Posted July 02, 2025in Your Neighbors
The mission statement for Mentor Iowa, an organization founded in 1974, is to provide trained volunteer mentors to at-risk children in need of a positive adult role model. They do this by working in partnership with the children, their families and the community. Executive Director Marty Lester has led that
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Posted June 04, 2025in Your Neighbors
Helping build leaders for the future is no small task. That is what Lead DSM has been trying to do for 40 years. Lately, the organization has had the help of a mentor from its Community Connect Program, Brianne Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald has bounced around Iowa her entire life. She grew
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Posted April 30, 2025in Your Neighbors
Crayons are a staple in art education for those in elementary school. The coolest kids and classrooms had the best colors, a sharpener and more crayons than one knew what to do with. What is often forgotten is what becomes of crayons near the end of their lifecycle — but
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Posted April 02, 2025in Your Neighbors
Kathleen Davenport has experienced quite the rise in her 10 years of employment at Des Moines Public Schools (DMPS). She was an art teacher at Howe Elementary, Madison Elementary and Findley Elementary, then added arts integration coach to her title, and, since 2020, has been the art curriculum coordinator at
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Posted March 05, 2025in Your Neighbors
The soccer community in Iowa is a strong one. There is a sense of belonging that spans generations of players who chose to play the game over Iowa’s more popular sports like football, basketball or wrestling. People like Ben Brackett and the members of the Kick It Forward (KIF) team
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Posted February 05, 2025in Your Neighbors
Librarians are much more than what is portrayed in the media as “TV librarians,” Alissa Cornick, the youth services librarian at the South Side Library, said. “They usually still have a ‘shushy’ librarian in there, and that’s just very much not what libraries are anymore. We really do seek to
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Posted January 01, 2025in Your Neighbors
Stephen Volkmer-Jones has worn many hats throughout his life. He continues to wear plenty, but two appear to be his favorites: volunteering and grandparenting. Volkmer-Jones went to school for architectural design but ended up working in the restaurant and wine business for several years. His original intention of getting into
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Posted December 04, 2024in Your Neighbors
Referees are just as much a part of youth, high school, college and professional sports as the players themselves. They are the keepers and enforcers of the rulebook and often the subject of jeers, heckles, taunts and, on occasion, praise. The games many enjoy watching can only go on thanks
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Posted November 06, 2024in Your Neighbors
If someone you know walked through the hallways at Moore or Hillis Elementary, there’s a good chance Vickie Obraza served them a hot meal. Obraza has a total of 25 years working in food service between her time at the two Des Moines Public Schools locations, and she says she
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Posted October 02, 2024in Your Neighbors
Roughly 3 million dogs are in shelters across the U.S. One Des Moines resident is using her cello-playing abilities to soothe, relax and spread the word that she says music can have on animals. Cheryl Wallace once owned a jewelry business on Ingersoll Avenue. As time went on, she transitioned
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