UPbeat News 10/28/99

10/27 - Football was the theme of the Family Independence Agency's annual volunteer award ceremony Wed. night. Pam Rudolph definitely ranked in the MVP category, having completed l0,3l5 hours since starting with the agency in l989. Pam works at Shopko in Marinette and gets her volunteer time in around her regular work schedule. Most of her work has been at the Community Neighborhood Service Center where she helped with the surplus food program, handled clothing and household item donations, did filing, typing and just about anything else that needed doing. Her boss, Kathy Jinkerson, commented that one of the best things about the time they spent working together was the friendship that developed between them.

10/27 - The brush blanket season is in full swing locally, with only about two weeks left to go. Judy Weaver was seen at the library frantically looking through the 'books on tape' section for some really long books to listen to while she works on the blankets in her garage. She was overjoyed when she found one that ran l4 hours and another for l8 hours! She is working for Don Machalk and Sons who will be selling the blankets mostly in the south and midwest portions of the country. They are quite popular for winter grave decorations. Don Jr. says it takes about l5 minutes to make one. Workers make anywhere from 300 to over a thousand, depending on the time they have available.

10/27 - Another person with a new and interesting job is Pam Koller of Daggett. She is the Chef at the newly constructed, 40-unit Renaissance assisted living facility on Shore Drive in Marinette. She started working in food preparation and service at the Farm House Restaurant in Stephenson at age l4 (her mom owned it) and has taken courses in hospitality and management and enjoys planning menus etc. "These are not institutionalized meals. The residents have menu choices. But my primary responsibility," says Pam, "is keeping the cookie jar full. People are invited to stop in and look around - and check out the cookie jar!"

10/26 - Cats and dogs were on the left. Cows and horses were on the right. Chickens and ducks filled the stage. And there were paper- plate farm animals all over the walls of the gym at the Daggett Elementary School Tuesday night when the Kindergarten through third graders put on a musical revue entitled 'Little Red Hen.'

A half hour later, at Blesch Auditorium in Menominee, the stage was also filled with groups...of violins, violas, cellos and other instruments for the concert by the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. The two performances were very different, but there were also many similarities. Both played to standing-room-only crowds. In Daggett that means well over 100 - in Menominee it meant just over 1,000. In Daggett most of the crowd was made up of friends and family of the entire cast. In Menominee many in the audience were family and friends of the featured tenor, Robert Breault , who is a native of the Marinette-Menominee area.

Breault has appeared at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center and concert halls in the US, Canada and Europe and has a warm, strong voice. He was a little hard to understand since his songs were in Italian. At Daggett the kids belted out their western-style farm songs with such gusto it was sometimes hard to get all the words, but 'howdy,' 'yippie-ti-yi-yeah,' and 'that's my whole dern day' came through quite clear, and often.

Between Breault's final number and his encore his mother was honored with the comment that "behind every good artist is a wonderful mother." The wonderful mothers were also appreciated at Daggett. A lot of the kids waved at them often to be sure they could find them on stage. The mom's responded by getting up close and taking lots of pictures. Two totally different performances and both wonderfully enjoyable.

10/25 - When you teach the basics of Biology you are also teaching the basics of conservation. Joe Kaufman has been teaching Biology at the Stephenson schools for 28 years and covers much more than the basics. His efforts to promote conservation through education were recognized at the 55th Annual Meeting of the Menominee Conservation District Saturday night at Belgiumtown. Kaufman was presented with the Conservation Educator award.

Al Beauvais received the Conservation Forester award. He owns 40 acres in Gourley Township and spends considerable time there improving conditions to benefit area wildlife. Rory Mattson, of the Conservation Office Staff, noted that every time you try and get in touch with Al his wife says, "He's up at camp."

The Tuinstra Family Farms earned the Conservation Farm award for the year. Norman Tuinstra and his son Monty have incorporated many conservation- conscious programs in the operation of the 700 acre farm west of Daggett that supports a herd of over 300 cattle

10/25 - Today is National Mother-in-laws' Day. Those who honor it no doubt already knew that, or were gently reminded about it. October is also National Depression Month. I thought it best not to mention it until the month was almost over. And, at least in the U.P., it is also Roll Up Your Sleeves Month - a reminder to get your flu shots!

10/24 - This has nothing to do with Halloween, honest, but have you ever been to an 'open house' at a funeral home? Me either - until today. What a place to party! Particularly with hosts Beverley and Gary Anderson, the 'new' owners of the Anderson-Diehm funeral home in Stephenson. ('New' in the sense any person or business that has been in the area for less than about 20 years is considered a newcomer around here.)

The food was good, the place was packed, there was lively, live music, and the soft couches and chairs available for seating made it tempting to stay longer than planned.

Actually, the occasion was the 60th anniversary of the original Diehm Funeral Home's existence in the area. The Andersons bought it in '95.

10/24 - The John Henes' donated a beautiful old piano to the Spies library in Menominee fairly recently and the library has been scheduling occasional concerts to share their gift with the community. Kiera O'Hara, a wonderful jazz pianist, gave it a workout Saturday night. She didn't waste time with long introductions and details of the compositions. A typical intro was "This next is a melody - two tunes by me and one by somebody else." O'Hara lived in this area in the '80's and has written some moving jazz and blues pieces. She now lives in Seattle and plays with a jazz trio there. And, she wasn't selling tapes and CD's during the break!

10/24 - If your a True Confessions magazine fan Theresa Broberg, one of the Green Thumb workers at the Senior Center in Daggett has some reading material for you. Someone donated about 30 of the magazines last week and there are plenty left - free for whoever gets there first.

10/23 - The spooks must be out early, especially farther north. Rich Sunila reports that the Stephenson girls' basketball teams didn't do very well in the three games at Kingsford Thursday night. All came up with losses: Freshman 44-42, JV 44-36 and the Varsity 73-40.

The Varsity football team ran into wind, rain, sleet and snow during their game in Munising Friday night...and lost 14-6.

The JV football team played Munising in Stephenson Thursday night, but I bet you can guess how that ended.