PLAYHOUSE HEROES: The Building Pros of Eastern Iowa covered all expenses in building a large, two-story playhouse and then selling raffle tickets at Kernels’ games. Proceeds of $7,100 went to Four Oaks, a family services organization. The raffle winner, a Four Oaks foster mother in Cedar Rapids, didn’t have space for the playhouse, and donated it back to Four Oaks, which then found a Monticello family with adopted children who last month became the happy owners.

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BAG IT: With another 85 bags of litter collected on Sept. 22, Cedar Rapids’ first iGreenCR Day, the total number of bags of litter collected by volunteer citizens and businesses since City Manager Jeff Pomeranz launched the 1-Bag Challenge in March has surpassed 1,500. More bags, please. And fewer litterers, too.

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NEW SCIENCE DIGS: Coe College’s respected science programs now have a state-of-the-art facility. A $12 million renovation from the floor up was celebrated on Sept. 28. The cost was covered by a $4.7 million National Science Foundation grant, largest grant ever received by the college, plus private donations and a Hall-Perrine Foundation grant of $1.5 million.