MEMO

The Small Business of the Year Award and Rush H. Limbaugh Award will be presented during the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce's Annual Meeting-Dinner Dance Feb. 4 at the Show Me Center.

Entertainment, dinner and other special presentations -- including the Go-Getter Award -- are among activities during the event. A social hour will be from 6-7 p.m. with a buffet dinner at 7 p.m. Dancing will start at 9.

Music will be provided by Fantasy, a six-member band from St. Louis that plays classics, big-band music and music of the 1990s.

Cost is $25 per person and tables of eight are available. Reservations and additional information are available by calling the chamber office, 335-3312.

Missouri Delta Medical Center, 1008 N. Main, Sikeston, has joined the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Missouri Alliance preferred provider network. There are now 70 hospitals and close to 4,000 physicians in the alliance network, with about 556,000 members.

Bankruptcy filings are down in Eastern Missouri.

The American Bankruptcy Institute in Washington, D.C., noted a 21.1. percent decrease in the Eastern District of Missouri from a year ago.

A total of 8,451 individuals and businesses in the Eastern Missouri District filed for protection under U.S. bankruptcy laws during the 12 month period ending September 1993.

The institute has determined the 10 districts which have shown the greatest decreases in bankruptcy filings during the 12-month period from Sept. 30, 1992 and Sept. 30, 1993. The Eastern District of Missouri ranks third on the list. Topping the list is the Western District of North Carolina, with a 23.1 decrease in filing, followed by the Middle District of North Carolina, with a 22.5 percent decrease.

Nationwide, bankruptcy filings are down 8.2 percent. Total filings for the year were 897,231.

Some members of the Cape Girardeau County Legal Secretaries Association will attend the Missouri Association of Legal Secretaries Winter Board Meeting at Kansas City Feb. 4-5.

The local chapter held its January meeting recently at the law offices of Lichtenegger, Payne and Weiss in Jackson, with Barbara Ward as hostess.

A St. Louis firm has been named Exporter of the Year by the Missouri Department of Agriculture.

TAPCO Inc., which sells buckets and bucket bolts for use in agricultural and industrial elevators, received the award this month from Gov. Mel Carnahan.

The award is presented annually to recognize a Missouri firm that has demonstrated successful overseas marketing strategies and a strong commitment to international marketing.

TAPCO was founded 20 years ago. The company, which employs 40 people, exports its products to Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico and other Latin American companies.

University of Missouri Extension has established a new Farm Business Center for Southeast Missouri.

Purpose of the center at Perryville is to help farmers develop better record-keeping, information and management systems. Additional details are available by calling (314)-547-4504.

Corn and soybean marketing strategies for 1994 will be primary topics during an all-day meeting Feb. 7 at Sikeston.

Roy Smith of Plattsmouth, Neb., farmer and commodity marketing specialist, will discuss market trends and strategies, and Abner Womack, director of the Food Research Institute at the University of Missouri, will discuss marketing for the upcoming year and government policy changes farmers may expect.

The meeting, from 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., will be held at Banquets Beyond the Bay, Kingsway Plaza Mall.

The Great American Craft & Flea Market will be held next weekend at 3200 Irvin Cobb Drive in Paducah, Ky.

The crafts and collectibles market will be held the third weekend of each month. The February show will be held Feb. 18-20.

Additional information is available by calling (502)-443-8550.

SEMO Alliance for Disability Independence Inc. (SADI), an independent living center which recently opened at 1020 N. Kingshighway, Suite C, is not a group home.

SADI is a social service organization funded by the Department of Vocational Rehabilitation to help persons with disabilities be able to live independently "in their own environment," said Maryann "Miki" Gudermuth, executive director of the center.

Fifty-one percent of the staff and board include people with disabilities who know what the needs of people with disabilities are. The philosophy of Centers for Independent Living (CILS) is "choice, change and control. Believing that people with disabilities have choices to make in their lives, they can change their lives for better, and through these choices and changes they can take control of their lives," said Gudermuth.

Teaching people how to live independently by showing them assisting technology to make their lives a little easier, directing them to resources, teaching them to be self-advocates, providing them with support networks and counseling, helping them to adjust to a new disability so it doesn't handicap their life is what independent living is about, said Gudermuth.

There are seven independent living centers in Missouri. Additional information is available by calling 651-6464.

Representatives of area businesses and agencies that provide internship opportunities for Southeast Missouri State University will be honored during an Internship Recognition Banquet Jan. 25 at the Show Me Center.

A social hour will start at 6 p.m., followed by dinner at 7 p.m. The banquet is sponsored by the university and University Relations Committee of the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce.

Keith Russell, vice chairman of the Chamber's University Relations Committee, developed the idea for the dinner.

"This is a way of recognizing these members of the business community that provide internships for our students," said Russell.

SueAnn Strom, vice president of student affairs at the university, is co-chairman of the event.

More than 200 representatives from off-campus internship sites and 15 representatives from campus internships sites, members of the campus Task Force for Expanding Experimental Education and several student interns have been invited.

The SEMO Chapter of the American Association of Critical Care Nurses will host a mini-seminar on hemorrhagic and ischemic stroke Wednesday at Missouri Delta Medical Center in Sikeston.

The seminar, scheduled from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m., is designed for critical care nurses, physicians and health professionals whose focus of health care deals with these kinds of strokes. Speakers include Christine Byrd and Susan Cole, registered nurses.

The seminar is free, but there will be a $3.50 fee to cover cost of dinner, if desired.

Additional information is available by calling Maggie Schuch at 651-5842.