Stories from Monday, November 8, 2021

The 200+ second grade students at Storm Lake Elementary present “The Pandemic: What Did We Learn?” Thursday, November 11, 2021 6:30 p.m. Storm Lake High School Auditorium (Notice the change in location and time.) No admission fee. This musical performance celebrates things we learned during the pandemic...

Local artist Haley McAndrews of Denison recently won a 3rd Place award in a national art competition for her watercolor painting, “As Seen from the Spokes.” The art competition was held by Bike Friendly Kalamazoo (Kalamazoo, MI), a non-profit organization whose mission is to make its greater community even more bicycle friendly. ...

The Clay County Fair & Events Center will be a stop on the Zach Williams “I Don’t Want Christmas to End” Tour with special guest Anne Wilson and speaker Blake Neesmith on Sunday, Dec. 5. The show, which will be held in the Clay County Regional Events Center, will begin at 7:30 p.m...

A North Country Christmas, featuring Kat Perkins, will be held at Storm Lake High School auditorium, Saturday, December 4, 7:30 p.m. Christmas is Kat Perkins’ favorite time of year. Her holiday shows are a blend of traditional Christmas songs with Kat’s modern spin. She incorporates her audience in fun crowd participation holiday songs. She has created a fun, rockin’ show to celebrate the holidays filled with great music, laughter and even her own original Christmas songs. It’s an all age show...

Iowa surpassed 7,000 deaths from COVID-19 on Wednesday, according to Iowa Department of Public Health data. The state reported 104 additional deaths occurring between Aug. 8 and Oct. 30 bringing the state death total to 7,069 since early 2020. Iowa ranks 26th in the nation in the number of deaths per 100,000 people since January 2020 and 13th nationally in number of deaths per 100,000 in the past seven days, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention...

Elderbridge Agency on Aging has incorporated a program into their agency, Dementia Friends, that teaches individuals how to support someone living with dementia and dementia caregivers. A global movement to change how people think about dementia, Dementia Friends is supported in the state through Dementia Friendly Iowa...

Northwest Iowa area residents participated in the Walk to End Alzheimer’s in Spencer recently. The Walk was held at East Leech Park with the health and safety of participants, staff and volunteers remaining top priorities. Walkers helped raise almost $12,000 to support the care, support and research programs of the Alzheimer’s Association. Fundraising continues through the end of the year, so there is still time to donate at alz.org/walk...

During the Clay County Board of Supervisors meeting Thursday, the officials discussed the process of appointing an engineer to inspect a carbon sequestration pipeline proposed by Summit Carbon, which would cross through Clay County. Supervisor Burlin Matthews said the board was encouraged during their meeting with the Iowa Utilities Board to make the appointment sooner rather than later...

There’s been a lot of waiting in national politics in recent weeks as Democrats negotiated major spending bills and President Joe Biden promised vaccine mandates for employees of large companies. This week, those two plans dropped back-to-back, as Biden announced the official language of the vaccine mandate and the House finally passed an infrastructure bill...

By Jon Hutchins Special to The Pilot The first automobile seen in Storm Lake was in 1902, six years prior to the release of Ford’s celebrated Model T. It belonged to Eugene Sissons, a local realtor. In 1905 the number of vehicles registered in the whole of Iowa was only 799, but by 1920 this number was closing on half a million, and reports from a few years prior to that claim Iowans then as having the highest ratio of cars to population in the nation. ...

“The Donna Reed Show” originally aired on ABC from 1958 through 1966 and became one of the most popular family sitcoms in television history, thanks in part to its namesake star, who was born 100 years ago in Denison, Iowa. Reed passed away in 1986 but will be posthumously inducted into the Iowa Women’s Hall of Fame during an online ceremony set for 10 a.m. Nov. 6 on the Iowa Department of Human Rights’ Facebook page...

State Treasurer Michael L. Fitzgerald and College Savings Iowa are spreading the joy this holiday season with contributions to education savings. Residents in Buena Vista County can register at Iowa529Contest.com through Friday, December 31 to win a $529 contribution to their College Savings Iowa 529 account. ...

The Northwest Iowa Choral Directors Middle School Choral Festival was held at LeMars Community School on November 2. Storm Lake St. Mary’s sent seven dedicated students to participate in the honor choir. They came to school early since September to learn four pieces of music, and they then joined over 200 other students from 34 different schools for a concert. The students were under the direction of Gayle Strom, K-8 music instructor...