BUSINESS PERSONNEL

Mike Potillo, Mel Potillo and Joyce Potillo attended a New Image International Inc. conference at Lexington, Ky.

Jayne Ervin and daughter, Kendra Kelley, attended an RJO jewelry-buying show.

SARAH VANHORN, LONNIE LUSK, BECKY TALLENT, STACY TAYLOR, KATHLEEN BERTRAND, JANET VARNON, DANNY ESSNER, ANN BROOKMAN, DR. JOHN HOLCOMB, DR. JERRY P. KASSEL, DR. KYLE BROST

New manager at ShopKo

Sarah VanHorn is the new manager at ShopKo.

VanHorn, a native of Rock Falls, Ill., assumed her new position here last month.

She has been with the company four years and comes into Cape Girardeau from Joplin where she was assistant manager.

She replaces Jim DePaul, who has transferred to the ShopKo store at Wausau, Wis.

VanHorn is a graduate of Truman State University -- formerly Northeast Missouri State -- at Kirksville.

New Foundation chairman

Danny Essner has been named chairman of the St. Francis Medical Center Foundation Board, following the retirement of Jerry Lorberg, who had served as board chairman since 1996.

Other board officers are Jim Bollinger, vice chairman; Joe Sullivan, secretary; and Kevin Govero, treasurer.

Chairman-elect Dr. Ken Dobbins, who was scheduled to become chairman, resigned from the board because of his new responsibilities as president of Southeast Missouri State University.

Ann Brookman and Dr. John Holcomb have been named new members of the board. Brookman and her husband, Gordon, own Edgewater Glass. Holcomb is a retired family physician and member of the St. Francis Medical staff for more than 30 years.

Lorberg, who was instrumental in raising funds for a number of projects, received a retirement gift of a framed aerial photograph of the St. Francis Campus, from William H. Kiel, executive director of the Foundation.

In new positions

Becky Tallent and Stacy Taylor have joined Missouri Mentoring Partnership.

Tallent was named program assistant for Missouri Mentoring in Cape Girardeau and Scott counties. Taylor has been named associate coordinator of the group's new Teen Parents Program for the two-county area.

Marge Sullivan, Missouri Mentoring coordinator, announced the appointments recently.

Talent and her husband were previously site administrators for the New Mexico Boys and Girls Ranches in Clovis, N.M. She has been involved with teen mentoring in various jobs and church groups. Her new duties will include administration of the Youth Opportunity Program grant.

Taylor's previous positions included office manager of Lutheran Family and Children's Services in Cape Girardeau, as well as a lease documentation analyst for Chase Manhattan Bank in Dallas, Texas She received two service start awards from Chase Manhattan for work place values and teamwork.

Her new duties will include further development and implementation of a mentoring program for pregnant teens that will ultimately steer them toward self-sufficiency.

Join Mercantile Bank

Kathleen Bertrand and Janet Varnon have joined the commercial loan department at Mercantile Bank of Southeast Missouri at Cape Girardeau.

Bertrand will serve as a vice president in commercial lending. She has 15 years banking experience and is a graduate of MidSouth School of Banking and the Graduate School of Banking in Colorado. She is a graduate of Southeast Missouri State University. She is a member of Cape West Rotary and is past president of the Community Counseling Center Foundation Board.

Varnon will serve as assistant vice president. She has nine years banking experience and is a graduate of Southeast Missouri State University with a degree in business administration. She is enrolled in the master of business administration program at Southeast. She is a member of the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce and serves on the chamber's Leadership Cape Alumni Committee.

Bertrand and Varnon formerly worked at Bank of America.

New designation

Rick Wieser, of Cape Girardeau, has completed all requirements to become a licensed funeral director in Missouri.

Wieser, who has been employed by Ford and Sons Funeral Home 14 months, has served a 12-month apprenticeship and completed testing of Missouri law regulating funeral directors.

He is a 1976 graduate of Southeast Missouri State University. He is a member of the Cape Girardeau park and Recreation Advisory Board.

Attend jewelry show

Jayne Ervin of Jayson Jewelers Ltd. attended the recent RJO Buying Show at Des Moines, Iowa.

Accompanying Ervin, a member of RJO -- an exclusive national jewelry-buying group -- on the trip was her daughter, Kendra Kelley, also of Jayson Jewelers.

More than 140 jewlery manufacturers and suppliers attended the show.

Irvin and Kelley attended a variety of professional seminars and participated in a roundtable on the state of the jewelry business.

RJO holds two exclusive buying shows a year for its more than 700 members.

In new position

Belinda Christy Pelikan is in a new position at Community Counseling Center, 402 S. Silver Springs Road. She will be a certified adult psychiatric/mental health clinical nurse specialist with prescriptive authority.

She is working in a collaborative agreement with Drs. Robert McCool, Peter Moran, Reeta Rohatgi and David Taylor.

She is involved in providing mental health care -- needs assessment, medical psychotherapy and prescribing medications -- for clients of Community Counseling Center, with offices in Cape Girardeau, Marble Hill, Perryville, Ste. Genevieve, Fredericktown and Jackson.

Pelikan is a graduate of Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville, with a specialty degree. She has been employed at Community Counseling Center, a not-for-profit mental health provider, five years, and was previously involved in crisis intervention, outpatient therapy and a day treatment program.

Attend national conference

Mike and Shelly Evans of Jackson, independent distributors with New Image International Inc., attended the New Image national conference at Lexington Center's Heritage Hall and Rupp Arena in Lexington, Ky.

Also attending the three-day event were Mike Potillo, Mel Potillo and Joyce Potillo, all of Cape Girardeau.

The event included advanced leadership training and the introduction of several new products that will be marketed in this area.

New Image is based in Georgetown, Ky., and is a leader in the billion dollar Network Marketing Industry and was recently named one of the world's top 10 companies by Network Marketing Today/MLM Insider Magazine.

Givens receives certification

Scott Givens, assistant manager of Southeast Missouri Hospital's Fitness and Wellness Center, Main Street Fitness and Jackson Outreach Services, has completed requirements to become a certified strength and conditioning specialist. Givens has been an employee at Southeast since 1994.

Certified strength and conditioning specialist certification is for professionals who design and implement strength training and conditioning programs for athletes. Certification is awarded through the National Strength and Conditioning Association.

Earns new designation

Lonnie R. Lusk, certified public accountant, has earned the certified accounting application specialist designation. The certification follows extensive training and testing in Great Plains' Dynamis Software accounting application.

Founded in 1981, Great Plains Software Inc. is a leading provider of Microsoft Windows, Windows NT and SQL server-based financial management software.

He is an accountant with Schott & Van de Ven, a full service public accounting firm and represents several accounting software companies. The firm is at 1020 N. Kingshighway, Suite D, Cape Girardeau, with satellite offices in Marble Hill and Marion, Ill.

Sales honors

David L. Hahs received the Diamond Award and was recognized during the 119th annual meeting of the Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co., Milwaukee, Wis., for sales achievements through May.

Hahs received the award for selling more than $11,614,283 in insurance as an agent with Northwestern Mutual.

Hahs is associated with Northwestern Mutual's T. Ronald Hahs District Agency, Cape Girardeau, of the Edward T. Hempstead General Agency, St. Louis.

Northwestern Mutual is the nation's fifth largest life insurance firm, with assets of more than $82 billion.

Completes course

Veterinarians William Schabbing of Jackson and Brad White of Perryville have completed a 43-hour course in beef cattle nutrition.

The nutrition course was offered by the University of Missouri College of Veterinary Medicine Office of Continuing Educaiton and the University Extension Commercial Agriculture program.

Nine Missouri veterinarians came to the MU campus for three, two-day sessions to complete the course.

The training focused on supplements needed for cows, replacement heifers and stocker cattle in both pasture-based and hay or silage-based feeding situations, Larson said. The veterinarians also became proficient in the use and interpretation of a ration formulation computer program.

KFVS-12 promotion

Mike Humphreys has been named creative services director in the sales department at KFVS-12 in Cape Girardeau.

Humphreys has been a promotion producer at KFVS-12 since 1997. In his new role, he will oversee all local commercial production for the television station, including field production, copywriting, editing and postproduction.

Humphreys is a 1994 graduate of Southeast Missouri State University, with a degree in mass communications and corporate video. He began at KFVS-12 in 1992 as a production assistant. He spent several years in the commercial production area before joining the promotion department.

Humphreys is a native of Koshkonong.

Joins Brost & Associates

Brost & Associates Family, P.C., is pleased to announce the association of Dr. Jerry P. Kassel.

Kassel, a native of St. Louis, received his doctor of optometry degree from the University of Missouri-St. Louis School of Optometry in May and his bachelor's degree in biology from the University of Missouri-Columbia in 1995.

Kassel is a member of Beta Sigma Kappa, a national honor society for optometrists, the American Optometric Association and the Missouri Optometric Association.

Appointed board chairman

Dr. Kyle E. Brost has been appointed chairman of the advisory board for the University of Missouri-St. Louis School of Optometry. Brost has served as the board's vice chairman the past two years. He is a 1987 graduate of the university's School of Optometry. He is also the secretary of the Missouri Optometric Association.

Brost is in private practice at 37 Doctors' Park.