Friday, March 29, 2013

Lunch with Jaxon

March 29, 2013 ~ Jaxon was spending the day at Granny and Papa's house and came to the shop to see Aunt Shell. We decided to grab a quick bite to eat at Midway Truck Stop since it was close and Jaxon was going to be taking a nap at noon. He's such an silly kid and one minute he is happy as can be and the next he is having a complete meltdown! Didn't someone say something about Terrible Two's??? Ha!

Aunt Shell took one of his chicken pieces and was that the wrong thing to do. He looked at me and said "No, mine"! Then he covered the chicken up so I couldn't get anymore! 

Seriously, he's such a little turkey! 

He liked the BBQ sauce but not so much on the Honey Mustard! 
I sure do love that kid!

Tyler Kurkierewicz & "Flat Tyler's" Adventures

March 29, 2013 ~ As many of you know I have a Google+ account. I am not as active as I was early on but I am really trying to get back into the swing of it. Why you might ask... my answer is short... It's because of the amazing people I have met!

As I was looking through the various threads that people post one caught my eye. On March 27, 2013, Mike Searle posted "I'll be helping both real and "Flat Tyler" get a taste of Kansas City. Can you give him a glimpse of your part of the world?" Immediately I knew I wanted to help! I posted back and told Mike that I would be doing some traveling in the near future and would love to take "Flat Tyler" along capturing fun moments while being a total tourist. I then saw that this post originally came from Dawn Molitor and I clicked the original thread to find out this.....

"Hello friends I'm not really sure what the end result will be... here are the beginning details. 
Tyler: My daughter and son-in-laws 18 year old nephew Tyler has inoperable cancer, he has been in the hospital since Oct. He has spent most of his time in ICU and the doctors have announced that there is nothing more they can do. He will spend the rest of his days here. The Fun Details: Nicole is in the process of creating a "Flat Tyler" and we are looking for family and friends to host him. We want so much for Tyler to see the world and know the kindness of people he will never meet. The details are still being worked out, a digital file has been created for hosts to print out. You will then e-mail the photos of "Flat Tyler's" adventures back to us. The Gift: Nicole's goal is to create a book for Tyler of all of "Flat Tyler's" adventures. We know this is going to be a major time consuming project and would like to have all adventure photos turned in by April 30th.  If you are interested in hosting "Flat Tyler" please let me know. As most of you already may know my son-in-law is in the military. I am hoping he can get in touch with a Blue Angel or two to host... how cool would that be!"

As you all know I live my life by paying it forward and I feel that this is such a simple gesture to greatly impact the lives of others. One small thing like downloading "Flat Tyler" and taking a picture a day of doing something you normally would do to make the real Tyler's life just a little brighter, happier and enjoyable then why wouldn't I do this!?!? Sign me up because this is going to be just as much fun for me as it will for everyone following this story! (I can only imagine Tyler smiling at the outpouring support of the many hosts of "Flat Tyler")

Tyler Kurkierewicz
(a picture from his blog)

Tyler was diagnosed with a rare form of testicular cancer at the end of September. He started aggressive chemo treatments on Oct 1st. 4 days later, he took a turn for the worse when the cancer started choking his stomach and it perforated. He had emergency surgery on Oct 4th and was in the ICU until the end of December. He continues to be hospitalized for recovery from the stomach surgery, infections and more chemo treatments for the tumor. (Information from his blog)



So everyone that knows me knows I love St. Louis Cardinals baseball! Well as I was sitting at my desk I heard something in the back hallway. As I peeked out my office door I happen to see that "Flat Tyler" met "Flat Stan"! It appears that "Flat Stan" was showing "Flat Tyler" around and trying to get him to cheer on the St. Louis Cardinals.... What am I going to do with those two! ("Flat Stan" doesn't realize that we have to ease into getting someone to cheering for our team!) 
I think these two had a pretty good time chatting and I heard "Flat Stan" tell "Flat Tyler" that no matter who he roots for it's America's Game! (I'm so glad they are getting along!) 
So as you can see this is something we can all help out with. No matter if it's one picture a day or once during this next month every little bit helps to show Tyler there are great people in this world that care a lot about you.... many you have never met before. I will be posting things on my Google+ page, Facebook and Twitter using the hash-tag #flattyler and encourage you to do the same.  
You can follow Tyler's blog at:

If you rather send Tyler a card you can send it to: 

Mott's Children's Hospital 
Patient: Tyler Kurkierewicz
Floor 7, Room 32
1500 East Medical Center Drive
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109 
 

Thursday, March 28, 2013

Carrie Lyn's Ice Cream Parlor in Boonville, MO

March 26, 2013 ~ I have found an awesome little sandwich (or samich as they call it) shop in Boonville, MO that I love! I have Ashley Simpson to thank for turning me on to this place and I try to go at least once a week!

They are located right on Main Street in Boonville, MO

When you walk in their door you may wonder why would I want ice-cream in the middle of winter but wait! This place is so much more than ice-cream!

Owners, Carrie Lyn and Ret Thomas, lived in Las Vegas. Carrie Lyn would get an idea of opening an ice cream parlor near Henderson, Las Vegas. (Carrie Lyn's mom owned an ice cream parlor in California called Nancy Lou's until she passed away at the young age of 56) Carrie Lyn's husband, Ret, had a good friend that lived in Boonville, MO and they came back to visit over Thanksgiving. You ready for the best part.... they loved the small town feel so much they packed up everything including their now 15 year old daughter, Haylee, and moved from wild and crazy Las Vegas to little ol' Boonville, MO! In March 2009 they opened "Carrie Lyn's Ice Cream Parlor" starting out with Blue Bunny ice cream and about 5 samich's. Carrie Lyn and Ret began looking for locally owned items for their business and soon changed their ice-cream over to Central Dairy. They also added a few more samich's to their menu.

This is my favorite samich... Chicken Salad on Ciabatta... OMG! 
The potato salad is awesome too!

Just look at how fresh everything looks! The bread is prepared so that it is soft and warm and the meats are also always fresh and a great quality. They use shredded lettuce and thin sliced tomatoes which makes the samich perfect!They love avocado and they fix it in a way that everyone loves it and they are happy to add it to any samich...

Oh and for dessert you can have ice-cream!

In fact, they have 16 Central Dairy flavors to choose from! 
If you wan to try their "Bellyache" ice-cream challenge just ask them! 

So I promise it's totally worth the drive to Boonville, MO for a great samich!
Make sure you tell Carrie Lyn and Ret that I sent you! 

Carrie Lyn's Ice Cream Parlor
745 Main Street
Boonville, MO 65233
660-882-9955
Closed on Monday's!

Friday, March 22, 2013

The "C" Word....

March 20, 2013 ~ As many of you know, my family is my world. I am extremely lucky to have an amazing mom and dad, sister, husband, brother-in-law and nephew to support all the crazy things I do in life and love me unconditionally.  Mom officially retired from Cornerstone National Insurance on February 1, 2013 and dad officially retired from Professional Contractors and Engineers on February 22, 2013. Dad turned 62 years old on February 23, 2013. Although they were a little nervous about retiring because it was different then what they have always done they were ready to enjoy this next chapter in life.

Mom and dad are both so lucky to have an amazing group of friends. They treat everyone as a person and feel that you treat others as you want to be treated. They have instilled those qualities in my sister and I throughout life. When you meet mom and dad you have met some of the kindest, most sincere people who would do anything for anyone. I love these people for being so genuine.

We just found out this afternoon that dad has Stage 1 Prostrate Cancer.... yep it's the "c" word. The best part of this is that it's treatable and because they caught it so early he will have surgery and be done. No chemo and no radiation which is great news! Dad is going to talk to the surgeon on Friday March 22, 2013 to see what the plan is.

I will be honest, I wasn't ready to hear this news. I guess I felt like mom and dad were really starting to enjoy their new chapter in life and with this news so soon after their retirement. I guess you are never really ready to hear this news but I am so thankful this can be taken care of and dad will be on the road to recovery. Dad was really looking forward to riding his Harley this Spring/Summer and depending on what the surgeon says he may be able wait on surgery or wait on the motorcycle rides. Either way this is just a minor bump in the road and we, as a family, will get through this.

Cancer is just too common anymore.... or maybe it's always been common and we just have better technology to find it..... I'm thankful they found it early and that my dad goes to the doctor regularly for check ups.  

(Side note: of course I am very lucky to have tons of other family members such as aunts, uncles, nephews and nieces including great friends that also support anything I do and encourage me to push myself harder and never give up....but this post is about my immediate family)

Update as of Friday March 22, 2013: Dad will have surgery next month. They don't want to mess around with this and allow it to spread and dad is good with this. Looks like he will have a late start on motorcycle rides but when he's all healed up look out.... he'll be burning up the blacktop! (I honestly couldn't imagine the doctors allowing him to wait but dad is hard headed... wonder where I get that??)

At Granny and Papa's House

March 12, 2013 ~ Jaxon loves going to his Granny and Papa's house! Now that mom and dad are retired they keep him once a week which he loves. You can't tell this little turkey is spoiled can you? Aunt Shell had to come over to see what they were up to.

Jaxon loves being outside!

He's such a hard worker for a 2 year old

and loves to help whatever you are doing. 

He's so funny to watch but he's not a good driver...
little turkey runs over everything!

Needless to say I am so glad he gets to spend some time with mom and dad. The older he gets the funnier he is. He's so independent which I am glad for. He throws fits just like his Aunt Shell and knows how to get what he wants with his Granny! Oh well, you're only young once right!

 Oh and it looks like Jaxon will take after his momma... another lefty in the making!

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Columbia Certified Toursim Ambassador!

March 6, 2013 ~ The Columbia Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB) recently launched a new program called the "Columbia Tourism Ambassadors". The Columbia Tourism Ambassadors are a certified group of individuals who are committed to customer service, the tourism industry and Columbia as a destination. This is a great program that offers front line folks like our hotel staff, taxi cab drivers and restaurant staff but it also is for anyone who comes in contact with visitors!

You can view their website at:  http://www.ctanetwork.com/ for more information!

I was the first graduating class from this program and  I would encourage anyone that deals with public and visitors to our community to give serious consideration on this program. They give you a great binder full of history about Columbia and no worries folks.... the test is open book! Thank you CVB for bringing this program to Columbia and I look forward to being a great CTA Ambassador for you!

Yes, I have the Ambassador piece covered.... Chamber of Commerce Ambassador (to celebrate our business community), Mizzou Ambassador (to support our Mizzou Athletics) and now Columbia Tourism Ambassador (to welcome our visitors and help them have a great time in Columbia, MO)!

"Fight Evil, Read Books" 4th Annual Read-A-Thon

March 4, 2013 ~ Today started off our "Fight Evil, Read Books" Read-A-Thon at Midway Heights Elementary School! My awesome co-Partner in Education, Tanya Alberty and I have created this yearly read-a-thon and something that I think we enjoy as much as the kiddos! Each year we have came up with a different theme and try to keep the theme rolling all week long.

The read-a-thon brings in about 70 community members/business owners/leaders into the classrooms to read a book and talk a little about why reading is so important with their respective jobs. Our goal is to encourage reading and make it fun! This year we decided to use Twitter to "tweet" pictures of our guest readers under the hashtag #mheread so if you have Twitter you can see pictures throughout our week!

This is Tanya Alberty and I... 
Aren't we a mess! Ha! 

On Thursday, Tanya decided that we needed to dress up as our favorite super hero.... Actually the whole school participated in this activity.... and I will have to say it was fun! We try to encourage students to make up their own super hero and be creative. There were some great super hero's like....

These cute little guys.....
or Captain Underpants! 

Honestly some of my favorite costumes were kids with blankets as their cape's or something they made to give them super powers! Love seeing kids using their imagination! 

Thursday night was also our 3rd Annual Literacy Night. This event is held in the evening (usally from 6-7:30 pm) at Midway Heights Elementary School. We have tried to interact the parents and students with a guest author and I was asked to be our guest author this year. I was able to introduce my book "Tom T's Hat Rack" to many classrooms during this week and I had an extra special guest that would be attending Literacy Night with me.... Mr. T himself! 
It was exciting for me to introduce Tom Trabue (aka Mr. T) to everyone! He really is an inspirational guy and watching him go through cancer including his treatments with such a positive attitude on life is what I believe helped him on the road to recovery. (He was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma in May 2012 and by Christmas 2012 he was cancer free!)

We even got to sign some books!

This whole week was a lot of fun! Although it's a lot of work (thank goodness I have a rock star co-pilot that keeps everything together and comes up with some way cool ideas) it's totally worth it! If we can help fight literacy and encourage reading early on then I think Midway students are on the right road to success! We are both very proud of our partnership with Midway Heights Elementary School and can't wait for next year's read-a-thon!

Midway Heights Elementary School is so lucky to have some pretty amazing teachers!

 What was pretty cool was that someone used the example of  "Paying It Forward" to their teacher, Miss Windmiller on Friday morning! How cool is this!?!?

Kansas City here we come!

March 2, 2013 ~ Since Brandon was gone to the St. Louis Cardinals Spring Training in Florida and I didn't have any plans, Krissy and I decided to head to Kansas City! I totally love spur of the moment ideas/trips and she wanted to get away from Columbia for the afternoon/evening so we jumped in the car and headed west! Look out Kansas City... country is coming to town!

We had to stop by Kleinschmidt's Western Store in Higginsville, MO!
(seriously... how could a girl pass it up)
I don't own a pair of black cowboy boots (yes I know it's hard to believe)
so I found these ol' girls on the clearance rack... woo hoo! 
(I call these my Mizzou boots... with their black and gold)

Krissy wanted to introduce me to World Market!
It was a pretty cool store and I found several neat things! I am collecting cool wine bottles... not really sure why since I don't drink wine but I found 5 cool bottles along with some kitchen stuff.


We were getting a little hungry so we went to an awesome place for some steak!
(We learned about this place from some friends just a month ago!)
I love seeing the plaza at night but sad most of the stores close at 7 pm.

Seriously we were stuffed however this trip wasn't going to be complete without this!
The Chocolate Bag dessert! Oh My Goodness!

After dinner Krissy introduced me to Trader Joe's! (Kind of funny because I am the one that usually is introducing her to new stuff and now she's taking me to places I've never been!)

Loved the flowers! The store was neat but just not my thing... but glad I went!

Then we headed down to the Power and Light District. Krissy had never been there before so we headed down there! We were going to go to a dueling piano bar but they wanted a cover charge and we knew we weren't going to stay long so we found "The Flying Saucer".

We sat at the bar and took in the night life! I am such a people watcher (and not someone that goes to bars) so I had fun watching everyone else!
It amazed me to see how many beers they had on tap there and that wall was full. (You are only seeing 1/2 of the beer wall) What I did like was the wall behind the beer pulls are all pennies....yes pennies! It was really cool and I would love to do something like this somewhere! 

We had a fun time and I do love random little trips but I will be glad for Brandon to come back home. 7 days is too long to be gone and look at all the fun he missed out on!


Mizzou Ambassadors Official Announcement!

February 28, 2013 ~ Tonight was a pretty cool night for the Mizzou Ambassadors.... as a team, we walked down on the floor at half-time to be recognized at tonight's Women's Basketball game. A lot of people have seen us at the games but never really understood our role since we kicked off this new program for the University of Missouri Athletics Department on January 5, 2013 at the Men's Basketball game vs. Bucknell.

The core group of 18 Mizzou Ambassadors would simply greet our guests and fans at each of the home games for most of the 18 sports offered at the University of Missouri. With Missouri's addition into the SEC we wanted to make sure the atmosphere at home games were fun, exciting and welcoming. I am really proud of the dedication and support our Mizzou Ambassadors have shown and can't wait to see where we go into the future! (We love the support from the University of Missouri Athletic Department too! They are pretty awesome!)

The announcement said....

"The Mizzou Athletics Department would like to welcome the University of Missouri Athletics Department's newest program, the Mizzou Ambassadors! We are excited to unveil this newest division that supports our Missouri Tigers. With the University of Missouri being accepted into the Southeastern Conference on July 1, 2012 Mizzou Athletics wanted a way to bring our supporters, community members and alumni into a group of dedicated individuals that engages our visitors, guests and sports fans to the University of Missouri. Mizzou Ambassadors are an elite team of volunteers who are the "Welcoming Team" of Mizzou Athletics. You will see them at majority of all the home Mizzou Athletic events. The Mizzou Ambassadors are vital to the athletics department's success for the goal of sportsmanship by helping create a positive, lasting impression for any of our fans or guests who are attending our events. At this time we would like to recognize and thank each of them for dedicating their time to volunteer and be a part of the Mizzou Ambassadors!" 

(Not everyone could be here this evening to be a part of this recognition however we realize we are a team and we represented the entire team which was pretty awesome!)


If you are interested in finding out how you might be a part of this amazing group of volunteers please e-mail me at mspry(at)midwayelectricinc(dot)com


"Operation: Feed the Lineman" ~ Boone Electric Co-op Community


February 27, 2013 ~ We had been hit with another massive round of snow/ice in the Boone County area on Monday night which left many people without power and was widespread. The entire Boone Electric crew worked hard and even called in help to get power restored quickly as possible. By Wednesday morning we still had a lot of people without power and around 7:40 am I received a private message from a long time friend and fellow Midway resident, Sara Potterfield. She encouraged me to be the "spearhead" and help coordinate food for the linemen that have been working around the clock to restore power to nearly 2,800 Boone Electric members that were currently still without power. After reading this from her I took it very seriously and thought this is exactly what we needed to do for our community. I made a phone call to Boone Electric and verified this would be ok and by 9:00 am I had posted the following on my personal Facebook page and Boone Electric Facebook page: 
Good morning everyone! After receiving a private message from a friend and fellow member of Midway, I have decided to help a company that is working hard to help so many of us! I am asking all of you that want to help out please share with your friends.

As you know with the recent snow storm many are without power still today. The men and women at Boone Electric have been working around the clock to restore power. As you will see from their Facebook post below, they have had to call in additional help from other communities. I will be spearheading the efforts to get these guys dinner tonight as well as lunch and dinner tomorrow night. I will be the "go-to person" in charge of getting food and people to help out. So I am asking for anyone that would like to make baked goods, salads, donate water/soda, chips, snacks and/or any thing else they may need. I am working on getting dinner tonight for 100 people from 4-6:30 pm and would love to have any additional help if you are available. They are working hard to take care of us and it's the least we can do to show our support to the staff of Boone Electric. If you are able to help please send me a private message or post on here and I will give you the details!

From Boone Electric's Facebook Page this morning:
Boone Electric Cooperative line crews worked through the night Tuesday, February 26, to restore power to thousands of members. At the peak of the outages, more than 14,000 Cooperative members were without power. As of 8 a.m., approximately 5,500 members were still without power. These outages are scattered in 390 different locations throughout the Cooperative’s service area.
This morning, Boone Electric crews were joined by 16 linemen from Missouri’s Mutual Aid program. Intercounty Electric Cooperative (Licking, MO), Lewis County Electric Cooperative (Lewiston, MO) and Howell-Oregon Electric Cooperative (West Plains, MO) answered the Cooperative’s request for assistance. Additionally, a four-person crew from KIOWA Line Builders arrived to assist in the restoration effort. Four Columbia Water & Light linemen are also assisting the Cooperative with outages here in Columbia. Line crews will continue to work in shifts until all power is restored.

This simple post of asking for help from anyone willing turned into an amazing thing in our community. You saw people come together for one purpose... to help one another. The phone calls, text messages, private messages, e-mails and Facebook posts were pouring in. I was getting people showing up at our shop with cash donations of $400 in total. I was focused and knew we had to keep things under control and get a game plan in motion so that I could let others know where we needed help. I knew that we would be feeding 100+ men and women that were employed by Boone Electric plus the additional help from other areas. I wanted to make sure they had a hot meal as they were working long hours in the cold and eating a cold sandwich. I made a phone call to Josh Spicer, a good friend and owner of Don's Family Style Restuarant in Huntsville, MO. He was able to give me a discount on the meal for this evening and I would drive to Huntsville, MO around 3:30 pm to pick up the food. When I got to Boone Electric I was greeted with some amazing volunteers ready to help and bearing goodies from cookies, soda/water/tea, fruit, chips, beef jerky, etc.

A special thank you to Marsue Crews, Crystal and Layla Umfress, Mary Lamar
Teresa Carlos, Dina and Holly Wegner
(There were many volunteers behind the scenes and I
will try to name each of them but you are not forgotten!)

They were very thankful for the warm home style meal!
Thank you Don's Family Style Resturant in Huntsville, MO
for the discount on the fried chicken, green beans, 
mashed potatoes/gravy, rolls and blackberry and cherry cobblers! 

They all came in shifts and were very appreciative! 

So after an amazing evening of a generous outpouring community members our hearts were full! It was so nice to see everyone work hard for these guys/gals but we weren't done yet! We had committed to help feed everyone Thursday for lunch and dinner with the hopes that they would have power restored and everyone "hopefully" could get back to normal.

 
For lunch on Thursday, Mary Lamar contacted Kirk Wacker, a good friend and owner of The Sub Shop. He was willing to give us a discount on hot sandwhichs for the Boone Electric crew. We had also asked anyone that could to bring something in a crock pot such as soups, chili, chicken and dumplin's, etc. It was nice for everyone to have some options on what to eat and it went over well. We didn't have as many come in and eat because they were working as long as they could in the field with daylight but we understood. Boone Electric staff members would run leftovers out to the guys when they could.


For dinner on Thursday night we wanted to do something simple and thought good ol' Shakespeare's Pizza might be the easiest. I called Kurt Mirtsching, who is an all around fun guy, and he also gave us a discount on pizza's for the crew! We had 32 pizzas of all different types to keep the guys going. Luckily by this time they were down to a very small number of people without power. 

Bottom line is.... When a community needs help it's members stand up and work together. Our community and community members is something I am very proud of. For people to set their own lives to the side and jump in to help others makes me so happy and what was really cool is to see members of our community who aren't even Boone Electric customers jump in and help is truly amazing. If you don't believe in the power of social media then you should now.... this is how this all came to be a successful turn of events that happened over a couple days.

This is a public note that was sent out via Boone Electric's Facebook page on March 1, 2013: 

A message from BEC General Manager & CEO Todd Culley:

"First and foremost, let me say "thank you" to each and every employee for putting their personal lives on hold during the unprecedented snow storm this week. From the employees answering phones, to those coordinating media releases, providing eating, sleeping and scheduling services, acting as 'bird dogs' for our out-of-town helpers, providing engineering support services, and our line crews trudging through the mud and snow, I have never witnessed such cooperation and willingness to step outside normal job duties to get the power back on as quickly and safely as possible for our members.

I also want to say thank you to our utility friends at Columbia Water & Light, Intercounty, Howell-Oregon, Lewis County, and Consolidated electric cooperatives; and let's not forget KIOWA Line Builders Inc…their assistance was an integral part of our restoration progress.

At one point, we had nearly 50% of our membership without power. It is too early to disseminate exact details, but we do know at this point that this storm caused more total outage hours in just three days than the Cooperative has experienced in at least the past three years combined. Per our linemen and operations and engineering personnel, had it not been for our enhanced right-of-way maintenance over the last several years, this storm would have very likely impacted as much as 90% of our membership (and for a much longer duration). As it stands now, we know of only 10 broken poles from the storm……and we have more than 46,000 total!!

Prior to this storm, I can't say I was 'sold' on Facebook. You, our members, have convinced me otherwise. The outpouring of support was unexpected, extremely appreciated and will become one of the best memories for myself and many employees. Having a community-based impromptu group form on Facebook for the sole purpose of feeding our employees will never be forgotten. I can't thank them enough for showing up with hot food to feed everyone during our 'pit stops' on Wednesday evening and again on Thursday afternoon and evening.

I was also amazed to see people dropping off both homemade and prepared snacks at our front desk -- some of whom were not even members of the Cooperative. These acts of 'paying it forward' lifted spirits and gave our employees extra strength and encouragement to continue tackling the effects of the storm.

It will be difficult to thank each and every one of you who offered support, kind words, and food. Please accept my sincere appreciation on behalf of not only our employees, but also our Board of Directors. It was good to see everyone personally committed to serving our membership. I have said it before, and I will say it again, it is an honor to serve you."


And last but certainly not least.....

A very special thank you to the follow people that made this all possible:
(These are in no certain order and please let me know if I have forgotten anyone)

Andrea Jira, Dina Charlton, Beth & Jack Stubbs, Crystal & Layla Umfress, Lottie Creasy, Merk Williams, Brenda Potterfield, Sara Potterfield, Mary Lamar, Teresa Carlos, Marsue Crews, Lori & Nicholas Hauxwell, Anne Williams, Tanya Alberty, Holly Wegener, Nancy Langworthy, Harry Feirman, Richard Simpson, Doug Fifer, Kathy Rupert, Steve Turner, Martina Pounds and Prenger's Grocery. 

These men and women donated items from plates, napkins, plastic ware, baked goods, tea/soda/water, fresh fruit, snacks for the guys to put in their trucks, veggie trays and much much more! Thank you!

A special thank you to the following businesses for discounts to feed these guys/gals:

Don's Family Style Restaurant
315 Highway JJ
Huntsville, MO 65259
660-277-4466

Sub Shop- Parkade Plaza
601 W Business Loop 70
Suite 203
Columbia, MO 65202
573-449-1919

Shakespeare's Pizza
225 S. Ninth Street
Columbia, MO 65201
573-449-2454


Pay It Forward: 
A random act of kindness towards another human being with no expectation of return on investment.

Thank you again to everyone that made this possible. I can't tell you how many kind words I have received from so many for this day. I will never take full credit for any of this because it was a team effort. We did an amazing thing for our community and I would do it all over again if it was needed.... we didn't do it for the recognition, we did it for the men and women that were working around the clock to restore power to our community. Great job team! I am proud of each and every one of you! {insert high five here}