It’s Thursday, Nov. 30, 2023.

Hey folks, it’s Amie.

The days are getting MUCH colder and darker as winter seems to be setting in. No better time, then, for your weekly good news from Iowa!

This week:

• beer that is helping to cure blindness,
• a Johnson County farm nonprofit donated a record amount to food pantries DESPITE the drought,

• an Iowa trucker delivered the Capitol Christmas tree!

Why am I already bundling up to my eyeballs to take the dog for a walk….

The holidays can be tough on a lot of folks. Some are reminded of those we’ve lost over the years. Some are affected by seasonal affective disorder from the lessened sunlight we’re getting. And we’re perhaps all feeling a bit inadequate seeing everyone’s holly-jolly posts on social media.

But no matter what they post, nobody has a picture-perfect life; reach out and keep those connections with folks you love. Use those anti-SAD light therapy devices, stay hydrated, and take your vitamins and meds. And light a candle for the folks no longer with us, because remembering them is how they live on.

That, plus a regular reminder of the good in our corner of the world, will hopefully get us all through another Iowa winter.

1. Beer for Good 🍻

For years, Rob Hage of Inwood was told he would go blind from a hereditary eye disease.

But in 2020, new research at the University of Iowa Institute for Vision Research found a treatment—and possible cure—for not only Rob’s particular disease, but other causes of blindness as well.

Excited to help fund more research, Rob—who had to quit his IT job because he could no longer drive—decided to start up a brewery on his family farm. Called Blind Butcher Brewery, all tips at the brewery go toward research. Between that and the nonprofit he started, Brews for Blindness (which organizes efforts at other Iowa breweries), they’ve raised more than $97,000 in two years.

💬 “Some day, history will write, ‘The cure for blindness was made in Iowa,’ and craft beer has played a huge part in making this happen.“

~Rob Hage

2. Delivering Christmas Cheer 🎄

This year’s Christmas tree in front of the US Capitol doesn’t seem like it would have an Iowa connection: It was harvested from the Monongahela National Forest in the Allegheny Mountains of West Virginia, and driven to Washington, D.C.

But the driver selected to deliver that 63-foot Norway spruce was an Iowan: Tim Dean of Griswold. And he didn’t drive straight there: He made about two dozen stops along the way, saying his favorite part was seeing the excitement in all the different communities he stopped in.

The official Capitol tree lighting ceremony was Tuesday; watch it here.

💬 “I would have never imagined having the opportunity nor be blessed to be able to deliver such an awesome tree.”

~Tim Dean

Despite Iowa’s longstanding drought, a Southeast Iowa nonprofit just finished harvesting a record amount of produce—all for hungry Iowans.

Grow Johnson County, a five-acre educational farm that’s part of Iowa Valley Resource Conservation and Development, usually harvests around 30,000 pounds of fresh food that it donates to 16 area food pantries since it began in 2016.

This year, the organization reported harvesting 40,000 pounds, a 33% increase and its largest harvest ever.

More than just familiar staples, Grow this year added plants that pantries say they get asked about a lot, like Thai hot peppers, Shishito peppers, White African eggplant, okra, amaranth, and sweet potato vines.

💬 “Because of Grow, we are able to provide fresh produce that our members ask for.”

~Hai Huynh, project coordinator, Coralville Community Food Pantry

This is Timber. She is learning how to owl, and clearly already has the camouflage and the stare-down mastered.

(Photo submitted by Jan L.)

Send me your pet’s photo here!

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