Stories from Tuesday, September 15, 1992

The Mental Health Association's mission is to promote awareness, understanding and acceptance of mental-health issues through education, services and advocacy. In 1991 the agency provided or co-sponsored a series of professional and lay workshops centered on mental health issues pertaining to children, adolescents and parenting. Programs aimed at preventing teen suicide were a primary focus...

The mission of the Jackson Nutrition Center is to promote the wellbeing of people who are 60 and older. It provides a place to congregate and delivers meals to home-bound people. The nutrition center is at 402 E. Washington in Jackson. The center is open from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Mondays through Fridays...

The Cape Girardeau Composite Squadron, Civil Air Patrol, is one of the newest public service organizations to become a part of the Area Wide United Way family. It was welcomed under the United Way umbrella earlier this year. The squadron's commander, Capt. Fred Brown, says being a part of the United Way means the unit can continue to grow and develop so it can fulfill its youth and adult-oriented mission of public service and education...

Increases in insurance costs and state aid cuts have forced VIP Industries to take shelter under the United Way umbrella once more. The non-profit employer of the handicapped, established in 1966, was an agency benefited by the United Way for eight to 10 years, prior to which it held its own individual fund-raising drives, said VIP Executive Director Hilary F. ...

The "loaned executives" program has been a major factor in the success of the Area Wide United Way fund campaign the past two years. "It's a successful program," says Dorothy Klein, executive director of the United Way. "We depend on our loaned executives to contact many of the major corporations."...

The Area Wide United Way hopes to raise $477,000 during its annual fund drive to help support 26 local agencies. Those agencies, in turn, provide services to thousands of residents in need, individuals like young Elton and his mother. Two and one-half years ago Elton was out of control. His hyperactivity, at age 3, took his mother to the end of her knowledge, patience and endurance...

"What have you read lately?" When Jim Trelease sprang this question on fourth-graders 20 years ago, their responses made him shudder. Blank stares and a meager showing of hands appeared in classroom after classroom. Some blurted out the titles of their textbooks. Others rattled off listings from TV Guide. In only one out of every dozen classes were there enthusiastic shouts of titles like "The Secret Garden" or "Lassie Come Home."...

Do you remember your favorite book when you were growing up? Was it a tale of iron-clad knights and fair maidens? Or robots and laser beams? Was the main character a gentlemanly, green toad? Or a dappled pony? Maybe it was about a mischievous little girl named Louise or two investigative brothers called the Hardy Boys?...

About 365,000 Missourians are considered "functionally illiterate," including an estimated 3,400 in Cape Girardeau alone, according to U.S. census data. Many illiterate adults remain shackled by their deficiency because of embarrassment and shame. But that doesn't deter Teri Hirsch, the coordinator of the adult literacy program at the Cape Girardeau Area Vocational-Technical School...

The United Way is a national fund-raising organization that works because it focuses on the needs of individual communities Dorothy Klein, executive director of the Cape Girardeau Area Wide United Way and a 12-year veteran of the organization, said those few simple words are the foundation for the United Way providing services to many people in need...

The Family Learning Center strives to prevent and treat child abuse and to help children with emotional or behavioral problems by strengthening the family unit. The agency also works to develop positive parent-child relations and to help families cope with specific issues including the child's behavior problems...

The Gibson Recovery Center provides alcohol- and drug-recovery treatment on a priority basis to residents from a six-county area, including Cape Girardeau County. Gibson is a non-profit agency and has been in operation for 13 years. In March 1990, the Center opened a new facility at 1112 Linden to accommodate all of the agency's services...

The American Heart Association devotes itself to the mission of reducing disease and death caused by cardiovascular disease. The agency sponsors cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) classes for the public as well as recertification of instructors. In addition, the Cape Girardeau County Division works with children through Smokefree 2000 and the Schoolsite program, which involves students from kindergarten through 12th grade...

The Easter Seal Society hopes to help people with disabilities achieve maximum independence. The agency offers two main programs: the Early Learning Center for preschool children with disabilities and a loan-a-seat program to provide a car safety seat to any family with a child who needs one...

Habitat for Humanity provides decent housing in a decent neighborhood for families who otherwise could not afford to own their own home. Through Habitat for Humanity, community volunteers work beside family members to build or remodel a home. The agency targets families in Cape Girardeau County but is currently managing projects in several Bootheel counties. ...

For more than 12 years the Hoover Eldercare Center (formerly called SEMO Eldercare) has provided socialization and education opportunities for elderly people in the area. The Eldercare Center is the only licensed, social, adult day-care center in Missouri. It has served as a model for programs in other states...

The Boy Scouts of America hopes to serve young people by helping to instill values and prepare them to make ethical choices and achieve their full potential. The Southeast Missouri Council, which includes 14 counties, serves over 9,000 youths and 1,200 adults...

The Cape Girardeau Nutrition Center works to promote the wellbeing of people 60 and older through meals and companionship. The agency's primary service is providing congregation and home-delivered meals. But the center also serves as a social hub for participants...

The Cape Girardeau Civic Center provides recreational, educational and vocational activities for disadvantaged youths in the community. The youths served are predominantly low-income and minorities, although the programming is not limited to those groups...

The Radio Information Service provides a source of information ranging from current events to novels for persons who are blind or disabled. The agency provides radio receivers to eligible people. Information from newspapers and magazines, for example, is read and broadcast over a special radio frequency...

The mission of the Jackson R-2 Children's Fund is to provide medical services, dental care, medication, clothing, shoes, eyeglasses and other items to needy children. By providing the services, needy children will keep physically and emotionally healthy to be academically successful...

The American Red Cross has three primary objectives: to improve the quality of human life; to enhance self-reliance and concern for others; and to help people avoid, prepare for and cope with emergencies. The Red Cross is often the first agency called upon in an emergency. ...

Chaffee Current Events teacher Kent Mangels knows that newspapers in the classroom work, and he has the enrollment to prove it. Before he started using the Southeast Missourian as the primary source of information for the course, Current Events at Chaffee had an enrollment of just nine students. This semester, the course has 32 enrolled...

The Cape Girardeau County 4-H Council provides an out of school educational program for youth between five and 19 years of age. The 4-H program also recognizes the importance of the recreational needs of youth and emphasizes in it the 4-H club program...

Every 15 seconds, a woman is battered by someone she loves in the United States. One out of four women live in violent homes. Fifty percent of women will experience violence at least once in their marriage. Safe House for Women, Inc. opened its doors officially November, 1991. ...

YELL is a special publication of the Southeast Missourian newspaper, produced in conjunction with the Area Wide United Way. Recognition should also go to the staffs of the Southeast Missourian advertising, community relations, composition and circulation departments, directed respectively by Irvin Landewee, Pat Zellmer, John Renaud and Mike Sturm...

In celebration of our second annual YELL Day, the Southeast Missourian and Area United Way would like to thank the following organizations for their enthusiastic support: Southwestern Bell for providing leadership and caps, aprons, signs, badges and volunteer appreciation gifts...

Win a Sanyo Portable CD/Stereo Radio Cassette Recorder with: High Power Feature, Oversampling Digital Filter, Skip and Search Functions, CD-to-Tape Synchronous Dubbing, Dynamic 4" Full Range Speakers and more. All you have to do is find information located in four different advertisements in this publication and answer the following questions: 1) Where does Gorden Moore work, and why is he pictured in his company's ad? 2) Where and how can kids under 12 get a free icecream dessert (more than one answer is correct)? 3) If "The problem is illiteracy," in what color is "The Answer?" And, 4) What is "The path to understanding our world?" (Hint, look up.). ...

Left, Civic Center Director Calvin Bird assists a student with her academics. The Civic Center received YELL money for general operation and to set up a resource library. Below, United Way YELL Committeeman and Schnuck's Manager Dennis Marchi counts some of the $13,000 raised during last year's campaign...

Lutheran Family and Children's Services of Southeast Missouri offers counseling and education to individuals, couples and families. The agency offers adoption services, including an adoption support group. Additional services are designed to be of help to the elderly and to the families of the elderly...

The Girl Scouts encourages girls to be the best they can be by providing program opportunities and experiences with caring adults to develop decision-making skills that will help them make positive life choices. This year Otahki Girl Scout Council has offered opportunities to 2,732 girls and 928 adults throughout its 11-county area...

When the Southeast Missouri District Fair turns on its lights each evening, enough electricity flows through more than five miles of cable in Arena Park to power a small town, said Pete Poe, president of the District Fair Board. Power for the annual extra~vaganza comes from two sources Union Electric Company and three diesel-powered generators provided by Farrow Amusement, which provides all the electrical power for the midway...

JACKSON - A group studying the formation of a countywide economic development organization has decided to focus on drafting a set of by-laws and an organizational structure that will be used. The decision was made at Monday's meeting of the committee after John Mehner, chairman of the board of the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce, said his board had decided not to commit its $25,000 annual share until "procedural issues and an organizational structure is worked out."...

A special edition of the Southeast Missourian is being sold this morning on street corners in Cape Girardeau and Scott City in an effort to raise money to fight illiteracy. Volunteers are hawking papers in the second annual YELL for Newspapers. Money raised will fund the Southeast Missourian's Newspapers In Education program for area schools and also the Area Wide United Way's special literacy programs...

Freshman Republican State Rep. Mark Richardson is contemplating whether to seek an override of a $25,000 appropriation withheld by Gov. John Ashcroft for a new National Guard armory in Poplar Bluff. The $25,000 was regarded as a good faith gesture by the state that it would eventually put up the $820,000 needed to secure the remainder of the $2.5 million project funding from the federal government...

DELTA - A four-mile section of Route N will be closed today while workers replace corrugated pipe under the roadway. The work will occur between the junction of Routes F and N in Bollinger County and the junctions of Routes U and N in Cape Girardeau County...

A year ago, the Cape Girardeau Board of Education set about the task of revising its district policies; this week, the board again began the process. The school board approved a contract Monday afternoon with the Missouri School Boards Association to compile, evaluate and revise the district's operating policies...

Pledging to "Make Safety a Way of Life," an international organization with Missouri ties this week is meeting in Cape Girardeau. The World Safety Organization (WSO), which is a consultant to the United Nations, is holding its "Regional Safety Conference for Americas" at Cape Girardeau's Holiday Inn.. ...

Dear Editor: Community Pride was the order of the day! Pride on Our Side was the program theme! The activity was Invest In Cape Pride Day, Aug. 15, 1992. It was a sweeping success! A total of 45 individuals exhibited their community spirit by picking up litter in pride zone number one Pacific Street west to the Mississippi River and Good Hope Street south to Hackberry Street...

Dear Editor: The Exchange Clubs of Cape Girardeau express thanks to the citizens of the area that helped make the "Quarters for Kids" program a success. These quarters were collected at several places here as our National Exchange attempted to set a new record for the longest, most valuable line of coins in the world...

Human experience provides a cruel irony where crime is concerned: criminals have options while their victims have none. Being a lawbreaker entitles a person to choose the time and place and target of the criminal act; the victim is omitted from the planning and suffers from this innocence. Sarah Froemsdorf of Perryville wants to level the playing field with advocacy of victims' rights issues. We commend her efforts...

Considering all the damage done by Hurricane Andrew, our politicians no longer have to travel to Third World countries to see devastation. --- Not only do Andrew's victims have to contend with losing their homes, they now have to learn to digest the Army's Ready To Eat meals...

Dear Editor: The editorial in last week's edition by Edwin Feulner points up the fact that many people accept figures thrown at them as fact without further research. Could it be that part of the failure lies with people not doing enough reading today and depending on the "sound bites" given to them by the TV media? This myth on overpopulation is being expounded today by the liberal agenda. It comes under "management by crisis" which we are continually being subjected to today...

Dear Editor: This week, the House and Senate will be taking final action on one of the most important pieces of consumer legislation in recent memory. The Cable Television Consumer Protection Act passed both the House and Senate by overwhelming margins earlier this year, and a final version of the legislation now must receive one more approval by both houses of Congress in order to be sent to the President of his signature...

SIKESTON -- Funeral service for Paul B. Mulcahy of Sikeston will be held at 10 a.m. today at Crews-Welsh and Ponder Funeral Home. The Rev. W.R. Harrell will officiate, with burial in Garden of Memories Cemetery. Mulcahy, 78, died Saturday, Sept. 12, 1992, at Missouri Delta Medical Center...

WASHINGTON - An agreement to extend a $1.5 billion package of credit guarantees and food assistance for Russia was announced Monday by the Department of Agriculture. Feed grains, protein meal and wheat are among the commodities to be shipped to the Russians...

The Cape Girardeau Jaycees Monday extended its support for a city-funded recreational facility and warned against spending excess tourism funds on too many other projects. Kevin Lasher of the Jaycees told the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board that the group "whole-heartedly" supports spending city tourism tax dollars on a recreational facility that would include additional softball and soccer fields...

Effie Mae Hatcher, 72, of 2852 Independence St., died Monday, Sept. 14, 1992, at Southeast Missouri Hospital. Arrangements are incomplete at Amick-Burnett Funeral Chapel in Scott City.

MARBLE HILL -- Funeral service for Helen D. Tomlinson of Marble Hill will be held at 11 a.m. today at Harmony Congregational Methodist Church. The Revs. Bill Ross and Randy Poole will officiate. Burial and graveside service will be at 11 a.m. Wednesday at St. James Cemetery in St. James. Liley Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements...

H. Wendell Eyre, 72, 2130 Merriwether, died Saturday, Sept. 12, 1992, at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Marion, Ill. He was born Sept. 28, 1919, at Mt. Vernon, Ill., son of Fred and Daisy Wimberley Eyre. He and Glodean Springer were married Dec. 28, 1940, in St. Louis...

SIKESTON -- Funeral service for Wanda Dean Nelson of Sikeston will be held at 2 p.m. today at Nunnelee Funeral Chapel. The Rev. Norman Elledge will officiate, with burial in Garden of Memories Cemetery. Friends may call at the funeral home from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m...

JACKSON -- Kathleen Noland, 94, of Route 4, Jackson died Monday, Sept. 14, 1992, at St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau. She was born March 21, 1898, near Neely's Landing, the daughter of Sterling Price and Emily Clare Cotter Bray. On Sept. 17, 1919, she married Carl Noland, who preceded her in death, Dec. 28, 1951...

OLIVE BRANCH, Ill. -- Gilbert Patrick, 46, of Olive Branch, died Monday, Sept. 14, 1992, at his home. He was born Aug. 4, 1946, at East Prairie, Mo., son of Roscoe and Mary Kathleen Davis Patrick. Patrick was employed by Patton Farms in Miller City. He was a member of First Baptist Church in Mound City, Cairo VFW Post 2649, American Legion at McClure, and Alexander-Pulaski Sportsman Club. He was a veteran of the Vietnam War...

CHARLESTON -- Eskell Sneed, 81, Charleston Route 2, died Monday, Sept. 14, 1992, at his home. He was born March 14, 1911, in Crittendon County, Ky., son of Thomas and Sarah Elizabeth Rodgers Sneed. He and Lucille Foster were married Jan. 9, 1954. She died Sept. 12, 1968...