To be honored during RAGBRAI® ... Mitch Einck, the son of Dave and Nancy Einck of Waukon who lost his life in a tragic fall in 2012, will be a featured honoree of the Iowa Donor Network during one day of this week’s RAGBRAI® ride. The photo above shows the front and back of a laminated card bicycle riders on the Iowa Donor Network’s first-ever RAGBRAI team will carry on their bicycles in honor of Einck and his choice to be an organ donor. Submitted image.
The Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa (RAGBRAI®) is taking on a very special meaning for a local family this year.
In its first-ever organized team ride during Iowa’s annual bicycling spectacle, the Iowa Donor Network will be honoring those who have given their own gift of life to someone else through organ donation. One of those honorees this year will be the late Mitchell Einck, a 2004 Waukon High School graduate and the son of Dave and Nancy Einck of Waukon who lost his life in a tragic fall in 2012 at the age of 26 but shared his gift of life with many others as an organ donor.
Pedaling with that added purpose will be the Eincks’ son-in-law, Sean Merrick, who is married to their daughter, Tiffany; raising their own family of three young children in Coralville. Merrick currently serves on the Iowa Donor Network Board of Directors and has previously served on the Network’s Donor Family Advisory Board.
Saturday, July 14, the Harper Ferry Fireflies won the gold medal at the Granny Basketball League National Tournament held in Norman, OK, claiming their third consecutive National Championship. The Fireflies, coached by Bill Nation of Harpers Ferry, first swept through their five-team pool with wins of 48-23 over the Passing Fancies out of Missouri, 35-15 over the Fire Ants from Texas, 43-20 over the Grayhawkers from Kansas and 47-24 over the Oklahoma Twisters. Winning that Pool B championship, the Fireflies were matched up with the tournament’s Pool A champions, the Louisiana Crushers, in the National Championship game, which they also won with relative ease, 56-35, to claim their third consecutive National Championship. One other team from Iowa, the Classic Roadrunners, also played in the tournament, finishing third overall with a final win over the Oklahoma Twisters.
February 14 of this year, Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds signed the 99 County Bible Reading Marathon Proclamation encouraging all Iowans to participate in the occasion again this year. Allamakee County will be taking part in that annual event from August 9 at 8 a.m. through August 12 at 6 p.m., around the clock, 24 hours a day, until the entire Bible is read. This year’s local event will take place on the lawn of the Allamakee County Courthouse in Waukon.
The Allamakee County Bible Reading Marathon is seeking community volunteers to help read the Bible at the Allamakee County Courthouse over the course of these four days in August. Time slots of 15 minutes each are available, however, volunteers are more than welcome to sign up for multiple slots if they wish to read for a longer period of time or would like to read on multiple days or at different times throughout the day.
Anne Osmundson of Volga was nominated as the Republican candidate for State Representative at the Iowa House District 56 nominating convention held Thursday, July 12 in Postville. The Allamakee and Clayton County Republicans met for the bi-county convention, as District 56 encompasses all of Allamakee County and all but three townships of Clayton County.
Osmundson is a lifelong resident of Clayton County, spending most of her time near the town of Volga. She graduated from Central High School in Elkader. After graduating, she married her husband, Steve. The couple had seven kids and she stayed at home raising them while also working as a bookkeeper for their family business.
Wednesday, July 18 marked the final chapter in the history of Mulligan’s Grill Pub in Waukon following the January 23, 2018 fire that destroyed the building’s interior. The six months since that fateful day for owner Dana Ruegnitz and his wife, Jordan, have been a difficult timeframe of follow-up and decision-making, ultimately leading to a decision to tear down the remaining structure and not rebuild. The tearing down process took place in just a single day July 18, depicted in the surrounding photos.
The Red Rock Threshers based out of Pella held their annual Tractor Ride in Allamakee County this year, with more than 220 tractors traversing the roadways of Allamakee County Friday and Saturday, July 20 and 21. After arriving at their homebase location of the Waukon High School parking lot (pictured in wide photo above) Thursday afternoon, July 19, riders departed from that location (pictured in two photos at left and right) early both days of the ride, traveling 86 miles Friday from Waukon to New Albin and then through Lansing, Harpers Ferry and Waterville before returning to Waukon in the late afternoon, and then journeying 62 miles Saturday up Highway 76 to Dorchester and Eitzen, MN before returning to Waukon via Lycurgus Road to then prepare to depart for home.
Location of planned tennis court project ... The grassy area just to the north (the right side of the above photo) of the new concession stand located at the Waukon Park, Recreation and Wellness soccer fields on the west edge of Waukon is being planned for a new community-use tennis courts project within the next year or so. Funding for the project is currently being gathered, and anyone wishing to contribute to the project may contact Waukon Park, Recreation and Wellness Director Jeremy Strub at 563-568-0074, extension 1. Submitted photo.
The Waukon Park, Recreation and Wellness Department continues to move forward with its planned project for outdoor community tennis courts available for anyone to use, reaching nearly two-thirds of its project funding goal. That funding has come from a variety of different grant and coordinated sources, and now the Waukon Park, Recreation and Wellness Department is offering local organizations, businesses or individuals the opportunity to help finish out that funding process.
The Waukon community has been without an outdoor tennis court facility for nearly two decades, with the aging courts previously owned by the City of Waukon and located in the Waukon City Park being removed in the fall of 1996. The Allamakee Community School District also had its two tennis courts removed from the Waukon High School location near the turn of the century to make room for campus and facilities improvements and expansion.
The Knutson family ... Left to right: Nancy, Maysen and Chet Knutson. Submitted photo.
Family and friends of Nancy (Frana) Knutson of Bloomington, WI, formerly of Waukon, will be hosting a benefit event for her this Saturday, July 28 at the Waukon Banquet Center. The benefit event is geared toward raising funds to help pay for medical bills and other life adjustments that may develop for Knutson from recent heightened health issues with diabetes.
Knutson has been battling diabetes for nearly half her life but the past six months have resulted in a series of amputations due to poor circulation and ensuing infection. She had her toes amputated on her right foot in February of this year, but then developed an infection and had to have that right leg amputated as well in June.
She is currently recovering at home but makes frequent follow-up medical visits. She is also in the process of being fitted for a prosthetic leg and is determined she will walk again, according to benefit organizers.
The North Iowa Area Community College John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Center (NIACC JPEC) conducted the Youth Entrepreneurial Academy July 9-13 sponsored by the John K. and Luise V. Hanson Foundation. The academy is offered annually and free to all high school students interested in entrepreneurship.
Participants receive a $500 NIACC scholarship sponsored by John Pappajohn. This year’s academy included 13 high school students. The aspiring entrepreneurs completed the academy, which is held as a day camp each day. Students were given the opportunity to stay in NIACC’s student housing, and several students elected to do so. Students not staying in the student housing received gas cards to help cover the week’s travel from their homes to NIACC.
The Waukon Middle School 10th Hour June summer program was involved in many activities this past session. The students began the summer with learning the fine points of operating a Canon Power Shot camera so they could document each activity. Brittany Todd, owner of “Photography by Brittany” in Decorah, furthered that education in operating the cameras as the students toured her shop and listened to her explain in-depth instructions on a guided use of their cameras. Nathan Todd, proprietor of the Sugar Bowl in Decorah, also led the group in a tour of his ice cream parlor, which is known for its 24 flavors of ice cream. Students enjoyed the flavors of cookie dough, Zanzibar chocolate, cotton candy, and strawberry cheese cake. During an adventure day the students had at Luther College, they took on the Challenge Course that required nerves of steel, teamwork and large motor skills. Students flew through the air attached to harnesses that were hooked to their teammates.
