9/30/00 - The Stephenson Fire Department was out in full force at about 5:30 last night. This time they were helping fire up the high school football team and their fans by leading the annual Homecoming Day parade. They were successful. The Eagles beat Iron River 26-0. Abbey Ruleau and Logan Carlson were named homecoming queen and king during the halftime ceremonies.
9/25/00 - The Stephenson City Garage no longer exists. It came down at about 10 o'clock this morning. But the playground equipment has arrived for Erickson Park and will be installed as soon as possible as time permits. And the SHS Student Council sponsored blood drive at the high school last week brought in 71 donors, 31 of them students (who have to be over 17 years old and weigh at least 110 pounds to be eligible to donate).
9/24/00 - On the lighter side, did you know it takes more hot water to make cold water hot than it takes cold water to make hot water cold? Someone named Larry Dowd said that back in the l970's. Aren't you glad you didn't have to go to any of his meetings!
9/23/00 - Well, well, well, whoever thought a simple program to help the elderly could get so complicated. An article in yesterdays Eagle Herald newspaper has Menominee County Sheriff Unger warning people of a new "scam." The sheriff says he has been told someone is calling people asking for donations for TRIAD. Unger told the reporter that no one is calling people for donations and anyone who gets such a call should hang up and report it to the sheriff's department. People who attend TRIAD meetings should find that interesting as I have been to all the meetings, and I listen closely, and I've never heard anyone telling volunteers to be sure to make "in-person" contacts because if they use the phone they would be involved in a scam. It seems to depend on the interpretation of the word "scam." Everything I've checked says it's not a scam unless it's done with an attempt to swindle or deceive. It doesn't matter if you are contacted by phone, in person, or by a message in a balloon that lands in your yard. If you son comes home from college and asks for $100 to buy science books and you give it to him and you later learn he isn't taking science and needed the money because it was his turn to provide liquid refreshment for a weekend party, you've been scammed. Even though he contacted you in person, you've known him for years and thought you could trust him. If your daughter calls and asks for $100 to help pay her rent, you give it to her, she uses it to pay the rent, you can still call her at her apartment, and she sends you a copy of the rent receipt, it's legtimate, even though she solicited the money by phone.
This is why law officers, including Unger, always remind people to "get it in writing" and base your decision on whether or not to contribute on that. Unger didn't mention that in the scam update. Probably because volunteers have been given nothing identifying them as TRIAD members and there is no printed information available on the Files of Life program to give to prospective donors. And anyone, any age, member or non-member can do soliciting. There is no fund-raising committee keeping track of who is covering what area or contacting which businesses. At one time ordering the first 500 Files was delayed for a month because a Boy Scout wanted to get involved! Maybe he's making phone calls. He hasn't been at any of the meetings so knows even less than the rest of us. (He's probably in school at meeting time.) Considering all of this and the fact that many senior citizens are without transportation, (clues: Social Services hires drivers to take them to Dr. appointments, and Senior Centers have vans to take them on shopping trips and other outings). Many have arthritis and other disabilities which make it much easier to use the phone than to get out and make in-person calls. So it seems it would be difficult to say, with any degree of certainty, that no TRIAD members have asked for donations by phone. One thing for sure, when money has been turned in nobody asked if the donors were contacted in person or by phone. That didn't seem to be important then. The fact that organizers and leadership have failed to provide adequate and accurate information from the start seems to be the main reason for all the confusion. And there is more, but I'll get to that later.
9/20/00 - When's the last time you saw 60 kids, mostly high school students, stand still for 25 minutes? Voluntarily. Without complaining. It happened outside the high school in Stephenson at 7:30 this morning at the annual, student sponsored "See You At The Pole!" prayer meeting. This is the second year of local participation in the national program. Students stood holding hands to form a circle around the flagpole and offered prayers and spontaneous petitions. They met again in the evening for a picnic in Erickson Park. There was prayer then too, but also a lot of food, football and frisbee action.
9/20/00 - Carol Compton is the newly elected president of the Friends of the Menominee County Library. Carol and her husband are retirees who have lived in the Cedar River area for the last five years. She replaces Sheryl Schrot, who will serve as Vice President. Marian Koldos and Dorothy Phillippo will continue as Secretary and Treasurer for another year.
The group met at the library in Stephenson on the 14th. Twelve members were present. They have been working for some time collecting donations to replace 40 chairs in the library at a cost of about $100 each. Nearly $3,000 has been received with some families making donations to serve as memorials to other family members. They are waiting to order the new chairs, which will replace ones that are over 30 years old, until their goal is reached so they can get a better price by ordering them all at once.
The date for the annual Weekend With Friends was set for October 14 and 15. Featured will be an art display on Saturday and an Armchair Travel presentation on Sunday. A committee will meet on the 21st to finalize plans for the event.
Librarian Pat Cheski reported there are now 8 computers available for public use. Two are in the children's section and six are in the adult area of the library. The group's next meeting will be at 4 p.m. on November 9th in the Hayward Room of the library.
9/19/00 - If a music-loving normally normal person you know was wearing soft gloves Tuesday morning it's probably because they were at the Boston Brass concert in Menominee Monday night and their hands were sore from all the applauding. When five men in purple jackets can get the grade school guest students up dancing to Louie Prima's "Sing, Sing, Sing" and enjoying music from"Carmen" you know they have to be good. It helps when one of the trumpet players taught at the Julliard School of Music and the tuba player has a Bachelor's Degree in Tuba. So give your music loving friends hugs instead of handshakes for a few days.
9/18/00 - Fund raising was a major topic at the Stephenson District Elementary Schools' PTO meeting at the Library at SHS last week. Representatives of Midland Fund Raisers gave a presentation of the programs they have available, but PTO members decided to have a committee meet on September 19th to discuss whether the group will need to do fund raising this year. Their recommendations will be presented at the next PTO meeting on October 23
.President Kevin Newlin asked for volunteers for the Adopt-a-Highway cleanup on Saturday, the l6th, saying "We've got the vests, and bags and just need help. The garbage is already there!" He was right. Nine volunteers showed up to collect eight bags of roadside garbage between the Convenience Center south of Stephenson and Corey's Auto Salvage in Ingalls.
9/14/00 - Progress is being made. The Menominee County TRIAD group has received 1,000 of the 500 Files of Life that were to be ordered. That may sound strange but it is accurate. (The reported cost was 93 cents for each. Someone, nobody asked or told who, apparently authorized the purchase of the extra 500 without the group's president or members having any input in the decision.) They have also collected another $l,000 or so (actually $l,l06.13) for the project from county businesses, mostly in the northern end of the county. Mary Andrela, who worked the Hermansville area, strongly emphasized, several times, that the businesses gave cheerfully and willingly . TRIAD Pres. Don Wojakowski said he had made some contacts in the Stephenson area and they were also very courteous and cooperative. Sheriff Unger, who was responsible for starting the group and has been present at all past meetings , was not present for the meeting in Menominee on Wednesday. I was told he was "at a conference." County Clerk Barb Morrison and Treasurer Pat Kass were introduced as guests.
President Wojakowski read from my August news note, which he said he received in the mail, and also read an unsigned letter of "rebuttal," addressed to me, by name, but delivered to him. The writer suggested I be more accurate in my reporting, do less talking and more listening and although Sheriff Unger had every right to defend himself at the August meeting (Note: This was supposed to be a TRIAD meeting, not an Unger support group meeting and nobody in the group had challenged him), but people who come to meetings and don't volunteer to help should not criticize him. (Note: I went to the meeting ,as I go to many other meetings, to report what happened there, not as a volunteeer worker. I quoted Unger without any personal comment on his statement.)
There was no discussion following the readings.
Now to be as accurate as possible. Originally, Unger had said there was about $2000 available. $l,000 from a private donation and another l,000 from a fund available to his department, which could be used for TRIAD. That last l,000 is apparently still there but less available. Also, the program now is available only to Senior Citizens - over age 55. Someone asked if handicapped people (of all ages) would be included. The answer was a definite "no, only senior citizens."
And since I am trying to be very accurate, the rebuttal letter writer referred to the "VIALS of Life" program - and there is such a program already in place. A quick call to the hospital in Marinette provided interesting information. The program was started locally by volunteer workers at the hospital about a year ago. They have promoted it at a Health Fair at the Pine Tree Mall, at the Menominee County Fair, and other area locations and have brochures and printed information available. Many in Menominee and Marinette counties have taken advantage of it and they estimate they have 300 to 500 names ( I didn't ask for exact figures) and phone numbers on their computer so they can call participants once a year to remind them to update their information. The difference is that medical information is provided on a letter-size sheet stored in a vial (donated by local pharmacies) in the refrigerator. Stickers are provided for the refrigerator door and entrance door. Particilpants fill out and maintain their own forms, with an annual reminder to update. Assistance is available for those who need help with the form. Their is no request for donations - not from area businesses or participants.
The TRIAD program, however is a FILES of Life program, which is different. Very similar, but different. In the Vials program the person is totally responsible for recording the information and keeping it updated. In the Files program, at least as it is being handled in Menominee County, volunteers will fill in information from data provided by the senior citizen when the Files are distributed, and after that the senior or their family will be responsible for keeping it updated. That still leaves TRIAD volunteers responsible for getting all the medical information recorded accurately the first time. The Vials program provides a full sheet for medical information. You can even get the form off the internet and print it yourself, or extra copies are readily available. With the Files program you have to put that information in a small space on a card, use a pencil so that changes can be made by erasing one entry (being careful not to erase the line above or below) and putting in a new one. The Vials people have coordinated their program with local rescue squads and pharmacies. The rebuttal letter writer, who apparently has been listening closely at meetings and is a stickler for accuracy, thinks TRIAD is sponsoring Vials rather than Files. Will others be confused as well? Is it necessary to have two very similar programs available to provide basically the same information?
There was more to Wednesday's meeting, but I will save the rest for later.
9/13/00 - Monthly Horoscope: Those born in September are alert, amiable, brainy, charming, diplomatic, graceful, kind, neat, open-minded, sociable, sympathetic and tactful. We seldom brag or lie. We are also generous and willing to share our horoscope with anyone celebrating anything this month - from making a final payment on a bill to figuring out what Bush and Gore are REALLY saying.
9/9/00 - Menominee County is a lot safer place as of about 2 this afternoon. The Household Hazardous Waste Collection program at the County Road Commission Building netted l3,500 pounds in 5 hours. The majority of that, 8,800 pounds, was paint. Car batteries came in second at 1,500 and oils and antifreeeze were third with 1,080. There were even 40 pounds of flashlight batteries. Vehicles were lined up a half hour before the 9 a.m. starting time, but the people from Drug & Laboratory Disposal, Inc. of Plainwell, MI were well organized and kept things moving, with a little help from Loren Anderson a local person who acted as "greeter" and traffic director.
9/8/00 - Football Report - Stephenson Eagles 28, Norway Knights 34 - in overtime.
9/7/00 - Take a chunk of cedar, a jackknife, lots of sandpaper, some memories, spare time, plenty of patience and talent and you come up with work that many will appreciate and admire. The six model airplanes in the display case at the county library in Stephenson are the work of George, "an old ex-crew chief" who served with the 8th Air Force in Europe during World War II. (He prefers not to be further identified.) He has done other carvings through the years, usually during the winter months as a way to make time pass a little more quickly. The planes though, have special meaning. Only one, the B-25 Mltchell Bomber. survived the combat missions. The others were all destroyed and so the models are his memorial to the pilots and crews of those aircraft. The collection will be on display for another week or so at the library.
9/2/00 - The Stephenson Eagles' football team won another one, beating Three Lakes 63-0 Friday night.
Saturday there were traffic jams all over town as many took advantage of the last flea market of the season, and a variety of rummage sales. It was a good opportunity for men and kids to check out all the equipment the group of 30 to 35 Wisconsin Central Railroad employees have been using on tracks in the area for the last couple of weeks. They park about l4 of their little yellow machines on the track in Veterans' Park on weekends. One of the workers told me they were replacing "jointed rail with continuous welded rail," which should do away with some of the clickety-clack sounds of trains passing through. He thinks they should be done in another week and then they will all move on farther north.
If you have any comments or suggestions, please take a minute to write H. Barb Upton.
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