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VFW Auxiliary Gustave F. Kerndt #5981 has announced the VFW Auxiliary’s National Anthem Singing Contest, “Get Excited for the Red, White and Blue!” Local youth in Kindergarten through 12th grades can showcase their talent, display their patriotism and express their creativity while competing for their share of $2,000 in national awards.

Contestants must submit a recorded live unedited video of their solo vocal performance of “The Star-Spangled Banner.” The video must be recorded between July 1, 2023 and March 31, 2024. The student shall state name, age and grade level prior to the vocal performance. The student may sing acapella, with backing tracks or instruments, and in the arrangement and genre of their choice.

The Waukon boys basketball team played its way to a season record of 7-15 during this past winter’s campaign, including a 4-6 mark in Northeast Iowa Conference (NEIC) play that placed the bucket Tribe in fourth place in the final NEIC standings. The season started with a pair of those wins over the two NEIC teams the Indians finished in front of in those final standings, with second wins over those same New Hampton and Crestwood teams making up part of a three-game winning streak in mid-January that would prove to be Waukon’s final wins of the regular season.

The remainder of this season’s regular season schedule wrapped up with an eight-game non-winning streak before a split of two Class 2A District Tournament contests brought this winter’s campaign to a close in a deja vu heart-breaking loss at North Fayette Valley for a second consecutive season.

The Waukon girls and boys bowling teams rolled their way to end results on opposite ends of the win-loss spectrum during their 2023-2024 campaigns. The Lady Indians bowled their way to a 7-3 season record, while the Waukon boys played their way to a 3-7 season result.

The Waukon girls’ regular season schedule started and ended with alternating wins and losses, starting with one of each before rattling off four consecutive wins and then wrapping up that schedule alternating two each of wins and losses. This season’s three losses for the Lady Indians each came by just 15 pins or less, with just a margin of 32 pins preventing the Waukon girls from an undefeated dual match schedule.

The 2023-2024 Kee boys basketball season was undeniably the best in program history, as this winter’s Hawks flew higher and farther than ever seen before. The end result was a best-ever 22-3 season record that took the Kee boys basketball program to the brink of its first-ever State Tournament berth, with a number of other record-breaking and historic achievements taking place along the way (see shaded box accompanying this article on this same page), including being ranked for the first time in program history, as they climbed as high as Class 1A’s eighth-ranked squad and stayed within Class 1A’s top-10 for the remainder of the season.

The 2024 NCAA Men’s Basketball National Championship Tournament has gotten underway, holding its share of upsets and nail-biting finishes in its first two rounds played this past weekend. The Standard’s 2024 Bracket Challenge is also underway, featuring its own close results through those same first two rounds of play.

March is National Athletic Training Month. Veterans Memorial Hospital has three athletic trainers on staff including Brad Krambeer, ATC, LAT; Austin Troendle, D-PT, ATC, who is also a Doctor of Physical Therapy; and Shelly Valley, PT-A, ATC, who is also a Physical Therapist Assistant. These trainers use their variety of skills to rehabilitate athletes, often communicating with the physicians to help coordinate the best recovery.

Athletic trainers help treat and prevent injuries for people of all ages, from athletes to laborers.  They specialize in the assessment, treatment and rehabilitation of physical injuries to the muscle, ligament and bone, as well as rehabilitation following surgery. Athletic trainers are also key in teaching injury prevention by explaining flexibility exercises, proper use of equipment and applying prevention devices such as tape, bandages and braces.

March is National Social Work Month. Tatum Iverson is the full-time social worker at Veterans Memorial Hospital (VMH). Her role is very large, touching most every patient’s care who enters and leaves the hospital.   She works closely with hospital staff, patients, their families and their insurance companies to coordinate the proper levels of care needed and be sure these are approved.

If the patient is already at VMH under acute care, Tatum can help transfer that level of care to skilled care for things like physical/occupational/speech therapy or longer-term IV antibiotics, prior to being able to return home.  If a patient would benefit from staying in a hospital for skilled care following a hospitalization or surgical procedure, the patient can ask for a referral to be made to Veterans Memorial Hospital’s Swing Bed program.  Tatum then handles these referrals to be sure the patient is accepted by their insurance carrier.

Beginning Monday, April 1, Veterans Memorial Hospital (VMH) and Clinics will begin to collect the co-pay from patients at the time of their appointments. This will only apply to patients who have a health insurance plan that includes a co-pay option. Patients are encouraged to review their health insurance plans to know if their plan has a co-pay option or not.

“It’s so important that patients take the time to review their health insurance plan closely to see what their benefits truly are and if they have a co-pay for certain services. If they don’t have a co-pay on their plan, then they will be billed as normal and will not need to pay the day of service,” explains Denise Wullner, Business Office Supervisor at Veterans Memorial Hospital in Waukon. “We are finding that many patients are being confused by commercials and the word advantage in their health insurance plan.”

Veterans Memorial Hospital (VMH) Speech-Language Pathologist Steven Mazzafield will offer the next Stroke Support Group for individuals who have experienced a stroke, as well as caregivers and family members affected by stroke, Thursday, April 4 at 2 p.m. at Veterans Memorial Hospital. The meeting will be held in the ICN Conference Room.

The Stroke Support Group provides opportunities to share tips, tricks, or trials among participants, offer support for caregivers, and provide an opportunity for socialization.

While strokes can happen at any age, risk of stroke is greatest as people get older with the majority of strokes occurring after the age of 70. Risk factors for stroke include obesity, sedentary lifestyle, binge drinking, diabetes, smoking, high cholesterol, and high blood pressure.

The next LifeServe Blood Center blood drive will be held Monday, April 1, from 12-5 p.m. at the First Baptist Church in south Waukon. The LifeServe Blood Center supplies Veterans Memorial Hospital (VMH) with blood and blood products.