It’s Thursday, Dec. 21, 2023.
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Hey folks, it’s Amie, and it’s our last good news roundup from Iowa of 2023!
Today is the winter solstice—the shortest, darkest day of the year (for those of us in the Northern hemisphere). But that just means the days will get longer and sunnier from here on out!
This week:
- growing community for Waterloo refugees 🌱
- healing through sewing for Iowa’s Indigenous women 🪡
- dynasty making for Iowa Western football team 🏆
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Who says there’s a Christmas/New Year’s week lull?
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I hope you’re rolling into the end of 2023 with some positivity in your own life.
And if you need some more (who doesn’t?), keep scrolling.
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1. Familiar foods in a foreign land 🍠
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Last year, Waterloo didn’t have a community garden open to the public. And Waterloo’s refugee populations didn’t always have the space to grow the food they missed from home.
That all changed this year, when dozens of Congolese, Burmese, and Hispanic gardeners joined with neighbors, Black Hawk County Public Health, the University of Northern Iowa, and the city to create the 48-plot Highland Community Garden.
Taking a page from the Global Greens project in Des Moines, participants planted everything from tomatoes to okra, from spinach to sweet potato leaves and amaranth—and found some success, even in Iowa’s comparatively drier soil.
The program was so successful, Public Health facilitators Kathryn Gilbery and Julie Molisho told me, that they’re looking to expand the Highland garden and add a second garden in Waterloo in 2024.
💬 “One problem that people have is adjusting to the food of the community where they’re relocating. So having the opportunity, not only to grow your own food here, but also to be able to sell it to other communities, this is like a happiness. … It’s like a dream.“
~Julie Molisho
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When her sister died, Tami Buffalohead-McGill became the guardian to her niece, Sierra, and wanted to do something to help Sierra heal from that trauma and keep her mother’s memory close.
Sierra told Tami she wanted to sew—just like she and her mother used to do.
That, plus widespread interest in group sewing as a form of healing from trauma, spurred Tami to start Healing Ribbons, a sewing circle of Indigenous women who come from the dozens of tribes in Iowa and Nebraska.
Members held a first-of-its-kind fashion show this month, showing off their beadwork, ribbon skirts, jingle dresses, and more traditional tribal designs they designed, sewed, and modeled themselves.
💬 “I felt that, for the first time, a boulder had been lifted off my shoulders. Just the act of sewing, and being around, and sharing stories with women who were in the same kind of situations that [I was] in who had the same life experiences, there was a sense of comfort and connection.”
~Tami Buffalohead-McGill
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Iowa Western Community College became a three-time national championship-winning football program last week.
The squad posted a decisive 61-14 win over East Mississippi Community College in the National Junior College Athletic Association Division 1 championship on Dec. 13. (Watch highlights from the game here.)
But the Reivers didn’t become a dynasty program and destination JUCO for football players overnight. Coach Scott Strohmeier built this tiny program in Council Bluffs into a place where players have gone on to play for some of the top university programs in the country—and even the NFL.
💬 “To see a kid come in here, question his ability or question some things, question his academics, and then graduate and then get a four-year scholarship, I think that’s probably the biggest thing.”
~Scott Strohmeier
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End with something cute 🦜
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This is (clockwise from upper left) Little Miss Priss, Sammy, Diega the parrot, and Erasmus & Francesca.
But Saundra says, despite this four-cat household, Diega actually “rules the roost.”
“She loves to tease the cats by calling them, as she sounds like me and they think they are going to be fed,” Saundra explains. “When they arrive, she laughs in total delight!”
(Photo submitted by Saundra R.)
Send me your pet’s photo here!
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