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Door County Transportation Options Program Presents Employment Van Pool

(Left to right) Lee Chapman, Kathy Copiskey, Jayne McCambridge, Kendra Dragseth, and Program Coordinator Kim McClure take a ride in the van pool.

• WEP, Inc.’s Door County Transportation Options Program has successfully launched the first ever employment van pool in Door County, which has been on the road since April 14, 2009. Through funding from the Wisconsin Department of Transportation, Kim McClure, program coordinator, has worked with Good Samaritan Scandia Village to coordinate riders and volunteer drivers. Plans are to expand services in 2011.

The van pool offers a more affordable and environmentally friendly form of transportation to and from work. The current van pool accommodates seven passengers, including the driver, and operates seven days a week.

A van pool rider traveling round trip from Sturgeon Bay to Sister Bay pays $5 a day or $20 a week, a savings of over $7,000 per person annually. As of September 30, 2010, a total of 26,475 miles have been shared providing 2,379 one way rides. Overall savings for the seven riders has been calculated at $35,105.86 in personal vehicle expenses. Carbon emissions have been reduced by over 40,904 pounds over the past 18 months.

Riders have also decreased the cost of the van pool by volunteering to drive the van. Fred Young of Young Automotive has played a big role in keeping the van operating and has provided a discounted van lease and maintenance plan.

For more information and/or to get involved, call Kim McClure at 920.743.6915 ext. 110 or stop by the Door County Job Center, 1300 Egg Harbor Road, Suite 124 in the Cherry Point Mall, Sturgeon Bay.

• The Door County Chapter of The Compassionate Friends will participate in an annual worldwide event designed to honor the memories of all children, regardless of age, who have died. The chapter is joining with hundreds of organized memorial services around the world for The Compassionate Friends’ 14th Annual Worldwide Candle Lighting on Sunday, Dec. 12, an event now believed to be the largest mass candle lighting in the world.

The local candle lighting will be part of a special service held at 6:30 pm at the United Methodist Church in Sturgeon Bay and will feature a program of remembrance followed by the lighting of candles at 7 pm. Candles are first lit at 7 pm, local time, just west of the International Date Line. As candles burn down in one time zone, they are lit in the next, creating a 24-hour wave of light as the observance continues around the world.

“The holiday season is an extremely difficult time of the year for families grieving the death of a child,” explained United States TCF Executive Director Patricia Loder. “The Worldwide Candle Lighting has united bereaved families around the world as a symbolic way of showing the love we continue to carry for our children, even though they can no longer be with us physically.”

The national TCF website, http://www.compassionatefriends.org, will feature a “Remembrance Book” Dec. 12.

The organization invites everyone to join in this moving tribute. To have a candle lit for a child, grandchild, or sibling, call Carol at 920.743.3476. For more information visit http://www.doorcountytcf.org.

• Working in conjunction with Neighbor-to-Neighbor, the Door County Senior Center, and the Social Services Department, Baylake Bank volunteers team up with generous community contributors to provide gifts and personal care items to those in need as apart of The Holiday Giving Program.

A Holiday Gift Tree will be displayed at Baylake Bank Conference Center, located at 222 N. 3rd Avenue in Sturgeon Bay from Nov. 26 through Dec. 17. Members of the community are invited to select from the tree a number that represents an individual whose name remains anonymous.

“Baylake Bank and Walmart provide the baskets, and by filling it with cheer – and some basic necessities like socks, toothpaste, and lotion – you can really make the holidays brighter for someone in our community,” said Premier Club Coordinator Barbara Malzahn, who created the Holiday Giving Program 13 years ago.

“The people I refer to Barb for the Holiday Giving Program are lonely or isolated due to their physical health or because they have no family or community connections. This program instills in them the magic of Christmas and lets each of them know the community truly cares about them,” said Executive Director of Neighbor-to-Neighbor Ann Bennett.

The filled baskets are collected and delivered prior to Christmas by Malzahn and her elves. For more information about how to participate, call Barb at 920.743.5551 ext. 1136.

• Thirteen students at Gibraltar High School have earned AP Scholar Awards in recognition of their exceptional achievement on AP exams.

The College Board’s Advanced Placement Program® (AP) provides motivated and academically prepared students the opportunity to take rigorous college-level courses while still in high school, and to earn college credit, advanced placement, or both for successful performance on the AP Exams.

The College Board recognizes several levels of achievement based on students’ performance on AP exams.

Four students qualified for the AP Scholar with Distinction Award by earning an average grade of at least 3.5 on all AP Exams taken, and grades of 3 or higher on five or more of these exams. These students are Graham Edwards, Samuel Kahr, Eliza Pelrine, and Andrew Phillips.

Three students qualified for the AP Scholar with Honor Award by earning an average grade of at least 3.25 on all AP exams taken, and grades of 3 or higher on four or more of these exams. These students are Erik Emanuelson, Hannah Mickelson and Elizabeth Stubenvoll.

Six students qualified for the AP Scholar Award by completing three or more AP Exams with grades of 3 or higher. The AP Scholars are Olivia Demarinis, Annalise Falck-Pedersen, Ian Johnson, Ava Neddersen, Lillian Nelson and Samantha Thorn.

• Kirk Knutson, principal of Gibraltar High School, announced recently that Katherine Schneider has been named a Commended Student in the 2011 National Merit Scholarship Program. A Letter of Commendation from the school and National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC), which conducts the program, will be presented to this scholastically talented senior.

About 34,000 Commended Students throughout the nation are being recognized for their exceptional academic promise. Although they will not continue in the 2011 competition for National Merit Scholarships, Commended Students placed among the top five percent of more than 1.5 million students who entered the 2011 competition by taking the 2009 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test.

• Sturgeon Bay Noon Rotary awarded Door-Tran with a $1,500 check to support Door-Tran’s creative community network dedicated to connecting people to transportation services that are affordable, available, and accessible.

Door-Tran implemented a half-price voucher program in Nov. 2008, and to date has served over 185 individuals and provided funding for over 7,600 rides to include trips to local businesses, health care facilities, work, and social events.

Door-Tran also offers information and referral to transportation services and free countywide car pool matching for individuals interested in sharing rides.

For more information call Pam Busch at 920.743.9999 or 877.330.6333.

• The Northern Door Children Center (NDCC) will kick off their Poinsettia Fundraiser on Friday, Dec. 3. Provided by Schroeder’s Flowers of Green Bay, the poinsettias will be available in red, white, pink, marble, or burgundy. Customers have an option of four different size and price options: 4.5” for $5.50, 6.5” for $10, 7.5” for $22, or 10” for $30 (red and white only).

Proceeds from the fundraiser will benefit the NDCC.

For more information and/or to order poinsettias, stop by the NDCC at 10520 Judith Blazer Drive in Sister Bay, call 920.854.4244, or email [email protected]. The deadline for orders is Monday, Nov. 29.

• Edward DiMaio will host Circle of Breath, a group breathwork session, the second Tuesday of each month at the Nelson Healing Center. DiMaio has been leading groups and seeing clients since 1995. He is an affiliate member of the International Breathwork Training Alliance and has trained in Arizona, Wisconsin, and Italy.

The session will take place from 6:30 – 9:30 pm, is limited to 12 participants, and holds a suggested fee of $20.

Nelson Healing Center is located at 44 South 2nd Avenue in Sturgeon Bay. For more information call DiMaio at 920.495.5940.

• The Breakfast Rotary Club of Sturgeon Bay presented dictionaries to every third-grade student in public and parochial schools in Door County and their teachers – a total of more than 260. In addition to the usual dictionary entries, the special student’s edition also has 16 pages of other data, including weights and measures, the Declaration of Independence, The Constitution, information about each U.S. president, state, country, as well as descriptions of sign language and Braille.

The Dictionary Project is new to Door County; however, since 2001, rotary volunteers have given away more than 1.2 million dictionaries. The Breakfast Rotary Club of Sturgeon Bay plans to continue presenting dictionaries to all third-grade students in the future.

(Left to right) Carrie Counihan, director of the Door County Humane Society accepts a donation from Baylake Bank representative Sally Ripp.

• Baylake Bank recently held a used furniture sale in which employees were able to purchase office equipment for personal use. Funds from the sale were then donated to the Door County Humane Society.

“The main floor of the Sturgeon Bay Financial Center needed updating, and rather than disposing of the old furniture, we made it available to employees at a very discounted price,” said Lydia Bessert, vice president of Baylake Bank facilities. “The staff then elected to donate the funds to the Humane Society.”

For more information call 920.743.5551 or 1.800.267.3610.

• Sister Bay SkatePark has completed their first goal in purchasing a skate park to be established at the Sister Bay Sports Complex.

To start the first phase of the Sister Bay SkatePark (along with smaller fundraising ventures) the committee has offered a “Build-A-Ramp” program. Area individuals and businesses have donated to have their name listed on the purchased equipment for the park and the Village of Sister Bay has offered to match these funds.

Those who have currently donated include: Sister Bay Advancement, Door Community Foundation/Edgewood Orchard Cookbook Fund, Birchwood Lodge, Sister Bay Bowl, Sister Bay Café, Baylake Bank, Deb Duran, and Gravity Trails.

To continue on with the fundraising, the committee is putting together an “Art for the SkatePark” auction to be held in the spring. “Art for the SkatePark” involves area artists to work their medium on an unfinished maple skateboard to be auctioned at an event next summer.

For more information call Lisa MacDonald at 920.421.1404.

• Unity announced its celebration of November as National Hospice/Palliative Care Month through increased community education of support options during advanced illness and at the end of life. These initiatives are part of a broader national campaign launched by the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO), encouraging people to learn more about hospice and palliative care before they are faced with a health care crisis.

Displays will be placed throughout Unity’s 12-county service area in November. Confirmed locations for displays featuring Unity’s memorial quilts include the East Town Mall (Green Bay), Algoma Public Library, Kewaunee Public Library, and Door County Library – Sturgeon Bay branch. Informational displays will also be located at the Regional Cancer Collaborative sites of St. Vincent Hospital (Green Bay), St. Mary’s Hospital Medical Center (Green Bay), and Ministry Door County Medical Center (Sturgeon Bay).

Unity is based in the Green Bay area with offices in Marinette, Shawano, and Sturgeon Bay. For more information call 920.338.1111.