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Comment by myles murphy on April 30, 2009 at 4:07pm

ASHLAND COMMUNITY HOSPITAL DEDICATES NEW LABYRINTH by Susan Hearn
Nearly a hundred people gathered this week to celebrate the dedication of the new labyrinth located in the courtyard between inpatient wings at Ashland Community Hospital. The labyrinth is an initiative of the Planetree Spirituality Team at Ashland Community Hospital. It was created by Bob Vlach in honor of his wife, Sherita Pearl Vlach. Sherita was employed at Ashland Community Hospital in the Admissions Department for many years before she lost a brief valiant battle with pancreatic cancer on September 14, 2008. The memorial plaque at the center tells her story; “A Moment in Our Lives ~ Eternally in Our Hearts!” The dedication ceremony included music, speeches and a ribbon-cutting ceremony.

Recognizing the stress of hospitalization for patients and their loved ones, the labyrinth provides a means for quiet reflection and a place of solitude and peace. The labyrinth helps Ashland Community Hospital care for the whole person, mind, body and spirit. It is for the use of everyone, including patients, visitors, doctors and hospital staff. The garden monument is not a traditional labyrinth. It has many unique features incorporated within its structure. The labyrinth is smaller than some and of a more contemporary design. It is a “five circuit Neomedieval Chelsea” design. The labyrinth concept has ancient origins and only since the Middle Ages has it been utilized as a symbol of Christian Meditation.

Many contributed to the labyrinth in Sherita Vlach’s memory, both in the form of financial contribution and labors of love. In addition to the contributions of many individuals, Ashland Community Hospital, “Leave Your Mark” memorial pavers
and Ashland Parks and Cemetery Departments provided support.

Ashland Community Hospital, located at 280 Maple Street, is a private not-for-profit community hospital serving residents living in the local region. .

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Comment by myles murphy on April 28, 2009 at 11:13am

Local Student Member of Winning Team


James MacCormack, a civil engineering student from Ashland was a member of the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology student chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) that finished first of 14 schools at the 2009 ASCE Rocky Mountain Regional Conference. The event was hosted April 2-4, 2009 by Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah.



The conference involves a number of competitions, including the steel bridge and concrete canoe. In addition to the overall first-place finish, there were several outstanding team performances.



The steel bridge team finished in second place overall, an accomplishment that qualifies them for the ASCE national competition, held May 22-23, 2009 at the University of Nevada - Las Vegas. The team also placed first in construction speed and first in economy. The steel bridge competition requires students to design, fabricate and construct a steel bridge to be scored on efficiency, measured by weight and stiffness, and economy, measured by construction speed.



The concrete canoe team placed first in finished product and fourth overall. The concrete canoe competition requires students to design and construct a concrete canoe that is judged on a design paper and presentation, appearance and conformance to specified dimensions and speed in sprint and endurance races.



The pre-design team placed second overall. In this year's pre-design competition, students were required to design a structure downstream from a dam that would safely allow a swimmer to escape the water below the dam without bodily injury.



In addition, the School of Mines ASCE student chapter took second place in the Canstruction competition. In this event, competing teams showcase their talents by designing giant sculptures made entirely out of canned foods. At the close of the conference, all of the food used in the structures is donated to local food banks for distribution to pantries, shelters, soup kitchens and elderly and day care centers. The team also excelled by collecting the most cans of any school for the competition.



The concrete canoe and steel bridge teams are part of the Center of Excellence for Advanced Manufacturing and Production (CAMP), a student-centered, hands-on engineering program. A key part of the CAMP experience involves designing, building, testing and competing in a variety of engineering challenges. The program actively combines the classroom experience where students apply their developing technical skills in real-world situations that involve fundraising, planning, deadlines and international competitions where the teams test their mettle against universities from around the world.



"The success of our student chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers is just one example of the recognition that our exceptional student teams receive on a national and international level," School of Mines President Robert A. Wharton said. "Taking these projects from concept to completion gives our students the kind of hands-on experience that makes them so valuable to employers."

Comment by Mike Green on April 27, 2009 at 2:22am

Reminder: The Detroit Free Press and San Jose Mercury news are the first newspapers to ever win the coveted television EMMY award. Yep, you hear that right. NEWSPAPERS are competing with TV online ... and winning.

So, what does that mean to you community journalists?

You've got a golden opportunity to showcase your own multimedia skills. Sure, you can take a few photos and submit your prose for a shot on the front page. And who knows? You just might get there. But, don't forget that you can also take along a video recorder and submit your own video report. You can narrate it or feature yourself like a TV reporter. You can conduct brief interviews, capture spot news as it is happening ... even do a live report from the scene of an accident, crime, or any news story.

And if you're into telling compelling stories with photos and audio, try your hand at putting together an audio slideshow, with snippets from an interview along with music and compelling photography. Tell us the story of your neighborhood or someone interesting who lives in Ashland.

Be creative. But keep it under 3 minutes.

Yeah, I know ... that's tough. But that's the rule. Good luck!

Comment by myles murphy on April 23, 2009 at 4:08pm

Did you watch a great tee-ball game this week? paste your take on it here. you may see it on our sports page. send photos if you want. Something in a city council meeting the tidings missed? write the story you wish we'd had. Meet someone interesting in the park? hone your journalism skills with a little profile and paste it in the comment section here - with photos even. I will cut anything nasty. this is community journalism, not community diatribe. we have plenty of room for that elswhere on our web sites. You want an award? Earn it!

Comment by myles murphy on April 23, 2009 at 3:42pm

Example: This is more or less of a press release that I would might edit down into a page 2 story, but the author also sent a photo I can use. It's a preview for an event in Ashland. But the basic mechanics for how the get the story in are simple. Paste your story here. that's it. click the camera in the little task bar above this box if you want to add photos:
Growing a Gift Economy
“Somethin’s happenin’ here. What it is ain’t exactly clear.” Many of us remember that 60’s Buffalo Springfield song as a haunting anthem of our time, growing up with a sense of impending revolution.
Charles Eisenstein is from a younger generation but his books and talks speak the same language, with a significant difference. He feels that what’s happening today is exactly clear.
“Humanity is uniting to create a more beautiful world. We sense that one era is ending and a new one is beginning. Our society is in crisis, in fact, a convergence of many crises, with economic meltdown at the heart of it.
“Parallel to the way our understanding of nature has changed – from a competitive model to a symbiotic one – the way we perceive “the economy” is shifting. We are beginning to get it, that the health of one organism, or the wealth of one person, depends on the health/wealth of all. We’re all in this together!”
Eisenstein, author of Sacred Economics and The Ascent of Humanity, is traveling to the Rogue Valley from Pennsylvania for a series of talks in Medford and Ashland this next week en route to deliver a keynote presentation for a Reality Sandwich conference in Utah.
“People ask what they can do to protect themselves. "Buy gold?" "Stockpile canned goods?" I would like to suggest a different kind of question: "What is the most beautiful thing I can do?"
Those words live in an Eisenstein essay entitled Money and the Crisis of Civilization, which circulated on the Internet months ago. Several Ashlanders read it, shared it with friends and eventually contacted Charles with the proposal to visit and do some talks.
“I totally resonated with that sentiment,” offered Bill Kauth, one of the local organizers. “We all have gifts to share, every one of us. So, we invited Charles here to do three events and grow this idea.”
On Friday night, May 1, from 7:00 to 9:30 ($10, students $5), participants will consider what a gifting economy looks like. On Saturday, from 9:00am to 5:00pm ($65, students $35), the discussion focuses on how to make a living in this new emerging culture. On Sunday (by contribution and invitation) the focus is community action steps.
Eisenstein makes a clear distinction between barter or other exchange systems and how gifting works. “We all carry a cellular memory of being gifted at birth. As babies we were loved, fed, clothed… and nothing was required of us in return. It was not an exchange, it was gifting. That is the essence of a gifting economy.
“We are here to create something beautiful; I call it "the more beautiful world our hearts tell us is possible." As the truth of that sinks in, deeper and deeper, and as the convergence of crises pushes us out of the old world, I think that more and more people will live from that truth: the truth that more for you is not less for me; the truth that what I do unto you, so I do unto myself; the truth of living to give what you can and take what you need. We can start doing it right now.”
All three presentations take place at the Hidden Springs Wellness Center, 635 Lit Way, in Ashland. Seating is limited. Call 488-8858 to reserve your place.