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by Bob Beach

by Bob Beach

by Kelli Boylen
freelance writer

Allamakee County has been selected by the Iowa Department of Public Health (IDPH) to participate in a $10.5 million federal grant to reduce binge drinking and underage drinking, and the problems associated with both.
The Strategic Prevention Framework State Incentive Grant (SPF SIG) is funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration's Center for Substance Abuse Prevention. Allamakee County was among 23 counties identified by IDPH as “highest need” in regards to underage alcohol use and adult binge drinking.

The Allamakee Ecumenical Choir will present "A Festival of Lessons and Carols" service this Sunday, December 11 at 7 p.m. at St. Patrick Catholic Church, 101 Second Street SW in Waukon. The Lessons and Carols service is patterned after a Lessons and Carols service performed for centuries by the King’s College Chapel Choir in Cambridge, England. Area clergy will read the lessons with carols sung by the choirs and congregation while accompanied by organ and trumpets.

Veterans Memorial Hospital (VMH) in Waukon has been named a Summit Award Winner for the second consecutive year by Press Ganey Associates, Inc. The Summit Award recognizes Veterans Memorial Hospital for achieving and sustaining exceptional emergency room patient satisfaction results. VMH has ranked in the top five percent of hospitals nationwide for each consecutive quarter during the last four years.

The Allamakee County Board of Supervisors met in regular session Monday, November 28 with a relatively light agenda. Among the less-involved agenda items were the approval of the appointment of Marilyn Schorr and Sharon Costello as representatives from Allamakee County on the Northland Agency on Aging Board, as well as approval for final subdivision plats for David H. and Katherine A. Hogendorn, Stephen E. and Michele M. Pladsen, and Earl F. and Beverly Haas and David B. and Jean Ann Schon.

Three organizations recently received significant donations from the Margaret Sweeney Trust. The Shriner's Hospital for Children in Minneapolis, MN, St. Jude's Children's Hospital in Memphis, TN, and the Allamakee Community School District have each had an amount in excess of $190,000 bestowed upon them through the Trust.

Wearing new shirts but still battling for those who battle for freedom, Denise Becker of Lansing and her daughters, Jennifer Becker and Jessica Verdon, took their message of awareness about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) across the country to Norfolk, VA. November 13, the City of Norfolk hosted its first half-marathon, appropriately titled “Freedom Marathon”, with all proceeds raised by the event going to the Wounded Warrior Project.

by Lissa Blake