Article posted Wednesday, September 16, 2009 2:56pm

• The public is invited to the program “Protect Your Identity and Avoid Being Scammed” on Wednesday, September 23 from 9:45 – 10:45 am. At the presentation to be held at the Sturgeon Bay YMCA, 1900 Michigan Street, attendees will learn how to protect themselves against serious crimes.

Dennis McIntosh, Security Representative for Baylake Bank, will be the presenter for the program. Before joining Baylake Bank, Dennis completed a 32-year career as a law enforcement professional. Discussion will detail on a variety of ways criminals can obtain the identity of others as well as how scam and con artists work.

Refreshments will be served and door prizes given away.

To register for this free program presented by Baylake Bank Premier Club and the YMCA, call 920.743.4949 or 920.743.5551 ext. 1136.

• The Friends of Peninsula State Park received a $500 donation from the State Farm Foundation for the work done this past spring by John Plume, a State Farm Agent from Minneapolis, MN. State Farm encourages employees to do volunteer work by matching their work with monetary contributions through their Good Neighbor grant program.

The donation will be used to purchase GPS units and other items to support Peninsula’s very popular geocache program. For more information, visit: http://www.PeninsulaFriends.org/100/geocache.htm.

• The Leadership Door County organization has selected new board members and officers for the 2009 – 10 year. President of the Leadership Door County board is Joe Jarosh; Vice President is Gay Pustaver; Secretary is Dawn Kuelz; and Treasurer is Lori Sampo. Board members for 2009-10 include: Rich DeMeuse, Kirsten Foss, Michelle Geiger-Bronsky, Katie Graf, Barbara Hackbarth, Kelly Hendee and Deb Whitelaw-Gorski.

Now entering its 20th year, Leadership Door County is an organization committed to identifying existing and potential leaders. The annual Leadership Door County program is designed to assist participants in developing and strengthening their leadership skills while providing them with a strong understanding of community issues. The experience prepares participants to make a personal commitment to continued service within the Door County community.

For more information call 920.746.6663 or visit http://www.leadershipdoorcounty.com

• The Peninsula School of Art in Fish Creek was recently awarded a grant from the Door County Community Foundation Arts Fund in support of the school’s fifth annual “We Love Art: The American Voice” community outreach project. Traditionally held in January and February, the month-long project involves hundreds of Door County elementary and secondary school youth in the creation of artwork that supports an educational theme. The works are then displayed as an exhibit in the School’s Guenzel Gallery.

This year, “We Love Art: The American Voice” will explore five truly American art movements and the historical moments that influenced their emergence. They include: Native American arts, Luminism and the Hudson River School, the birth of photojournalism, the Harlem Renaissance and Abstract Expressionism.

In recent weeks, the Peninsula School of Art has also received funding through the environmentally-conscious Raibrook Foundation for its current “Eco-tivity: environmental art in process” exhibition, as well a major grant from the Wisconsin Arts Board for operating support.

For more information visit http://www.peninsulaartschool.com.

• PFLAG Door County is sponsoring a public presentation on Domestic Partnerships on Sept. 20, at 5 pm at Hope Church. Local Attorney Dana Brooks will provide information and respond to questions about Domestic Partnership.

PFLAG provides advocacy, education, support and promotes the health and well-being of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people, their families and friends.

PFLAG Door County meets at 5 pm on the third Sunday of each month at Hope Church, at the corner of 12th and Michigan.

For more information email [email protected] or call 920.743.8146.

• Tickets are still available for the Second Annual Celebrity Chef luncheon and dinner, being held on Saturday, September 19 as a fundraiser for the United Way. This year’s event “La Cucina Italiana con Cathy & Tony Mantuano” will feature the incredible husband and wife known internationally for his critically acclaimed cooking, and for her wine expertise.

Held at the Clubhouse at The Orchards Golf Course in Egg Harbor, the luncheon includes a cooking demonstration, four-course Italian meal, wine pairings for each course, and a cookbook autographed by Cathy & Tony Mantuano. Tickets are $150 each.

Chef Mantuano will also be preparing a multicourse gourmet dinner, the evening of September 19, with specially selected wines for 10 couples at a private residence in Door County. Tickets for the dinner are $500 per person.

All proceeds from both events benefit the United Way of Door County. Additional information can be found on the United Way Web site at http://www.unitedwaydc.com. Tickets for both events are available by calling 920.746.9645.

• Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack recently announced that USDA is accepting applications for grants to assist agricultural producers seeking to add value to the commodities they produce. About $18 million will be awarded nationwide.

USDA plans to award planning grants of up to $100,000 and working capital grants of up to $300,000 to successful applicants. Applicants are encouraged to propose projects that use existing agricultural products in non-traditional ways or merge agricultural products with technology in creative ways. Businesses of all sizes may apply, but priority will be given to operators of small and medium-sized family farms – those with average, annual gross sales of less than $700,000. The competitive grants to be awarded under this notice are part of USDA Rural Development’s annual budget and are not funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

Applicants must provide matching funds equal to the amount of the grant requested. Ten percent of the funding being made available is reserved for beginning farmers or ranchers and socially disadvantaged farmers or ranchers. An additional 10 percent is reserved for projects involving local and regional supply networks that link independent producers with businesses and cooperatives that market value-added products.

Paper and electronic applications must be submitted to the Rural Development state office in the state where the project will be located. A list of state offices is available at http://www.rurdev.usda.gov/recd_map.html . Electronic applications must be submitted through http://www.Grants.gov.

• The First Annual Door County Wine Festival to benefit the Wellness Center of Door County will take place Sept. 23 – 27. The event will be filled with opportunities to experience over 100 wines from around the globe, incredible dinners and other culinary delights.

The Grand Tasting at the Sister Bay Village Hall on Saturday, Sept. 26 will feature dozens of wines from around the world and tantalizing live and silent auction items. Tickets for the Grand Tasting are limited for this premiere event and available for purchase on line at http://www.wellnesscenterofdoorcounty.com/specialevents or by calling 920.746.9444.

Proceeds from the Door County Wine Festival will be used to build a much needed addition for the Wellness Center of Door County, located at 312 N. 5th Avenue in Sturgeon Bay. The Wellness Center is a community-based non-profit organization that provides compassionate, confidential and affordable reproductive and related health care to men and women across the lifespan. The Wellness Center is the sole provider for Door and Kewaunee Counties of care and examinations by Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners following a sexual assault.

• The Unitarian Universalist Fellowshihp of Door County is sponsoring an End-of-Life Series. The first informational session covering issues of cremation will be held on Oct. 1 at 2 pm. Greg Casperson, representing Casperson Funeral Home in Sister Bay, will discuss the options and services available. The public is welcome to attend this informative discussion at no cost.

A UUFDC member will give an update about the Lighthouse Memorial Society following its reorganization and relocation to Madison.

Future session topics may deal with health care directives, wills and memorial service planning.

UUFDC is a lay-led congregation of 100 members and a similar number of active friends. Sunday services are held year-round at 10 am at 10341 Hwy. 42, Ephraim. For more information, visit http://www.uufdc.org.

• Stella Maris Parish will host a presentation, “Who Belongs to Christ? A Franciscan Response” by Sr. Ilia Delio on Saturday, September 26, 1 pm, Fish Creek site. Sr. Ilia will offer her thoughts on how to define more clearly the path of Franciscan prayer and how we can seek God in a complex world.

Ilia Delio, OSF, a Franciscan Sister of Washington D.C., is Professor and Chair of Spirituality Studies at Washington Theological Union in Washington, DC. She is also an associate fellow of Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University. She holds a doctorate in Historical Theology from Fordham University and a doctorate in Pharmacology from the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ)-Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences.

Stella Maris Catholic Parish of Northern Door County is pleased to present, for the fourth year, a lecture for their members and fellow Christian communities in what is intended to be a series of lectures by recognized leading experts in the fields of Christian theology, history and thought. A question and answer session will be held after the presentation.

For more information email [email protected].

• The next Living Well workshop offered at Door County Memorial Hospital begins Wednesday, October 14 and will take place every Wednesday from 4:30 – 7 pm for six weeks.

Developed at Stanford University, Living Well with Chronic Conditions is an evidence-based program that helps participants with ongoing health conditions to take charge of their health problems and get relief from their pain, fatigue, and other symptoms. The workshop is free of charge. All participants will receive the Living Well with Chronic Conditions book, as well as a light dinner generously offered by Door County Memorial Hospital. Participants should be able to commit to all six sessions.

For more information or to enroll in the Living Well workshop, please call co-facilitator Linda Stone Winter at Door County Social Services at 920.746.2300.

• The Ephraim Men’s Club’s pancake breakfast benefit raised over $7,000 for Gibraltar High School scholarship awards in 2010. This figure was announced at the EMC’s recent summer picnic where the club also honored outgoing president Doug Schultz and elected a new slate of officers for the coming year.

The Ephraim Men’s Club Scholarship fundraiser was initiated as a project to benefit students of the Northern Door community. To date, the club has awarded more than $150,000 in scholarships over the past 20 years to deserving Gibraltar high school graduating seniors who make application with essays, references, and personal statement letters outlining their academic, scholastic, and extracurricular achievements and their commitment to community service.

Officers elected for 2010 were Bill Schumann, president, and Paul Pillat, vice president. Re-elected were treasurer Jim Rutter and secretary Dick Van de Ven. Schumann called for more new members and a renewed commitment to Northern Door community service.

For more information call 920.854.9536.

• The Nelson Healing Center is providing a number of different workshops and events for the fall and winter seasons ahead, the first of which will cover the Twelve Success Strategies of Falling Awake. Beginning this September, Falling Awake is a six-month, bi-monthly exercise set to examine “our lives, our habits and our patterns in life that may not serve us anymore.”

On Wednesday, September 23 everyone is invited to attend a free course orientation from 6:30 – 9 pm at Nelson Healing Center on the Twelve Success Strategies of Falling Awake. Over the next several months following the orientation, Dr. Melissa Nelson will lead a 13-class workshop series exploring the methods described by Dave Ellis in his book, Falling Awake: Creating the Life of Your Dreams.

The course materials can be viewed online at http://www.FallingAwake.com. For more information call 920.818.0045. Nelson Healing Center is located at 44 S. 2nd Avenue in Sturgeon Bay, and on the Web at http://www.NelsonHealingCenter.com.

• With September designated as National Preparedness Month, the local chapters of the American Red Cross are urging local residents to make a renewed effort in September to prepare for a possible resurgence of the H1N1 flu this fall – and for other emergencies such as fires, floods or storms.

While you are your best defense against emergencies, the Red Cross can help you take simple steps to prepare yourself and your loved ones for emergencies ranging from severe weather to a flu outbreak. Several resources are available at http://www.redcross.org.

The Red Cross created a free online education program to make it easier for people to get prepared. The Be Red Cross Ready program walks people through three key preparedness steps: getting an emergency kit, making an emergency plan and being informed.

For more information call 920.231.3590 or visit http://www.redcross.org.

• United Way of Door County recently held their Annual Kickoff Event where the campaign need and the co-chairs for 2009, Pamela Parks and Darren Voigt, were announced.

Parks is a wife and mother of three, a graduate of Southern Door High School and resides in Brussels. Parks graduated with a bachelors degree in Social Work from Carthage College and received her masters degree in Social Work from the University of Minnesota-Duluth. She worked as HELP of Door County’s Domestic Violence Services Coordinator for seven years.

Voigt was born and raised in Green Bay and has been a resident of Door County for the past 14 years; he is the manager of the Sister Bay and Baileys Harbor branches of Associated Bank. His two children attend school in Sturgeon Bay and he is active in his church community.

The campaign need for 2009 remains at $510,000 – the same amount needed last year, which was unmet. The effects of the economic downturn have placed greater needs on the programs and agencies that are available to empower Door County residents to build better lives.

The enthusiastic crowd at the kickoff event at Maxwelton Braes Golf Course held a spontaneous fundraiser in honor of Executive Director Amy Kohnle, who celebrated 10 years with United Way of Door County in August 2009 and is the biggest cheerleader for the organization. The impromptu effort raised over $1,000 as a challenge to have Kohnle wear a cheerleader uniform for a photo opportunity during this year’s fundraising campaign.

For more information call 920.746.9645 or email [email protected].