News Center newsletter

by Beth Shafer, Growth and Development Coordinator, Veterans Memorial Hospital

Making a gift to the Veterans Memorial Health Care Foundation has never been easier. With postage rates continuing to rise, donating online is not only quick and secure - it also saves the cost of a stamp while ensuring your entire gift goes to supporting local health care.

To make an online donation, simply visit www.veteransmemorialhospital.com. Then, click on About, Foundation and then simply click the “Donate” box.  Donors can make a one-time or recurring gift to the Foundation by using a credit or debit card. Gifts may also be designated to a specific fund, project, memorial or tribute if desired.

The next LifeServe Blood Center blood drive will be held Tuesday, September 1, from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. at the First Baptist Church in south Waukon.  This date is moved up from the usual first Monday of the month due to the Labor Day Holiday.

This month’s blood drive is focusing on helping childhood cancer warriors keep up their fight. The Blood Center of Iowa is honoring brave children and families facing cancer and sickle cell disease.  Many of them rely on blood transfusions during treatment.  Blood donations bring them hope, healing and strength to even the youngest cancer fighters.

Every day, more than 100,000 Americans deal with the complications of sickle cell disease. There is no cure, but there are treatments that help these patients’ suffering, including blood transfusions.  Some sickle cell patients may need as many as 100 units of blood each year to alleviate their symptoms or even save their life.

The local Grief Support Group will again be holding their monthly meeting at Veterans Memorial Hospital (VMH) Thursday, September 3, from 5-6 p.m. in the Meditation Healing Center, located just inside the main entrance of the hospital.  Nancy Haberichter will be facilitating the meeting.

This informal meeting is open to anyone suffering from any type of loss whether it be death, divorce, illness or some other grief.

Feel free to attend and bring a friend. This grief support will continue meeting the first Thursday of each month at Veterans Memorial Hospital.
 

Memorial donations were recently received by the Veterans Memorial Health Care Foundation in memory of Kathy Fossum by Cindy Barness, Dave and Sandy Lyons, Joann Peake and Joan Schmidt. Memorial donations were also received in memory of Sandy Hesse by Marilyn Clark, Terry and Diane Oesterle, Diane Regan, Larry and Nancy Straate, Chuck and Lois Votsmier and Dave and Laurie Martin.

Memorials were also received in memory of Frank O’Malley by Frank and Patty Goltz and Kathy O’Malley; in memory of Bernard Pausch by Ron and Nancy Adam; in memory of John Simmons by Bill and Beth Shafer; in memory of Kate Urell by Marilyn Clark; in memory of Jane Butler by Karla and Dave Hammel; plus an additional memorial donation in memory of Stan Straate by Mary Engstrom.

This past July our youth group joined two hundred and fifty others for our national youth convention in Cincinnati, Ohio. It was in Cincinnati because that put us near the Creation Museum west of Cincinnati and the Ark Encounter just across the border in Kentucky. These two wonderful sites help the Bible come to life through evidence for creation, responses to evolutionary claims, and a life-sized recreation of Noah’s ark!

Our theme for this year was “In the beginning…” which comes from the very first verse in the Bible, Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” This is how it all began. Out of nothing there was something by the power of His word. God created a beautiful world in six twenty-four hour days and rested on the seventh. 

To the Editor:

What do you do when you are in a hole over your head? You stop digging! Iowa is in a big hole. We are failing in education - ranking 13th in the country, economic growth, population growth, healthcare and OBGYN (obstetrics and gynecology) doctors. Our water quality is abysmal and our cancer growth rate is the highest in the country.

We have the worst Governor in the country and the whole state government is controlled by one party. They have been in control for ten years, and how’s your economic health? Can you afford your drugs, or to see a doctor? How much do you spend on gas and groceries? How about rent or home ownership?

And then there’s your rights. Can you decide about your own body? Who you are? Who has access to your personal data? Our state’s voter rolls have been turned over to the federal administration, and who knows who has access to our personal information, including our social security numbers.

Deadlines/Dates
August 31: Deadline to complete Non-Emergency Haying of CRP; Deadline to Review Base Allocation Summary
September 15: Deadline to Update Payment Eligibility for Entities 
September 30: Deadline to Complete FY26 Mid-Contract Management on CRP; Deadline to remove livestock from Non-Emergency Grazing of CRP; Deadline to apply for SDRP Stage 1, Stage 2, and Stage 1 Quality Loss; Office Fiscal Year Rollover
October 1: FY27 Mid-Contract Management on CRP Opens
December 31: Deadline to Apply for OCCSP

Waukon High School and the Allamakee Athletic Booster Club hosted the annual Community Appreciation Meal Membership Drive and Meet the Team Night at Waukon High School Tuesday, August 18. In addition to the meal and membership drive, the 2026 Waukon Indian fall sports teams were introduced and all in attendance were treated to a motivational message from Waukon High School alum Marcus Weymiller, who presented a challenge to local student-athletes of raising the standard in everything they take part in, while he also outlined a four-step process to help accomplish that feat - a process that helped him achieve some of his own lofty goals in life.

The 2026 Waukon football team will return nearly half of this season’s overall program numbers of 51 players, freshmen through seniors, as varsity letterwinners from a squad last fall that put together a 6-4 season record and made a ninth consecutive appearance in the Class 2A State Play-Offs. The grid Tribe of 2025 played to a 4-1 Class 2A District 3 mark that laid claim to a District Runner-Up result last fall that came behind an Osage team that was undefeated until the Class 2A State Semifinals last season, with 24 young men returning from that grid Tribe mix to help pave the way again this season.

Wilfred C. Ament of Waukon passed away Friday, August 14, 2026, after a lengthy illness. He was born April 26, 1938. A memorial to celebrate Will’s life will be held at the Empty Nest Winery Friday, October 16, 2026, to remember our friend who will be greatly missed. A full obituary along with details of the celebration will follow.