Author Archives: Rita Pravecek

Cheril Meiners has seen the back side of every stage curtain owned by the Winner Community Playhouse.

The faithful prompter of community plays was honored Thursday night  with the outstanding member award presented by the Winner Community Playhouse.

The award was presented by Chuck and Norma Keiser, last year’s recipients.

A prompter is a very important part of any play. If an actor misses a line or forgets one they now the prompter has their back and will get them back on track.

Meiners has spent countless hours of chair warming with a script on a music stand. It is illuminated only enough to read the lines.

Meiners has rearranged her life to fit with rehearsals and performances because she enjoys the job of prompting.

Prompting is one of the most difficult duties because no actor steps on stage without needing a cue at sometime.

Being in front of the main curtain, an actor or actress has a warm comfort in knowing the prompter has their back.

At one time,  Meiners took a small role on stage wearing butterfly wings and pushing a cart.

Meiners is a member of the board of directors of the playhouse.

This year the Winner Community Playhouse began its 48^th year.

A  spring show is planned for March 18,19 and March 24, 25 and 26.

By Dan Bechtold

Editor

Big changes are coming to Community Connections.

The organization has purchased Schramm Furniture building on the highway. The furniture store will be remodeled to serve the needs of Community Connections.

The remodeling work is to start sometime in February and plans call for it to be finished in the later part of 2022.

Tom and Jeff Schramm sold the store and are glad Community Connections can make use of the property.

In addition, Community Connections sold the two buildings on North Main St. to Mid Dakota Meats. In turn, Mid Dakota Meats is leasing these two buildings to Community Connections until their main project in finished.

Puetz Construction and Design of Mitchell is the main contractor.

Blueprints are already completed. Melony Bertram, executive director, explained the main entrance facing the highway will remain the same.

There will be a reception area as you step inside. On the east side will be a large, new community inclusion room. “We will have all kinds of different activities from crafts, painting, dancing. We will be inviting community members to come in and participate with the people that we support,” explained Bertram.

 There will be 14 offices in the building with the possibility of expanding to 18 offices. There will be six bathrooms with a large conference room.

In the administration area, there will be a smaller conference room, a health care room for the nurse, training room, large kitchen and large dining room.

Bertram noted future plans call for cooking classes in which the community will be invited to participate.

The back area of the business will provide space to store exercise equipment, a large area to do the monthly Feeding South Dakota program.

Community Connections serves 40 individuals and has a staff of 56.

Bertram pointed out all of the day services will come to this new location. Currently, they are in several locations around town.

“We ran out of office space and so we started looking for property. We were not able to find any. That is when Tom Schramm called Bertram and told her of Schramm brothers plans to retire and sell the furniture store.

“Initially, we thought it was too much space. Then we starting talking to the board and looking at what we had all over town. We decided we could combine some spaces and sell other property. That is why we decided on the Schramm Furniture property.”

The executive director of CCI thinks it will help to have a centralized location. “It will be better for us communication wise and being able to have a large staff together Monday through Friday.

Bertram added new federal guidelines also helped the made a decision on where to move. The new guidelines are that day programs cannot be provided in a residential setting. It has to be a business section where community members can have easy access. “That was another reason this is  a good deal,” explained Bertram.

Chuck Keiser, chairman of the board of CCI is excited for the future. “Putting things in one spot is great. We also have the room to expand when needed.”

Schramm Furniture served he Winner community for 75 years. Tom Schamm said “This was a great place to make a living and very pleased that Community Connections will be able to continue on with the wonderful use of this building.”

The building on the highway was built in 1971 and the north addition in 1998.

Jeff Schramm added: “We feel they are going to make great use of the building and that is important to us. We feel good about this. It is hard when you sell a building you have owned for 75 years,” he said.

Just not recently, but over the decades Schramm Furniture and Community Connections have had a great partnership.

Bertram along with her entire staff are looking forward to the day they can move into  their new home.

Winner Regional Health, a locally owned and operated critical access hospital is looking to have a significant impact for their community through the Driven to Serve Campaign. Within the past few years, the need to increase their technology for a 3D Mammography is real, with serving over 365 patients a year. Think about that for a second, for a smaller critical access hospital, that is one patient per day. Unfortunately, we are left with referring patients or having patients seek another healthcare facility with a 3D Mammography to get their screenings said Brady Kerkman, director of marketing and philanthropy at Winner Regional Health. 

This creates  its own set of challenges being in rural South Dakota, as it adds extra windshield time, travel costs, weather conditions, and added stress on an already daunting situation for the patient and their family. Within the past two years, we have seen approximately 100 patients per year, aside from the 365 patients served, seek services

elsewhere to receive a 3D Mammography. While we understand this is a rather large expense, with a $275,000 investment; Winner Regional Health values the input from its community and is moving forward to have those

vital services locally. Therefore, six  community members stepped up in a very large way to donate a New

2021 Jeep Renegade 4X4 valued at $26,855, to allow us to sell 500 tickets at $100 each. A sincere appreciation

goes out to Cody Haiar at Frontier Motors, John and Verna Koskan, Randy & Cam VandenHoek, Mick & Betty Rowe,

Bob & Judy Benson, and Lee & Keatha Calhoon. The tickets will go on sale on Feb. 20, which can be purchased

at Winner Regional Health, Winner Family Drug, and the Comedy Night on April 5, or at the Junior Teeners

Father’s Day Tournament on June 18, assuming there are tickets remaining. As always, persons can contact (605)

842-7231 to purchase  tickets. Winner Regional will also be hosting a Chili Feed, 4lb Burger Challenge, and Comedy Night on April 5, by Sioux Falls very own comedian, Nathan Hults. Tickets go on sale on Jan. 24 and can be

purchased the same as the tickets for the Jeep.

“While we are looking to raise $50,000 to go towards the

purchase of the $275,000 3D Mammography, we also see this as a great opportunity to educate South Dakotans

about breast cancer and the impact of early detection. It also allows us the opportunity to increase awareness

about men falling victim to breast cancer, which is often very hard for men to process. We will be seeking out grant

opportunities to cover the remainder of the cost of the 3D Mammography, but know that is no small task.” said Kerkman.

Winner Regional Health welcomes any questions you may have and greatly accepts any support or leads for grants that can bring this to fruition in 2022. For more information about the events, please follow  on Facebook at

https://www.facebook.com/WinnerRegional or on our website at https://winnerregional.org/about/foundation/.

The remaining question is, are you up for the challenge to finish off a 4lb Burger and have what it takes to be the

Champion?