Southwest Missouri News

Branson

Cronkite not at awards ceremony

About 400 guests attended the seventh Annual Missourian Awards Sept. 23 at the Chateau on the Lake in Branson. This year's Missourian Awards went to celebrities Walter Cronkite, Linda Blair, Dennis Weaver and Linda Bloodworth-Thomason. Cronkite was unable to attend in person because of a pulled Achilles tendon. The award is given to those who have made outstanding contributions to Missouri or the nation in civics, business, the arts or politics.

The American Heart Association presents the Missourian Award, and is also the fund-raising recipient, receiving an estimated $30,000 to $40,000 from this year's event, according to Ron Oyer, media relations for the AHA. Oyer said funds raised this year will benefit the southwest Missouri communities of Branson, Springfield and Joplin with the purchase of automated external defibrillators, known as AEDs. Local volunteers can be easily trained to use AEDs and save the lives of many victims of heart attacks.

City considers monorail plan

The Branson Board of Aldermen has authorized city staff to develop a request for proposal for companies interested in the development of a monorail transportation system in Branson. The proposed overhead system would travel along State 76 from the west city limits to the Taneycomo lakefront downtown, with possible extension to other areas away from 76.

Register now for conference

The Third Annual Environmental Conference will be held noon-5 p.m., Oct. 26 at the Chateau on the Lake near Branson. This year's program topic is "Business Development & the Environment Profitable Investments in the Future." The cost, including lunch, is $35. For more information, contact Wyli Barnes at the Branson/Lakes Area Chamber of Commerce at 334-4084.

Carthage

Victorian celebration next month

Carthage organizations are working with one of the area's largest attractions in order to create a Victorian Christmas for community members and tourists.

Authentic Victorian costumes, turn-of-the-century decorations, living history presentations and performances are planned at the Precious Moments Victorian Wedding Island and at locations throughout Carthage.

Organizers are hoping that the wide variety of family activities, scheduled from Nov. 10 to Dec. 11, will make Carthage a destination for people from throughout the United States.

The ballroom of the Victorian mansion will be the centerpiece of the event, with performers demonstrating Victorian dances and parlor games as they celebrate the engagement of a Victorian debutante. Live performances will be held on Saturdays and Sundays of each weekend. Other events include:

Homes Tour on Dec. 2, sponsored by Victorian Carthage;

performance of Charles Dickens' "A Cricket on the Hearth" by Stone's Throw Theater Dec. 7-10 and 14-17;

War reenactments and special autograph sessions with local artist Andy Thomas and local authors Steve Cottrell and Marvin VanGilder;

Lights Tours on Carthage's double-decker bus Dec. 8 and 15;

dinners at the Kendrick Hose, a pre-Civil War home that has been restored, with a Christmas Light Tour on the double-decker bus Dec. 9, 14 and 16.

Sam Butcher, creator of the Precious Moments figurines, has designed a special figurine commemorating the "Christmas Remembered" celebration titled "Victorious in Jesus." The piece will be a chapel exclusive, only available at the Precious Moments Chapel Center's gift shop.

Participating organizations include Precious Moments, Powers Museum, Victorian Carthage, Main Street Carthage, Stone's Throw Theater, the Carthage Civil War Museum, and ArtCentral.

Joplin

New center has host of clinics

The Family Care Center at St. John's Regional Medical Center has been expanded and is now open for business. The center features the Mercy Clinics Family Practice, St. John's Pain Center and St. John's Regional Outpatient Orthopedic Center. The building once housed St. John's sports medicine program.

Five family practice physicians are part of the Mercy Clinic: J. Wayne Dailey, DO, Glen King, DO, Bryan Minton, MD, and Kyra Vineyard, DO. The group plans to provide area residents with improved access to skilled primary care since Jasper and Newton counties have been designated as a health profession shortage area by the Missouri Department of Health and Human Services.

Primary care medicine focuses not on diagnosis and treatment of disease and injury, but on health promotion, disease prevention and health maintenance.

Business now a distributor

Dean's Garage Door Center Inc., 1427 Joplin Ave., has been authorized as Overhead Door distributor for the four-state area which includes Kansas, Oklahoma, Missouri and Arkansas.

Dean's also recently expanded, tripling its available office space and more than doubling its warehouse space.

Trust fund creates scholarships

Students and individual departments at Missouri Southern State College will benefit from a charitable trust established by a former president of the board of the Joplin Historical Society.

A bequest from the Clark and Margaret Reed Trust will provide an annual income of more than $50,000 to the Missouri Southern Foundation.

The money will be used to provide student scholarships and support for individual departmental efforts at Missouri Southern State College.

Clark Reid and his wife, Margaret, were longtime Joplin residents. Margaret Reid died in 1996. Clark Reid died at age 95 earlier this year.

Business continues acquisitions

Joplin.com Holdings Inc. has purchased the assets of ATEI Internet and About4Web. Earlier this year, the company took over the former JANICS Internet service that reached residents in Jasper and Newton counties.

"The recent transactions will allow Joplin.com ISP to extend its services to more area users and more fully utilize our ISP resources," Towner said in a news release.

Hollister

Arts council aids chamber

The Hollister Area Chamber of Commerce has been awarded a grant of $1,750 from the Missouri Arts Council to help defray tent, sound and lighting costs for the Grape and Fall Festival.

According to the Hollister chamber, there were about 5,000 people in attendance and 200 local businesspeople and residents who volunteered during the festival held Sept. 8-9. The event also included 300 performers and 32 grape stompers who smashed 400 pounds of St. Vincent grapes.