A faculty recital — presented by Dr. Janet Heukeshoven, Eric Heukeshoven, Dr. Patrick O’Shea, Ned Kirk and Dr. John Paulson — will be held at 3 p.m. Sunday in Figliulo Recital Hall. The event is free and open to the public and will feature work ranging from classical to jazz.
Dr. Phil Cochran, SMU Biology Department, will speak at the Thursday, Oct. 11, biology seminar on “A Comparison of Native and Exotic Hosts for the Silver Lamprey.” The seminar will be at 4 p.m. in Room 112 Hoffman Hall. Refreshments will be served and all are welcome to attend.
The Clothesline Project will be on display on the main floor of the Toner Center from Oct. 8-11. The Clothesline Project is a visual display that bears witness to the violence against women. In the display, a clothesline is hung with shirts, each one decorated to represent a particular woman’s experience.
Read more...The purpose of the project is to:
1. Bear witness to the survivors as well as the victims of violence against women;
2. To help with the healing process for the loved ones of victims of valence;
3. To educate, document, and raise society’s awareness of violence against women.
For more information about the Clothesline Project, go to www.mcbw.org/clothesline.htm.
The SMU display is sponsored by the Women’s Resource Center of Winona and SMU Women’s Programming Office.
SMU Counseling Services will participate in National Depression Screening Day on Thursday, Oct. 11. Screenings will be offered from 11 a.m. through 5 p.m. in the Wellness Center in the lower level of the Toner Center.
One out of four young adults are likely to experience a depressive episode by age 24, according to information provided by the Health Minds Project of the American Psychological Association.
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Major depression is a serious common medical condition that involves the mind and body. Many people don’t realize that there are emotional and physical symptoms of depression. Depression significantly affects a person’s appetite, sleep, energy, thinking, self-esteem and physical well-being. The symptoms are persistent and not the same as a temporary blue mood or normal emotional experiences such as sadness or grief. Depression can have severe consequences in terms of suffering and disability.
For more information about depression and other college mental health issues, go to www.healthyminds.orgcollegementalhealth.cfm
The Saint Teresa Leadership and Service Institute for Women and the Brain Injury Association of Minnesota are sponsoring a Walk for Thought fundraiser Saturday, Oct. 6, at Lake Winona.
The sixth annual Walk for Thought raises public awareness about brain injury and funding to support those affected by brain injury.
Registration and check-in for the Winona walk starts at 9 a.m. at the walk tent in the Kmart parking lot. The walk will begin at 10 a.m. To register online or for more information, go to www.braininjurymn.org.
Saint Mary’s theatre majors will stage “The Shadow Box,” an emotional — and sometimes amusing — reflection about life and death Oct. 17-20 at London’s New Wimbledon Studio.
Qualified theatre majors at Saint Mary’s are studying theatre in London, England, this semester through the Stefannié Valéncia Kierlin Theatre in London Program. Under the guidance of Saint Mary’s faculty, the program will include a variety of classes in theatre, as well as courses focusing on broader enrichment. Students will also have the unique opportunity to attend numerous performances at London’s West End, Off-West End, and Fringe theatres.
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“The Shadow Box,” written by Michael Cristofer, dramatizes the final days of three terminal cancer patients who dwell in separate cottages on a hospital’s grounds. The 1977 Pulitzer Prize- and Tony Award-winning play explores their anxieties, as well as their acceptance of the finality of their condition, the inevitable and imminent end of their lives. Family and close friends who visit these patients add some heartrending — as well as humorous — situations.
Participating are: director, Dr. Gary Diomandes; assistant director, Sarah St. Laurent; stage manager, Erica Prond; and lighting designer, Roger Frith. Performers include: Alex Gorgone (Joe), Rachel Crawford-Miller (Maggie), Michael Fye (Steve), Mark Skrade (Brian), JM Montecalvo (Mark), Alyssa Schlageter (Beverly), Martha Walters (Felicity), Whitney Rappana (Agnes), and Diana Connolly (Interviewer).
SMU Volunteer Services is planning cleanup efforts for flood victims from 1 to 4 p.m. today (Friday) and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 10.
Additionally, students have two opportunities for volunteer work over October break.
If you would like to help with flood relief, you can participate as little as one day or as many as all four. The cost is $25 for all of your meals.
For more information, contact Maria Borgerson or Molly Jewison.
A volunteer group will travel to the San Miguel Middle School in Chicago, Ill., on Friday, Oct. 12, through Tuesday, Oct. 16. A cost of $70 includes a place to stay, travel and all of your meals.
Contact Mandy Haus for more information or sign up for either of these trips in the basement of the Toner Student Center, Room 8B.
This is the third in a series of stories of SMU faculty and staff who have suffered serious damage because of recent flooding. We hope that these stories bring to light how many people, in how many areas, were deeply affected. Please continue to keep everyone who is fighting to put their lives back together in your prayers.
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This photo was taken from aboard a rescue boat and shows the Mertes home, truck and RV underwater.
Pat and Jerry Mertes lost their Minnesota City home in the August flood. This photo shows a portion of their basement.
The Mertes home was lifted from its foundation by floodwaters.
Pat and Jerry Mertes
Recently retired
Central Services and Maintenance
Since the August flood, Pat and Jerry Mertes have had a quick answer whenever someone asks them what they need.
“A new house,” the two say with a smile, and without hesitation.
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Though the couple lost their Minnesota City home of more than 43 years and most of their belongings, they haven’t lost their sense of humor.
But it isn’t exactly the retirement the couple envisioned. (Pat worked in Central Services, Jerry in maintenance.) For starters, the RV in which they had planned to take many trips to Arizona and Oregon was destroyed.
Now facing daunting costs of having to completely rebuild, the two say they may never be able to purchase another RV. The couple had no flood insurance, and FEMA money allotted to them doesn’t begin to cover their future costs.
“A house is more important,” Jerry says. But the two, glancing at each other out of the corner of their eyes, don’t completely discount the idea that maybe an RV could be their new home. Some days, this idea seems better than others.
The Merteses were offered a FEMA trailer, but Jerry said they declined. So many others, they say, are much worse off than they are. The couple is grateful to have family to live with, that they don’t have small children, and that no one was killed in their neighborhood.
The two also consider themselves fortunate that they were not home, but were on vacation Aug. 18-19. They learned of the flooding when friends of theirs from St. Cloud called them after seeing the hotel near Pat and Jerry’s home being evacuated on TV.
“The kids didn’t want to tell us unless it was bad,” Pat said. “But they couldn’t get to the house; it was still under water, and they couldn’t get near it.”
The Merteses later discovered their grandchildren had just come by their home to borrow a dehumidifier shortly before the water level got dangerous. More, they say, to be grateful for.
The flood brought in about 4 1/2 to 5 feet of water outside their home, and about a foot of mud and water on the first floor. It was enough to lift the house off of its foundation and cave in a basement wall.
A neighbor of theirs lost his leg after escaping from a broken window. The deep cut, compounded by the contaminated water and a long rescue period, forced doctors to amputate. The Merteses say neighbors could hear him beg for help but couldn’t get down from their roofs to help him.
“I’m afraid of heights, so I wouldn’t have gotten up on the roof,” Pat said, adding that if they’d have been home, she knows Jerry would have heard their neighbor and, unquestioningly, he’d have tried to help, putting his life in danger; Pat shakes her head at the terrifying thoughts of “what might have been.”
By the time Pat and Jerry rushed home, their children and their friends had already emptied the main floor, salvaging very little, mostly clothes that were hanging high enough in the closet or knicknacks high enough on the walls.
Along with the RV, Jerry’s 4-by-4 Chevy truck — his “baby” — was destroyed, as well.
What is left of their lives now fits into a portion of their daughter’s garage. Jerry has carefully combed through the home, pulling out new lighting fixtures and salvaging new door handles. The couple had just remodeled several rooms in their home and had hoped to finish the project this winter.
When Pat and Jerry begin listing what was destroyed, the list grows with every second: most of Pat’s scrapbooks, including many years of treasured pictures; Pat’s craft materials; Jerry’s woodworking tools; many totes filled with Christmas decorations — so many things the couple had hoped to enjoy in their retirement.
The ironic thing, Pat and Jerry said laughing, is they had just talked about how they should downsize. “We downsized a lot faster than we thought,” Pat said, “All in a couple of hours,” Jerry added.
The two are living in Trempealeau with their daughter and son-in-law (and a menagerie of pets). Jerry said he had once teased them about building such a big house. Now, he says with a chuckle, he’s pretty glad they have the extra room.
The two expect their home to be torn down in a week or two and nod slightly as they admit it will be sad to see it go. Four homes in their immediate area are being torn down. The Merteses hope to rebuild in the same area, only 4 feet higher, but they are waiting to hear about possible state aid.
“There’s anger,” Jerry said, “People don’t think they got enough and that the government is not working fast enough.” Many families in their neighborhood, they say, had planned to move, but are now returning to the area because, as Pat says, “It’s home.”
“Life goes on,” Pat said. “There’s got to be light at the end of the tunnel.”
Jerry added, “It can’t get any worse.”
This next Let’s Do Lunch, hosted by Student Services, is planned for Wednesday, Oct. 31. Proceeds will go to faculty and staff who have lost their homes or had significant flood damage.
SMU senior Holly Schuh’s artwork is on display in Washington, D.C.“Two Voices” is on display the Kennedy Center Hall of States through October.
“Pause,” is on display at the Smithsonian’s Ripley Center through Dec. 31
Holly Schuh, a Saint Mary’s senior from Altura, Minn., received the Award of Excellence and $2,000 for her artwork, currently on display at the Smithsonian and the Kennedy Center.
The 2007 juried exhibition “Driven” highlights the work of 15 emerging, young visual artists with disabilities. The exhibition, sponsored by VSA arts and Volkswagen of America, Inc., is on display at the S. Dillon Ripley Center, Smithsonian Institution, through Dec. 31. The work of 15 “Driven” awardees is also on display at the Kennedy Center Hall of States through October in celebration of National Disability Employment Awareness Month. The 15 finalists displaying work were chosen from 204 applicants, ranging in age from 16 to 25, from throughout the United States.
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This year’s assignment challenged artists to illustrate the motivational force behind their personal vision … what moves them to create art.
Schuh aims to portray the emotions of human struggles through the representation of the human figure. Inspired by a mission trip to India and an intense awareness of humanitarian issues, Schuh links art, humanity and human figures in works that emote without words. Schuh want her figures to “cause discussion about struggles and the changes that are needed in the character of humanity’s actions.”
Schuh said she changed as an artist after she began exhibiting symptoms of hereditary neuropathy with pressure-point palsies, a rare, slowly progressive hereditary neuromuscular disorder that makes an individual very susceptible to nerve injury from pressure, stretch or repetitive use.
“I am determined to see my hands create and to see my disease as a positive inheritance,” she said. “I want my abstract figures to cause discussion about struggles and the changes that are needed in the character of humanity’s actions.”
Each year the Women in Business Committee recognizes Winona-area outstanding women in the areas of business, land and home, education and government, as well as an outstanding young woman.
Angela Buck, a junior at SMU, was named this year’s Outstanding Young Woman. This award is presented to a young woman who has demonstrated leadership qualities in community involvement, academic achievement, extracurricular activities, etc.; or who gives freely of her time and talent to make a difference in the Winona area.
Ann Merchlewitz, vice president and general counsel, will give the keynote presentation at the award luncheon, where Buck will be honored. The event will be held 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 18, at Visions Event Center. Tickets can be purchased until today, Oct. 5, at Image Copy Print, Pendleton’s, Merchants Bank downtown, and Winona National Bank.
This month’s First Friday is today in Room B (next to the Information Desk). Stop by for a continental breakfast and take this opportunity visit by the art gallery for the last day of the art exhibits, Images of Nature by Carol Faber and Interstices by Monta May. Today also marks the last day of the silent auction for several of the art pieces. Proceeds from this auction will benefit the
Friends of the School of the Arts.
A few unmatted/unframed photography prints by May will be added to the silent auction.
From Father Michael Kirwen, director of the Maryknoll Institute for African Studies in Nairobi, Kenya:
“One of the special elements of MIASMU educational method is Pastoral Reflection (PTR) sessions (two per semester) that are organized and run by the students and field assistants. In these sessions, through skits and discussions, each class share with the whole student body what they have learned in the classroom and gathered in field research regarding the material of their particular course.
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“For example, on Sept. 28, the class Sociology of Development/Underdevelopment in African Religion presented a skit which emphasized that traditional African ideas of development, which are people centered, should be part and parcel of any social or economic development projects.
“The skit by the class on Spirituality, Personhood and Psychotherapy in an African context brought to the fore the dilemma facing many Africans, when psychologically or emotionally unwell, whether to rely on Western therapeutic practices or traditional practices. In the end the skit underscored the need to integrate Western therapeutic practices with African practices in order to be more relevant and effective.
“Last but not least, the class on African Christian Theology gave a hilarious yet informative skit that depicted how many Africans consider traditional African oaths such as swearing with skins and animal parts, as more serious than oathing on the bible or Quran. In the case of the former the repercussions are instant and severe if violated.
“Afterwards the students broke into groups where enriching discussions on the issues raised in the skits were further debated over sodas and cookies.”
Richard Tristano, department of History, delivered a presentation titled, “Lasallian Assessment: In the Footsteps of the Founder or a Badly Put Question?” at the 16th annual Lasallian Convocation at Manhattan College, Bronx, N.Y. Tristano is an alumnus of Manhattan College, class of ’73.
Dr. Bill Crozier is the next featured speaker in the Adult Program Series, to be held at the Minnesota Marine Art Museum at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 9. Guests will be able to meet Dr. Crozier at a wine and cheese reception. Admission is free for this event.
His presentation, “Winonan Sam Whiting and the ‘Escape’ of the Confederate Raider CSS Florida,” describes the story of the building of the first Confederate raider, the CSS Florida (AKA Oreto), in Liverpool England, its evasion of the neutrality regulations, and daring run through the blockade into Mobile in December, 1862.
Read more... Of special interest is that the central figure in this story is Captain Samuel Whiting, an early Winona pioneer, journalist, mariner and poet who rose to prominence during the Fort Sumpter incident in 1861. As a result of his heroic actions there, his maritime experience and a few influential friends, President Abraham Lincoln appointed him to the post of United States consul at Nassau.
Bill Crozier is the University Archivist at Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota. He taught history here for over 30 years. He has presented papers at historical conferences in many places including Glasgow, Montreal, and Moscow and most recently at Columbia University in New York City.
Crozier served in the U.S. Navy during the Korean War and had the opportunity to sail the waters where the action of this presentation took place. He is a graduate of the United States Navy Submarine School and served on the USS Chopper (SS342) and the USS Sea Poacher (SS406). Based in Key West and Charleston, he participated in many Caribbean Naval operations and a memorable 35-day North Atlantic patrol.
Dr. Crozier’s appearance at the Minnesota Marine Art Museum is sponsored in part with generous support provided by the Ernest and Sally Micek Family Foundation in memory of W.B. “Bill” Gautsch.
For more information, call the museum at 474-6626.
Dr. Dick Kowles, biology department, gave two seminars at Winona State University on Friday, Sept. 28, as part of its homecoming activities. Dr. Kowles talked to genetics students about a long ongoing research project involving the mode of DNA replication in developing endosperm tissue in maize. He estimates that 18 to 20 SMU students have worked on the project over the years, contributing a vast amount of information on the system.
An “Internships 101” workshop will be held 4 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 11, in Saint Mary’s Hall, Room 134.
Upcoming study abroad deadlines are: Florence, Italy, Oct. 5; Galway, Ireland, Oct. 9; Rome, Italy, Oct. 9; teaching abroad, Oct. 10 and Cape Town, South Africa, Cuernavaca, Mexico and Melbourne, Australia , Oct. 12.
The Savin’ Grace Concert, a fundraiser for Grace Place in Winona, will be held 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 21, at Figliulo Recital Hall. It is the mission of Grace Place to provide Christian guidance, support and encouragement for women with unplanned pregnancies and for families experiencing brokenness and change.
Swing Inc., including Eric Heukeshoven, will perform Friday, Oct. 5, at the Canadian Honker Restaurant in Rochester, Minn., and 8 to 11 p.m. Friday, Oct. 26, at Waterfront Restaurant, La Crosse.
The John Paulson Trio performs 6 to 9 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 6, at Michael’s Restaurant in Rochester, the John Paulson with Miles Johnston Quartet performs 7:30 to 11:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 13, at the Canadian Honker in Rochester; and the John Paulson Trio performs 6 to 9 p.m. Friday, Oct. 19, at Michael’s Restaurant in Rochester.
Peter Bolla was awarded one of 10 scholarships by the Hungarian American Scholarship Fund to come to the U.S. and develop his professional skills. He was placed at GeoSpatial Services to develop both his business and GIS skills.
Bolla is a graduate of the Budapest University of Technology and Economics and received his M.Sc. degree in Informatics from the Eotvos Lorand University also in Budapest. He will be working at GSS for the next year and hopes to develop both a professional and personal network before he leaves.
To view a presentation about Hungary from a Hungarian’s perspective, click here to view presentation.
You must view the presentation on a Windows PC.