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Lansing VFW Auxiliary #5981 is holding a Soup & Sandwich Supper to honor Vietnam Veterans and their surviving spouses Thursday, March 30 from 3-7 p.m. at Immaculate Conception Church Hall, located at 648 Main Street, Lansing. A special ceremony to commemorate National Vietnam Veterans Day, which is March 29, and to honor the Veterans and surviving spouses of Vietnam Veterans, will begin at 5 p.m.

Featured in that honoring will be Lansing’s own Don Peters, the one surviving brother of five brothers in the Clem and Helen Peters family who served as Marines in Vietnam. All Veterans are invited to attend.
 

Island restoration continues on the McGregor Lake Habitat Rehabilitation and Enhancement Project located in Pool 10 between Marquette and Prairie du Chien, WI. Stage two of this project will be completed by Newt Marine Service of Dubuque and is approximately a $12.8 million project located within the Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge, McGregor District.

Construction for this stage is scheduled to be completed in 2025. The project is funded through the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) Upper Mississippi River Restoration Program and was planned and designed cooperatively with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Geological Survey, and Iowa and Wisconsin Departments of Natural Resources.

The Friends of the Refuge Headwaters (FORH) group is encouraging all amateur photographers to get outside and capture the beauty of the Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge (Refuge) for a Centennial photo contest.

The Refuge, which was established in 1924 through the efforts of Will Dilg, founder of the Izaak Walton League of America, includes much of the lands and waters of the Mississippi River from Wabasha, MN to Rock Island, IL. Photos taken on the Refuge will be accepted for entry into the contest until October 27 of this year. Winning entries will become part of a traveling display at events being held up and down the Mississippi River in 2024.

Photographers may enter a total of three photos in the following categories; Scenic Views of the Refuge, Wildlife and Plants of the Refuge, and Connecting People with Nature on the Refuge. There is a fourth category, Young Nature Photographers, for youth ages 16 and under.

The Kee girls and boys track teams got their competition season underway indoors at the annual Upper Iowa Conference (UIC) Indoor Meet held Friday, March 17 at Luther College in Decorah. No team scores were kept at this inaugural competition of the season, but the Hawk girls and boys each brought home event victories among their UIC peers, the Lady Hawks claiming three gold medals and the Hawks one as well.

Both Kee teams are next scheduled to start their outdoor season at the Tuesday, March 28 Sumner-Fredericksburg Invitational. The Hawk boys will then compete in the Waukon Early Bird Invitational March 30 and the Hawk girls will take part in the North Fayette Valley Invitational March 31 before both teams return to the track April 4.

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A total of 10 letterwinners return for the Waukon boys track team for its 2023 season, with those veteran returnees coming from all grade eligible grade levels to help headline this spring’s squad of 59 young men reporting for early-season duty. The experience that a trio those veterans brings back with them comes at the ultimate level of competition, the State Track Meet at Drake Stadium in Des Moines.

Four of those returning veterans come from this year’s senior class, including those three State Meet competitors. Nathan O’Neill brings two consecutive years of competing in that season grand finale in individual distance races, and he also joined fellow seniors Nate Keenan and Josh Keenan in competing in the 4x800 at last spring’s State Meet as well. James VanderVelden rounds out that list of senior returning letterwinners.

The 2023 Waukon girls track team will benefit from having more than half of this season’s squad of 26 young ladies reporting for early-season duty returning with letterwinning experience. Furthering that benefit is the fact that 10 of this spring’s returning letterwinners bring back with them at least one year of State Meet experience, and in most all of those cases multiple years of competing at that ultimate level of competition.

All five of this year’s senior competitors bring back letterwinning experience, including Maggie Criswell, Paige Hansmeier, Jayden Knox and Katerina Kovarik as two-year State Meet participants and Bailey Sherman competing in that season grand finale last spring. “I look for the seniors to be the leaders on the team,” Waukon girls track coach Bob Wasson said. “All five of the seniors have run at the State Track Meet, so they know the work that needs to be done to reach that goal.”

Colon cancer can be easily prevented, yet it remains the second leading cause of cancer deaths in the United States. Colon cancer screening tests identify suspicious or pre-cancerous polyps, which can be removed before they develop into a serious health problem.  

There are four main testing options for detecting colon cancer: fecal occult blood test, flexible sigmoidoscopy, barium enema and colonoscopy. Colonoscopies, a very thorough colon cancer test, are performed routinely in the Veterans Memorial Hospital surgical suite with this equipment, and typically take just three hours from start to finish.

Both men and women are at risk for colon cancer.  Personal risk varies, so a patient’s local medical practitioner can help them make informed decisions about when to begin testing and the most appropriate testing method for them.

Pulsara is the new communication system being used by the Veterans Memorial Hospital (VMH) Ambulance staff for fast, quality patient condition updates.   Pulsara allows the Emergency Medical Services (EMS) staff to alert the hospital staff as to the cares needed by the emergency patient so they can best prepare for their arrival at the hospital.

The Pulsara system is a secure, two-way form of communication that can share real-time updates through video, sound recordings, messaging and pictures. The system calls staff in more quickly for the tests they may need at night, such as X-ray, Anesthesia, Lab, etc., all through the use of a cell phone or iPad.  Pulsara is a free, HIPAA-compliant communication platform that bypasses the user’s internal phone memory to ensure the security of all data transferred through the app-based program.

by Jill Fleming, RD/LD, and Brandy Strub, RD/LD, VMH Dietitians

Each year, the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics celebrates the month of March as National Nutrition Month. The focus of this campaign is to help you make informed food choices and encourage healthy lifestyle habits. Ideally, you will be reducing your risk of chronic disease and enjoying optimal health.

Since there are so many different diets being talked about in the media, knowing which one is the best can be confusing. Should you avoid all carbohydrates?  Do you need to count calories?  Should you eat six small meals daily or eat only once per day?

How much blood is needed by certain patients? Here are some facts from the LifeServe Blood Center.

• Cancer patients can use up to 8 units of blood a month.
• Bone Marrow Transplant patients can use up to 2 units a day.
• Cardiovascular Surgery patients can use between 2-25 units.
• Liver Transplant patients can use up to 100 units.
• Auto/Trauma Accident patients can use up 5-100 units.
• Premature infants can use up to 1-4 units.
• Burn victims can use up to 20 units of platelets.
• Heart surgery patients can use up to 3-8 units of red cells and 1-10 units of platelets.
• Organ transplant patients can use 10-30 units of blood.

The next LifeServe Blood Center blood drive will be held Monday, April 3 from 12-5 p.m. The blood drive will be held at the First Baptist Church in south Waukon.