Community

The Garms Family brings its Southern Gospel sound to St. John’s Lutheran Church, 101 N. Main St., Gillett, at 7 p.m. Saturday. Blending vocals, personalities, and ideas, David and Kris with six of their kids — Ben, Taylor, Leesha, Sam, Jayme, and Caleb — create family harmony to orchestrate a concert of worship and joy.
The event is free and open to the public, and a goodwill offering will be accepted.
The Garms Family’s musical journey began in 2005 when members started singing hymns in their living room. The kids, all home-schooled, taught themselves to play multiple instruments. Now they tour full-time across the United States and present a dynamic variety of original songs, hymns, and classics — all with a solid Gospel message.
With over 15 instruments on stage, they can transition from a straight-up Southern Gospel group to an entire bluegrass band.

Did you know domestic abuse is one of the most destructive forces in today’s society? Every nine seconds in the United States, a woman is beaten by a familiar partner, and one in four women are likely to experience domestic violence in their life. Only half of all domestic violence incidents are reported to law enforcement, and even fewer for sexual assaults.
Safe Haven Executive Director Stacey Cicero commented: “Demand for shelter services in 2017 was 23 percent greater than in 2016. The shelter was occupied to optimal capacity (five families, one to each room) or overcapacity (families shared rooms). In the last quarter of 2017, shelter was at or over optimal capacity 99 percent of the time, only one day during that time frame had less than five families.

The S.T.E.F. organization has made all of its donations with the money raised last fall on the group’s annual Fall Color Ride. All donations went to local communities with an emphasis on youth mental health.

The organization, which stands for “Special Thoughts Everyday Forever,” is devoted to funding, educating and supporting community needs in memory of Stefanie Kanack, who died in July 2015. Its main fundraiser is the Fall Color Ride, scheduled this year for Sept. 29 from Ray’s Boneyard in Lena. The purpose, according to the group’s Facebook page, is “raising money for charities that were important in Stef’s life, while also raising awareness to suicide prevention.”

This year’s donations were as follows:

EDITOR’S NOTE: The Oconto Falls Fun Fest and community rummage sales are less than a month away, and former library director Jeanne Waschbisch provides some tips based on 50 years of attending and hosting rummage sales.

Oconto Falls communitywide rummage sales will take place Aug. 9-11. To maximize your profits and minimize your labor, here are suggestions to make all that effort worthwhile. It’s a great time to get family and friends together to hold a sale or to shop other sales.

1. Start early to get your items together and priced. If you have space for a dedicated area to keep rummage items together through the year, collect and mark them as you find them. Masking tape and Magic Markers work well. Everyone is looking for a bargain, and there are many sales. So if you really want to get rid of things, keep prices low.

Greetings, Morgan, and I hope your summer is going well so far. To make your summer memories more beautiful this year, I urge you to join in a new summer event.

The Northern Gardeners Club is hosting an area Garden Walk on Saturday, July 21, to coincide with Pulaski Polka Days. The Garden Walk is from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., with admission being $10 for adults and free for children ages 12 and under. Wristbands are available at any of the host gardens on the day of the event.

One of the six host gardens is that of Morgan residents Joan and Ron Korzeniewski, 9460 Schroeder Road. I recently had the pleasure of previewing their extensive gardens and learning about the changes on their property over the years. From talking with Joan and Ron, their yard is like a living album of their gardening hobby, with certain plants reminding each of them of specific family members and friends.

Sarah Reint of Faribault, Minnesota, married Mark Buhrandt of Suring on May 12 in Cottage Grove, Minnesota.

The bride is the daughter of Jon Reint and Nancy (Brant) Barr of Faribault. She is a 1999 graduate of Lakeville (Minnesota) High School and serves as a Realtor with Edina Realty.

The groom is the son of Norman and Paula Buhrandt of Suring. He is a 2001 graduate of Suring High School with degrees from Northeast Wisconsin Technical College in 2003 and Northern Michigan University in 2007. He serves as a transitions program coordinator with the Minnesota Department of Corrections, where he has been employed since 2010.

The couple resides in Faribault, Minnesota, with their daughters, Zoey and Frankie.

Gillett Handiworks will once again be taking part in the cause of Click for Babies, a public education campaign organized by the National Center on Shaken Baby Syndrome (NCSBS) in partnership with hospitals, public health and child abuse prevention groups to create awareness of the leading trigger for infant abuse – frustration with infant crying.
The crying done by newborns is referred to as the Period of Purple Crying. It is referred to as a “period” to show that the time frame does have a beginning and an end.
Purple is used as an acronym: P, peak of crying at 2 months; U, unexpected; R, resists soothing; P, pain like face; L, long lasting; and E, evening.

Stay at HomeCare LLC presents the 15th annual Four-Person Golf Scramble to benefit New Beginnings Employment and Training Center and New View Industries on July 27 at The Patriot Golf Club in Abrams.
Entry fee is $60 per person, which includes 18 holes of golf, cart, hole events, games, lunch and dinner. Entry deadline is July 13. The first 36 paid teams will be accepted. Registration is at 8 a.m., and shotgun start is at 10 a.m., rain or shine. Prizes will be awarded for first and second place for men and women/mixed teams; two hole-in-one opportunities to win $10,000; raffle prizes and a putting contest.

The Norsk Farm presents its seventh annual Family Farm Day from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday. The public is welcome to visit the Organic Valley dairy farm at 6366 Fredrickson Road, Lena.
The seventh-generation organic, grazing dairy farm opens its gates once a year with family activities that include beekeeping demonstrations, pasture walks, ice cream making, hay rides with historic farm tours, container gardening, miniature horses, alpacas, cow milking demonstrations, baby animals and more. There will be cheese curd samples, watermelon and water bottles provided for a small donation.
Parking and admission are free. Lunch including Organic Prairie Hot Dogs and Brats, Norsk Farm Hamburgers and Oley’s Pizza will be available for purchase.

Abrams Spotlight Productions Inc. will hold auditions for its fall show, “Cabaret,” the flashy musical set in a 1920s Berlin nightclub.

Rated PG-13, “Cabaret” explores the dark, heady and tumultuous life of Berlin’s natives and expatriates as Germany slowly yields to the emerging Third Reich. Cliff, a young American writer newly arrived in Berlin, is immediately taken by English singer Sally Bowles. Meanwhile, Fräulein Schneider, proprietor of Cliff and Sally’s boarding house, tentatively begins a romance with Herr Schultz, a mild-mannered fruit seller who happens to be Jewish.

Performers will have two opportunities to audition, from 6-8 p.m. Monday or 6-8 p.m. June 20 at the Byng Community Theater, 5852 Maple St., Abrams. Anyone interested in a principal role should prepare a two-minute vocal audition and provide sheet music or a karaoke track.