Andy Brosig/News-Sun More than a year in the making, the Blakely family of Hobbs is winging their way toward the Walt Disney World Resorts in Florida to give 13-year-old Rylee her first experience of the beach, courtesy Make-A-Wish New Mexico and Crosswinds Community Church. Rylee, a special-needs student at Houston Middle School, in Hobbs, lives with what her family described …

Andy Brosig/News-Sun Mohammad Moghaddam has been exceeding expectations since his first day of kindergarten. When his parents enrolled him in Hobbs Municipal Schools, teachers questioned his English proficiency, in part because he’s shy and wasn’t a big talker. He was placed in a special program to learn English, but when he came home that first day, he was upset. “We …