The Rotary Club of Kirksville and the Thousand Hills Rotary Club held their annual reverse raffle and silent auction at the Moose Lodge on Saturday night, April 15. Kim and Wayne Blackman won the reverse raffle, pocketing $3,000, and Jim Murdock won the 50/50 drawing.
City Council members Rick Steele and Jennifer Walston were sworn into office at a special meeting of the Kirksville City Council held on April 10. Both Steele and Walston emerged victorious from the April 4 Municipal Election. Both were incumbent council members.
Ed (Possum) Anders and his wife, Nancy, owners of the Rest Inn Him Christian Lodge and Retreat Center in Unionville, are again this year opening their hunting lodge to host disabled and critically or terminally ill children, making their sometimes-dying wish of going on a wild game hunt a reality.
Kirksville Public Works Director Glenn Balliew was recognized with a resolution by the Kirksville City Council at their April 3 regular meeting. On April 14, Balliew is retiring from the city after almost 10 years of service.
The SCHOLAR organization out of Houston, Texas, which has developed a hospital simulation program for nursing students, visited the Truman State University campus for a 72-hour simulation that began on Thursday, March 23 and ran until Sunday, March 26. For three days senior nursing students worked 12-hour shifts in both hospital and emergency room settings, learning the pressures it takes to be a nurse in those environments. The seniors were assisted by junior classmates as well as volunteers from the community who acted as patients, repeating a script of symptoms and issues they were suffering from.