Members of the Waukon High School Speech program competed in the State Large Group Speech Contest held Saturday, February 8 at Decorah High School. Students competed in Group Improvisation, One Act Play and Radio News Broadcasting. Both Group Improvisation performances received a Division 2 Rating and the One Act Play and Radio Broadcasting each received a Division 1 rating. The State Contest participants pictured above advanced from the District Large Group Speech Contest held Saturday, January 25 at Turkey Valley High School. Waukon High School performances at that District Contest included Readers Theater (Division 2 rating), Group Improv (two Division 1 ratings and one Division 2 rating), Radio Broadcasting (Division 1 Rating), One Act Play (Division 1 Rating), and Ensemble Acting (Division 2 Rating).
For the second consecutive year, 1973 Kee High School graduate Ray Burroughs of Waukon created and sold an “Awesome Rides” classic car calendar to benefit all extracurricular activities in the Eastern Allamakee Community School District (EACSD). Pictured above, Burroughs (right) presents a $7,100 donation check to Eastern Allamakee Community School District PK-12 Principal Donna Thomas (left) during halftime of the Kee girls varsity basketball game of the Friday, February 7 boys and girls basketball doubleheader with MFL/MarMac. That donation amount is nearly double the $3,700
Burroughs was able to donate last year, and he said this year’s amount would not have been possible without the 36 sponsors who helped defray the costs of printing and creating the calendars. “The sponsors are what made this year’s larger donation possible, so please go see them for anything you might need, and tell them Ray the Calendar Guy sent you.”
A “grand” moment ... Members of the Waukon girls basketball team are pictured above gathering around senior Keira McCormick to celebrate her achievement of scoring the 1,000th point of her varsity career, a moment depicted in the photo at right on this shot in the lane early in the third quarter of Waukon’s Tuesday, February 11 home win over Crestwood. McCormick becomes the fifth Waukon girls five-on-five basketball player to achieve 1,000 career points, joining all-time leading scorer Samantha (Reiser) Collins, Mary (Halvorson) Rogers, Daneshia Snitker and Annika Headington. View and find out how to purchase these photos and many more by clicking on the Photo Galleries link on this webpage.
The Waukon girls basketball team played through a busy week with undefeated results this past week, bringing its regular season to a close and opening its postseason tournament trail with consecutive wins over fellow Northeast Iowa Conference (NEIC) squad Crestwood to clinch sole possession of second place in the final NEIC standings and also take a first successful step forward in the Class 3A Region 3 Tournament. The Lady Indians opened the week with a 46-42 win at home over La Crescent-Hokah out of Minnesota Monday, February 10 before the week’s initial win over Crestwood, 43-35 at home, Tuesday, February 11 in their final regular season game. A second match-up of the week - and third of the season - with Crestwood, Saturday, February 15 at home, advanced the bucket Tribe further into postseason play while ending the Cadets’ season with a 44-40 Waukon victory in the opening round of Class 3A Region 3 tournament play.
The continuation of the 2024-2025 season was on the line for the Waukon boys wrestling team when the Tribe competed in its Class 2A District 9 Tournament at New Hampton Saturday, February 15. Needing an individual championship or runner-up finish in their respective weight classes in order to earn continuation of the season with qualification for the Class 2A State Tournament, the Indians had a pair of matmen wrestle their way to that accomplishment and make their way into this week’s State Tournament that begins this Wednesday, February 19.
Those two State qualifiers included freshman Kaden Mitchell winning the district title at 120 pounds and senior Holten Palmer wrestling his way to a runner-up finish at 157 pounds. That qualifying pair was part of nine out of 13 Indians competing in the tournament who grappled to top-four placewinnings to help the mat Tribe compile 117 team points and finish fifth in the eight-team final standings.
The Kee girls basketball team both ended its regular season and began its postseason in successful fashion this past week, continuing what has now become an eight-game winning streak to also continue its season further into the Class 1A Region 5 tournament bracket. The end to the Lady Hawks’ regular season featured a 53-41 home win over Spring Grove, MN Tuesday, February 11 before Kee’s bucket brigade began regional tournament play Thursday, February 13 with a 58-30 dominance of fellow Upper Iowa Conference (UIC) squad Clayton Ridge.
Bleeding injuries can happen anytime, anywhere. If let uncontrolled, severe bleeding injuries could claim a person’s life in as little as five minutes.
With that in mind, Emplify Health by Gundersen will be offering a STOP THE BLEED® training event Tuesday, March 25 at Meehan Memorial Lansing Public Library, located at 515 Main Street in Lansing, from 5-6 p.m. Anyone may participate in this training, which is being offered free of charge to the first 10 participants to register by the March 24 at 12 noon registration deadline.
National Phlebotomist Recognition Week was February 10-14. Phlebotomists are “Drawn to Help Others” through their skillful abilities in drawing blood from patients for clinical or medical testing, transfusions, donations, or research. Administrative duties include accurately preparing, coding, and organizing blood samples for analysis. Phlebotomists are certified professionals who must pass an exam and have the required education and experience to receive professional certification.
Karli Rains, pictured in the submitted photo below, is the Phlebotomist at Veterans Memorial Hospital. She works full-time in the Laboratory drawing blood from patients along with many administrative duties. Riley Palmer, pictured in the submitted photo above, is the Phlebotomist in the hospital’s Waukon Clinic who also works full-time, drawing blood from patients, then running the samples over to the hospital’s Laboratory for testing and quickly receiving results.
February is Heart Month at VMH ... Anyone experiencing any signs or symptoms of a heart attack should immediately go to the Emergency Entrance or call 911 for medical transport. Time is muscle, so the quicker specialized medicine can be administered, the less heart muscle is damaged. Pictured above is some of the ER staff at Veterans Memorial Hospital in Emergency Room II, including, from left to right, Dylan Farning, AEMT; Teresa Schaefers, RN; Jared Donahue, ER Manager; Dave Lyons; RN; Natalie Kelly, RN; with Becky Krambeer, ER Provider, seated in front. Submitted photo.
Chest pain is a commonly presented complaint in any emergency room, including the emergency room at Veterans Memorial Hospital (VMH). There is always the possibility of heart disease in every complaint of chest pain or upper abdominal pain and it must be taken very seriously.
The common signs and symptoms of an acute myocardial infarction, commonly called a heart attack, are;
1. Chest pain (crushing, squeezing or heaviness).
2. Sudden onset of weakness, nausea, fainting and sweating without an obvious cause.
3. Pain that radiates to the shoulders, neck or arms.
These symptoms occur when the blood flow to a part of the heart is blocked, often by a blood clot. This happens because coronary arteries that supply the heart with blood slowly become clogged from a buildup of cells, fat and cholesterol called plaque.
Monica Enyart of PaperPie recently donated another box of books, puzzles and activity workbooks to Veterans Memorial Hospital for the patient floor and waiting room. Enyart is a PaperPie representative and is pictured here with all of the items she recently donated. PaperPie allows a 50% match; all the donations are then donated back to the community by Enyart. She has given thousands of dollars of books to organizations in northeast Iowa and beyond through this grant matching program. For anyone who would like to give books back to the community, Enyart would be a great resource to help. Submitted photo.
The Veterans Memorial Hospital (VMH) Diabetes Support Group will hold its next meeting Thursday, February 20 at 10 a.m. The meeting will be held at Veterans Memorial Hospital in the Large Conference Room, located on the lower level of the hospital.
This month’s topic is exercise, specifically the importance of gaining muscle mass. Amy Robinson, VMH Physical Therapist, will share her wealth of knowledge of ways to build muscle. The more muscle in the body, the better the body’s ability to burn sugar and the better everyone’s blood sugars are.
Also, metabolism speeds up when the body has more muscle mass.
