Nice news of the week – February 13, 2020

Congratulations to Center’s Andy Riehl, who won $27,750 on Wheel of Fortune! Did you know:

Bowman’s Chad Welch, bowled a perfect game on January 29?
North Dakota has five U.S. Presidential Scholars nominees in Career and Technical Education, including Rachel Craig, Aiden Fire, Gary Wu, and Katherine Liberman, all of Grand Forks?
The North Dakota Cowboy Hall of Fame is celebrating its 25^th anniversary?
Every blood donation helps three people on average? Good thing for communities like McClusky, which has donated 953 units since 2003 to potentially save 2,859 lives!
Saturday, February 15 is Winterfest at Cross Ranch State Park? The day includes soup and s’mores, crafts, snow painting, a water balloon range, sled rides, and a snowshoe obstacle course.

And did you know this week’s news is about a Saturday Night outfit, rural grocery stores, and Miss Amazing? Read on.

Whew – doing polar plunges (or in this case, Polar Pigs) in North Dakota is not for the lighthearted. Valley City’s Chad Henningsgard has jumped TWICE, and raised $4,500 for Home Health & Hospice. (Valley City Times-Record)

I recently read a story about a 6-year-old girl who was in the ICU with pneumonia over Christmas. She had gone into the hospital the week before, and was worried that she’d miss Christmas at home if she stayed. So, her family just pretended like the “real” Christmas didn’t happen, and when she got out of the hospital a week or so later, they told her it was Christmas Eve and celebrated as if it was December 24. Now she’s 13, and she still talks about the “Christmas miracle” that occurred that let her come home just in time for Christmas (and her family has never told her the truth). I can’t think of a scenario where it’s better to miss a holiday than to hold off a holiday for love – like the Nienas family of Fargo, who waited until February to celebrate Christmas so their son could come home from deployment. (Fargo Forum)

An anonymous donor gave $120,000 to fund refrigerated food lockers and a distribution truck to help rural grocery stores. (KX Net)

Jessica Just sells vintage clothes out of her Mandan basement to TV shows like “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” “The Astronaut Wives Club,” and now, “Saturday Night Live.”(Bismarck Tribune)

Grand Forks’ Kayla Robison will once again cook it out on “Guy’s Grocery Games” on the Food Channel. (Grand Forks Herald)

The Bismarck Library Foundation asked the community for $150,000 for a new bookmobile, and donors far exceeded that. (Bismarck Tribune)

Customers at Hornbacher’s in Fargo and West Fargo donated $80,000 in December to the Great Plains Food Bank. (KVRR)

What a COOL idea for a craft program: Fort Stevenson State Park taught people how to weave Ojibwa snow shoes. (McLean Independent)

North Dakota is spending the next three years improving stroke systems across the state, especially in rural communities. (KFYR TV)

The Jamestown High School Library has received a grant to bring in more books by North Dakota authors, and more graphic novels. Awesome. (Jamestown Sun)

North Dakota is now home to a new “pageant-like event” thanks to Miss North Dakota USA Sam Redding: North Dakota Miss Amazing, for girls and women with disabilities. The participants will show off their skills in a one-on-one interview, a passion performance, and an evening gown walk. (KX Net)

Fargo’s Tim Flakoll is building a library at the Cass County Jail. (Grand Forks Herald)

An update on the bikers behind the Not So Heavenly Bodies Calendar out of Bismarck – they raised $16,500 to help Heavens Helpers Soup Kitchen buy a van. (KX Net)

The community of Bowman came out for soup and sandwiches and to help 4-year-old Olivia Frie. (Bowman Extra)

Story of the Week: My grandmother put a high value on good manners – she used to say that my sister and I needed to be ready to go to Buckingham Palace at a moments’ notice. 🙂 I think she’d be thrilled to see students at Dickinson participate in “Manners Luncheons” to put their best behaviors forward. (Dickinson Press)