening, June 21, 2023, in Chautauqua Lake behind the Miller Bell Tower in Chautauqua, NY. As week one of the Chautauqua Institution's season begins, life is brought back to the ground that has remained vacant during the winter.
A cowboy unfurls the American flag as the audience recites The Pledge of Allegiance at the Loan Star Rodeo Company’s 41st Championship at Western Kentucky University’s L.D. Brown Ag Expo Center in Bowling Green, Kentucky on Friday, Feb. 10, 2023. The rodeo acts consisted of steer wrestling, cowgirl breakaway roping, bull riding, and calf roping.
Annika Borg-Sundstorm, the red room teacher at the Chautauqua Institution’s Children’s School, left, assists 5-year-old Samuel Paille in his attempt to play the trombone after the Community Band concert celebrating Independence Day Tuesday afternoon, July 4, 2023, on Bestor Plaza in Chautauqua, NY. The Community Band concert is one of many traditions held at the Chautauqua Institution during the Fourth of July. Others include a parade and concert led by the Children’s School students, a pop orchestra performed by the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra, and a gathering to watch flairs light around the Chautauqua Lake.
Eighty-seven-year-old Mina Hedgespeth sports a wig to conceal her hair loss in Campbellsville, Kentucky, Friday, Feb. 20, 2022. Hedgespeth has rested her wigs on this scarred mannequin head each night for more than sixty years. Hedgespeth lost much of her hair as a child after battling Typhoid Fever and has never allowed anyone to photograph her without her hairpiece. Hedgespeth noted that she wears a wig to improve her appearance and self-esteem.
Amelia Wilkinson, 8, walks her dog, Barber, half Basset Hound and Australian Shepherd, in the rain Tuesday evening, June 27, 2023, on Wythe Avenue in Chautauqua, NY.
Nelson County native Kaleb Cecil performs an original song at the Country Jam Concert at the My Old Kentucky Home Amphitheater in Bardstown, Kentucky, on Friday, September 17, 2021. Cecil brought the summer amphitheater concert season to a close along with other Nelson County musicians, such as Andrew Newton, Dustin Collins, and Josh Mitcham.
Belinda Hartsell poses with her gear at the Boston Volunteer Fire Department in Boston, Kentucky on Friday, April 22, 2022. Hartsell, who also serves her community as a custodian at Boston School, was inspired to join the department where she is now out-ranked only by her father and two brothers after the terrorist attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001.
Making a last-minute phone call and finishing the last touches on her makeup at the back of the bus, Dillon Cook, from Alabama (left), and Victoria Corcino, from Florida (right), prepare for their day participating at the Student Reagan Leadership Summit at the Ronald Reagan Library in Simi Valley, California on Saturday morning, Feb. 4, 2023. Cook and Corcino are two of twenty-five college students from across the United States participating in the 2022-2023 Civic Leaders Fellowship Program hosted by the Ronald Reagan Institute.
A new Thomas Nelson High School graduate sheds a tear after the commencement ceremony at the school on Friday, May 27, 2022.
Quentin Huynh’s niece, a first grader at Boston Elementary School, wraps her fingers around his hand as he leads her around the school on May 23, 2022. Huynh visited Boston Elementary School to see former teachers before graduating from Thomas Nelson High School as a way to pay homage to his educational foundation played by the school. While visiting, Huynh pulled his niece out of class to walk the halls one last time.
Boy Scout Paul Ritacco III stands on his front porch surrounded by donated sporting equipment from Chautauqua Institution community members supporting his Eagle Scout project on Monday evening, Aug. 14, 2023, at his house on Center Avenue in Chautauqua, NY. Ritacco is collecting and donating sporting equipment to Ukrainian children and families forced to relocate due to the ongoing war. The idea originated when Ritacco and his father, Paul Ritacco II, visited Poland and Ukraine within the first month of the war and spent a week helping Ukrainian refugees on the border. When the time came for Paul to select his Eagle Scout project, he remembered his time in Ukraine and began the process of thinking of ways to support the displaced children. Ritacco stated, “All they can really bring with them is their clothes … maybe diapers for the baby.” Ritacco hopes to have collected over six extra large moving boxes by the end of the project. He continued, “I wanted to just try to bring some joy into the lives of these kids who should be having a normal childhood.”
A New Haven School student waves goodbye to the horses at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, Kentucky, on Thursday, July 21, 2022. The school field trip was part of a three-week summer camp program in which students from New Haven School explored the state of Kentucky.
Boys from Chautauqua Institution’s Boys’ Club play “Hunger Games” in the creek bed of the Ravine under Thunder Bridge Friday morning, July 28, 2023, in Chautauqua, NY. The game is an end-of-week celebration. If you get hit by a pool noodle - you’re out. If you get hit with a tennis ball, or as the kids called them, “grenades,” - you’re out. Alliances are formed and broken within the hour block of play. The only way to get back into the game once out is to make the counselors laugh with a joke.
Eleven-year-olds, Ricky Lafond, left, and William Rice jump in Chautauqua Lake to cool down and wash off the colored cornstarch after participating in the Boys’ and Girls’ Club’s annual Color Sprint at the Chautauqua Institution in Chautauqua, NY, Thursday afternoon, Aug. 3, 2023.
Kim Cochran (left) carries her younger son, Owen Cochran, as 4-year-old Carson Cochran (right) races to hunt Easter eggs at Corinth Baptist Church in Buffalo, Kentucky on Sunday, April 9, 2023. The church hosted its annual egg hunt in its 150-year-old cemetery after the conclusion of the Easter church service.
Travis Rife, driver of Black Widow, (left) and Thomas Kimmons, driver of Thrill Billy, (right) rest at the close of the No Limits Monster Trucks event held at Western Kentucky University’s AG Expo Center located in Bowling Green, Kentucky on Saturday, March 4, 2023. After performing two three-hour shows, the drivers loaded the equipment in preparation to return to their homes. Drivers from across the country participated in the event.
Members of the Ronald Reagan Civic Leaders Fellowship Program conclude the day’s events by taking a sunset stroll in Simi Valley, California on February 4, 2023. These four individuals were among twenty-five college students from across the United States who participated in a six-month leadership and professional development program designed to elevate student success in civic and professional life. Students are able to network with each other through a combination of hybrid and place-based learning at both the Reagan Library in California and the Reagan Institute in Washington, DC.