ourgrinnell Keeping GRINNELL Connected !

Members of 100 + People Who Care – Grinnell voted at their February 18 meeting to fund Grinnell Connected PTO’s project to send this year’s 4thGrade students to the Y-Camp, near Boone, for a three-day, two-night camping experience with their classmates, teachers and chaperones.  At the meeting, which had been postponed twice because of weather, members heard three presentations of significant …

UnityPoint Health®– Grinnell Regional Medical Center (GRMC) Board of Trustees announces its 2019-2020 officers and new members.  Elected officers include Bill Menner, Chair, The Bill Menner Group; David Stoakes, EdD, Chair Elect, retired superintendent Cedar Falls School District; Sally Lang, Treasurer, retired from John Deere Company; Al Maly, Secretary, retired from AT&T/Bell Laboratories; and Wendy Kadner, Past Chair, Divurgent. Trustee …

40,000 Piece Puzzle…Sure.  Sure! He’s doing it again!  After recently completing a 9,000-piece jigsaw puzzle, Mayflower Community (Grinnell, Iowa) resident, John Noer, just acquired a 40,000-piece puzzle.  Having nothing to do for the next couple of years, he may be able to come up with the 22-foot long creation.  Standing six feet tall, the puzzle depicts vivid Disney® characters and scenes. Buoyed by his …

 ‘Hometown Teams: How Sports Shape America’ will open in local library on Friday, Feb. 15    GRINNELL, Iowa — Baseball. Soccer. Hockey. Bowling. Kickball. Surfing. People around the country are drawn to compete in these sports and many others. Still more gather on the sidelines to cheer for their favorite athletes and teams. Nowhere do Americans more intimately connect to sports …

Students, faculty adapt to new facility in first week of spring semester classes GRINNELL, Iowa — Grinnell College’s spring semester classes in humanities and social studies began this week in the newly constructed portion of the new Humanities and Social Studies Center (HSSC). The $112 million HSSC brings non-fine arts humanities and social studies departments together in one building to creative …

Performance artists will stage a barrage of 30 plays in random order in 1 hour Founding Ensemble Member Rob Neill, center, joins other members of New York Neo-Futurists in performing “The Infinite Wrench.” GRINNELL, Iowa — The New York Neo-Futurists, a diverse collection of performance artists, will present their ever-changing show, “The Infinite Wrench,” on Thursday, Feb. 1, at Grinnell College.  WHEN:The …

The Grinnell Volunteer Fire Association has been selected to host the 2020 and 2021 Iowa Firefighter’s Association annual State Convention.  The 5-day convention takes place in September following Labor Day weekend.  It has been an annual event in Iowa since 1878.  Grinnell hosted in 2014 and 1964.  The IFA Convention will bring numerous activities to the community for the attendees, including a golf tournament, …

On Wednesday, January 16th, The Mayflower Community (Grinnell, Iowa) hosted the Grinnell College men’s and women’s swimming teams for a nutritious pasta supper in the Buckley Dining Room. The student-athletes were living in their college dorm rooms while most the Grinnell College student body was gone for winter break. Head Men’s and Women’s Swimming and Diving Coach, Erin Hurley brought her …

Bizet’s masterpiece is one of the most frequently staged operas in the world Clémentine Margaine in the title role of Bizet’s “Carmen.” Photo: Marty Sohl / Met GRINNELL, Iowa — Georges Bizet’s “Carmen,” which tells the story of a gypsy seductress who lives by her own rules, will be streamed live at Grinnell College on Saturday, Feb. 2, as part of the Metropolitan …

On Tuesday, January 15th, the men’s and women’s Grinnell College track teams came to dinner in the Mayflower Community Buckley Dining Room. Stranded in the dorms during winter break, the young men and women enjoyed Mayflower hospitality and, of course, outstanding food.  On the menu for the 62 guests and hosts were zucchini tofu with roasted veggies, regular and vegetarian lasagna, and …

Six people were on hand for the regular monthly meeting of the Grinnell Veterans Memorial Commission on Monday, January 14.  Unfortunately, only two of them were commission members.   With only Gwen Rieck and Leo Lease (pictured above), two of five members present, no quorum was attained, and Commission Chair Lease could not call an official meeting to order. Yet the conversation …

(Grinnell, IA – January 14, 2019)  A Go Red for Women Fashion Show will be hosted by St. Francis Manor & Seeland Park on Friday, February 1 at 2 PMin recognition of National Wear Red Day.  This fun-filled red-hot event is open to the public and will be held in the St. Francis Manor Social Center, located off St. Francis Drive north of 4thAvenue. …

 For the eighth consecutive year, St. Francis Manor and Seeland Park hosted the Grinnell College Men’s and Women’s basketball teams at a dinner in the Social Center on January 10. The athletes and coaches enjoyed a delicious dinner of barbecue ribs, stuffed airline chicken breasts, green beans, baked potatoes and brownies prepared by the St. Francis Manor Culinary staff—a real …

JBeginning January 25th, S.H.E. Counts will launch a quarterly financial educational workshop series for women, titled Power Up, Financial Fitness for Women. Each session will focus on providing financial skills and management advice. Delphina Baumann and Melissa Vine, advisory committee members of S.H.E. Counts, will lead the Power Up educational series and will include local guest speakers for the individual …

If you are a Grinnell College basketball player living in the empty dorms during winter recess, where do you go for great food?  THE MAYFLOWER COMMUNITY!  On Wednesday, January 3rd, the men’s and women’s basketball teams joined Mayflower hosts in the Buckley Dining Room to “pasta-pack” for their games at Ripon (Wisconsin) the following Saturday.  The fare included spaghetti, ravioli, garlic bread, tossed …

Residents can concur, comment via petition By Michael McAllister Grinnellians who do not wish to see the city discontinue curbside recycling can make their feelings known through an online petition created by Grinnell Cares, an organization made up of community members who respectfully ask city officials to reconsider ending recycling as it now exists in Grinnell. “Please join us in …

100 + People Who Care – Grinnell will meet Tuesday, January 22, at 5:30 p.m.  This hour-long, quarterly meeting will be held at the Parish Center of St. Mary’s Catholic Church, 1002 Broad Street, Grinnell. This will be a voting meeting for the organization, where a decision is made regarding support for a community organization in the greater Grinnell area. In case …

Enhancements have been made in Mayflower’s Health Center, a fully licensed nursing care facility.  Now featured in the South community is a low-stimulus environment, specializing in care for residents with chronic and life-limiting conditions.  Included is palliative care that provides comfort to residents when their medical conditions cannot be stabilized or improved.  Our staff in the health center are trained in the best …

Nate and Karie Smith – Linda and Skip Lowe Area families may benefit from a new fund established by Grinnell residents Skip and Linda Lowe and Nate and Karie Smith to “strengthen marriages and families.” The STRONG Foundation, a program fund partner of the Claude W. and Dolly Ahrens Foundation, provides financial support to individuals, couples, and families seeking marriage …

By Michael McAllister Top ten lists, best-of-the-year lists—they’re as common as car commercials this time of year—Top Ten Songs of 2018, Best Must-See Movies, Top Ten Foods on a Stick, Most Ridiculous Celebrity Meltdowns, Top Ten Top Ten Lists, Best of the Best Lists, and so on. And on.  And on. Such lists tend to be highly subjective, easily debatable, and necessarily …

If you decide to do a New Year’s resolution to walk more, The Mayflower Community is the place to do it…no matter what the weather!  As you can see from the map displayed below, there are many places to walk INDOORS.  In fact, you can walk four city blocks without backtracking in the hallways, tunnels, and the skywalk (longest in Poweshiek County).  Then, …

ENDOW IOWA PROGRAM CELEBRATES 15th ANNIVERSARY Des Moines, IA – (December 20, 2018) The Endow Iowa program celebrated its 15thAnniversary with a proclamation signing in Governor Reynolds’ office last week. The programbegan in 2003 with $2 million in tax credits available. Demand for the tax credits has continued to grow and since 2013, $6 million has been available annually through this program. The …

Cornelia Clarke     The forgotten photographs of an early Grinnell photographer will be on display at the Grinnell Arts Center from January 11 through February 7.  Twenty-five botanical prints of Grinnell native Cornelia Clarke will be featured in the Stewart Gallery of the arts center in an exhibit put together by the Grinnell Historical Museum.     An opening reception will be held Friday, January …

     The winter session of Bucket Courses will start January 9 with a lecture by Jon Andelson, Rosenfield Professor of Social Science (Anthropology) and director of the Center for Prairie Studies at Grinnell College      His talk will compare the founding and early years of Grinnell and Amana. The title is “A Tale of Two Cities  (Towns, That Is): Two Utopias Founded on …

Anne F. Harris, with over 20 years of experience in higher education, will join Grinnell in July 2019 Anne F. Harris GRINNELL, Iowa – Anne F. Harris has been appointed vice president for academic affairs and dean of Grinnell College. Harris currently serves as a professor and vice president for academic affairs at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana. She will begin work at Grinnell on …

Johnny Khuu (rhymes with “cool” said quickly) has been serving as Resident Intern in the Mayflower Community since last summer.  He is the second post-graduate student to engage at Mayflower.  Ariel Lepito, a 2017 Grinnell College graduate, lived and worked with us from June 2017 to June 2018.  As a part of the program, the Resident Intern “volunteers” (works for subsistence wages) through …

Astronauts Memorial Foundation representatives in attendance included Olson, Sheryl Chaffee, daughter of Apollo 1 astronaut Roger Chaffee, Kathy Scobee Fulgham, daughter of Challenger commander Dick Scobee, shuttle astronaut Tom Jones, Bill Potter, Kevin Hoshstrasser, Rick Mathews, Paige Easley, and President Thad Altman. They were joined by representatives of the Smithsonian and the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation. Ceremonial first strikes of both …

By Michael McAllister The regular monthly meeting of Grinnell’s Veterans Memorial Commission was called to order as scheduled on Monday, December 10, in the Community Room of the Drake Library.  Four of five members—(pictured above, from left) Gwen Rieck, Randy Hotchkin, Leo Lease, and Terry Stringfellow—were present.  Ten people made up the audience. Routine business dealt with finances, which had not …

(Grinnell, IA – December 11, 2018)   U.S. News & World Report has identified St. Francis Manor as one of the Best Nursing Homes for 2018-19 with an Overall Rating of “High Performing” for the second consecutive year.  As the global authority in healthcare rankings, U.S. News & World Report has awarded this designation to St. Francis Manor based upon its nurse staffing …

Recently, Steve Langerud, Mayflower Community Executive Director, was the guest speaker at the Grinnell Lions Club regular weekly luncheon meeting. Steve explained that Mayflower Community is a life plan community where people make a choice to be in community with people they will live with for the rest of their lives.  Other such communities offer different levels of care and focus …

Protect Yourself from Financial Abuse With the ever-present changes in technology, scammers are coming up with more ways to take advantage of elderly populations. Learn more about the steps you can take to protect yourself or a loved one from elder financial abuse at the next UnityPoint Health – Grinnell Regional Medical Center Senior Education program on Monday, Aug. 20. …

  Working with the City of Grinnell and private investors, Grinnell College strives to bring economic and social vitality to downtown Grinnell. One initiative involves developing the Zone of Confluence – the neighborhood located between the Grinnell College campus and downtown Grinnell. Learn about this initiative with John Kalkbrenner, Grinnell College’s assistant vice president for Auxiliary Services and Economic Development, on …

Giving Kids the World Gary and Becky Downey of Grinnell will be sharing their volunteer experience at Give Kids the World Village in Kissimmee, Fla., on Monday, Sept. 11, during the Grinnell Regional Medical Center Senior Education Program. Give Kids the World Village (GKTW) is an 84-acre, nonprofit resort that creates magical memories for children with life-threatening illnesses and their …