Dondi Ray Mudd Jr. is known as Junior among friends and family. He put the winning bid in on the June Mascot Monkey of the Month in the silent auction at Henson’s Store in downtown Champion.
This pleasant young man had his 8th birthday on Feb. 20 and he will be in the third grade in Mountain Grove this fall. His favorite subject is math and he is thinking about studying law enforcement when he goes to college.
His brother, Tristan, who will be getting married to Jessica Crouch at the end of the month, is in college in Columbia at ‘Mizzou,’ and his dad, Sr., just graduated from OTC in May, so he has good precedents for accomplishing whatever he pursues in the future. He is looking forward to school starting, but has very much been enjoying the summer—swimming and spending time with his cousins.
He recently attended the wedding of his cousin, Sarah Coon, to Anthony Sanchez in Greeley, Colo., after which he traveled with his parents, 16-year-old brother Zachary, and Grandmother Paula, to Yellowstone National Park. He particularly enjoyed seeing Old Faithful and the Morning Glory Pool, which is a deep hot spring.
He reported having seen bison, antelope, elk, and at least one grizzly bear. He was very impressed by being on Big Horn Mountain at 9,482 feet and he found Mount Rushmore to be very interesting. He and his many local cousins are looking forward to all the picnics this summer, particularly the Skyline VFD picnic that will be held Aug. 13 and 14.
All the proceeds from the monthly monkey silent auctions go toward helping the Skyline Volunteer Fire Department make the payment on its big new (used) fire truck. Look for more pictures of Jr. Mudd and his prize monkey on-line at www.championnews.us. The July monkey will soon make its debut there and then will be on display at Henson’s Store on the West Side of the Square in Champion. It promises to be a very patriotic monkey, representing July as it does.
