Vietnam veteran Cliff Easley of Cedar Rapids stands in front of his home Thursday. Easley received a no-interest loan from the Habitat for Humanity Repair Corps program which allowed him to put a new roof on his home and install a new furnace and air conditioner. (Brian Ray/The Gazette)

Cliff Easley experienced the hell of war in Vietnam, but has found a slice of heaven at his home in Iowa.

Easley, 66, who served in the U.S. Army from 1968 to 1988, including two stints in Vietnam, was one of the first veterans in the area to benefit from a new program through Cedar Valley Habitat for Humanity.

Repair Corps, underwritten by the Home Depot Foundation, provides skilled labor and up to $15,000 in home improvements for veterans who qualify.

Veterans repay no-interest loans, which go into a revolving fund for the program.

That price was one Easley was willing to pay.

The roof on the northeast Cedar Rapids home where he and his wife, Pam Easley, live was nearing its end before he saw a flier about Repair Corps.

“We thought we’d have another year left and then have to put buckets in the kitchen,” Easley said with a grin.

Both he and his wife, who have five adult sons, are part-time cabdrivers and were saving money for their home repairs.

Under Repair Corps, their roof was replaced, along with their central air conditioner and furnace.

The couple will make affordable monthly payments on the loan and volunteer as they can or donate money to Habitat in return.

Another veteran had new windows installed in his Cedar Rapids home under Repair Corps this year.

“It fits with our mission,” said Jeff Capps, executive director of Cedar Valley Habitat for Humanity. “It’s a great way to honor our veterans and revitalize our neighborhoods.”

Capps said the local non-profit was chosen to participate in the Repair Corps pilot project and selected again for the full launch of the program.

Habitat is accepting applications for the next round of five homes in Linn and Benton counties.

Any U.S. veteran with an honorable, or general, discharge is eligible. Veterans are encouraged to apply as soon as possible. Projects must be completed by June 30, 2013.

Active-duty military families are not eligible and rental properties do not qualify for the program.

Nationwide, 30 Habitat affiliates helped 80 veterans during the pilot phase. With $2.7 million in funding, the expanded program will help repair homes of more than 180 veterans in cities such as Charlotte, N.C., Nashville, Tenn., Norfolk, Va. and San Diego.

Capps said Habitat had done some work with veterans with its “A Brush with Kindness” program, which provides exterior painting and minor repair work, but Repair Corps was designed specifically for veterans.

Besides roofing, Repair Corps can also provide electrical, caulking and weather stripping for veterans’ homes or install wheelchair ramps and remodel bathrooms to be more easily accessible for veterans with disabilities.

“Some (veterans) are worse off than I am,” said Easley, who has breathing difficulties from exposure to Agent Orange during his time in Vietnam.

Not until he is pressed for details does he talk about the two silver and three bronze medals he was awarded for his time as an Army Ranger in the service.

“It was a job to look out for other people’s backs,” Easley said, modestly. One of the medals was awarded for taking out a sniper who had his sights set on five of Easley’s fellow servicemen.

After retiring from the military, Easley worked for the Los Angeles Police Department and the California correctional system, where he “baby-sat” convicted killer Charles Manson for a week.

“Looking into his eyes is like looking into the depths of hell,” said Easley, who also has worked as a LIFTS driver in Linn County and volunteers with Toys for Tots.

Vietnam veterans were not welcomed when they returned from war, he noted, citing Americans who spit on some of his fellow servicemen, and one who was shot by a woman whose son was killed in the war.

That attitude has changed, Easley said, citing the welcome current service members receive and programs such as Repair Corps.

“They said, ‘you gave to your country; this time, we’re giving back,’” Easley said he was told. “I appreciate it.”

CONTACT INFORMATION

• Veterans can find more information and download an application for Repair Corps at: www.cvhabitat.org/cvhfh/programs/repaircorps/
• To have an application form mailed, call the Cedar Valley Habitat for Humanity office at (319) 366-4485 or email: familyservices@cvhabitat.org
• Habitat representatives will be at the Hy-Vee Store, 3235 Oakland Road NE, from 7-9 a.m Monday, Nov. 12,  during the Veterans Day breakfast to provide more information about the program.

Iowa State University political science professor Steffen Schmidt pointed to the gridlock in Congress as an example of a game plan that didn’t work and one that will need attention in the GOP’s day-after “autopsy” of the election.

“I think that was a bad strategy,” Schmidt said, pointing to fiscal issues, the Farm Bill and other legislation. “(Voters) didn’t like the gridlock. They wanted Congress to get something done.”

Obama had the vote of women, Hispanics and younger Iowans, Schmidt noted, which will be challenging for the Republican Party to turn around in coming years.

Timothy Hagle, associate professor of political science at the University of Iowa, said early voting made up for some of the fall in enthusiasm for the presidential candidates.

“It’s the question of turnout,” said Hagle, who watched election results come in on four monitors at his home Tuesday night.

Hagle noted that Democrats brought in celebrities to excite younger voters and encourage them to vote early, particularly in college towns like Iowa City.

“It seems to have worked to their advantage,” he said.

With the presidential race coming down to key battleground states, every vote mattered in Iowa.

“At the end of the day, this really is a game of inches,” said state Democratic Party Chairwoman Sue Dvorsky of Coralville.

Dvorsky, at the Hotel Fort Des Moines with Iowa Democratic Party leaders and representatives of President Obama’s campaign, said supporters were knocking on doors and making phone calls until the polls closed at 9 p.m. Tuesday.

“Our field organization is a model for other parts of the country,” she said. “If there is a house within driving distance and it’s a quarter to 9, we’ll show up.”

Dvorsky said that organization made the difference in the campaign, allowing Obama to earn the state’s six electoral votes on the way to a national victory over former Massachusetts governor, Mitt Romney.

Just after midnight, with 96 percent of precincts reporting, Obama had 770,729 votes, or 52 percent of Iowa’s total, to Romney’s 688,211 votes, at 47 percent.

ISU’s Schmidt said the record voter turnout in Iowa was one of this year’s election surprises.

“The turnout was bigger than in 2008, which no one predicted,” he said.

Cheers rang out at the First Avenue Club in Iowa City, as Terry Dahms, chairman of the Johnson County Democratic Party, heard Iowa’s returns come in Obama’s favor.

At just 10:15 p.m., some media outlets had already called the election for Barack Obama.

“When we first came in, I was hoping for a win,” Dahms said. “Now I’m hoping for a mandate. It may take a mandate to move things forward.”

Dahms referred to rescinding Bush-era tax cuts and other measures that Obama has backed, but he added that it would take help from Congress to make that progress.

State and county Republican Party leaders did not return calls Tuesday night.

Nazi prison guards at Svatoborice internment camp toward the end of World War II. (National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library)

“So they stood us up against the wall, and my little cousin, who was about 6, she saw her father. … She jumped off and went to him, and this guy said ‘We are ready to shoot, what is this, the kid?’ So the German commander said ‘Oh for heavens’ sakes guys, they’re just children and women, so why are we going to shoot them? What’s the sense of it? Let’s go.’”

— Klara Sever, recalling her experience as a Jew in the Slovak Republic during World War II.

CEDAR RAPIDS — Czech and Slovak Americans remember food shortages, forced labor and the horrors of concentration camps as part of their homeland experience during World War II.

Oral histories recorded as a project for the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library will shine a spotlight on that history during a special Veteran’s Day event from 2 to 4 p.m. on Nov. 11. Since 2009, the museum’s oral history project has captured the stories of Czechs and Slovaks who fled their homeland during the Cold War.

Now, they’re going back further into history and turning their focus to World War II.

Rosie Johnston

Rosie Johnston, oral history coordinator for the museum and video editor Katie Shaffer combed through 540 hours of interviews to find excerpts to be used in the Veteran’s Day presentation at the museum.

So far, Johnston, who is fluent in Czech, and her team have interviewed 250 Czechs and Slovaks in Chicago, Cleveland, Washington, D.C., New York and San Francisco and will soon start work in Florida.

Some were too young to remember the war, leaving about 180 interviews to research for the World War II excerpts.

Funding for the oral history project, through the Institute of Museum and Library Services, was initially for two years, but has been extended through September 2013.

Oral histories focusing on everyday life during the Communist era will be used in a permanent exhibit next summer at the museum’s post-flood location at 1400 Inspiration Place in Czech Village.

Shaffer and Johnston were searching the interviews to compile footage for the permanent exhibit when they realized how many people had shared World War II experiences.

“It’s a recurring theme,” Johnston says. “It was then that we realized this was something we hadn’t delved into.”

Marie Cada of Cedar Rapids, who died this year at age 92, recalled having to work for the Nazis sewing soldiers’ uniforms.

“The insights people have shared with us are fascinating,” Johnston says. “It’s still very emotional for lots of people.”

One of Johnston’s favorites came from Zdenka Novak, who recalled young women’s attempts to look fashionable even in the midst of war shortages. That reminded Johnston of her grandmother, who had done the same in Scotland during the war, by using an eye pencil to draw a line up the back of her legs to give the illusion of wearing nylon stockings.

“It’s surprising,” Johnston says. “Some people were almost nostalgic for that time. This was their teenage years — their youth.”

Klara Sever

Others, like Klara Sever, a Jew born in Trebišov, Slovakia, recalled living in several locations until her family was forced to go into hiding from the Nazis in 1942. Sever remembers being discovered by a troop of Hungarian soldiers who wanted to capture the men and shoot the women and children. At the last minute, the commander stepped in and saved their lives.

Video excerpts of the interviews are available on the museum’s website, as well as photos and biographies of the subjects.

“Some were totally unimaginable,” Johnston says. “Stories about spending World War II in hiding, in theory, not existing for four to five years.”

Full-length interviews are available at the museum for research and a traveling exhibit has been shown in New York, Chicago and Des Moines.

What: “Remembering World War II”

When: 2 p.m. Nov. 11

Where: National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library, 1400 Inspiration Place SW, Cedar Rapids

Cost: Free

For more information: (319) 362-8500 or Ncsml.org

Czech immigrant Charles Heller’s father, who fought for the British Army, in a liberated Prague at the end of World War II. (National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library)

“You just didn’t talk about it back then,” said Anderson, 46, of North Liberty. “Growing up, I learned about it on my own.”

Fast-forward 30 years and few questions are off-limits in the health course required for Clear Creek Amana sophomores, which Anderson’s daughter, Priscilla Hoover, took last year.

“I think what they teach is as good as it gets,” said Hoover, 16, now a high school junior.

Abstinence, HIV education and contraception are among topics the yearlong health course addresses, but not all students in the Corridor receive that wide scope in sexual health education.

A survey by the Sexual Health Alliance of Linn & Johnson Counties showed disparities in curriculum offerings of 21 public high schools in the Corridor.

READ: Sexual health course offerings in Eastern Iowa school districts (story continues below embed)

“Often it is assumed by parents that sex ed is comprehensive and required in high schools, but as our work shows, that is not always the case,” said Hayley Hegland, the coalition’s coordinator and a Linn County Public Health education specialist.

Katie Jones, also an education specialist at Linn County Public Health, said the project’s goal is to let parents and others in the community know what type of sexual health education is being offered for high school students.

Short sexual health units are part of elective wellness classes at many Corridor schools, while others are required and address a range of topics, such as sexting, dating violence and healthy relationships.

Earlier this year, new national sexuality education standards were released by the American Association of Health Education, American School Health Association, National Education Association-Health Information Network and Society of State Leaders of Health and Physical Education.

The groups noted the standards were developed to address inconsistent implementation of sex education nationwide and the limited time allocated to teaching the topic.

Rather than encourage students to become sexually active, studies have shown that comprehensive sex education programs can help youths delay the onset of sexual activity, reduce the frequency of sexual activity and number of sexual partners and increase condom and contraceptive use, the groups noted.

The National Survey of Family Growth found that teens who received comprehensive sexuality education were 50 percent less likely to report a pregnancy than those who received abstinence-only education.

That is significant, as more than 750,000 women ages 15 to 19 become pregnant every year in the United States. People ages 15 to 25 make up one-quarter of the sexually active population, but contract about half of the 19 million sexually transmitted diseases annually.

Hegland said the Sexual Health Alliance wants parents to realize they need to take responsibility for their children’s knowledge.

“Having conversations with your children about sex is very important and (has) repeatedly been shown to delay sexual activity,” she said.

A new poll by Planned Parenthood Federation of America and Family Circle magazine showed that while 49.1 percent of parents reported feeling very comfortable talking to their child about sexuality, only 17.5 percent of teens feel very comfortable talking to parents.

Talking to parents is part of the homework for Marion High School students, who are required to take a Teen Insights class. The class includes an evidence-based curriculum, said Kayla Kramer, one of the course’s teachers at the school.

“It’s extensive and goes beyond sexual health,” Kramer said of the Safer Choices curriculum, facilitated by a trained sexual health educator from Planned Parenthood of the Heartland.

Reproductive anatomy, sexual harassment and values are among the topics addressed.

Vivian Quinn, who has taught Marion’s Teen Insights course in various forms for 27 years, said the course teaches “real-life topics that students are dealing with.”

“Students feel comfortable asking questions,” Quinn said. “We really try to give them the facts.”

While abstinence is always discussed, she said students are provided other information to support future decision-making.

Marion sophomore Carter Stigge, 15, said an example of a real-life issue the course has addressed is understanding when two people are ready to have sex.

Freshman Tia Biesterveld, 14, who like Stigge, is taking the course now, said she thinks some of the students heed warnings and practice safe sex while others do not.

Sarah Coleman, who developed Clear Creek Amana’s sexual health curriculum, said she encourages students to discuss values with their parents.

“At the end of the day, I want to support that family value,” she said. “I don’t want to replace parents in any way.”

Walking School Bus driver Adam Weeks leads a walking school bus down Zeller Street Wednesday, March 21, 2012 on their way to Garner Elementary School in North Liberty. (Brian Ray/ SourceMedia Group News)

CEDAR RAPIDS – Health advocates are hoping to increase participation in National Walk to School Day next week.

The event, set for Wednesday, Oct. 3, had 72 participating schools statewide last year.

“We would like to increase participation this year to over 100 Iowa schools,” said John Phipps, program director for the Iowa Bicycle Coalition.

Phipps said he would particularly like to see more participation from Cedar Rapids-area schools.

The walk is the same day as Iowa’s Healthiest State Walk, held as part of the Healthiest State Initiative, an effort to make Iowa the healthiest state by 2016.

In 1969, 41 percent of students walked or biked to school; by 2001, only 13 percent of students did so, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Iowa Department of Public Health officials noted that walking to school enables children to incorporate regular physical activity into each day, helping them to build strong bones, muscles and joints and to decrease the risk of obesity.

A combination of factors contributed to the decline in children walking to school, said the department’s research analyst, Catherine Lillehoj.

“Social and environmental factors all affect the likelihood of a child walking or biking to school,” Lillehoj said in a press release. “School locations lead to greater distances to walk, and increased traffic and potential crime increase the danger of getting to school.”

A department survey found 48 percent of parents said they were greatly worried about the amount and speed of traffic near school and 46 percent were concerned about safety near intersections.

This fall, 12 more communities are joining a program implemented in 16 Iowa communities, called the Iowans Walking Assessment Logistics Kit or I-WALK, an Iowa walkability program administered by the health department and Iowa State University Extension and Outreach.

I-WALK uses web-mapping developed at ISU and a smartphone’s Global Positioning System (GPS) to map the environment along the routes children use to walk or bicycle to school.

Using the GPS information from the survey, a safe and barrier-free walking route can be identified for residents.

For more about I-WALK, visit www.i-walk.org. To learn more about Walk to School Day, see www.walkbiketoschool.org.

We originally hoped to offer a livestream view, but it worked out better to record footage that was developed into a time-lapse of the partial season.

The time-lapse condenses about two months of the season to under two minutes. Check it out!

Iowa State University Extension’s Linn County Master Gardeners demonstration gardens at Marion’s Lowe Park include stunning flower beds and a productive vegetable plot.

The demonstration gardens — on 180 acres of farmland donated by George and Alyce Lowe of rural Marion in 2000 - line the south side of the park’s Arts and Environment Center, 4500 N. 10th St., where the parks department and senior dining are located.

FYI:

The Lowe Park Demonstration Gardens are just one of many projects they offer the community. To learn more about the Linn County Master Gardener Program, click here.

The Master Gardener program is offered by Iowa State University Extension & Outreach, Linn County. Find more about horticulture, family, consumer & children’s program offerings here.

Patrick O’Malley is ISU Extension & Outreach’s Commercial Horticulture Specialist. He provides guidance to farmers, citizens and gardeners on horticulture issues, specifically on fruits and vegetables, ornamental horticulture, and turfgrass. More about him can be found here.

Elizabeth Busler tests her blood sugar level in Cedar Rapids. Busler, who is diabetic, goes to a primary care physician in Iowa City and receives insulin from the Community Health Free Clinic in Cedar Rapids. (Liz Martin/The Gazette)

Iowans who rely on government health care programs often turn to free clinics for basic care when they fall through the system’s cracks.

Elizabeth Busler, 35, works odd jobs when she can and needs five insulin shots daily to control her diabetes.

She found help as a recent enrollee in IowaCare — the state’s health care program for adults with limited income who are ineligible for Medicaid — but even before she moved to Cedar Rapids last week, traveled from Vinton for medications at the Community Health Free Clinic.

“I get spells when it’s too high or too low,” she said of her blood sugar levels, adding that without her injections, “I could go into a diabetic coma or it could be fatal.”

Busler drove nearly 80 miles round-trip to the free clinic every three months because IowaCare doesn’t cover the cost of the shots, she said.

IowaCare has more limitations — on medications and mental health, for example — than Medicaid, which covers low-income people who are blind, disabled or pregnant, as well as certain children or a parent with a child under age 18.

Elizabeth Busler pricks her arm to test her blood sugar level in Cedar Rapids. Busler, who is diabetic, goes to a primary care physician in Iowa City and receives insulin from the Community Health Free Clini in Cedar Rapids. (Liz Martin/The Gazette)

Busler doesn’t have to look far to see the differences. Her boyfriend, Robert Purvine, 40, of Cedar Rapids, is disabled due to schizophrenia and has Medicaid coverage.

Medicaid covers the weekly injection for his condition, which, Purvine said, would be unaffordable for him at $937 each, but is less expensive than the alternative.

“Without it, I’d be hospitalized and the state would be paying for that,” he said.

Gov. Terry Branstad has indicated he opposes expanding Medicaid to more Iowans because he doesn’t think the federal government can afford it, but experts say patients are more likely to get preventive care for chronic conditions if they have health coverage.

The state already faces a quandary with IowaCare, since the program is scheduled to expire at the end of 2013.

“That will be one of the major pieces of action that the Legislature will have to address,” said Roger Munns, spokesman for the Iowa Department of Human Services, which oversees both programs.

Roger Munns

Munns noted that the intent was to shift those nearly 60,000 IowaCare patients to Medicaid had that program expanded.

IowaCare was never intended to provide the same broad coverage as Medicaid, he added.

Just this year, more federally qualified community health centers were added so IowaCare patients would not have to travel to Broadlawns in Des Moines or University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics in Iowa City for their care, as previously was the case.

One noticeable omission was Linn Community Care, 1201 Third Ave. SE, one of 14 such centers in Iowa that are partially federally funded. Munns said clinics were added in areas of the state where members had the least access to health care.

Linn Community Care sees about 2,700 patients per month, both insured and uninsured, on a sliding fee scale, but Linn County IowaCare patients must be seen in Iowa City.

“That is a big barrier to people in this area because of logistics and transportation,” Linn Community Care executive director Tim Olson said. “That becomes a real issue.”

Some IowaCare patients seek help at the Community Health Free Clinic and His Hands Free Medical Clinic.

“It’s hard to take a day off work for a sinus infection,” said His Hands executive director Sharon Patten, citing the transportation scheduling and daylong trip involved for IowaCare patients going to Iowa City. “Here, they walk in and they’re seen.”

His Hands prefers patients schedule appointments, but tries to accommodate walk-ins at the clinic at 400 12th St. SE.

Sharon Patten

Patients who cannot find care for simple problems often turn to hospital emergency rooms, a much costlier alternative, Patten noted.

His Hands’ new dental service has more than 500 people on its waiting list; a five- to six-month wait.

Unmet needs

Dental care and mental health remain concerns in Iowa, said both Patten and Darlene Schmidt, executive director of the Community Health Free Clinic.

“Both of those are huge unmet needs,” Schmidt said, noting the clinic, at 947 14th Ave. SE, will evaluate anyone who walks through the doors. “We’re that safety net; that Band-Aid.”

Schmidt said patients in need of psychiatric care are referred to the Abbe Center.

The Community Health Free Clinic has a dental clinic, which, like His Hands, also has a lengthy waiting list.

Patients in need of specialty care, such as knee surgery, are referred to Linn County Project Access.

The program has provided free specialty care to 528 patients since its inception in 2008, said Deanna Derlein of Linn Community Care, which oversees Project Access.

Only certain low-income, uninsured patients are eligible. Doctors do not receive financial compensation.

Area specialists remain committed to the program to serve those in need, said Dr. James Levett, chief medical officer of Physicians’ Clinic of Iowa.

Dr. James Levett

Levett, a Project Access volunteer, said he doesn’t see the needs of the uninsured being ignored in the Cedar Rapids area.

He also leads the Cedar Rapids Healthcare Alliance, a non-profit formed in 2005, initially to establish a community anticoagulation therapy clinic to serve patients on blood thinners.

Overseen by a nine-member board of directors, the alliance has a mailing list of about 500 people involved in health care.

Levett said the group’s mission is to identify and resolve health care and patient safety issues through community partnerships.

“The intention is not to deliver health care,” he said. “It’s to provide a forum where people can talk about health care issues. You can’t talk about health care reform without talking about the uninsured.”

Patient perspective

Andrea Keil, 43, of Cedar Rapids, understands the issues firsthand.

“If it weren’t for the free clinics, I don’t know where I’d be,” said Keil, who is covered under IowaCare and suffers from a number of health issues, including diabetes and panic disorder.

When she makes it to Iowa City, the doctor can only see her for a limited number of minutes.

“The nurses say, ‘what’s your chief complaint?’ ” she said. “The doctor won’t see you for more than one thing.”

Keil had to go to a Cedar Rapids emergency room when she was having a panic attack that she though was a heart attack because she didn’t think she would make it to Iowa City. With her IowaCare coverage, she cannot be seen at a Cedar Rapids doctor’s office.

She doesn’t qualify for Medicaid because she doesn’t have children or other qualifications, she said.

Keil has seen a chiropractor and has received other help at the Cedar Rapids free clinics.

“You just don’t have to jump through the hoops,” she said of the clinics. “I don’t know what I’d do without them.”

Andrea Keil of Cedar Rapids undergoes chiropractic treatment by Dr. Chris Bowers at His Hands Free Medical Clinic in Cedar Rapids. (Cliff Jette/The Gazette)

Amie Phillips holds her 6.5-week-old daughter Zeppelin as she and her boyfriend Dan Gossman talk about an in utero spina bifida surgery that doctors at Mayo Clinic performed on Zeppelin when she was still in the uterus. Photographed Thursday, Aug. 30, 2012, in rural Cresco, Iowa. Five-year-old Ezra is at background, left. (Jim Slosiarek/The Gazette-KCRG)

CRESCO — Most parents say they would do anything for their children, but how far would they actually go?

Amie Phillips decided the benefits outweighed the risks when she and her unborn child became the first patients at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., to undergo surgery to repair spina bifida in the womb.

The procedure — a risky operation both for Phillips, 27, of rural Cresco, and her daughter — involved removing Phillips’ uterus to perform the surgery when she was nearly 26 weeks pregnant, reinserting it, and remaining hospitalized until she delivered her baby 10 weeks later.

“It was really scary,” Phillips said, when told of her daughter’s diagnosis and the complex surgery. “I couldn’t even comprehend all the things that were going on. I broke down and started crying.”

Even as she debated whether or not to undertake the risks until the day of surgery, one thought became the overriding factor.

“I didn’t want to wonder ‘what-if’ forever,” Phillips said.

First performed in 1997 at Vanderbilt University, the prenatal surgery is for myelomeningocele, the most common, and most serious, form of spina bifida, a condition in which the spinal cord is exposed and can result in physical disabilities, including paralysis and other health issues.

One in every 2,000 babies is born with the condition.

“We all know mothers would do anything for their children,” said Dr. Norman Davies, maternal fetal medicine specialist at Mayo Clinic, noting that parents are counseled to be aware of all the potential risks. “Fetal surgery is inherently risky. It’s the mother who takes all of the risks on behalf of her child.”

Davies said anesthesia can pose a problem for some patients, along with other potential surgical complications, such as blood clots and infections. The mothers also must spend the rest of the pregnancy hospitalized, away from work and family.

Before Phillips, the procedure was discussed with five or six other expectant mothers, who did not have the surgery for various reasons, he said.

Pediatric neurosurgeon Dr. Nick Wetjen of Mayo Clinic Children’s Center, said a large incision is made in the mother’s abdomen to bring the uterus outside the body, open it, and expose the back of the baby to repair the defect.

Wetjen, a 2000 graduate of the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine, said a study showed the in utero surgery decreased by nearly half the need for a shunt, or tube to alleviate hydrocephalus, a buildup of fluid around the brain, compared to babies who undergo the surgery after birth.

Babies who had prenatal surgery in the trial, at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia; Vanderbilt and the University of California, San Francisco, also were twice as likely to walk without crutches.

Still, the surgery carries a 40 percent chance that the baby could be born premature, Wetjen said. In some cases, the baby would not be viable at that early stage of pregnancy and could die.

When she was 18 weeks pregnant, Phillips had a blood test at her doctor’s office in Decorah, which showed a possibility of spina bifida, followed by an ultrasound that confirmed the condition.

With the diagnosis, some parents choose abortion, something that Phillips and her boyfriend, Dan Gossman, did not consider.

Instead, they researched the outcomes and chose to have the surgery, which was covered under Medicaid.

Roger Munns, spokesman for the Iowa Department of Human Services, said Iowa Medicaid covers medically necessary procedures and services for people eligible for Medicaid. Some of the procedures or services may require prior authorization because of their rarity or cost.  Some may not be specifically covered but could be paid for under an exception to policy if there are extenuating circumstances.

Mayo spokesman Brian Kilen said the cost of the procedure is difficult to estimate, as each patient has unique needs that require an individualized care plan.

“It was ultimately her choice, but I let her know I wanted to do it,” said Gossman, 26. “We were hesitant, because there was a risk to her, but we know we’ve done everything we could.”

The couple and their children live with Gossman’s father, but plan to build a home nearby.

Phillips’ son, Brayden, is 9 and their son Ezra is 5. Both were born healthy.

Gossman, who makes air filters at Donaldson Company in Cresco, took care of the boys during the 10 weeks that Phillips was hospitalized at Mayo.

A team of more than 40 medical personnel crowded into the operating room for the May 7 surgery, while Gossman waited outside.

Their daughter, Zeppelin, was born during a planned Caesarean section July 16 at 36 weeks. She was 18 inches long and weighed 5 pounds, 9 ounces.

“She was kicking and screaming when she was born, so they took that as a good sign,” said Phillips, who was two rooms away from her daughter when she heard her first cry. “That was definitely a good feeling.”

A secretary at Chase the Adventure hunting club in Decorah, Phillips has returned to work part-time.

Wetjen, the neurosurgeon, said all spina bifida patients are followed by Mayo for life. While still early to say for certain, he said Zeppelin should be able to walk normally.

At 7-weeks-old, the energetic baby appears to be healthy, but needs to be monitored to ensure she doesn’t develop health problems related to spina bifida, such as hydrocephalus or bladder control issues.

“Right now, everything looks good,” Phillips said. “I’m glad that we did it. It was very crazy and stressful, but it was worth it, definitely.”

FYI:

- Click here to see an animation that shows how the operation was performed

- Experts say the causes of spina bifida are largely unknown. To decrease the risk of neural tube defects such as spina bifida, doctors encourage women of child-bearing age to take folic acid, a B vitamin found in leafy green vegetables like kale and spinach, orange juice and enriched grains and through dietary supplements.

- Tune in tonight to KCRG-TV9 at 10:00 p.m. to hear more about this report

The original owner of the mansion, built in 1893, was George B. Douglas and family. In 1906, Douglas negotiated a house trade with Brucemore mansion owner, widow Caroline Sinclair. The structure has been the home of John R. Turner and Son funeral homes since 1924. Iowa artist Grant Wood was paid to help decorate the mortuary at that time. (Photo October 24, 1983 - Turner Mortuary)

CEDAR RAPIDS – Commercial real estate broker Scott Byers is hard-pressed to think of a similar building that’s gone on the market in recent years in the Cedar Rapids area.

A former house-turned funeral home known as Turner Mortuary or the George B. Douglas mansion, 800 Second Ave. SE, has been listed for sale by the Linge family, owners of Cedar Memorial.

“It’s an interesting property to represent,” Byers said. “It’s not your cookie-cutter real estate.”

The 10,085 square-foot house, built in 1893, is listed for $645,000.

Byers noted that the building is on the National Register of Historic Places and contains design touches by artist Grant Wood, including iron gates and stained glass windows.

Grant Wood stands in his studio at 5 Turner Alley in Cedar Rapids. In the mid-1920s, he lived in the carriage house of the former George Douglas mansion, which was being converted to John B. Turner and Son Mortuary at the time.

From 1924 to 1935, Wood lived next to the home above a carriage house at 5 Turner Alley, where he painted “American Gothic” and other works.

The Cedar Rapids Museum of Art owns that studio – a gift from the Linge family – which is also on the National Register, but is not included in the sale.

Executive Director Terry Pitts said owning another building is not in the museum’s mission.

Museum executive committee members met with Byers, but “we made the decision that we were not potential purchasers,” he said.

Pitts would like to see an area college or arts non-profit buy the building to provide synergy with the Grant Wood Studio.

Otherwise, he could also see it used as an office building or for other commercial purposes.

“No one sees any scenario in which the Douglas Mansion would be torn down and we would, of course, fight that tooth and nail,” Pitts wrote in a letter to the museum’s Board of Trustees this week.

Pitts said this summer’s demolition of First Christian Church, just a block away, served as “a lesson about what could go wrong.”

A parking lot will be installed where the church was razed and a four-story parking ramp is under construction next to the Grant Wood Studio for the new Physicians’ Clinic of Iowa medical pavilion.

Cedar Memorial president John Linge said the family would oppose any demolition plan.

The second floor staircaase at the Douglas Mansion/Turner Funeral Home. (Amanda Proper, GLD Commercial Real Estate Advisors)

The mansion is one of few remaining near downtown Cedar Rapids and sits in the city’s new medical district.

Its history extends to the historic Brucemore estate, 2160 Linden Dr. SE.

Brucemore Executive Director David Janssen noted that Caroline Sinclair, who owned the estate, traded homes in 1906 with the George Douglas family so she could live in the city and the Douglasses moved to what was then the countryside.

“It was a big deal,” Janssen said of the swap, considered the largest real estate transaction in the city’s history at the time.

John B. Turner acquired the property from the Sinclairs in 1923 and converted it into Turner Mortuary.

Linge said Cedar Memorial, which purchased Turner Funeral Homes in 1978, has not used the building for funerals for several years.

In 1982, the building was renovated to reflect the Victorian era and for years, students intending to study mortuary science lived on the building’s third floor, he said.

After the Floods of 2008, Theatre Cedar Rapids and the Cedar Rapids Symphony/Orchestra Iowa were headquartered at the site.

Families prefer more modern settings for funerals, along with convenient parking that is offered at other Cedar Memorial locations, Linge  noted.

A staff member held a wedding inside the building in recent years, which prompted the family to think it could serve as a destination event center or other business.

Linge said the building was recently tuck-pointed and has a new heating and cooling system.

“She’s got real good bones,” he said.

The second floor sitting room of the Douglas Mansion/Turner Funeral (Amanda Proper, GLD Commercial Real Estate Advisors)

Timeline:

1891 George B. Douglas purchases three adjacent Second Avenue lots on which to build a new home. George B. Douglas’ father was one of the founders of Quaker Oats, while he founded the Douglas Starch Works. A few years later, construction begins on the Douglas’ new residence and carriage house. The architect’s identity is not known.

1906 George B. Douglas completes a deal with Caroline Sinclair, owner of Brucemore, to exchange the Douglas mansion for the Brucemore mansion. The Sinclair family eventually moves into 800 Second Avenue. At some point during their tenure here, the Sinclairs have the entire carriage house moved about 40 feet to the east.

1920s After the popularization of the automobile, the 600 and 700 blocks of Second Avenue became known as Auto Alley because of all the car dealerships and service stations located there.

1923 John B. Turner, who established his mortuary business in 1888, and his son David Turner acquire the property from the Sinclairs and being the process of converting it into Turner Mortuary. It opens to the public in 1924 and The Gazette reports Grant Wood “was responsible for the decorating and furnishing of the interior, and the landscaping of the grounds. He not only personally supervised the work, but also did much of it himself.” Wood also designed the iron gates at the front entrance. The brick barn in the rear of the property was converted into a “modern garage, with space for six cars.”

1924 At the suggestion of the Turners, Wood begins to build a studio and residence above the garage. The ability to live rent-free means Wood can eventually give up teaching his job at McKinley High School. The Community Players produce their first play before a tiny audience in Grant Wood’s studio, starting the theater group that leads today’s Theatre Cedar Rapids.

1932 A fire burns part of the studio, injuring Grant, Nan, and their mother. Grant had to replace the original wooden floor with the one that remains today.

1935 John B. Turner dies at the age of 74. Wood moves out of 5 Turner Alley into a home he purchases in Iowa City. Over the next 65 years, the Studio is rented out as an apartment and even boutique on occasion.

1954 David Turner dies.

1972 John Bu. Turner II (son of David Turner) and his wife Happy donate 84 works by Grant Wood to the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art. They make additional gifts through 1983.

1978 Cedar Memorial Funeral Homes, founded by David Linge, purchases Turner Funeral Homes.

1982 The Douglas Mansion and Grant Wood Studio are placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

1983 John B. Turner II dies.

2000 The last tenant moves out of 5 Turner Alley.

2002 The Grant Wood Studio building and related property are donated to the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art.

2004 Grant Wood Studio & Visitor Center opens to the public.

Source: The Cedar Rapids Museum of Art

The first floor sitting room of the Douglas Mansion/Turner Funeral Home. (Amanda Proper, GLD Commercial Real Estate Advisors)

Astronaut Mark Kelly prepares to discuss his decision to command the final flight of the Space Shuttle Endeavor during a news conference at Johnson Space Center on Friday, Feb. 4, 2011 in Houston. (AP Photo / Michael Stravato)

CEDAR RAPIDS — No road map exists to guide families after traumatic events, said retired NASA astronaut Capt. Mark Kelly, whose wife, former U.S. representative Gabby Giffords, survived an assassination attempt.

That extends to troops injured in combat and tragedies such as last month’s movie theater shooting rampage in Colorado.

“I certainly feel for the victims and the families of the victims and the road they have ahead of them,” said Kelly, 48, who will speak at a Sept. 10 event in Cedar Rapids.

Giffords, 42, continues to recover from the gunshot wound to the head that critically injured the Arizona congresswoman on Jan. 8, 2011. Six people died and 13 were injured in the shooting at an Arizona supermarket parking lot where Giffords was meeting with constituents.

Doctors told Kelly that 90 percent of people with the injury his wife suffered would have died.

“When something like this happens, you don’t know what the outcome will be,” he said. “I’m hopeful one day Gabby will be back to work.”

Kelly visited his wife’s hospital bedside daily — with a cup of Starbucks coffee — to maintain a normal routine and offer positive reinforcement.

“I didn’t make a conscious decision about that,” Kelly said of the upbeat attitude he kept around his wife while she recovered at TIRR Memorial Hermann, a Houston rehabilitation center. “When faced with a challenging event, you have to be positive about that. That’s just how I am.”

The couple will forge a future together after living apart for most of their married life — Kelly with NASA duties in Houston and Giffords in Washington, D.C., and Arizona. They moved into a home in Tucson, Ariz., earlier this month.

“She’s doing great,” Kelly said. “She’s very happy about it.”

Giffords can walk with a brace on her paralyzed right leg and undergoes occupational therapy to help regain use of her right arm. The once eloquent speaker continues to improve her language skills, Kelly said.

“That is the biggest frustration for her,” he said, when Giffords struggles to find the right words.

Commander of the space shuttle Endeavour’s final mission to the international space station, Kelly retired last year from NASA and the U.S. Navy. Giffords resigned her congressional seat in January to focus on her recovery.

Kelly will relay some of what he learned during his wife’s recovery, his experiences flying Desert Storm missions over Iraq and more at the free event at the Cedar Rapids Marriott, sponsored St. Luke’s Hospital.

Joining him will be St. Luke’s speech pathologist Angie Glynn, 30, who was a member of Giffords’ rehabilitation team.

Glynn worked at St. Luke’s before she and her husband moved to Houston, where Glynn got a job at TIRR Memorial. She was chosen to serve as Giffords’ primary speech therapist.

“They thought I was a good fit, personality-wise,” said Glynn, who helped Giffords learn to talk again over the course of several months. The Glynns have since returned to Cedar Rapids.

Glynn was featured in videos Kelly shot of his wife’s rehabilitation, which were shown on an ABC-TV special. She also was mentioned in the couple’s book, “Gabby: A Story of Courage and Hope.”

Glynn said she was impressed by both Kelly’s dedication and Giffords’ attitude.

“In the five months of working with her, I probably learned more from her than she learned from me,” Glynn said. “They’re both lucky to have each other.”

Event details

What: Mark Kelly: Facing Challenge with Courage and Hope

When: 7 p.m. Sept. 10; doors open at 6 p.m. Seating is first-come, first-served.

Where: Cedar Rapids Marriott, 1200 Collins Rd. NE

Tickets: *All seats have been filled for this free event

Book signing: A book signing follows the event. Bring your book from home or copies will be available for purchase.

U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and her husband Mark Kelly bow their heads as they light a candle during a memorial vigil remembering the victims and survivors of the shooting that wounded Giffords, 12 others and killed six one year ago Sunday, Jan. 8, 2012, in Tucson, Ariz. (AP Photo/The Arizona Republic, Rob Schumacher)

The 90-minute event will include a discussion of health issues facing Cedar County.

Panelists include Mike Boyle, USDA Rural Development; Nancy Carlisle, clinical dietitian at Mercy Diabetes Education Center; and Denyse Gipple, an epidemiologist for the Iowa Department of Public Health.

According to the county health rankings, 33 percent of Cedar County adults are obese, compared to 29 percent statewide.

Contributing factors include limited access to healthy food and lack of physical activity — 48 percent of the county’s restaurants are fast food and 25 percent of adults report they have no physical activity.

Amana Society Farms assistant crop production manager Mike Williams works to fix an irrigation system after it unexpectedly shut down while watering corn behind the farm office Tuesday in High Amana. (Brian Ray/The Gazette)

In a typical year, Iowa farmers rely on Mother Nature for enough rain to satisfy needs of the state’s corn and soybean crops.

This has been anything but a typical year, causing some growers to supplement the meager rainfall with irrigation.

“Some of our corn looks decent and some does not,” said Johnson County farmer Dick Oberman of rural Hills, who invested this year in an irrigation system for the first time in his 50 years of farming.

The $70,000 unit irrigates 70 acres of corn that Oberman grows in Muscatine County.

Standard investment return for such an irrigation system is seven years, but with corn hitting a record $8 per bushel, Oberman and others irrigating in the midst of widespread drought could reap the benefits sooner.

“It’s going to make a substantial payoff this year,” he said.

Because of the state’s usually ample rainfall, Iowa farmers traditionally have not turned to irrigation to water crops.

In 2008, the most recent data available, 162,838 acres on 527 Iowa farms were irrigated, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, well below any neighboring state.

The total reflects fruit and vegetable crops in addition to corn and soybeans.

That compares to western states like California, where 7.3 million acres were irrigated on 45,136 farms, and Nebraska, which marked the highest number of acres irrigated: more than 8.3 million on 14,812 farms.

Nationwide, nearly 55 million farmland acres were irrigated in 2008, up 2.4 million acres, or 4.6 percent, from 2003.

A new census will be conducted this year for Iowa’s 92,300 farms.

This year vs. averages

Iowa State University agricultural meteorologist Elwynn Taylor said the state averages 32 to 34 inches of rain annually.

Corn needs 25 inches for record yields and 20 inches for average yields, Taylor noted.

A center pivot irrigation system waters corn at the Amana Society Farms on Tuesday in High Amana. (Brian Ray/The Gazette)

Total rainfall so far this year has been less than 12 inches in Cedar Rapids to just under 14 inches in Waterloo.

“So few years does Iowa really need irrigation,” Taylor said, suggesting farmers would do better to put the money they would spend on costly irrigation systems toward crop insurance.

Plaques in the Amana Farms office highlight awards won for high corn yields, including one for 249.72 bushels per acre.

The Amana Society’s 7,000 acres of farmland won’t yield those records this year, said crop manager David Cunninham, but 415 acres of corn and 350 acres of soybeans should have decent harvests.

Those are the acres under pivot irrigation, which sprays water on the thirsty fields from systems installed in 1989, after the last major drought from 1987 to 1988.

Cunninham said corn could average 50 to 100 acres more per bushel in the irrigated fields and soybeans could yield 20 more bushels per acre than non-irrigated fields.

The automated units, which tap into shallow aquifers and slowly rotate through rows, don’t produce any runoff.

“We can’t get it on fast enough,” Cunningham said.

‘Stark difference’

Assistant crop manager Mike Williams said non-irrigated corn viewed during a helicopter ride this week looked yellowish-brown to sickly gray.

“There’s a stark difference between the irrigated and the non-irrigated fields,” he said, pointing to green, uniform plants under the water spray.

Wells are an added expense for farmers considering irrigation, along with water use permits from the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. Having a water source is another consideration, said Greg Thessen, director of the Iowa field office for the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service.

Thessen said seed corn and fields with sandy soil near major rivers are more likely to be irrigated in Iowa than those with better soil. Farmers without the systems wouldn’t be able to help this year’s crops due to the lag time in ordering equipment, he added.

“It’s not something you can do on the spur of the moment,” Thessen said.

It can take six weeks for the factory to deliver large irrigation systems, said manager Deb Proctor of Pace Supply in Fairfax. Units there can cost up to $70,000.

Jeffrey Laudin, a manager at Valmont Industries in Valley, Neb., said farmers typically wait until the season ends to make major purchases, such as the irrigation systems manufactured by Valmont.

“The drought highlights to farmers who could irrigate that they could be faring better,” he said.

Gary Knight, who farms near Marion, said he is irrigating for the first time in 15 years of growing sweet corn.

The $30,000 hose reel he purchased from Pace Supply can be moved where needed, Knight said, noting he is trying to save about 35 acres.

High temperatures and wind made fields this week “feel like a convection oven,” he said.

“If I don’t (irrigate,) the second half of the season will be nothing,” Knight said, adding the process “is a lot of work.” “It’s a lot easier if Mother Nature does it.”

The first one is today (Friday, July 20) from noon to 1 p.m., and deals with commercial and consumer horticulture.

There will be a FAQ session after each webcast to answer questions raised during the presentation, and especially for the questions that come up but were not answered during the presentation.

Anyone interested in participating in the webinar can do so at the Linn County ISU Extension office, 3279 Seventh Ave. in Marion.

The program will also be webcast for later viewing on the ISU Extension and Outreach site at http://www.extension.iastate.edu/topic/recovering-disasters

Charity Barker, 14, (facing camera) dances with other members of the music and dance group Svetlusky during the grand opening for the new National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library on Saturday, July 14, 2012, in southwest Cedar Rapids, Iowa. (Jim Slosiarek/The Gazette)

You don’t have to be Czech to enjoy this weekend’s celebration in Czech Village.

The National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library reopened its doors to throngs of visitors Saturday, four years and one month after the Floods of 2008. Events continue today.

“We’re Irish – very Irish,” said Tiernan Dolan, 55, of Cedar Rapids, who watched the Parade of States Pageant that kicked off the festivities.

Of the more than 3 million Iowans, just 62,390 claim Czech ancestry, according to the 2010 U.S. Census.

Museum president and CEO, Gail Naughton, took note of the diverse crowd that gathered to witness the reopening during a ceremony on the museum’s steps.

“By learning about others, we learn about ourselves,” said Naughton, who was given the title of “honorary Czech” for her dedication to the museum.

PHOTO GALLERY (story continues below gallery):

Dolan and his family, who came in support of friend Molly Cook, were among several thousand people who watched and participated in the celebration.

Seven countries and 18 states were represented in the parade. More than 5,000 visitors flooded through the museum’s doors when the building reopened.

“I’m proud to be a part of it,” said Cook, 52, of Cedar Rapids, who has done freelance graphic design work for the museum. “They’re the comeback kids after the flood. It’s been really emotional.”

The museum was inundated with at least eight feet of floodwater in June 2008.

Last summer, the 17,000-square-foot building was moved from the banks of the Cedar River to higher ground.

An addition was built, bringing the museum to 50,000 square feet.

“We are in another moment of rebirth,” Naughton told the crowd. “In three words: we are back.”

Senators Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Tom Harkin (D-Iowa,) along with public officials from the Czech Republic and Slovakia, addressed the crowd in the mid-morning heat.

“There is no doubt that it would overcome the challenges,” Grassley said. “The National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library is one of Iowa’s great cultural treasures.”

Harkin quoted the late Czech president, Vaclav Havel, after recalling his own mother’s immigration to the United States from Slovenia.

“Isn’t it the moment of most profound doubt that gives birth to new certainties,” Harkin said, calling the expanded museum “unsinkable.”

Czech Senator Tomas Grulich referenced the three presidents – Havel, President Clinton and Slovakian president Michal Kovac – who dedicated the museum during a cold October day in 1995.

Much-needed rain in the drought-stricken state fell for a brief time after Saturday’s speeches ended.

Peter Zelenak, charge d’ affaires for the Slovakian embassy, said the Czech Republic and Slovakia are on excellent terms with each other and the United States.

“You have a very nice community here,” said Zelenak, who was making his first visit to Cedar Rapids.

During an interview, Petr Gandalovic, Czech ambassador to the U.S., compared the natural disaster in Cedar Rapids to the 2002 floods in the Czech Republic.

“We know what it takes to start all over,” said Gandalovic, who made stops in Czech Village and New Bohemia, across the Cedar River, during his visit. “I think life will return to this part of the city.”

Sunday events

Sunday’s events begin at noon, with a building blessing and service. Among highlights, the Czechoslovak-American Marionette Theatre of New York City performs at 1 and 3 p.m. Exhibitions, including the works of Alphonse Mucha, are open until 5 p.m.

For more museum coverage, go here.

VIDEOS from the grand opening festivities:

Born without a pulse during an emergency C-section in October, Deegan was revived and immediately placed in a cooling blanket in hopes of minimizing potential disabilities.

“They didn’t think he’d survive the first night,” said his mother, Graham Ziese, 30, of Mechanicsville. “The first week was very touch and go.”

Ziese and her fiance, Kyle Mizaur, credit the medical team at St. Luke’s Hospital and the systemic hypothermia treatment, known as total body cooling, for saving their son.

Graham Ziese holds her 9-month-old son, Deegan Mizaur, at her parents’ home in Cedar Rapids on Wednesday. Deegan underwent total body cooling treatment in the Newborn Intensive Care Unit at St. Luke’s Hospital in Cedar Rapids after he was delivered three weeks early on Oct. 1. His parents say the treatment saved his life.. (Cliff Jette/The Gazette)

The therapy has been used in various hospitals for more than a decade, with clinical trials in Iowa and elsewhere exploring the effects of longer time frames and colder temperatures to determine the best care for newborns in need of the treatment.

Dr. Dennis Rosenblum, St. Luke’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit medical director, said the hospital has used the therapy five times in the past two years.

Pediatric cooling blankets lower the newborn’s body temperature to 92.3 degrees (normal is 98.6 degrees) for three days. The baby is slowly rewarmed to a normal temperature.

Rosenblum said cooling the body slows the baby’s metabolism, decreasing the rate of brain cell death caused by lack of oxygen.

Hypothermia also has been used with adults for conditions such as stroke and cardiac arrest.

Studies have shown the treatment not only decreases the risk of severe physical and mental disabilities, such as cerebral palsy, but can save lives. All of the newborns treated so far at St. Luke’s have survived.

A May article in the New England Journal of Medicine noted that long-term studies showed the rate of death and lower IQ scores was lower among children who had undergone whole-body hypothermia than among those undergoing usual care, though differences were not statistically significant.

The article said the treatment resulted in lower death rates and did not increase rates of severe disability among survivors.

Just last week, the online Annals of Emergency Medicine reported the technique was used with a pregnant mother who suffered cardiac arrest. She delivered a healthy baby boy 19 weeks later.

Rosenblum said out of 1,000 live births, one to six infants have hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy, a condition in which the brain does not receive enough oxygen.

“It’s not an everyday occurrence,” he said.

Full-term babies that have to be revived; those with seizures and low muscle tone are among candidates for treatment.

The condition has numerous causes, including mothers with severe bleeding or diabetes, infections and babies that outgrow the placenta.

Dr. Jonathan Klein, medical director for the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at University of Iowa Children’s Hospital, said the hospital has used the treatment for 46 babies since July 2007.

Klein said four of the babies have died, and overall, death and disability rates have been 35 percent, compared to an expected 64 percent without the treatment.

“It’s such a devastating thing when it does occur,” Klein said. “This is the first breakthrough we’ve had with treating this condition.”

UI Hospitals are in clinical trials that study using the treatment as long as five days or with temperatures as low as 89.6 degrees.

---- Newborn Deegan Mizaur of Cedar Rapids undergoes treatment with a pediatric cooling blanket in the Newborn Intensive Care Unit at St. Luke’s Hospital in Cedar Rapids. Deegan was delivered three weeks early in October 1 and was not breathing. The cooling treatment may prevent injury to the brain caused by lack of oxygen and blood flow.. (St. Luke's Hospital)

Doctors have a six-hour window to induce hypothermia using standard treatment, but the studies also examine outcomes when cooling is delayed beyond six hours.

“We know it’s safe,” Klein said of the expanded parameters. “The question is, will it improve the outcome.”

Deegan spent 26 days at St. Luke’s NICU. He went home using oxygen, but his mother said other than an unrelated eye condition, he is surpassing expectations.

The 9-month-old towhead has been crawling and was “kicked out” of physical therapy because he was doing so well, said Ziese, who works at We Teach 2 child care in Cedar Rapids.

“Every time they’ve done a test it’s been normal,” she said. “My big hope is that he can go to school like a normal kid.”

Jennifer Pruden

Following a nationwide search, Czech Village/New Bohemia Main Street District has selected Jennifer Pruden as executive director.

Pruden holds a master’s degree in Historic Preservation from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and has served on the board of directors, Master Plan Steering Committee and Urban Living Committee of Downtown Eau Claire Inc. as well as the Economic Restructuring Committee of Chippewa Falls, Wisc., Main Street. She is also owner of Archaesthetic LLC, a design and restoration consulting business.

Czech Village/New Bohemia Main Street is a nationally accredited Main Street Program dedicated to encouraging economic growth and promoting preservation through implementation of the Main Street 4-Point approach to organization, promotion, design and economic restructuring.

Curator Stefanie Kohn of Cedar Rapids cleans cases in the "It All Comes Out in the Wash" exhibit June 28, 2012, at the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library in Cedar Rapids. The exhibit features 26 Czech folk costumes that were damaged in the 2008 flood. (Liz Martin/The Gazette)

CEDAR RAPIDS — A hard hat on the file cabinet in Gail Naughton’s new office serves as a reminder of her past four years with the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library.

While she no longer has a need for it, the white construction hat also reminds Naughton — the museum’s CEO and president — of how far the organization has come since Cedar River floodwaters nearly submerged the building in June 2008.

“It draws strength out of you that you didn’t even know you had,” Naughton said of the devastation. “I just never hesitated. I never thought we wouldn’t come back. I didn’t want the flood to win.”

It would have been easy to give up.

Layers of muck coated the floor and the artifacts left behind after a makeshift dike gave way to the raging floodwaters. A heavy table broke through an entrance window. Mounds of sand covered sidewalks after waters receded. Staff who entered the building, at 30 16th Ave. SW, covered their faces with masks that did nothing to hide the stench of floodwaters.

Despite that, the museum — dedicated by three presidents in 1995 — has done more than rebuild.

Last summer, the structure was relocated onto a parking garage, raising the building 11 feet higher than its previous elevation, or three feet above the 2008 flood level. An addition was built, bringing the 17,000-square-foot museum to 50,000-square-feet, with three state-of-the-art galleries, an amphitheater, a 51-seat theater and amenities the previous building didn’t have.

Final preparations are being made for the July 14 reopening of the National Czech and Slovak Museum and Library on Thursday, June 28, 2012, in Cedar Rapids. (Liz Martin/The Gazette-KCRG)

The expanded museum, to be showcased during a two-day celebration Saturday, July 14, and Sunday, July 15, was made possible through local, national and international assistance. More than $25 million was raised during a capital campaign for flood recovery that included 310 individual donations; $10 million from the state I-JOBS program; a Vision Iowa grant of $2.9 million; and $405,380 from the Czech Republic.

“Within a week of the flood, the general consul (Marek Skolil of Chicago) and his deputy consul came over,” Naughton said.

She noted that Americans, including many Iowans, sent financial aid to the Czech Republic after 2002 floods devastated the Czech capital of Prague.

“They remembered that and said right away that they wanted to help,” Naughton said. “I talked to both ambassadors a day later (after the 2008 flood), and they were both just very caring.”

Petr Gandalovic, Czech ambassador to the United States, plans to attend next weekend’s grand opening, his second visit to Cedar Rapids. Gandalovic said the museum has been a valuable partner of the Czech Republic.

“Without any doubt, the museum presents a bridge between the United States and the Czech Republic, and offers Americans an opportunity to learn about Czech history and culture,” he said.

Gandalovic did not hold his post at the time of the flood but compared it to the 2002 floods in the Czech Republic.

“I have to say that I felt the same level of solidarity among the people during both disasters,” he said. “This kind of solidarity and our appreciation for the preservation of the Czech heritage in Cedar Rapids were the key factors for the decision of the Czech government to provide assistance to the museum after the flood.”

The museum was founded in Cedar Rapids in 1974 to preserve ethnic items, including native costumes called kroje, and the largest U.S. collection of Czech and Slovak artifacts. Ground was broken for the new building in 1993, and the museum opened to great fanfare in 1995.

Residents from 18 countries visited the museum’s Kosek building, 87 16th Ave. SW, where its offices were relocated in 2010. Still, many people in the Cedar Rapids area have never visited what others travel miles to see.

Eating lunch at the Red Frog, 88 16th Ave. SW, one of the Czech Village businesses to reopen after the flood, Dawn Price of Mount Vernon said she has been to museums in Chicago and elsewhere but not this one in her own backyard.

“If I knew a little more about Czech history, maybe I’d be enticed to visit,” said Price, a nurse at Mercy Medical Center in Cedar Rapids. “I’m really curious now. It looks so huge.”

Naughton said part of the museum’s new mission is to connect people of all backgrounds to its programs and exhibits.

Most Americans have ancestors who immigrated to the United States, with the same language barriers and challenges Czechs and Slovaks faced, she said. “We all share that in our background.”

“Alphonse Mucha: Inspirations of Art Nouveau” will be one of the featured exhibitions in the expanded museum, with 230 paintings, sculptures and other items from the Czech art nouveau painter displayed in its only American showing. Another exhibit features the kroje that were painstakingly restored after the flood, while an exhibit from Slovakia displays art from children’s books.

Grants have helped fund some of the 18 full-time and eight part-time museum staff, up from 12 at the time of the flood.

The museum expects 45,000 visitors annually, up from 35,000 preflood, and 10,000 next weekend alone.

Marilee Fowler, president and CEO of the Cedar Rapids Area Convention & Visitors Bureau, said that already, the museum is drawing visitors to Cedar Rapids. She cited bus tours and at least one conference — the Iowa Association of Business and Industry — among those scheduled to come.

“Part of the sell was booking an event at that facility,” Fowler said of the conference.

Jennifer Pruden, executive director of the Czech Village/New Bohemia Main Street District, said the museum will help boost business at restaurants and shops on both sides of the river.

“It’s definitely going to be a big draw for visitors,” she said. “The expanded museum is incredible. It’s just jaw-dropping how nice the space is.”

Alex Andersen said business at Ernie’s Tavern, 69 16th Ave. SW, has never been better, but he expects even more with the museum reopening. “Obviously, that’s going to help all of our businesses out with foot traffic,” he said of Czech Village.

Naughton said staff members have conducted outreach with organizations throughout the United States to keep them posted on the museum’s progress.

“We’ve had four years where we’ve been under the radar,” she said. “We’re trying to get the word out that we’re back in business.”

Video tour of museum:

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President and CEO Gail Naughton said the museum purchased the Joens Bros./Kuncl Mall building, 59 16th Ave. SW, this spring. The building, with 70-linear feet of storefront, could have been demolished had it gone through the city’s flood buyout program, with an uncertain chance of rebuilding on the site, she said.

Museum officials hope to sell or lease the space.

The Kosek Building, 87 16th Ave. SW, will remain under the museum’s umbrella. Naughton said the museum hopes to lease out the second-floor office space, while the lower-level flood exhibit will remain open.

The Sleger immigrant home was relocated next to the museum and will be open for tours.

At one end of Czech Village, the former Hurych building, 39 16th Ave. SW, will be remodeled and leased out.

Naughton said the Babi Buresh Center, 77 16th Ave. SW, will be the museum’s final major project. The museum plans to restore the building within the year.

These homes in the 1400 block of C Avenue NE are slated to be demolished as part of Coe College's expansion plans. The homes were on the city's "Most Endangered Properties" list this year. (Cindy Hadish/The Gazette)

An entire block of homes on the city’s “most endangered” list will soon be lost to history as Coe College’s expansion plans progress.

At the same time the C Avenue NE homes are razed, Coe is renovating two early 20th-century apartment buildings for student housing, which college officials point to as a sign of their commitment to preservation.

“We’ve had a pretty good track record when it comes to historical buildings,” Coe spokesman Rod Pritchard said.

Pritchard cited more than $20 million in renovations of older campus buildings since 2000, with work this summer on the 1914-era Hampton Court Apartments, 1261 and 1263 First Ave. SE, pegged at $1 million.

Neighborhood advocates applaud those efforts, but take issue with continuing demolitions in the Mound View Neighborhood.

Emily Meyer, past president of the Mound View Neighborhood Association, noted that an award was granted this year to survey several blocks in the neighborhood for nomination to the National Register of Historic Places.

The district would center on B Avenue NE, between 15th and 18th streets, and include some adjacent properties.

“We lost so much in the flood,” Meyer said of the 2008 flooding that damaged more than 1,000 homes and businesses in the core of Cedar Rapids. “We don’t want to lose more of our historic neighborhoods.”

The early 1900s-homes Coe is razing, at 1421, 1427, 1431, 1433 and 1435 C Avenue NE, along with 1438 A Ave. NE, were untouched by floodwaters.

Earlier this year, the homes and others in the 1400 block between A and C avenues NE, including the childhood home of artist Grant Wood, were named to the city’s Most Endangered Properties.

The list was created to draw attention to buildings at risk of being razed or otherwise lost, in hopes of saving them.

Faced with Coe’s plans at a meeting this month, the city’s Historic Preservation Commission voted to allow the college to proceed with demolition. Members noted that the homeowners were willing sellers. The commission can only place a 60-day hold on demolition permits to try to find alternatives, such as moving the buildings or salvaging.

Pritchard said past inquiries into moving homes in the neighborhood proved too expensive, so no efforts were made to relocate the six.

Joe Hennager, director of Cedar Valley Habitat for Humanity ReStore, said there was insufficient time to salvage floors, but light fixtures, appliances and a few other items were saved.

Green space

The Hampton Court Apartments at 1261 and 1263 First Ave SE in Cedar Rapids are undergoing renovation and conversion to student housing for Coe College.(Ciff Jette/The Gazette)

Coe has purchased 50 of the 64 properties in its expansion area — the 1400 block between A and C avenues. Those homes will likely go off the city’s tax rolls unless the college rents them out.

Pritchard said, for now, all are intended as green space for the college, which is seeing record enrollment numbers. This year, Coe had 1,312 full-time students.

In the 1990s, Coe removed at least 25 properties between College Drive and 14th Street to develop its east campus.

Nicole Sales, president of the Mound View Neighborhood Association, said residents were too preoccupied with this year’s closing of Polk Elementary School to devote time to Coe’s plans.

Sales called Polk’s closure a “devastating blow,” but is less committed to a position on the demolitions.

“I think it’s kind of a wash,” she said. “We need the housing because we need the people in our area, but we don’t need homes falling down.”

Possible boundary

Meyer, who led efforts for the B Avenue survey, said the homes were not dilapidated.

“The homes that they’re taking out are not blight,” she said. “They’re taking out affordable housing.”

Meyer said she chose Mound View when she moved from Iowa City because she wanted to live in a vibrant, historic neighborhood.

With Coe setting its sights on the neighborhood, landlords and homeowners are less apt to maintain their buildings, assuming that the college will eventually buy the properties, she said.

That sets up a cycle in which the neighborhood declines and Coe uses it as an excuse to demolish more homes, Meyer said.

She called on Coe officials to commit to drawing a definitive boundary at 15th Street.

Pritchard said Coe has no intention to cross 15th Street for the foreseeable future.

He also noted that the college would use the B Avenue Fire Station as student housing if it is acquired and would preserve the Grant Wood home, but has not approached the owner of the house.

The college was unaware of plans for the National Register survey until Pritchard attended this month’s Historic Preservation Commission meeting, he said.

Alexa McDowell, architectural historian with AKAY Consulting of Boone, said the Fire Station and Grant Wood home may be included in the survey she was hired to update. A previous survey showed both C and B avenues as potential historic districts.

A National Register listing would not preclude owners from making changes to their homes, but could make tax credits and other incentives available for major restoration projects, she said.

Wood history

Grant Wood's childhood home, 318 14th Street NE, now owned by Keith Post, is one of two houses on 14th Street NE not owned by Coe College. (Liz Martin/The Gazette)

Homeowner Keith Post said he was unaware of the history of the Grant Wood home, 318 14th St. NE, when he bought it more than two decades ago.

Wood’s mother, Hattie Wood, purchased the home in 1902 for $2,580 after her husband died and the family moved to Cedar Rapids from Anamosa. Wood won third place in a national art contest while attending Polk School and still lived in the home, and elsewhere in the neighborhood, after graduating from Washington High School.

Post said he might someday put the home up for auction on eBay, given the international interest in Grant Wood.

Preservationists say without the context of the neighborhood, the home’s historic significance is diminished, but Post, 69, is somewhat ambivalent about Coe’s expansion plans.

“I’m kind of torn,” he said, noting that he doesn’t mind being surrounded by the campus, but, “the neighborhood is so interesting. They’ve destroyed a lot of history.”

Survey meeting

•  Volunteers interested in helping with the B Avenue District historic survey can attend a meeting from 5:30 to 8 p.m. July 18 at Imago Christi Church, 1700 B Ave, NE. Help is needed in photography, data entry, research and other areas. Training will be conducted. For more information, contact Alexa McDowell at: akaymcd@hotmail.com or (515) 491-5432.
  

  Jim Schulte of Morgan Valley Painters paints near the entrance to the east building of Hampton Court Apartments on First Avenue SE in Cedar Rapids. The two buildings were acquired by Coe College and will house about 80 students in the fall.(Cliff Jette/The Gazette)

VIDEO: Members of the Honor Flight are welcomed home at The Eastern Iowa Airport in Cedar Rapids on Tuesday, June 5, 2012. The group of about 80 World War II veterans  spent the day in Washington, D.C., visiting war memorials.

VIDEO: An emotional welcome greets members of the Eastern Iowa Honor Flight returning to The Eastern Iowa Airport on June 5, 2012. For applications and more information about future flights, see: www.EIHonorFlight.org

VIDEO: A band, choirs, Boy Scouts, veterans groups, Knights of Columbus and other organizations, families and friends welcome the Honor Flight home on June 5, 2012, to the Eastern Iowa Airport in Cedar Rapids.

VIDEO: Members of the Honor Flight of Eastern Iowa watch at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery on June 5, 2012, in Washington, D.C.

VIDEO: The Eastern Iowa Honor Flight is welcomed to Dulles International Airport in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, June 5, 2012, with a water cannon salute, “rendered to people of great importance.” Two arches of water sprayed across the top of the airplane “in honor of your service and the sacrifice of so many.”

VIDEO: The Honor Flight from Eastern Iowa is welcomed to Dulles International Airport in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday, June 5, 2012, by the Honor Flight Ground Crew, a group of volunteers who show unbridled enthusiasm.

VIDEO: An interview with Robert Schulze, 85, of Cedar Rapids, a member of the Honor Flight of Eastern Iowa, at the World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C. Schulze served in the U.S. Navy during World War II.

VIDEO: Eighth grade students from Cape Cod, Mass., shake hands with Eastern Iowa Honor Flight veterans at the Iwo Jima Memorial, also known as the U.S. Marine Corps Memorial, on Tuesday, June 5, 2012.

 At age 87, the Exline man’s memory is sharp, but the World War II veteran will no longer swap stories with his USS Patterson shipmates.

 “We used to have reunions every year,” he said of the 250 men who served on the ship. “We just couldn’t have them anymore. The last time only three of us guys showed up.”

 Golden revived that camaraderie Tuesday during an Eastern Iowa Honor Flight to Washington, D.C., but as with the reunions, a dwindling number of World War II veterans are around to take the flights. (story continues after photo gallery)

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Veterans travel for free on the daylong trips to visit war memorials in the nation’s capital.

Nationwide, 1.7 million of the 16 million veterans who served in World War II were still living as of November, dying at a rate of 619 every day, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

That makes it a race against time for Michael Potter of the Honor Flight Network of Eastern Iowa.

Potter estimates that 4,000 World War II veterans in Eastern Iowa have not gone on a flight.

“Many are reluctant because they think they’re not worthy,” he said. “I’m on a mission to change their perceptions.”

Still, Potter, a Vietnam War veteran, realizes that filling another Honor Flight with World War II veterans is an uphill climb and the trips will soon begin transitioning to Korean War veterans.

Fewer hubs

 Even now, veterans from central Iowa are traveling for departures from Cedar Rapids, as the Des Moines network ended its flights.

Potter said just four Honor Flight hubs besides Cedar Rapids still operate in Iowa: Mason City, Waterloo, Dubuque and the Quad Cities.

About 80 servicemen and women, ranging from their mid-80s to 98-years-old, made Tuesday’s trip, leaving from The Eastern Iowa Airport in the early morning and returning late at night.

 One of those, Wayne Stein of Cedar Rapids, was just 17 when he enlisted in the Navy.

“My folks weren’t too happy,” said Stein, who at age 85, was among the younger veterans on the flight. He was escorted around the sites by Dr. Jana Marlett of Cedar Rapids, who volunteered to serve as flight physician after her father, Eugene Marlett, went on an earlier Honor Flight.

Most veterans are accompanied by guardians — usually one of their children or grandchildren — who pay $500 for their flight and meals. Everything is free for veterans.

Potter said private and business donations funded the $85,000 cost of Tuesday’s Honor Flight.

‘Great history lesson’

 Veterans were greeted at Dulles International Airport with a water cannon salute; whisked to six monuments; toured Washington, D.C., by bus and observed the changing of the guard at Arlington National Cemetery.

“This is a great history lesson,” said William Halvorsen, 89, of Coralville, sitting at the Lincoln Memorial steps.

The Army veteran, who served in the 179th Infantry, 45th Division, was captured at Anzio, Italy, in 1944, while protecting a bridge.

“We ran out of ammo and tried to get through German lines at night,” he said. “I don’t know how they knew we were there. Daylight came and the Germans had three machine guns on us.”

Many of his friends died in the battle and Halvorsen nearly died as a POW before being taken to work on a German farm.

“The German farmers were nice to us,” he said. “They hated Hitler, too.”

Firsthand accounts like Halvorsen’s made the veterans the real history lesson to many who encountered the group.

Alex Albright, a 15-year-old Montana student, was thrilled to pose questions to Kathleen Sippy, 88, of North Liberty, a veteran of the Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service, or WAVES.

Another student on a field trip from Cape Cod, Mass., asked if the class could thank the Iowa veterans for their service.

A line of 170 eighth-graders, along with teachers and others visiting the Marine Corps War Memorial, queued up to shake hands with each veteran seated in a wheelchair or standing in front of the statue that commemorates the Iwo Jima flag-raising.

Veterans’ tales

Some veterans only reluctantly shared their stories.

“It’s not that important to anybody but me,” Milbert Huber, 86, of Cedar Rapids, insisted of his wartime service, in which he encoded and decoded confidential military communications for the Army.

His son, Ronald Huber, 64, who served in Vietnam, said the opposite was true.

John Brown, 89, of Cedar Rapids, had his image captured in a photograph with two other servicemen and their jeep as a Navy medical corpsman attached to the Marines at Iwo Jima.

Andy Andrews, 95, of Troy Mills, spent two weeks on the front-line at the Battle of the Bulge.

“I filled in for people who got killed and it wasn’t pretty,” said Andrews, attributing his survival as an infantry rifleman to the American Indian who trained him as a soldier.

Bill Rowden, 87, of Shellsburg was one of just a few Marines on the trip.

A quiet man, Rowden served in Okinawa and didn’t mention the Purple Heart he earned after being wounded by shrapnel until prompted by his daughter, Sherry Williams, 61, of Center Point.

Few of Rowden’s friends survived the war.

“I think about it every day,” he said.

 Richard Main, 90, of Carroll, wondered why so little attention is given anymore to the D-Day anniversary.

Main was a tank commander when he and other Allied troops landed on Utah Beach in Normandy, France, on June 6, 1944.

“Everybody was just hoping they’d survive it,” he said. “They told us it was going to be pretty rough and it was.”

Delmar Knock, 87, of Williamsburg, became emotional as he read letters from family and friends who wrote notes that the veterans were given on the trip home.

Volunteers, too, often had tears in their eyes.

Joe Rozek, 60, a Cedar Rapids native, choked up as he described why he volunteers with the UI Alumni Club to greet Iowa veterans as they visit the monuments.

“My dad was part of this generation,” the Microsoft worker said. “I want to pay these guys back.”

The fanfare, including a choir- and band-led homecoming at The Eastern Iowa Airport — attended by several hundred family, friends, veterans groups and other organizations — was appreciated.

“I think this is a great thing that people are doing for World War II veterans,” said William Olin Sr., 88, of Iowa City, who served in the Army Medical Corps and went on to work as a dentist at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. “There aren’t a whole lot of us left.”

• Honor Flights page with videos, profiles and more

To sign up

Applications and more information can be found at www.EIHonorFlight.org.

Veterans interested in taking an Honor Flight or family members can contact Michael Potter at (319) 389-0923 or honorflightmedia@gmail.com.

Cameras were in use early Tuesday as veterans prepared for their Honor Flight to Washington, D.C. (Cindy Hadish/The Gazette)

The Honor Flight’s Eastern Iowa Network left Tuesday morning from The Eastern Iowa Airport, en route to Washington, D.C.

About 80 service men and women from Eastern Iowa are making the trip. Here are a few of their stories:

Robert (Bob) Burk, 86, of Cedar Rapids, was in the Army and transferred to the Office of Strategic Services, where he had numerous jobs, including a mission in France for more than two years during World War II.

“I did such a fine job in World War II that Truman called me back,” he joked, referring to the Korean War.

Burk was back in the regular Army during the Korean Conflict after President Truman started the CIA, which replaced the OSS.

He and I share something in common. Burk was in the Musketeers Drum & Bugle Corps and I was a member of the Emerald Knights (a few decades later) in Cedar Rapids.

Paul Beronich, 90, is as tough as they come. When I talked to him on the phone last week, he said if his daughter couldn’t go, he planned to drive himself to The Eastern Iowa Airport – from his home in Des Moines.

Beronich, an Army veteran, had hoped to go on an Honor Flight from the Des Moines area, but those are no longer being offered.

He was supposed to go on a previous flight, but was in the process of moving from Albia to Des Moines.

Harold Brazell, 86, of Cedar Rapids, was in Okinawa when the Atomic Bomb was dropped. Brazell was a member of the Army Tank Corps.

“It’s awful hard to really analyze it yet today,” Brazell said. “This one bomb going off and destroying a city. That was so silent – we were really shocked. That was officially the end right there.”

Brazell went on to work for 41 years for AT&T and the various other names of the telephone company in Cedar Rapids. Like many veterans, he didn’t talk about his time in service.

“I don’t know why,” he said. “It was just something that was not a part of the conversation.”

Earl Heitman, 90, of Cedar Rapids, plans to look for the grave of his brother, Cecil, at Arlington National Cemetery. Cecil survived the war, but is buried at Arlington.

Heitman was in the Army Air Corps as a radio mechanic and was stationed at Iwo Jima. He remembers the volcano, Mount Suribachi, a treacherous drive to retrieve rock to build a latrine and the large graveyard on the island. Heitman said he was on the opposite side of the island from the Marine landing. “The side I was on was a lot safer than the Marines’,” he said.

We’ll have much more coverage of the flight throughout the day. Check back at our Eastern Iowa Honor Flight page for updates.

Dorance Sheely

Dorance Sheely was drafted the day he turned 18, leaving the family farm in Prairieburg to serve in the U.S. Army at the end of World War II.

“We didn’t get much training,” said Sheely, 84, of Shueyville. “We went right overseas.”

Photos Sheely took while stationed in Germany have been lost to time, but the pictures remain vivid in his memory.

“The brick buildings had been blown to pieces,” he said. “It smelled like there were bodies still in there.”

Sheely met the woman he would marry, Vivian, in Stone City after the war.

They had seven children and were married 54 years before she died in 2005, but Sheely rarely discussed the war at home.

Many of his war buddies have since died.

Those passings have become a race against time for volunteers coordinating Honor Flights, which take military veterans to visit war memorials in Washington, D.C. for free.

Sheely is among the younger veterans who will travel Tuesday as part of the Honor Flight Network of Eastern Iowa.

About 80 men and women who served in World War II will make Tuesday’s flight, which leaves early in the morning from The Eastern Iowa Airport and returns the same day at 10:30 p.m. The public is invited to greet them as they return.

The flight is significant, as fewer World War II veterans are left to go and the trips will start focusing on Korean War veterans.

Even in the days leading up to the trip, some of the passengers have had to bow out because of ailments or falls.

Each of those traveling has a story to tell, and The Gazette will be sharing as many as possible online and in Saturday’s Gazette on June 9, 2012.

Watch for photos and online videos from the trip. And check out this interactive map providing information about the veterans scheduled for Tuesday’s flight, including their branch of service.

Matt Mainprize, environmental chemist, conducts air quality testing Tuesday, May 29, 2012, at the State Hygienic Laboratory in Coralville. (photo/Pat Blake, State Hygienic Laboratory)

Air quality remains a concern with the three-day Iowa Arts Festival approaching and black smoke continuing to billow from the fire at the Iowa City Landfill. And while breathing smoke from any fire can be harmful, health officials say the landfill fire doesn’t pose an elevated cause for concern.

Doug Beardsley, director of Johnson County Public Health, said the wind direction will play a role in monitoring air quality for the festival, which starts today and runs through Sunday in Iowa City.

“I want to do tests where the smoke is,” he said. “I don’t want to minimize the risk, but by the time it’s off the landfill property, it dilutes very quickly.”

Landfill staff, assisted by the University of Iowa and the State Hygienic Laboratory, continue to monitor pollutants from the fire, which has been burning since Saturday on 7.5 acres of the 200-acre landfill at 3900 Hebl Ave. It was likely started by a hot load dumped at the site and is expected to burn into next week.

Chemicals in tires

The landfill cell’s drainage layer includes the equivalent of 1.3 million shredded tires, meaning the smoke contains oil and other compounds found in tires. Beardsley said two air samples taken this week in North Liberty — sites in Coralville and Iowa City also were tested — came in high for benzene, a chemical known to cause cancer that is present in vehicle exhaust fumes and other sources. Results also were slightly higher for toluene, a common ingredient in degreasers.

However, Beardsley said both were under levels considered “actionable” and it was unknown if the source was the smoke, higher traffic levels or other causes.

A report from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency cites an extensive list of pollutants that can be emitted from tire fires, such as carbon monoxide, sulfur oxides and volatile organic compounds. The list also includes polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons, dioxins, hydrogen chloride, benzene, polychlorinated biphenyls and metals such as arsenic, cadmium, nickel, zinc, mercury and chromium.

The report noted that the emissions represent significant short-term and long-term health hazards.

“Depending on the length and degree of exposure, these health effects could include irritation of the skin, eyes, and mucous membranes, respiratory effects, central nervous system depression and cancer,” the report states. “Unprotected exposure to the visible smoke plume should be avoided.”

Matt Mainprize, environmental chemist, installs a sampler on a canister used for air collection Tuesday, May 29, 2012, at the State Hygienic Laboratory in Coralville. (photo/Pat Blake, State Hygienic Laboratory)

Beardsley agreed that people should avoid the smoke, but he said short-term exposure likely would not cause cancer or other long-term effects.

While the report was limited to airborne emissions, the EPA also noted that liquid containing dangerous chemicals can be generated by melting tires: “These products can pollute soil, surface water, and ground water and care must be taken to properly manage these impacts as well.”

As the tires burn at the landfill, they produce an oil-based liquid that’s being captured in the landfill’s drainage system, according to city officials. The runoff is temporarily being stored on-site as officials, in cooperation with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, seek facilities that can process the material.

Burning itself out

The Fire Department is letting the fire burn itself out, and Geoff Fruin, assistant to the city manager, said Thursday’s rain could actually impede progress on that front.

“It’s a bit counter-intuitive, but the rain could slow the burn down a bit, hamper that effort and prolong the burn,” he said.

Fruin said city officials are communicating with organizers of the Iowa Arts Festival, but he didn’t expected the fire to pose any problems.

He and Beardsley reiterated the warnings issued since the fire began:

• Exposure to the smoke plume should be avoided as much as possible.
• People with asthma, heart conditions or other health issues; pregnant women; and the young and elderly should stay indoors with outside air sources closed off.
• People also should avoid outdoor activities, such as exercising, if the smoke plume is present.

Mickey Miller of Pure Prairie Farms fills out label for the produce she is selling at the farmer's market at Memorial Park in Mount Vernon on Thursday, May 24, 2012. Miller is one of two vendors at the Mount Vernon market to accept SNAP benefits. (Cliff Jette/The Gazette-KCRG)

New federal funds could make it easier for shoppers to pull out a card to pay for strawberries, fresh greens, home-baked bread and other farmers market food, but Iowa is scrambling to come up with a plan to use the money.

An appropriatons measure approved last year provides $4 million in funding to increase farmers market participation in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, formerly known as food stamps.

Teresa White, who coordinates seasonal markets in Cedar Rapids, said machines that accept electronic benefit cards used by food assistance recipients also can be used for credit and debit cards.

Offering that option is a boost to market vendors whose customers appreciate the convenience, she said. “I keep trying to get more (vendors) to use them.”

With about 210 farmers markets, Iowa is set to receive $162,131 of the federal allocations, among the top 10 in the nation.

The funds are intended to expand the availability of wireless point-of-sale equipment in farmers markets not currently participating in SNAP, but using that money isn’t a given.

Tracy Penick of the Iowa Department of Human Services said Iowa is trying to come up with a plan to meet federal criteria to obtain the funds.

The challenge, she said, is that Iowa farmers market vendors use individual, hand-held devices to run the cards, while the funding is designed to go to markets as a whole.

Those markets would need a system to issue paper coupons or tokens at a centrally located checkout terminal to give to SNAP recipients who want to use their cards.

“We wanted to get away from the stigma of paper coupons,” said Penick, who coordinates the farmers market benefit program for the DHS. “When farmers accept the cards, there’s no stigma.”

Having market managers deal with coupons or tokens also would be time-consuming, she added.

SNAP serves as the nation’s hunger safety net; last year 45 million low-income Americans used the benefits in any given month.

While some criticize the types of food — including junk food and soda pop — that can be purchased with SNAP benefits, the farmers market initiative is a way to promote access to nutritious fruits and vegetables.

Nearly any type of food sold at markets, except hot foods and hot drinks, can be purchased.

At the end of 2010, a total of 1,611, or 26 percent, of farmers markets were authorized to accept SNAP benefits nationwide. Penick is seeing how other states are using the funds and getting questions answered about the program, which requires funds to be obligated by Sept. 30.

States may spend funds to purchase or lease wireless equipment for farmers markets not currently participating in SNAP and pay for wireless access for the equipment.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service “has not received any concerns from states about this being a problem,” said the agency’s spokeswoman, Regan Hopper.

Iowa has seen an increase in sales and card transactions used at farmers markets since its wireless electronic benefit transfer pilot program began in 2005.

That first year, food assistance users spent $1,423 in 158 card transactions at farmers markets. Last year, the amount rose to $85,282 in 7,286 transactions.

Numbers for debit and credit card use are even more impressive: from $18,352 in 773 transactions in 2005 to $917,268 in 35,462 transactions in 2011. Last year, the two combined to surpass $1 million in sales.

“It’s good for Iowa, it’s good for farmers and it’s good for the food assistance families,” Penick said.

Iowa will spend about $100,000 this year on its wireless benefits program, with half from state and half from federal funds. The state purchased or rents machines that farmers can use for free at roadside stands, farmers markets or pick-your-own berry operations.

While the state covers SNAP transactions, farmers must pay credit or debit card transaction fees.

That is a trade-off Mickey Miller is willing to make.

Miller and her husband, David, of Mount Vernon, sell vegetables and strawberries at the Mount Vernon Farmers Market and add chocolates to sell at the Iowa City market.

Although it’s rare to see food assistance customers, especially at the Mount Vernon market, she encourages those who stop by her stand, taking time to explain how the fresh produce can be prepared.

“It’s something I feel strongly about,” she said of the reason she filled out the paperwork to accept SNAP cards.

“It’s great when it’s used.”

At farmers markets, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits can be used to buy vegetable- or fruit-producing plants and most foods, except for hot prepared foods and hot drinks.

Mickey Miller of Pure Prairie Farms sets up device used to accept SNAP benefits prior to the farmer's market at Memorial Park in Mount Vernon on Thursday, May 24, 2012. The wireless, battery powered devices is provided to the vendors who participate and it accepts credit cards as well, though the vendors must pay credit card transaction fees. (Cliff Jette/The Gazette-KCRG)

St. Luke's Hospital's newest clini at 1001 N. Center Point Rd. in Hiawatha will open May 21. The facility represents a trend in Eastern Iowa in which clinics with hospital-employed doctors have are replacing ones with independent doctors. (Jim Slosiarek/The Gazette)

Experts say a proliferation of hospital-affiliated primary care and urgent care clinics is part of the future wave of health care.

The clinics help provide the access, continuity and integration of care that are hallmarks of health care reform, while at the same time promoting “brand” loyalty to the hospitals, said Scott McIntyre, communications director for the Iowa Hospital Association.

“If it’s your clinic, (doctors) will refer patients to your hospital,” McIntyre said. “Health care providing is still a business and there’s still competition.”

Hospital-employed doctors have replaced the older model of independent doctors, he said, a model that facilitates communication and connects the primary care doctors to specialists and to hospital care.

Clinics aren’t confined to the city where the hospital is located, with some in counties far beyond the flagship site.

Julie Zuber, director of clinic operations for St. Luke’s Hospital in Cedar Rapids, said St. Luke’s opens clinics where patient demand exists.

The newest is a 20,000 square-foot facility built in the former Floor Trader building, 1001 N. Center Point Rd., Hiawatha.

St. Luke’s Hiawatha Campus, which will open Monday, will include internal medicine, urgent care, imaging services, Therapy Plus and Medlabs.

“It’s a growing area,” Zuber said of northeast Cedar Rapids and Hiawatha.

The site is patterned after St. Luke’s Marion campus, which opened in 2009 and added urgent care six months later.

“We saw 90 patients the first day and it hasn’t slowed down,” Zuber said.

MercyCare's is opening this urgent care facility at 3701 Katz Dr. in Mariona. (Jim Slosiarek/The Gazette)

She agreed that St. Luke’s urgent care centers and 18 primary care clinics instill a certain amount of loyalty from patients, including those in rural Benton, Cedar and Jones counties, who come to the Cedar Rapids hospital when needed.

Moreover, Zuber said, clinics and urgent care centers provide cost-savings as an alternative to more expensive emergency room care and help keep the focus on prevention, another goal of health care reform.

Dr. Tim Quinn, president of MercyCare Community Physicians, which is affiliated with Mercy Medical Center in Cedar Rapids, said patients can be treated for non-life-threatening illnesses and injuries at urgent care clinics for a fraction of the cost of hospital emergency rooms.

Clinic hours have evolved to keep up with patient demand and to replace using emergency rooms after hours for non-emergencies.

“It’s really an inadequate model,” Quinn said of insurance covering the cost of hospital emergency care that was common decades ago as the only after-hours health care option. “As people are busier, they need extended hours and weekend hours and we’ve responded to that.”

A new MercyCare Urgent Care clinic is opening at 3701 Katz Dr. in Marion, one of MercyCare’s three urgent care centers, four specialty clinics and 13 family practice clinics in the Cedar Rapids area, along with Center Point, Monticello, Mount Vernon, North Liberty and Tama.

Mercy Iowa City opened a new internal medicine office this month at 2769 Heartland Dr., Coralville.

Tim Ahlers, vice president of marketing and business development, said Mercy has not historically operated internal medicine clinics.

“However, we’ve all monitored the quickly developing population in the west side of the area, and after discussions of how to best provide accessible services, Mercy decided to open this new clinic,” Ahlers said in an email, noting that the site is convenient for people living in Coralville, North Liberty and West Iowa City.

Mercy Iowa City has primary care clinics in a dozen Eastern Iowa towns, along with two urgent care centers.

University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics operates UI Health Care clinics in about 10 cities, along with three UI QuickCare Centers and a fourth set to open on Mormon Trek Boulevard.

Push Pedal Pull's Sean Pospisil (left) and John St. John, both of Marion, arrange parts to an exercise apparatus at St. Luke's Hospital's newest clinic at 1001 N. Center Point Rd. in Hiawatha(Jim Slosiarek/The Gazette)

The hospital’s new five-story Iowa River Landing clinic in Coralville is expected to handle up to 300,000 patient visits annually after the clinic opens in October, with outpatient programs such as dermatology and cardiology, along with general medicine and pediatrics.

A Family Medicine Clinic is set to be built on Melrose Avenue in Iowa City and the UI bought 40 acres in North Liberty to replace a clinic in that area.

UI officials have said the clinics are part of a strategy to shift traffic away from the main hospital in Iowa City.

Hospital spokesman Tom Moore said the primary factors UI Health Care leaders consider when determining the placement of urgent care and primary care clinics are access and convenience for patients.

“We have a strong history of working closely with Iowans who invite our leadership to consider providing health care services in their communities,” he said by email.

Second graders Isaac Hofferber, (left), and Audrey Leno, speak with Martha Aitken, of Washington State University the best gardening secrets, on Wednesday, May, 9, 2012, in Hiawatha, Iowa. Hiawatha is involved in a pilot project which incorporates gardening into the curriculum, where children in second and fourth grades learn about nutrition and healthy choices throughout their classroom studies. Linn County Master Gardeners help the students in their outdoor gardens. The project is funded by the USDA. Iowa is one of four states involved in the project. (Nikole Hanna/The Gazette-KCRG)

HIAWATHA — Second-grader Isaac Hofferber plucked a tiny green sprout from a garden growing outside Hiawatha Elementary School.

“Here’s a weed,” the 7-year-old said last week before pointing to a cucumber seedling, “and that’s a plant.”

Isaac and other Hiawatha students are learning more than plant differentiation with a new Healthy Gardens, Healthy Youth program. Nine raised garden beds are outdoor classrooms where students are picking up principles of math, science and nutrition.

Even artwork and language arts are incorporated into the gardening curriculum. Drawings accompany poems in the school’s hallways, denoting students’ love of apples, oranges, strawberries and watermelon.

Jacki Luckstead, youth programs coordinator for Iowa State University Extension, said the project will be evaluated to see whether children are more apt to choose fruits and vegetables for lunch after having firsthand experience growing produce. Photos of students’ lunch trays were taken at the beginning of the school year and are being taken again to show what students choose in the lunch line and what they discard.

The program carries over to the students’ families, said Julie Bradley, staff coordinator for the program at Hiawatha Elementary.

“I have been pleasantly surprised,” she said, citing students who persuaded their parents to buy edamame after tasting the boiled green soybean snack in class. Bradley said 120 second- and fourth-graders are involved in the program at the school.

Linn County Master Gardeners assist with planting and the snacks, which are funded by a Wellmark Foundation grant. Onions, peas, lettuce, carrots, spinach and other vegetables grow in the raised beds, which will be tended during the summer months by other volunteers so the students can harvest produce when they return in the fall.

The Hiawatha project is one of 17 sites in Iowa and 54 overall to participate in the U.S. Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service People’s Garden School Pilot Program. Besides Iowa, the program is being tested in Washington, New York and Alabama.

Brad Gaolach and Martha Aitken of Washington State University Extension — which is leading the national pilot — visited the Linn County school Wednesday to see the progress firsthand.

“This helps us get a sense of how the projects are working on the ground,” Gaolach said.

The program will continue through July 2013 and data will be tallied by September to see if the project should continue, he said. Half of the classrooms in the project are controls, so data can be compared between students who are and are not exposed to gardening.

Gaolach said an overriding goal is to end childhood obesity.

“Can you improve nutrition if you give students access to gardening?” he said, citing some of the questions the pilot hopes to answer. “Are kids more likely to eat more fruits and vegetables if given that access?”

Hillary Stockwell of Albert Lea, Minn., walks with her children Grant, 2 (in stroller), and Claire, 4, on the Blue Zones Walkway trail around Fountain Lake on Monday, April 23, 2012, in Albert Lea, Minn. Cedar Rapids fell short in its goal to be chosen as a demonstration site for Iowa's Blue Zones initiative. (Liz Martin/The Gaze tte-KCRG)

Mason City and Spencer also will receive expert help to transform into Blue Zones Communities, with the goal for residents to live longer, healthier lives.

The project is a main component of Iowa’s healthiest state initiative, an effort to make Iowa – now 16th – the nation’s healthiest state under the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index by 2016.

Doing so could save the state up to $16 billion over five years in health care costs and lost productivity.

Cedar Rapids was one of 11 finalists to compete to be a demonstration site. Others besides the four chosen included Ames,  Clinton, Davenport,  Muscatine, Ottumwa and Sioux City.

Chosen communities will receive expert advice to help improve their residents’ emotional, physical and social health through environmental and policy changes.

Blue Zones hires experts who provide blue prints and best practices to transform work sites, schools, grocery stores, restaurants, community policy and individuals, but the cities also must make a commitment to change.

The program is funded over five years by a $25 million commitment from Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield.

Gov. Terry Branstad announced the communities this morning at a press conference in Des Moines.

“Although we’re pleased with the progress, we know there is a lot more to do,” he said.

Hillary Stockwell of Albert Lea, Minn., walks with her children Grant, 2 (in stroller), and Claire, 4, on the Blue Zones Walkway trail around Fountain Lake on Monday, April 23, 2012, in Albert Lea, Minn. (Liz Martin/The Gazette-KCRG)

What would it take to improve your health?

Access to interconnected trails, bike lanes and other recreational opportunities? Cooking classes and healthy menu options at restaurants and schools?

How about supportive friends to help you make changes?

What if you had it all?

Iowans seeking to have the best health in the nation — a goal Gov. Terry Branstad announced in August — can look north to see the effect the “Blue Zones” has had in Albert Lea, Minn.

The town of 18,000, just 10 miles north of the Iowa/Minnesota border, was first to experiment with Blue Zones principles when it was chosen as the prototype community in 2009.

“You have to make the healthy choice the easy choice,” said Randy Kehr, executive director of the Albert Lea-Freeborn County Chamber of Commerce, a backer of the efforts in Albert Lea.

Kehr was quoting Dan Buettner, author of “The Blue Zones: Lessons for Living Longer from the People Who’ve Lived the Longest.”

Buettner, a frequent visitor to Iowa since the Healthiest State Initiative was announced, found common elements of lifestyle, diet and outlook as he traveled to sites around the world where people live the longest, healthiest lives.

Albert Lea was chosen for the pilot project, in part, because it is a statistically average town.

“We fit the criteria,” Kehr said. “Plus, we already had some low-hanging fruit. We had a culture of walking and biking and boating. Maybe not at the level we have today, but we were in that place.”

Cedar Rapids, Cedar Falls and Waterloo are among 11 finalists vying to be one of the first Blue Zones demonstration sites for large communities in Iowa. An announcement is expected later this week in the project funded by Wellmark Blue Cross Blue Shield.

Kehr listed some of the changes made during the program, sponsored by AARP and the United Health Foundation and funded by the city, Minnesota’s Statewide Health Improvement Program and other grants.

Bike lanes were added to streets to encourage biking to work; trails connections were linked; schools changed wellness policies to increase activity and provide healthier lunches and snacks; social groups, called “Walking Moias” were formed to encourage walking; businesses implemented worksite wellness plans and volunteers planted 70 new community gardens.

Lois Jensen of Albert Lea, Minn., visits the salad bar at Trail's Restaurant on Tuesday, April 24, 2012, in Albert Lea, Minn. The restaurant, part of the Trail's Travel Center, made changes to their menu and offers a salad bar as part of their effort to provide healthy meal options. (Liz Martin/The Gazette-KCRG)

Project proponents say surveys show the effort has increased life expectancy an average of 3.2 years; participants lost an average of 3 pounds each and city workers had a 49 percent decrease in health care costs.

Albert Lea spent about $343,000 on 3.21 miles of new sidewalks since 2009 and will add another segment this year.

“Not everything takes money,” Kehr said, citing policy changes at schools as an example, but infrastructure is important.

On a pleasant April day, bicyclists, mothers pushing strollers and in-line skaters took to the trail encircling Fountain Lake, a major recreation destination for Freeborn County.

“It’s very well-used,” said Nancy Anderson, 73, of Albert Lea, walking her Shih Tzu, Max, with husband Lars Anderson, 73, a school bus driver.

Like many people interviewed by The Gazette, the Andersons didn’t officially sign on to the Blue Zones, known in Albert Lea as the Vitality Project. Schedules for the Walking Moias and other activities didn’t fit their schedule, they said.

Instead, they exercise when they can and are supportive of the efforts.

“I think the Blue Zones has made us all more conscious about good health and how to get it,” Nancy Anderson said.

Sixth-grader Cali Mowers walked with friends Grace Hutchins and Gabby Raatz, all 12, in a square around the halls of Southwest Middle School early before classes began.

“It gets pretty packed in here,” she said of “Walking the Block,” the name given to the morning walking program.

Principal Jean Jordan said up to 100 of the school’s 480 students walk, while others play basketball from 7:35 a.m. until the first bell rings, rather than sitting in the gym as they did before the exercise options were offered.

“It helps get rid of energy,” sixth-grader Chris Henry, 13, said.

While the middle school’s initiatives thrive, a “walking school bus” system — in which children walked to school under the supervision of parent and senior volunteers — has fallen by the wayside, as interest dropped.

Other efforts have picked up steam.

Matt VanVoltenberg, manager of Trail’s Restaurant in Albert Lea, said the business had a 31 percent increase in healthier side orders and a 31 percent decrease in French fry orders after healthy choices, such as steamed broccoli, were added and placed at the top of the menu.

The most popular menu item at the truck stop is the salad bar.

“We still have all that,” he said, pointing to hamburgers and other typical Midwestern food, but just offering healthy options and changing the menu order made a difference.

Tom Wicks, 37, of nearby Austin, Minn., dined on fish and salad last week.

“It’s just better for you than fries,” he said. “I’d like to live for a while yet.”

On TV tonight

• Reporter Cindy Hadish and photographer Liz Martin traveled last week to Albert Lea, Minn., to see the progress of Blue Zones since the town implemented the pilot program in 2009. See more of their report at 6 tonight on KCRG-TV9

A 1.5-mile bike lane was recently added to Front Street n Albert Lea, Minn. Photographed on Tuesday, April 24, 2012. (Liz Martin/The Gazette-KCRG)

Bedica Ermilus from St. Medard, Haiti is held by her mother Carole Thursday, Feb. 16, 2012 in Haiti. Bedica was brought to the US to be treated for anorectal malformation by Dr. Christopher Buresh and his wife Dr. Ginny Ryan and will be returned to her mother in Haiti when she is well enough to go back. (Dr. Christopher Buresh)

IOWA CITY — Worried about her baby’s failing health, a young Haitian mother entrusted her daughter to an Iowa City couple to secure the medical attention she needed.

Dr. Christopher Buresh, 36, an emergency physician at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, has made dozens of medical trips to Haiti, but tiny Bedica Ermilus is the first patient he was able to bring to the United States for treatment.

“We have access to so much incredible care here and things in this country that I think we’re obligated to share that,” Buresh said.

His wife, Dr. Ginny Ryan, 39, was instrumental in navigating the bureaucratic channels needed for Bedica’s safe passage to Iowa City, as well as soothing concerns of Bedica’s mother.

“There were a lot of hoops to jump through,” said Ryan, an obstetrician-gynecologist at UI Hospitals, who at one point sat for two straight days in an office in Haiti to ensure the trip would proceed. “I was worried she’d get so sick that she wouldn’t be able to have the surgery. It was kind of a race against time.”

Bedica, who is thought to be about 14 weeks old, was born with anorectal malformation, a lower digestive tract birth defect that impeded her ability to defecate.

The defect affects about one in 3,000 babies, said Dr. Graeme Pitcher, a pediatric surgeon at UI Hospitals. While children might survive with the abnormality, the obstruction makes life “really uncomfortable,” Pitcher said, because they lack the intestinal structure to properly rid the body of waste.

Buresh said American operations aren’t set up to perform the specialized surgery in Haiti and Haitian hospitals have a dismal 100 percent mortality rate when it comes to the procedure to repair the defect — meaning Bedica’s only hope involved traveling out of the country.

Bedica’s mother, Carole Ermilus, brought her daughter to the attention of Dr. Matt Downen, a UI medical student who was checking on the needs of people door-to-door in St. Medard, where the family lives.

“The baby was very listless; her eyes were cloudy and she wasn’t eating much,” Ryan said, crediting Bedica’s mother with noticing the problems and seeking help.

Bedica was brought to Dr. Angie Kerchner, a UI medical school graduate doing a residency rotation in Haiti, who diagnosed the condition.

Carole Ermilus is likely in her early 20s — birth dates and even deaths aren’t recorded in Haiti, so no one is sure — but she and her husband knew enough to understand their daughter wasn’t thriving, Ryan said.

Still, they had reservations about sending their infant daughter to a foreign country. Concerns over child kidnappings were heightened after Haiti’s devastating earthquake in 2010.

Dr. Christopher Buresh (right) helps his wife Dr. Ginny Ryan (left) dress four-month old Bedica Ermilus from St. Medard, Haiti after a followup appointment Tuesday, April 3, 2012 at University Hospitals in Iowa City. (Brian Ray/The Gazette-KCRG)

Ryan said Ermilus seemed reassured by the fact that Ryan and Buresh have three children of their own and Ryan is pregnant with their fourth child.

“As a mom, it seemed like quite an emotional time,” said Ryan, who communicated with Bedica’s parents through an interpreter. “She’s very caring. I think she understood that this (surgery) couldn’t be done in Haiti, and she knows we’re taking good care of her.”

Even with the parents’ blessing, the doctors had to persuade Haitian authorities to allow Bedica out of the country.

State Sen. Liz Mathis, D-Cedar Rapids, and U.S. Rep. Dave Loebsack, D-Iowa, made calls to the U.S. Embassy to help expedite the trip.

“It really is a huge, huge effort to get everything lined up,” Buresh said. “We’ve tried in the past but never had much luck.”

When Bedica was finally allowed to leave Haiti, she was malnourished. So Ryan and Buresh focused their efforts on building her strength before she underwent surgery. Donated breast milk was used to help her gain weight.

The efforts paid off. Pitcher performed the surgery March 29 at UI Children’s Hospital.

The procedure involved no taxpayer funding.

“This was a complex surgical case, and every patient is different,” UI spokesman Tom Moore said by email, adding that private money was raised to cover the surgery. “We are very grateful to the generous donors who made this possible.”

Bedica was examined during a post-operative visit last week.

“Overall, we’re delighted at her progress,” Pitcher said.

Bedica is recovering at the Buresh and Ryan home, where Ryan’s parent’s, Cheryl and Charlie Ryan, traveled from Canada to help take care of the children.

She’s still small for her age but is gaining weight and should be ready to return to Haiti after several more weeks.

“I hope she’ll grow up a happy, healthy kid,” Buresh said. “I think she’s got a good shot at it now.”

Watch KCRG-TV9’s 6 p.m. newscast today for more on this story.

Surgeon Graeme Pitcher (left) takes a look at four-month old Bedica Ermilus from St. Medard, Haiti as she is held by Dr. Ginny Ryan (right) during a followup appointment Tuesday, April 3, 2012 at University Hospitals in Iowa City. Bedica was brought to the US by Dr Ryan and her husband Dr. Christopher Buresh to have surgery to treat an anorectal malformation and will be returned to her mother in Haiti when she is well enough to go back. (Brian Ray/The Gazette-KCRG)

This undated file photo provided by Beef Products Inc. shows the company's ammonia-treated filler, known in the industry as "lean, finely textured beef," a lower-cost ingredient made from fatty bits of meat left over from other cuts.. Critics have dubbed the ingrediant "pink slime" and the company has said it will stop using it in its products. (AP)

The “pink slime” moniker drew attention to an additive in ground beef, but you might be surprised to know how many other foods undergo alterations.

That breakfast cereal you ate this morning and the pudding or chocolate your kids will snack on after school, for example, all could have been treated with the same processing aid used for the lean, finely textured beef that has garnered headlines.

Experts say food processing agents — like the ammonium hydroxide used to treat the meat — make America’s food safer, while others point to the need for greater transparency in food labeling.

Angela Laury-Shaw, assistant professor of food science and human nutrition at Iowa State University, said the treatments are effective at preventing contamination and removing impurities from food.

“It’s an extra step to ensure any bacteria is killed,” Laury-Shaw said. “They are intervention strategies used to make products safe.”

Call them what you will, some still question anything that changes food from its natural state.

Angela Laury-Shaw

Jenifer Angerer, marketing manager for New Pioneer Food Co-op in Iowa City, said the co-op hears from customers any time food is in the news.

“Some hesitate to believe this is truly safe,” Angerer said of the lean, finely textured beef. “We will never carry items that contain it.”

Besides providing clear labels so customers know what is in a product and where it originates, the co-op has a list of ingredients not allowed on store shelves, from the artificial sweetener, acesulfame-K, to yeast extract, a flavor agent.

New Pioneer features foods free of artificial sweeteners, colors, flavors, preservatives and trans fats, Angerer noted.

Ruth Comer, spokeswoman for Hy-Vee, said the grocery store chain has no reservations about the quality or safety of the ground beef, sold in prepackaged tubes.

Hy-Vee stores, however, are waiting for suppliers to provide products that won’t contain the lean, finely textured beef, she said, citing customer feedback about the product.

Both types of meat will be labeled and identified in stores, Comer said.

ISU’s Laury-Shaw said she is not affiliated with Beef Products Inc., the company at the center of the processed beef issue, but cited years of research that show the product and process to be safe.

Jenifer Angerer

Misconceptions still exist about processing aids, she added.

For example, Laury-Shaw said ammonium hydroxide should not be confused with the ammonia used as a cleaning agent, a chemical that can be hazardous if used improperly.

As a processing aid, ammonium hydroxide is used to cause bacterial walls to break down, she said, noting that the synthetic, food-grade gas does not stay in the meat.

Ammonium hydroxide is widely used in products including baked goods, cheese, gelatins, chocolate and pudding, according to the International Food Information Council.

The process has 30 years of research behind it, and has been in use for 20 years, Laury-Shaw said, with no documented health hazards.

Other processing aids can be natural, such as citric acid from lemon juice; grape seed extract; rosemary, thyme and spices, such as pepper.

Chlorine and lactic acids are used on produce, including cantaloupe and watermelon.

Such aids are used to control bacteria and mold, Laury-Shaw said.

Even water, used on eggs and other items, is considered a processing aid.

Those aids are not listed on ingredient labels, Laury-Shaw said, as long as they are considered “generally recognized as safe” by the government and do not remain in significant quantity in the products.

The use of such processing aids has substantially reduced the number of serious outbreaks from E. coli, salmonella and other foodborne bacteria, she said. “Now it’s rare that we see it because of the high standards.”

ISU laboratories test combinations of acids and other chemicals that companies claim remove bacteria from food.

Laury-Shaw said “99 percent of those fail,” and those that do work successfully still need another 10 years before receiving government approval.

Saturday March 19, 2011 in through the Czech Village in Cedar Rapids. (Becky Malewitz/SourceMedia Group News)

CEDAR RAPIDS — An effort to unite both sides of the Cedar River in an annual event comes with a cost.

The St. Joseph’s Day parade, a long-standing tradition in Czech Village in southwest Cedar Rapids, will have a new route today that adds the New Bohemia district in the city’s southeast quadrant.

“I think the new route has people excited on both sides of the river,” said Calvin Spinka, Czech Village Association president.

The two historic business districts came under one umbrella in 2009 with the Czech Village/New Bohemia Main Street program and have gradually worked toward becoming one cohesive district.

Spinka, co-owner of the Frame Trader, 72 16th Ave. SW, said the parade is an outward example of that burgeoning cooperation, but the change has a price tag estimated at several thousand dollars.

Previously, the short route on 16th Avenue SW didn’t require off-duty police officers, at a cost of about $50 per hour each, plus barricade rentals and other expenses.

Spinka credited volunteers on the Main Street board and a $13,000 grant from city hotel/motel taxes for helping the district move forward with the parade, which begins at 1 p.m. today.

The funding is spread across three major events in the district, however, including Houby Days in May, so Spinka hopes to find sponsors to help cover the costs.

Business owners donate money and volunteer as much as they can, Spinka said, but all are still recovering from the Floods of 2008, which devastated the district.

Sandi Fowler, assistant to the city manager, said the closure of 12th Avenue SE, a major intersection at Third Street SE, created most of the extra expenses.

Off-duty officers are needed to stand at each barricade at any closed street, she said.

The St. Joseph’s Parade — a celebration of the saint’s March 19 feast day in which participants sport red — is required to have 10 officers and one commander for the new route.

Officers work varying hours, Fowler said, depending on whether they staff the staging area or just the parade.

The St. Patrick’s Day Parade Society, or SaPaDaPaSo, hired 14 officers and one commander for its parade last weekend, plus another 10 officers to patrol the crowd for the expected attendance.

Warm weather and the fact the event fell on a Saturday drew a record crowd estimated between 50,000 and 70,000 people.

Jim Glynn, SaPaDaPaSo treasurer, said totals are still being tallied, but the event, supported by volunteers, could cost $10,000 this year.

“It seems like the costs go up every year,” he said.

To compensate — for the first time in years — St. Patrick’s Day parade participants had to pay a higher fee of $20 for private or non-profit groups and $50 for commercial entries. Previous entry fees were $5 and $25.

Parade participants are not charged to be in the St. Joseph’s Day parade, but Spinka wonders if that might change someday as costs escalate. He said he understands the need to put safety first, adding that private security would have been more affordable at $18 per hour each.

Fowler said the city is not trying to make the festivities cost-prohibitive and, in fact, is supportive of community events such as parades.

She said moving oversight of the special events committee under the City Manager’s Office, which happened six months ago, is evidence of that support.

While fundraising walks and races are happening at an increasing frequency, it’s rare for the city’s traditional parades to change much from year-to-year.

Work on this year’s St. Joseph’s Day parade, which involved negotiations between the city, Czech Village and New Bohemia districts, has offered a trial run, of sorts, for an even bigger event: this summer’s RAGBRAI celebration in Cedar Rapids.

Fowler said efforts are under way to find campgrounds for the 18,000 bicyclists expected to converge on the city during the stop on July 26.

She said the new parade route also could become the standard for other events, including Houby Days and the July 14 opening of the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library.

IF YOU GO

Staging for the St. Joseph’s Day Parade begins at noon today at Third Street SE between Ninth and 11th avenues SE in the New Bohemia district.
The parade starts at 1 p.m. at Third Street and 11th Avenue SE and goes south along Third Street, turning right at 14th Avenue SE before crossing the Bridge of the Lions, onto 16th Avenue SW through Czech Village. The route turns left on C Street SW, ending at 17th Avenue SW.
Parade entries can register the day of the parade at the staging area.
For more information, go to www.czechvillagecedarrapids.com

The Hall-Perrine Cancer Center will have 27 infusion chairs for chemotherapy at Mercy Medical Center in Cedar Rapids on Tuesday, March 13, 2012. There are both private rooms and areas with pairs of chairs to allow patients to interact with each other during treatment, if they choose. (Cliff Jette/The Gazette-KCRG)

CEDAR RAPIDS — Options for cancer care are growing in Eastern Iowa as another cancer center prepares to open its doors.

Staff at Mercy Medical Center’s new Hall-Perrine Cancer Center will begin seeing patients on one floor Monday, with another floor scheduled to open this spring.

“Everything is here,” said Dee Eadie, who was hired as executive director in January to lead the new center. “The patient is going to receive everything under one roof.”

Mercy isn’t the first in the Corridor to integrate its cancer services.

Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics opened a $12 million clinic in Iowa City in December.

Just blocks from Mercy in Cedar Rapids, the Helen G. Nassif Community Cancer Center of Iowa is scheduled to open in consolidated quarters in January.

Now at the Medical Office Plaza and elsewhere in Cedar Rapids, the center will be one portion of the $47 million Physicians’ Clinic of Iowa Medical Pavilion, under construction at 10th Street and Second Avenue SE.

Some have questioned the cost of cancer services, including an opinion column by Dr. Thomas Warren of PCI, published Sunday in The Gazette.

Warren wrote that hospital-based outpatient billing for such care as chemotherapy can result in a charge to the insurance company marked up 400 percent or more, with patients responsible for the deductible and 20 percent hospital co-pay.

Mercy officials noted that the hospital provides needed health care, regardless of a patient’s ability to pay. Mercy provided $17.4 million in free health care last year.

“This level of assistance is not typically available at all health care locations,” spokeswoman Karen Vander Sanden wrote in an email.

Holden director Dr. George Weiner has said the incidence of cancer hasn’t increased in Iowa, but the availability of cancer treatments has.

More patients also are being diagnosed earlier and seen in outpatient clinics rather than staying in the hospital, he said.

Director Kimberly Ivester said lower costs for patients and best outcomes are primary motivators for the Helen G. Nassif cancer center, named after the Cedar Rapids native and financial donor.

Ivester said the primary idea is to make cancer care “more of a process than a place.”

“We’re really just trying to better the care that we’re providing to patients,” she said.

Mercy’s Eadie said having all cancer services under one roof at Mercy is convenient for patients and makes sense, especially in emergencies with medical staff available in the hospital.

Additionally, Mercy’s new cancer center wraps around the hospital’s Hall Radiation Center for patients in need of radiation treatment, she said.

Eadie, administrator at the University of Virginia’s Cancer Center before coming to Cedar Rapids, pointed out the new center’s assets: an exercise room; heated infusion chairs for chemotherapy; community room with space for 93 people; pharmacy with the nation’s first Health Robotics oncology robot for mixing chemotherapy medications; and an image recovery center with a salon for wig-fitting, prosthetics and more.

Mercy’s center has three floors, with mechanical equipment on a fourth floor.

Oncology Associates staff, now employed by Mercy, begin patient care Monday on the third floor.

The Oncology Associates building, 525 10th St. SE, in front of Mercy’s new center, will be demolished in coming weeks to make way for parking and green space.

Offices and other space on the first floor will be fully operational in June, with a grand opening scheduled for July.

Eadie said patient and family input was important in the new center’s design.

Steps, for example, were counted to reduce the number patients will have to take from car to treatment.

Eadie said the center’s second floor is for future expansion.

“We’ll have the space available when we need it,” she said. “Otherwise, you’re at capacity when you move in.”

Chris See, a carpenter with Rinderknecht and Associates, installs stained glass windows into the public walkway between Mercy Medical Center and the Hall-Perrine Cancer Center in Cedar Rapids on Tuesday, March 13, 2012. (Cliff Jette/The Gazette-KCRG)

FYI:

Hall-Perrine Cancer Center

• Location: Mercy Medical Center, 701 10th St. SE, Cedar Rapids

• Cost: $24.6 million

• Size: 86,000 square feet, with 27 infusion chairs or beds for chemotherapy and 16 exam rooms

• Staff: More than 100 employees, including about 40 from Oncology Associates; now employed by Mercy

• Opening date: Third floor opens Monday; fully operational in June

Dee Eadie, executive director of Hall-Perrine Cancer Center dicusses the pharmacy and Health Robotics system that will prepare chemotherapy treatments for patients at the new facility at Mercy Medical Center in Cedar Rapids on Tuesday, March 13, 2012. The robot make very precise adjustments to the dosage and reduces the exposure of pharmacists to the components of the chemotherapy. (Cliff Jette/The Gazette-KCRG)

The bill, signed into law this week by Gov. Terry Branstad, allows a patient’s health care wishes to be honored through various health care settings with a formal one-page document.

That document, called an Iowa Physician’s Order for Scope of Treatment, or IPOST, is a legal doctor’s order that notes the patient’s preferences for life-sustaining treatments such as CPR, artificial nutrition and more.

The bill arose in response to a need noted by Christine Harlander, Palliative Care coordinator at Mercy Medical Center and Stephanie Anderson, Director of Palliative Care and Hospice at St. Luke’s Hospital, both in Cedar Rapids.

Along with Dr. Ralph Beckett and a committee of medical and community members, the two developed a pilot project to address the gap they observed in end-of-life care.

“It’s really about allowing patients to speak with their physician about what they want and to have the health care community respect those choices they decide upon,” Anderson said.

The law goes into effect July 1.

Under current Iowa law, medical workers are required to “err on the side of life,” by providing life-sustaining treatment, such as CPR, Anderson said.

An “out of hospital do not resuscitate” provision in Iowa only allows the terminally ill to note if they do not want CPR or other treatment, such as mechanical ventilation administered, she said.

Anderson noted that many more Iowans besides the terminally ill will be able to use the IPOST, but not everyone.

The new law will apply to patients who are chronically and seriously ill and the frail elderly, she said.

Anyone 18 and older is encouraged to complete an advance directive — a written document that explains the health care you want to receive if you cannot make your own decisions.

Anderson said an advance directive is more about the philosophy of care a patient wishes to receive and is not a legal doctor’s order as an IPOST will be.

In 2008, state lawmakers chose Linn County for a pilot IPOST project. The project was expanded in 2010 to include Jones Regional Medical Center in a more rural population.

Anderson said about 1,500 IPOSTS were used in Linn and Jones counties since the pilot began, with 100 percent compliance in following the orders.

“Overwhelmingly, the reception was very positive,” she said.

In 62 percent of cases, had that document been unavailable, care would have been provided that the patients did not want, she noted, adding that most patients have chosen “somewhere in the middle” between no care and full treatment.

Iowa is the 14th state to pass such a law; several other states are developing their own programs.

Anderson said the new law is not about saving health care dollars, nor is it about assisted suicide.

Tom Chapman, executive director of the Iowa Catholic Conference, said the pro-life group did not oppose the bill.

“It does not authorize euthanasia or mercy killing,” he said. “We felt this particular bill as drafted in Iowa is acceptable.”

Dr. Lee Birchansky, in his office at Fox Eye Laser & Cosmetic Institute in Cedar Rapids on Thursday, is no longer allowed to perform in-office cataract surgery there. Birchansky thinks the state should adjust its rules as medicine evolves and health care costs increase. (Nikole Hanna/The Gazette)

At first glance, Dr. Lee Birchansky’s in-office cataract surgery appears to be an innovative model for lowering health care costs, but state health officials don’t see eye-to-eye with the Cedar Rapids ophthalmologist.

The Iowa Department of Public Health denied a rehearing on Birchansky’s notice to perform the common procedure in his office at Fox Eye Laser & Cosmetic Institute, 1136 H Ave. NE, sending his staff scrambling last week to reschedule dozens of patients into hospital surgical rooms.

“We are open. We’re seeing patients. We’re doing surgeries that we normally do in the office,” said Birchansky, 53, who has practiced 21 years in Cedar Rapids. “What’s changed is that we are no longer doing cataract surgeries in the office.”

The issue extends beyond the doors of Birchansky’s clinic to the pocketbooks of patients and taxpayers.

Birchansky estimates saving his patients and Medicare $3 million in the three years he performed the procedure in-office.

Those savings, spread over 2,143 patients, are from the $1,000 to $4,000 in facility fees that hospitals and outpatient, or ambulatory surgical centers, collect, he said.

Most patients undergoing surgery for cataracts — a cloudiness that forms over the normally clear lens of the eye — are elderly, so Medicare picks up the tab ultimately paid by taxpayers.

The state, however, considers Birchansky’s office to be an uncertified surgical center, built at a cost of more than $1 million.

State health officials fined Birchansky $20,000 and ordered him to cease performing cataract surgery at Fox Eye.

Center inspections

In 1997, eight certified ambulatory surgical centers operated in Iowa. Now there are 25, including one each in Cedar Rapids and Iowa City.

The centers, overseen by the Iowa Department of Inspections and Appeals, are for patients not requiring hospitalization.

Department spokesman David Werning said only centers participating in Medicare are subject to inspection.

Others could exist that do not have that oversight, he said, just as some doctors perform in-office procedures under their medical license that the department does not oversee.

Testimony at Birchansky’s appeal on behalf of the state included a Minnesota ophthalmologist who said cataract surgery must be performed in a sterile environment and a doctor’s office is not typically sterile.

The president of the Iowa Academy of Ophthalmology noted in written testimony that cataract surgery is only performed in surgical facilities and is not an office procedure.

Other surgeries

Birchansky countered that LASIK surgery — vision correction to the cornea using a laser — and cosmetic eyelid surgery are both performed in eye doctors’ offices, where patients are in more convenient, comfortable settings and chances of hospital-acquired infections are lower.

A billboard visible from Interstate 380 near the H Avenue exit for Fox Eye Laser & Cosmetic Institute advertises in-office cataract surgery by Dr. Lee Birchansk, who is no longer allowed by the state to perform the surgery in his office. (Liz Martin/The Gazette-KCRG)

Vasectomies, breast enhancement surgery and other procedures formerly performed in hospitals are moving into doctors’ offices, he said.

Birchansky wasn’t hiding his in-office cataract surgeries, as evidenced by a billboard on Interstate 380, near his clinic.

Polly Carver-Kimm, spokeswoman for the Iowa Department of Public Health, said the Iowa Board of Medicine and other accrediting bodies determine if a particular surgery is medically appropriate to be performed at a given location.

“The sole issue the department reviews is whether a certificate of need is required for a physician to perform the surgeries at the location,” Carver-Kimm wrote in an email. “If the type of surgery is ordinarily performed in a private physician’s office a (certificate of need) will likely not be required. If the surgery at issue is not ordinarily performed in a private physician’s office — like cataract surgery — a (certificate of need) to operate an outpatient surgical facility generally will be required.”

Birchansky has applied four times for a certificate of need with Iowa’s Health Facilities Council, but was denied each time.

Those applications were cited in the department’s review of Birchansky’s appeal.

The purpose of the program is to avoid unnecessary duplication of services and to control medical costs, but Birchansky said in this case, the certificate of need is doing the opposite, creating a monopoly for larger institutes.

St. Luke’s Hospital and Mercy Medical Center objected to Birchansky’s applications, saying enough capacity already existed in the area.

Previously, Birchansky performed cataract surgery at his Advanced Surgery Center under an agreement with St. Luke’s until he filed to do business on his own.

Birchansky said he will abide by the state’s final order and only perform cataract surgeries in a hospital, but thinks Iowa should adjust as medicine evolves and as health care costs increase.

“I’ve seen how the system works,” he said. “I’m just tired of fighting.”

Blue Zone judges arrive in Cedar Rapids' New Bohemia neighborhood Thursday morning. (Jill Kasparie/KCRG-TV9)The community welcomed a panel of about a dozen judges with the Blue Zone Selection Committee Thursday morning.

UPDATE: Blue Zones supporters will find out in May whether or not Cedar Rapids will be selected as a demonstration site, after a visit Thursday, March 1, by a selection team.

A dozen “judges” from Wellmark and Healthways took note as city officials and representatives of local organizations rolled out the welcome at CSPS, 1103 Third St. SE.

A crowd of supporters wore blue and held signs supporting the initiative outside the hall in the New Bohemia district of Cedar Rapids.

That show of support is crucial as the selection team weighs the attributes of each of the 11 finalist communities.

“The most important thing in the communities that are successful – it comes down to the quality of the leadership and the connectivity of the community,” said Justin Smith, one of the Healthways representatives who traveled from Nashville and other cities to visit Cedar Rapids.

Motivation, committing resources to change the health of residents, demonstrating success of prior initiatives and a volunteer base are also important, he said.

The presentation included photos from highly attended walks in Cedar Rapids, information about efforts to add trails and sidewalks and discussion of healthy food choices.

“It’s where healthy living happens naturally,” Sarah Ordover, past board president of Cedar Rapids City Market Inc. said of the forthcoming NewBo City Market, just across the street from CSPS.

Numerous NewBo market representatives attended the site visit in support of the initiative.

Three or four cities in Iowa will be announced in May as Blue Zones demonstration sites.

Those communities will receive expert advice to help improve their residents’ emotional, physical and social health through environmental and policy changes.

Joel Spoonheim of Healthways said the support goes both ways. Blue Zones hires experts who provide blue prints and best practices to transform work sites, schools, grocery stores, restaurants, community policy and individuals, he said, but those entities must also make a commitment to change.

“When enough of these come together, you’re certified as a Blue Zones community,” he said.

Blue Zones is the cornerstone of Iowa’s Healthiest State Initiative, an effort to make Iowa the nation’s healthiest state by 2016.

Doing so could save the state up to $16 billion over five years in health care costs and lost productivity.

Besides Cedar Rapids, other cities in the running for the designation are Ames, Cedar Falls, Clinton, Davenport, Mason City, Muscatine, Ottumwa, Sioux City, Spencer and Waterloo.

The idea stems from author Dan Buettner, whose book, “The Blue Zones,” highlights communities around the world where people live longer, healthier lives.

Wellmark is contributing $25 million over a five-year period to fund the initiative.

Kirkwood Community College student and veteran Kevin Squires of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, rides the bus to catch another bus that will take him to the site of his next class Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2012, in southwest Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Squires, a U.S. Army tank driver in the late 70's to mid 80's, is on the dean's list. Squires lives at the Willis Dady Emergency Shelter. (Jim Slosiarek/The Gazette-KCRG-TV9)

CEDAR RAPIDS — The bed where Kevin Squires sleeps isn’t his own, but the former serviceman is working his way out of the cycle of homelessness that can trap military veterans.

“I kind of gave up,” said Squires, 51, of Cedar Rapids, who is staying at the Willis Dady Emergency Shelter, 1247 Fourth Ave. SE. “There didn’t seem to be any jobs out there.”

Squires, who drove tanks for much of his six years of peacetime service in the U.S. Army, is enrolled at Kirkwood Community College with the help of student loans and hopes to move into an apartment near campus.

Case manager Martha Carter, who works with Squires at the shelter, keeps him on track.

Sometimes that extra support is needed for veterans who can experience difficulty adjusting to civilian life after their service, according to a national prevention program that seeks to end homelessness among veterans by 2015.

One element of that initiative, offered through the departments of Veterans Affairs and Housing and Urban Development, opens Friday in Cedar Rapids.

The Iowa City VA Health Care System’s Cedar Rapids Outreach Center will offer a daytime sanctuary for homeless veterans and those at risk of living on the streets.

“We’re trying to prevent them from becoming homeless,” said Iowa City VA spokeswoman Valerie Buckingham, noting that the center will assist homeless veterans and those facing foreclosure or otherwise in danger of losing their homes.

Buckingham said the center, which cost $500,000 for renovating the site at 1535 First Ave. SE, is the first the Iowa City VA has opened in Iowa. A similar center opened in Rock Island, Ill., in 2008 and the VA Central Iowa Health Care System opened a Des Moines outreach center last year.

The Veterans Administration Outreach Center, located at 1535 1st Avenue SE, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, has a new conference room to meet with community partners. The Outreach Center will focus on assisting homeless veterans. (Nikole Hanna/The Gazette-KCRG)

The new center has showers, a food pantry, clothing pantry and washer and dryer for homeless veterans to use.

Veterans also can find assistance with housing services, employment and job training and obtaining VA benefits at the site.

Sarah Oliver, homeless program coordinator for the Iowa City VA, said Cedar Rapids was chosen because of its population size and because of the Floods of 2008.

“We really needed the extra attention in Cedar Rapids because the area was so devastated,” she said.

Linn County is home to 20,000 veterans who have served from World War II to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

According to a national, single-night census, 67,495 veterans were homeless in the United States in January, down from 76,329 in 2010, but local numbers are rising.

Don Tyne, director of Linn County Veteran Affairs, said his office served 145 homeless veterans last year, up from 109 the previous year.

“That’s expected to increase with the war winding down,” Tyne said.

The number of military veterans applying for service-related injury benefits hit an all-time high in Linn County last month, with 104.

“I usually see 65 to 85 in a month,” Tyne said. “Sometimes those are the ones that end up homeless.”

Counseling and health care services are already available in Cedar Rapids for veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and other difficulties that can make them especially vulnerable, he said.

Donated clothing is washed, dried, and then stored at the Veterans Administration Outreach Center on Wednesday, February, 22, 2012. (Nikole Hanna/The Gazette-KCRG)

The new outreach center will fill the void for veterans who need a shower or clean clothes, Tyne noted.

“If you can’t wash your clothes and you go in for a job interview, you’re not going to be competitive,” he said.

Tim Wilson, executive director of the Willis Dady shelter, said the new outreach center will complement the city’s emergency shelters by providing a food pantry and other services that the shelters don’t have.

“It’s really rare when we don’t have at least one veteran in here,” he said.

Squires, the veteran staying at that shelter, has made the dean’s list in Kirkwood’s liberal arts program, and despite temptations from former friends, remains drug- and alcohol-free.

“I feel like I’m only going forward,” he said. “I would tell anyone who’s a veteran: the world’s out there. You just gotta grab it.”

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“It looked so much more appealing,” said Kelly Crossley, nutrition director at the Solon school district and former food director at Independence schools, where the food was served. “I think that helped the kids to try it.”

Getting children to eat their veggies isn’t all that difficult when the food is fresh, Crossley said, but motivating purchasers at schools and other entities to buy local is another story. Crossley said school lunch directors must follow U.S. Department of Agriculture requirements, such as receiving bids for food purchases.

The conundrum is one of the reasons behind this week’s local food summit, Come to the Table, which will bring together food producers and purchasers to expand the local foods market (see below for details).

Despite its strong agricultural market, Iowa imports more than 90 percent of its food from other states and countries, said Jason Grimm, a food system planner from Iowa Valley Resource Conservation & Development who helped organize the summit.

At the event, buyers will be able to rotate around the room to meet farmers and food entrepreneurs one on one. Afternoon workshops include sessions on Good Agricultural Practices certification; the cost of production and procurement; budgeting to purchase local food; and menu and crop planning for farmers and buyers.

Dozens of participants are registered, including representatives from Hy-Vee Food Stores, food advocates, growers and more. And panelists, including Crossley, Jesse Singerman of Iowa Valley Food Coop, and Andrew Dunham of Grinnell Heritage Farm, will showcase ways to find, sell and buy local food in the area.

“There just seems to be a lot of hesitation and fear about how to do this,” said Crossley, who began her position at Solon in August after four years in Independence.

Independence schools, which has a Farm to School chapter, purchased apples and other items from local growers that were priced as well or better than the schools could have found elsewhere, she noted.

In return, the growers have a “sure thing” with sales to schools — for example, knowing they will be able to supply 40 pounds of tomatoes on a given date, Crossley said.

“I want people to just try it,” she said. “It’s doable. That’s been my experience.”

Local food summit

• What: Come to the Table: Local Food Summit for Producers and Purchasers
• When: 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday with a panel discussion at 9:30 a.m.
• Where: Johnson County ISU Extension, 3109 Old Highway 218 S., Iowa City
• Cost: The summit is free and open to the public. Lunch is $12 with preregistration at http://smgs.us/foodsummit.
• More information: Call Jason Grimm at (319) 270-3890.

Studies have shown some houseplants like the purple waffle plant, can remove indoor air toxins.

I enjoy finding intersections between my job as a health reporter and interest in gardening.

Houseplants are one of those examples.

Not only can indoor plants beautify your home or business, but numerous studies have pointed to the health benefits of houseplants.

One of the more well-known studies, performed by NASA in 1989, used a dozen plants to test their ability to improve indoor air quality. Researchers noted that with the advent of airtight buildings, workers began developing health problems such as itchy eyes, skin rashes, drowsiness, sinus congestion and headaches. The new buildings’ superinsulation and reduced fresh air exchange contributed to those ailments, along with the “off-gassing” of synthetic building materials and office furnishings.

NASA scientists looked at three chemicals and found that the houseplants, along with activated carbon filters, could remove the indoor air pollutants to varying degrees. Benzene, used in paints, plastics and other common products; trichloroethylene, used in adhesives, varnishes, inks and paints; and formaldehyde, used in particle board, paper towels and numerous other products, were studied in the tests, but the effect carries over to other pollutants, as well.

The scientists concluded that the plant system was one of the most promising means of alleviating sick building syndrome.

Following is a list of 10 plants – some from the NASA study and others I’ve come across – that are said to remove indoor air toxins:

Bamboo palm

Chinese evergreen

English ivy

Ficus

Gerbera daisy

Mother-in-law’s tongue

Peace lily

Purple waffle plant

Asparagus fern

Purple heart plant