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Madalyn Palmer (center in photo above), daughter of Eric and Stephanie Palmer of Waukon, was crowned the 2021 Allamakee County Dairy Princess at the annual Allamakee County Dairy Banquet held Saturday, June 12 at the Allamakee County Fairgrounds Pavilion in Waukon. Also honored at Saturday’s banquet as 2021 Alternate Dairy Princesses were Cheyanne Troendle (left in photo above), daughter of Darrell and Amy Troendle of Waterville, and Carly Palmer (right in photo above), daughter of Glen and Holly Palmer of Harpers Ferry. Additional photos of award winners and other recognition from the 2021 Allamakee County Dairy Banquet will appear in The Standard’s Beef & Dairy special publication scheduled to be inserted in the June 23 edition of The Standard. Photo by Paula Enyart.

An eastern Iowa woman who bought a Mega Millions® ticket while on a weekend getaway to her cabin along the Mississippi River has won a $1 million prize.

“I saw a ‘1’ with some zeroes,” Karen Kramer of Urbana said as she claimed her prize Thursday at Iowa Lottery headquarters in Clive. “I didn’t think about how many I saw at first, then it hit me.”

Convinced that the information on the lottery’s mobile app was wrong, she checked her ticket again - and again.

“I rechecked everything because I thought, ‘Well, my phone’s wrong.’ And it came up again the same,” said Kramer, 60, who works as a para-educator in her local school district. “So I went on the website, then I went and checked on Facebook and it said that the winning ticket had been won at Barry’s. And I’m going, ‘OK, that’s me!’”

The Allamakee County Dairy Days Parade is being held this Friday, June 18 in Postville in conjunction with the community’s Hometown Celebration Parade and in honor of the 100th year of the Big Four Fair. The parade will begin at 7 p.m. and will run from Lull’s Park to the Big Four Fairgrounds. For entry and other parade information, contact Postville City Hall at 563-864-7454.

The Allamakee County Fair Board is seeking applicants for the 2021 Allamakee County Fair Queen contest, with this year’s Fair running July 21-25.

The contest will run similarly to that of the Iowa State Fair Queen Contest. Contestants will undergo a formal interview, as well as a group interview. Judging will be based on personality, attitude, appearance, awareness, charm, poise, leadership, citizenship and overall appearance.

Coronation of the 2021 Allamakee County Fair Queen will be held on the fairgrounds during the Fair. During this event, the contestants will be asked to share a favorite Fair memory. All candidates will be a part of the 2021 Fair Royalty Team which will preside and assist at different events and activities throughout the Fair and community events during the year.

The World Health Organization estimates that 120 million people are visually impaired because of uncorrected refraction errors (far or near sightedness). Refractive errors can easily be diagnosed, measured and corrected with eyeglasses. Yet, millions of people lack the access to these basic services.

While each Lions Club has its own service focus, there are five global Lions causes of particular interest around the world: Vision, Diabetes, Hunger, Environment and Childhood Cancer). Vision causes began in 1925 when Helen Keller challenged the Lions to be “knights of the blind”.

The Waukon Lions Club has recently enhanced its efforts to recycle used eyeglasses and hearing aids. New collection boxes (see accompanying photo) have been placed in area businesses. The glasses will be gathered and sent to a regional recycling center where they are cleaned and sorted by prescription strength. They are then packaged and stored for the next eyeglass-dispensing mission trip.

Each year the Waukon Middle School staff acknowledges a boy and girl from the sixth, seventh and eighth grades for the Middle School Citizenship Award. These students demonstrate positive attitude, academic excellence, exemplary character, school spirit and community involvement. This year’s recipients are pictured above according to grade level. From front to back, left to right, are sixth graders Reegan Benzing and Vaughn Stegen, seventh graders Avalea Burns and Connor Stilwelll, and eighth graders Mari Delaney and Graine Curtin. Submitted photo.
 

Over the past year, many essential workers in the northeast Iowa region have made sacrifices to serve and care for their communities. Northeast Iowa Community College (NICC) has created a new “Moving Forward” Speaker Series, supported by federal CARES Act dollars, that provides local professionals with an opportunity to learn from nationally recognized experts from five presentations.

Remaining speakers include Brandon Marshall, Glennon Doyle, Abby Wambach and more. Their presentations provide insights in how to rise above the long-term effects of the pandemic, overcome stress and thrive. Learn more and register for the series at https://www.nicc.edu/business-community/.

The “Moving Forward” Speaker Series remaining schedule includes the following:

Robey Memorial Library in Waukon invites teenagers in grades seventh through 12th to participate in its Summer Book Club in July and August.

July’s book selection is “Marcus Vega doesn’t speak Spanish” by Pablo Cartaya. Teenagers are invited to join Robey Memorial Library Wednesdays, July 7 and July 21 from 10:30-11:30 a.m. for snacks and discussion of that book. Those who register for July book club by June 17 will receive a free copy of the book to keep, donated by the Robey Memorial Library Foundation.

August’s book club will meet Wednesdays, August 4 and 18 from 10:30-11:30 a.m. and discuss “The inheritance games” by Jennifer Lynn Barnes. Those who register for August book club by July 15 will receive a free copy of the book to keep, donated by the Robey Memorial Library Foundation.
 

Kerndt Brothers Bank in Lansing has announced a unique partnership with the Humane Society of Northeast Iowa. The project is titled “Adopt Where You Bank” and furthers the work spearheaded by the Humane Society of Northeast Iowa (HSNEI), a 501(c)(3) no-kill humane society founded in 1995 in Decorah.

With branches in or near the five counties HSNEI serves (Allamakee, Clayton, Fayette, Howard and Winneshiek counties), a partnership between the bank and the humane society seemed like destiny. The first “Adopt Where You Bank” adoption day will take place from 2-4:30 p.m. Friday, July 9 at the Kerndt Brothers Bank office located at 820 Eleventh Avenue SW in Waukon and rotate from branch to branch going forward.

With a goal of increasing the exposure of animals in need to as many potential adoptive families as possible, “Adopt Where You Bank” is sure to make a Friday trip to the bank a bit more interesting.

Final week to nominate local business or individual

The Waukon Chamber of Commerce continues to seek nominations from community residents for awards to be distributed at the August 19 Waukon Corn Days celebration. Those awards include Business of the Year and Person of the Year honors within the Waukon community, and the nomination deadline for those applications has been extended to Tuesday, June 22, when they will be due to the Waukon Chamber of Commerce office.

The Chamber will bestow those honors upon the best nominated candidate fitting the following award criteria: