Mineral County Roundup
Mineral Community Hospital staff painted blue ribbons near stop signs as part of the Buckle Up 4 Lauryn Campaign. (Photo courtesy of Monte Turner).
St. Regis resident Jill Pestana created a small veteran memorial from a flag she received at her father, James Pestana’s funeral. (Photo courtesy of Jill Pestana).
The Alberton Afterschool Program found old school cheerleading uniforms and created a new cheerleading squad and performed at a recent Alberton school assembly. (Kathleen Woodford/Mineral Independent).
Square dancers from all over the area were in Plains on Saturday night while crews from “Backroads of Montana” and “Under the Bigsky” taped upcoming shows. (Kathleen Woodford/Mineral Independent).
St. Regis 6th graders Gyme Kelly and Brook Filek work on their class backpack program to provide supplies to students in need. (Photo courtesy of Tim Yeager).
Square dancers from all over the area were in Plains on Saturday night while crews from "Backroads of Montana" and "Under the Bigsky" taped upcoming shows. (Kathleen Woodford/Clark Fork Valley Press)
Mr. Yeager’s sixth-grade class at St. Regis School is planning an end-of-the-year project to donate backpacks to kids in need. The backpacks will be filled with school supplies for next fall. They are currently accepting cash donations and will have a booth, “Mineral County Makes a Difference” at the three-day flea market in St. Regis over Memorial Day weekend.
The class said the reason for the project is because they see a lot of students hold all of their schoolwork because they don’t have a backpack, some also don’t have binders, pencils, erasers or paper.
“They might drop some of their school work. They can get a bad grade for losing a math test...Without these school supplies, they can be unorganized and their grades may drop enough to cause them to go to summer school,” the class wrote in a recent letter to the paper. “We are excited to spread the word and hope to make a difference in the community!”
St. Regis resident honors local veterans
St. Regis resident, Jill Pestana, went back to her father’s funeral in February to Priceville, AL. Her father, James Pestana, was a decorated veteran from the Korean War. She returned with a large American Flag from his funeral and put up a flag pole and small memorial to commemorate all Mineral County Veterans in her yard.
New cheerleading squad hits the floor
There’s a new cheerleading squad at Alberton School. Afterschool program manager, Jessica Maurer, located the school’s old cheerleading uniforms. They were last worn in 1994 when Alberton resident, Ruth Kulawinski was the cheerleading coach.
Afterschool teacher, Ashley Putnam, has been working with the squad and they performed a few cheers during a recent assembly at the school. Putnam said it’s been fun and she hopes the group can continue to cheer on the fans at future events.
Campaign reminds people to buckle up
Mineral Community Hospital staffers painted the town “blue” last week. They painted blue ribbons on the roads at stop signs in Alberton, St. Regis and Superior reminding motorist to buckle up. They also went to all the high schools when school got out, they handed out blue ribbon thank you cards and bottles of water from Blackfoot to anyone leaving the school buckled up.
“This all is a reminder of buckling up and for the Buckle Up 4 Lauryn Campaign, Phase II,” said hospital spokesman Monte Turner.
Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive report
Last week was the National Association of Letter Carriers “Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive”. Post offices in Mineral County collected food for area residents with bins in the lobbies. Residents also left food by their mailbox for carriers to pick up when they delivered the mail. Last year the Superior Post office collected about 200 pounds of food for the Superior Food Bank.
‘Backroads’ crew tapes show in Plains
Television crews from both “Backroads of Montana” and “Under the Big Sky” were at a local square dance in Plains on Saturday, May 6. The dance, located in the basement of the First Security Bank, is held monthly and the “Backroads” crew was there to shoot standups for the next episode of their show.
Meanwhile, the crew from “Under the Big Sky” were there to shoot a segment they are doing on “Backroads.” It was a busy night as square dance members from all over western Montana including Kalispell, Lolo, and Helena, Promenade left and Promenade right around the television crews. The episode of “Backroads” will be on May 22 at 7 p.m. on Montana PBS. It will also feature a segment largely shot in the Alberton area, as well as a story about a flute maker in Hot Springs.
Archived copies of Mineral Independent now found online
The Mineral County Historical Society has worked to get the Mineral Independent archived with Montana Newspapers. Papers from 1915 to 1923 can be accessed at http://montananewspapers.org/lccn/sn86075304.
The site contains 468,709 pages from 71 Montana town, county, school and tribal newspapers dated 1883-2015.
Ballots missing address, but still being delivered
A small number of Mineral County mail-in ballot were inadvertently mailed out without a town name or zip code. Election Administrator, Staci McGrew, didn’t notice the error until the ballots were sent out. However, the return address located in the top right corner has the election office address and the Superior Post Office has been forwarding the ballots to the elections office.
“All the ballots will be counted,” said McGrew.