Story originally printed in the Onalaska Life or online at www.onalaskalife.com
Published - Thursday, September 14, 2006
News in brief
Here is a collection of the brief news items that appeared in this week's paper.
The Onalaska Recreation Department will add two new classes to this fall’s skating programs: a new parent/tot program and an adult learn to skate program.
The parent/tot program will be offered to children ages 2-5 along with a parent/guardian. Both will be on the ice interacting with a skate instructor. The curriculum will ensure a fun, safe introduction to skating.
The parent/guardian does not need to have skating skills — they can learn right along with the children, if necessary.
The classes will begin the first week of November and registration can be done through the Onalaska Recreation Department.
The second new class will be an adult learn to skate class, which actually is open to anyone age 12 and older.
This class would be perfect for families not in the public school system, as the classes will be offered on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. An experienced figure skate instructor will teach the basic elements of skating. No previous skating skills are necessary.
For more information, call Barb Erickson, Onalaska figure skate coordinator at 788-8335.
A 10-member ensemble devoted to the music traditions of Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic will take the stage at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse.
MadiSalsa performs Latin dance music at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 20, in Valhalla, Cartwright Center-Gunning Addition.
MadiSalsa, based in Wisconsin’s capital since 1992, brings a diverse wealth of experience from their previous Latin music activities. Its repertoire ranges from traditional island classics to original material by the band. The group boasts pieces from mambo to merengue and bolero to bomba.
Tickets are $2 for UW-L students, $5 for seniors and UW-L employees, and $7 for others.
For tickets, contact the Cartwright Center Information Counter at 785-8898. For more information, log onto www.uwlax.edu/CAB/Artist_Pages/MadiSalsa.htm.
The La Crosse Area Youth Symphony will debut its first piano concerto competition Sept. 16 at Onalaska High School.
The competition, which is expected to become an annual event, will feature eight pianists competing in the preliminary round which starts at 11:30 a.m. in the OHS auditorium. The final round is scheduled to begin at 3 p.m., with both sessions free and open to the public.
Cash prizes will be awarded to the top five contestants, with the winner getting $500 and the chance to perform on the Viterbo University stage on Nov. 19 as part of the La Crosse Area Youth Symphony Orchestra fall concert.
For more information, log onto www.lyso.org.
The Wharf Lounge in Onalaska will host a chickencue and silent auction Sept. 24 to benefit the Children’s Miracle Network.
The silent auction offers an opportunity to bid on numerous sports memorabilia items, vacation condos, and lots of other items. Watch the Packers play the Steelers while eating your chicken with the works.
Pre-orders of chickencue dinners can be made by calling the Wharf at 783-6276. Deliveries within a certain radius will be available all day long. Activities run from 11 a.m. until 5 p.m.
The Friends of McGilvray Road will hold it’s annual meeting on Monday, Sept. 18, starting at 6 p.m. at Seven Bridges Restaurant in Onalaska.
The group has been working since 1989 to save, restore and improve the rustic trail and historic bridges that go across the Black River bottoms in the Van Loon Wildlife Area north of Holmen.
People coming to the annual meeting are asked to RSVP at 782-1753.
The Onalaska High School Hilltopper Show Choir kicks off the school year on Saturday, Sept. 16, with several events taking place at Festival Foods.
At 1 p.m., the Hilltoppers, under the direction of Tom Munderloh and show band director Dawson Strutt, will perform their camp show. This song-and-dance performance is free to the public and is only the second time the show has been seen in public.
From 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. the group will sell brats and soda, as well as Hilltopper T-shirts, sweatshirts and CDs. A bake sale will take place at the same time in the store exit vestibule.
Just around the corner at the Kwik Trip on Crossing Meadows Drive, the ninth- and 10th- graders of the OHS Express Show Choir will hold a car wash.
The Reed Music Studios will hold its 17th annual Honors Recital on Sunday, Oct. 1, in the Annett Recital Hall of UW-La Crosse Center for the Arts, 16th and Vine streets in La Crosse. The recital is free and open to the public, and will begin at 3 p.m.
Approximately 145 of the 400 students at Onalaska-based Reed Studios will audition on Saturday, Sept. 23, in piano, voice and strings for a performance spot in the recital.
The winners of the Sept. 23 competition will be featured in the Honors Recital, which will conclude with a reception in the lobby of the Center for the Arts.
The Gundersen Lutheran Fertility Center will hold its annual free forum on adoption on Thursday, Sept. 21, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. in the Overholt Auditorium at the Gundersen Lutheran Medical Center in La Crosse.
Representatives from area adoption agencies will give presentations and be available to answer questions. Adoptive families will also be present to express their views on the adoption process.
The adoption forum is free and registration is not required. For more information, call the Gundersen Lutheran Fertility Center at 775-2306.
Franciscan Skemp Healthcare is looking for dependable people who are able to communicate well and enjoy working with people to provide support for its hospice program.
Hospice volunteers offer support, companionship and assistance with tasks such as housekeeping and grocery shopping for our hospice patients and their families.
Volunteers have access to a number of benefits available to Franciscan Skemp employees.
For an application, call Franciscan Skemp Volunteer Services at 791-9766.
A presentation on Sept. 17 at the Norskedalen Nature and Heritage Center will focus on a groundbreaking discovery in cheese-making history.
Ruth Ann Nielsen-Bakke Wilson will demonstrate how her grandmother, Nikkoline Nielsen, and distant cousin, Ann Solbra Hov, contributed to the history of cheesemaking in her presentation, “Curds and Away,” which will begin at 2 p.m. in Norskedalen’s Thrune Center.
Norskedalen is three miles north of Coon Valley on Highway PI. For more information, call (608) 452-3424 or log onto www.norskedalen.org.
Holmen Lutheran Church is planning an Outback Restaurant steak buffet from 11:45 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 17, at the church.
All proceeds will benefit high school students at the church who are raising money for a mission trip in 2007.
Tickets are $12 for adults and $6 for children ages 10 and under. Tickets are available at the church or from Penny Tiedt at 526-2808.
The Small Business Development Center at UW-La Crosse is offering “Building High Performance Teams” on Wednesday and Thursday, Sept. 20-21, for business and community leaders seeking skills in building effective teams.
The class is part of the Supervisory Management program, although participants need not be enrolled in the program to attend.
The two-day program will help managers learn how to create a team environment that fully engages all members, is focused on achieving key results and collectively reaches production goals. The workshop will be held in the Cleary Alumni & Friends Center on the UW-L Campus.
Pre-registration is required and seating is limited. To register or to obtain additional information, call 785-8783 or visit www.uwlax.edu/sbdc.
One of the founders of the effort to revitalize whooping crane populations in the wild will be the speaker at the Coulee Region Audubon Society meeting starting at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 20, at the Ho Chunk Nation Building, 725 Main Street, La Crosse.
Joseph Duff, Operation Migration’s co-founder, Whooping Crane Project leader and senior pilot, will tell the story of the greatest species re-introduction in the history of conservation. Duff’s dynamic and enthusiastic delivery will be enhanced by a comprehensive Powerpoint presentation, which offers an overview of the methods and work being done to safeguard the critically endangered whooping crane from extinction.
The one-of-a-kind project which has been hailed as, “The wildlife equivalent of putting a man on the moon.” Every autumn since 2001, Operation Migration’s ultralight pilots, including Duff, have led a new generation of whooping cranes from Wisconsin south to Florida; a feat that to date has boosted the population of endangered, wild whooping cranes by 64 birds.
The Audubon Society meeting is open to all.
The first Coulee Region Audubon Society field trip of the new program year is set for Saturday, Sept. 16, with participants going to Goose Island and the Old Settlers’ Park north of Genoa.
Possible bird sightings include migrant American white pelicans, raptors, passerines and others. The trip will be led by Fred Lesher.
Participants should meet at 7 a.m. at the parking lot north of Cowley Hall on the UW-L campus. Return is expected by noon.
Architecture of South Dakota’s plains will be the topic of a Mississippi Valley Archaeology Center presentation at UW-La Crosse.
UW-L archaeologist Barbara Kooiman speaks on “Architecture of the Plains: Southwestern South Dakota” at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Sept.19, in Port O’ Call in Cartwright Center-Gunning Addition. Kooiman teaches a number of architecture and history courses. She has taken part in numerous historical and architectural surveys.
The theme of this year’s “Discover the Silent City” event at La Crosse’s Oak Grove Cemetery will focus on the city’s 150th birthday celebration.
“Discover the Silent City,” this year to be held Saturday, Sept. 16, is a walking tour of the cemetery featuring actors portraying residents from the city’s past at the actual site the person is interred.
This year’s cast includes nine actors who will tell about the contributions historic figures made to the city and describe what life was like in La Crosse. Actors and the figures they portray will include John Medinger as Thomas Stoddard, Laura Graybar as Susan DeFrance, Larry Green as Col. Ebeneezer Childs, Deborah Olsen Leona Foerster Linker, Norene Fish as Helen Manville, Marilyn Wood as Mrs. C.S. (Lillian) Van Auken, Pete Peterslie as Dugald Cameron and David Lange and Betsy Hanson as John and Fredericka Levy.
There also will be short stops between historic figures where guides will identify others who had an impact on La Crosse’s history.
Group tours, which take about two hours, will begin every 15 minutes from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. The event will be held rain or shine.
Admission is $7 for adults and $4 for students (with ID). Children age 12 and younger are free. For each adult ticket sold, $1 will go to the Losey Memorial Arch Restoration Fund. Tickets will be sold at Oak Grove Cemetery’s office on the day of the event.
Parking will be available at Oak Grove Cemetery and in the UW-La Crosse lot on the south side of La Crosse Street and east of the Losey Memorial Arch. Participants with special needs may park in the Oak Grove Cemetery lot near the administration centers’ east door.
A special tour to accommodate wheelchairs will be held at 3 p.m.
For more information, call the La Crosse County Historical Society at 782-1980 or Oak Grove Cemetery at 782-6956.
All stories copyright 2006 Onalaska Life and other attributed sources.