Newcastle Notes: Newcastle natives take high honors at swimming, diving championships

By Peggy Hartley, Journal columnist | Monday, March 26, 2007

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Here goes another week of Newcastle Notes.

It’s been a fine week in our community and the warmer weather has been wonderful! Hopefully, we will still have those wet spring snows to provide additional moisture, but for now, it is sure is nice to see a touch of green creeping into the landscape.

NCAA swimming

To begin with, I want to follow up on the NCAA Division II Swimming and Diving Championships in Buffalo, N.Y., mentioned in last week’s column. The University of South Dakota finished ninth in the division, and on the team were three Newcastle women: Erin Wagnor, Leita Rolfe and Jenny Kohlbrand. All three of these outstanding young women received honorable mention All-American honors.

The residents of Newcastle are so proud of your accomplishments. Congratulations, ladies! Also, a shout out to Todd Quigley, their former high school coach, good job!

WIC program

I stopped in at the brand new public health building this week, and it is beautiful.

An open house will be in the offing as soon as the Stampede Street construction is complete — when access will be much easier. While there, I spoke with Connie James, the program manager of WIC, which stands for Women, Infants and Children. This program is funded nationally but is managed by the individual state.

WIC provides healthy food and nutrition information to lower-income families. To qualify for the program, the individual must live in Wyoming, be pregnant, be breastfeeding, be an infant or a child younger than five. Fathers may apply for their children, also.

Currently, WIC services families at 185 percent of poverty level or below. For example, a pregnant woman with two children is actually considered a family of four because the unborn child is considered a family member. If this family’s income is less then $689 per week, they would qualify for benefits.

They receive counseling on how to use WIC approved food to improve health, a PayWest card to buy foods that help keep the family healthy and strong, an immunization screening and referrals, discussions on food, shopping, recipes, baby care, breastfeeding, good eating during pregnancy and referrals to other programs, which will then assist in raising healthy children.

Breastfeeding is an important element in giving a child a good start in life, and WIC encourages mothers to do so.

Nicole Taylor and Mattie Peterson are WIC’s breastfeeding peer counselors. They assist young mothers in choosing nutritious foods that will enable them to successfully breastfeed. Taylor and Peterson are also there to answer any questions or concerns a mother might have.

Breastfeeding to the age of 2 is highly recommended, but in the real world, this is not always possible. Six months of breast feeding will give the baby a good start on life, and with the assistance of WIC, a healthy diet for mother, baby and children can be established.

WIC has an outreach program and serves Sundance, Hulett and Upton. About 200 women, infants and children participate in the WIC program each month. If you have questions concerning WIC, please call 746-2677.

Just as a personal observation, the food provided is extremely nutritious, such as whole grain low- or non-sugar cereals, no sugar fruit juices, peanut butter, tuna, legumes, infant formula, milk, cheese and eggs. In 2008, fresh and canned vegetables will be added to the list of approved foods. Absolutely no junk food can be bought with WIC funds.

Newcastle FBLA takes care of business

Twenty-three members of the Newcastle Future Business Leaders Association Chapter competed at the 2007 FBLA State Leadership Conference, which was March 15-17 in Cheyenne. It was a very successful conference as Newcastle came away with eight members qualifying to go to the national conference.

There were approximately 450 FBLA members from all over the State of Wyoming

attending the conference and to place was definitely a challenge and an honor.

Those placing and qualifying included the following.

First place: Jen Love, Local Chapter Annual Business Report; Ashley Price, Chapter Scrapbook; Jen Love and Ashley Price, Desktop Publishing; Rishi Shah, Impromptu Speaking.

Second place: Annica Dixon, Job Interview; Shelby Hughes, Introduction to Business Communication; Jen Love and Annica Dixon, Partnership with Business Project Report.

Third place: Annica Dixon and Jen Love, Community Service Project Report; Matt Hawley, Business Math; Matt Hawley, Introduction to Technology Concepts; Matt Hawley, Word Processing I; Becky Podio, Marketing.

Fourth place: Jen Love, Future Business Leader; Jen Love, Who’s Who in Wyoming FBLA; Marina Podio, FBLA Principles and Procedures

I visited with Jen Love, a senior, who is planning to attend the University of Wyoming and major in secondary education. Love plans on following in the footsteps of Chris French, the current Newcastle business instructor, and teaching the same courses herself. Love mentioned the FBLA members plan on doing fundraisers to help pay the expenses of going to nationals. Their favorite fundraiser is selling of Krispy Kreme

Doughnuts. The members take orders, and then French and her husband, Herb,

drive to Billings, Mon., and very early the next morning, fill their truck with dozens and dozens of doughnut and head for Newcastle.

If anyone would like to place an order they can call Newcastle High School at 746-2713.

If anyone has any news to be included in the column, please call 746-4818 or email me at phartley_82701@yahoo.com. Thanks for reading and have a wonderful week.