Community Spirit

Hospital celebrates nurses week with singing competition

Submitted by Catherine Showers on Monday, May 13th, 6:01 am

On Thursday St. Mary's staff participated in their own version of "American Idol" to celebrate Nurses Week.

Organizers said eight staff members mustered the courage to step onto the stage and into the spotlight much to the delight of those watching in the cafeteria.

After Thursday's event, employees will vote for their favorite performer and then the top vote-getter will be crowned the St. Mary's champ and receive a prize, the hospital said.

Katie Davis sang the Journey classic "Don't Stop Believing" to close the Idol event.

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UW students launch discrimination exhibit

Submitted by Leah Linscheid on Friday, May 3rd, 6:08 pm

University of Wisconsin-Madison students are taking a closer look at their campus climate through the "Silenced Stories" exhibit.

The exhibit will highlight stories of harassment and discrimination that students have experienced on the university’s campus through artwork and other forms. The stories, taking place in classes, during sports games and in university housing, will focus on race, sex, gender and other discriminations.

"Silenced Stories" will open May 9 at 5:30 in the School of Social Work, with refreshments available, according to a statement.

The Disability and Advocacy in Multicultural Settings Field Unit launched the exhibit to raise awareness for discrimination on campus, the statement said.

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Cardiac arrest survivor wants others to learn life-saving skill

Submitted by Leah Linscheid on Friday, May 3rd, 6:01 am

Survivor: '[I was] clinically dead, and I was that way for 20 minutes'

Sudden cardiac arrest kills 1,000 people a day in the U.S., which is roughly one person every two minutes. Would you know what to do if you saw someone collapse in front of you?

Channel3000.com and WISC-TV are proud to partner with St. Mary’s Hospital on Saturday for Hands on Hearts -- a community-wide event offering free compression-only CPR .

COCPR is a hands-only technique to help those in sudden cardiac arrest. The constant compressions are performed 100 times a minute to the center of a patient's chest. The compressions keep oxygen-rich blood flowing to the heart and brain. Mouth-to-mouth rescue breaths are not needed.

When compression-only CPR is used on a victim of cardiac arrest, the chance of surviving increases greatly.

Wagner said if he had died in 2008 when he had a cardiac arrest and he was pulseless for 20 minutes, his daughter Shaylee, left, would never have been born. His wife Theresa gave birth to Shaylee in 2009, nearly one year after Wagner's brush with death. Also pictured is Wagner's son, James.

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MSCR offers Madison lakes event

Submitted by Leah Linscheid on Friday, April 26th, 6:27 pm

Madisonians can learn more about what treasures lie at the bottom of their community lakes from a local diving expert this weekend.

Madison School and Community Recreation will hold a public conversation with Rick Krueger, a diver with more than 22 years of experience with exploring Madison’s lakes. The event will cover topics ranging from a Lake Mendota cave where Chief Black Hawk once hid to sunken boats and cars that now rest at the bottom of Lake Monona.

The event will take place April 27 at 9 a.m. at the La Follette High School. The fee is $5.

Anyone interested in registering for the talk can visit www.mscr.org and use the course number 42295 to sign up.

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Mom to share son's organ donation story

Submitted by Catherine Showers on Friday, April 5th, 12:28 pm

In 2001, dying 20-year-old man helped 55 people

Twelve years ago, Mary Myskewitz and her family were faced with something they never expected: their 20-year-old son was dying and his physician was asking if he had spoken to them about organ donation.

"All of the family present answered yes in unison," recalled Myskewitz. "The bell went off and we knew we had to do it. That was easy because we had talked to him in the past and knew it was his desire."

Myskewitz's son Rob was able to help more than 55 people with that one decision thanks to his organ, eye and tissue donation.

In an event Thursday, as part of National Donate Life Month, Myskewitz will speak at 11:15 a.m. in the main lobby at St. Mary's Hospital. She said she hopes to spread the word about organ donation impact.

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County parks releases prescribed burn schedule

Submitted by Christian Von P... on Friday, March 8th, 9:29 pm

Dane County Parks has released a schedule for its upcoming prescribed burns at locations around the county.

The burns are scheduled annually to maintain an ecological balance in the park’s prairies. Officials and volunteers burn 10 to 20 acres at a time.

Fires are part of a natural ecological cycle, according to Dane County Parks Naturalist Wayne Pauly. The practice of keeping prairies short is conducive to a larger variety of flowers, which attracts insects -- which in turn attract birds.

“Otherwise it grows up to half a dozen or 10 species of brush,” said Pauly, regarding conditions of overgrowth.

Burns will begin in the last week of March and will continue through the month of April.

Officials advised residents planning to attend to bring drinking water and fire-safe clothing. Signups should be made by calling Rhea Stangel-Maier at 608-224-3601 or Wayne Pauly at 608-575-0396.

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Compost pilot program to expand, turn organic waste into energy

Submitted by Xin Wang on Wednesday, March 6th, 7:09 pm

Effort kept 198 tons of garbage from landfill in 2011

Six-year-old David Lucsay is now an expert at sorting out food waste. Picking up food scraps after dinner, he carries the plate across the kitchen, unlocks an approximately 10 gallon black case, and throws the scraps in.

“One year ago he couldn’t open the case well, but now he can,” said his mother, Amber Lucsay, proud to see his progress. “Now he knows things don’t all go into one bin.”

The city’s organic collection pilot program provided the black case to the Lucsay family, and every day after dinner, they throw away their unwanted leftover vegetables, meat, fish, and so on into this bin, dump it into another big black cart, and leave it to the city for a special, weekly curbside collection.

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