st. louis
This year, the Eastern Missouri Region of the American Red Cross is celebrating its centennial. And it’s always been more than just people lining up to donate blood, which is what many people think when they see the white truck emblazoned with the red cross. For 100 years throughout the metro, selfless volunteers and staff have helped people recover from disasters, supported military families, and offered health and safety services. In 1993 during the catastrophic flood, the Red Cross was there. During the many tornadoes that have struck in the last decade and the 90 years prior, the Red Cross has provided shelter and food. Who else does the Red Cross help—and when? According to its new catchphrase, it’s ‘Any time. Any place. Any one.’
richmond heights
You probably will have had it with filing your 2016 taxes by April 15, and you’ll be thinking there must be a safer way to dispose of paperwork you no longer need than just dumping it in the recycle bin. There is: shred it! According to a recent study, identity fraud hit a record high with 15.4 million U.S. victims in 2016, up 16 percent from 2015. Your home shredder is jammed? The bistate Better Business Bureau will shred sensitive papers Saturday, April 15, two days before Monday, the income tax deadline this year. (Or, maybe you’ve filed an extension. I did, for the first time ever, last year. Silly me … I didn’t realize that I still had to pay the penalty when I filed in October.) The BBB is partnering with the St. Louis Consumer Fraud Task Force for the event, and the shredders from American Document Destruction will be there from 9 a.m. to noon at the Saint Louis Galleria. Considering how many of us have had our PII (personally identifiable information) compromised by fraudsters in the last few years, this is smart. A lot smarter than standing in line at your local post office late in the p.m. on deadline day to have your tax return envelopes postmarked in time (before midnight). Not that any of us have ever done that sort of thing.
wildwood
If your dog keeps sticking his head out the car window as you drive, sniffing like crazy, it’s because he already knows something you don’t. It’s like sensing a change in the weather: A canine paradise is being completed just over the horizon, out yonder in Wildwood. At 10 fenced-in acres, Happy Hounds Playground is soon to be the metro’s largest dog park. When it opens May 1, it’ll be like Six Flags for Phideaux and phriends, except there won’t be a ridiculous upcharge for parking or long lines for short rides. Small dogs like Chihuahuas and rat terriers can yip all they want that it’s unfair they have only 1 acre set aside for them, because Rottweilers and mastiffs could just shut them up with one chomp. But they won’t trot over, because like we said, there’s a fence. Besides, the big dogs have 9 acres all to themselves, so they won’t trouble themselves with the ’lil yippers. Both sides have splash pads for cooling off. Speaking of, does your dog love to swim? There’s a lake he or she will enjoy. Dog moms and dads might even have more fun watching the canines than watching their kids at swimming lessons. (Eek.) There are restrooms, comfortable seating in the shade, and paw-washing stations to make for a cleanish car on the ride home. (Important: Bring your own towels, even though afterward the dog will vigorously shake and make sure most of the water gets on you and your upholstery.) Before becoming a member, dog owners will need to sign a waiver and show proof of vaccination. But if you’re an anti-vaxxer, you—and your little dog, too—can just go, uh, anywhere other than 2448 Pond Road.
webster groves
The chess team at Webster University should start hanging banners outside a building on campus to mark its victories, like the Cardinals do outside Busch Stadium to commemorate their World Series championships. However, if fortune continues the way it has—five consecutive national championships so far— they’ll outpace even the Redbirds before too long. Webster University’s chess team took top national honors, again, a couple weekends ago during the 2017 President’s Cup collegiate chess tournament in NYC. Webster is the only university in the history of the President’s Cup to win five championships in a row. This win was also the seventh consecutive for grand master and coach Susan Polgar and her SPICE (Susan Polgar Institute for Chess Excellence) program. During 13 grueling hours of competition, Webster won eight matches; SLU won five matches to take third. (Maybe next year, Billikens … or not.) Chess has been around about 1,500 years; the rules have scarcely changed at all in the past five centuries. Hmmm … wonder how the Webster U. chess Gorlocks would fare against a computer? In 1997, world champ Garry Kasparov lost in 19 moves to an IBM mainframe with the moniker Deep Blue.
town & country
Good things come in threes, probably because three is the square root of nine. (It’s a proven scientific fact.) So when Dr. Michael Paul recently delivered three sets of triplets at Missouri Baptist Medical Center within six weeks, we knew it was a good omen for Cardinals season. (If they’d been quads, Paul would have hit for the cycle.) All nine babies were cared for in MoBap Childbirth Center’s Newborn Intensive Care Unit (NICU), which helped their moms form relationships with their infants … and one another. Their unique experience, which involved weeks of bed rest at the hospital and coaching from many MoBap nurses, was like their own training camp and created a real team spirit before they were ready for ‘opening day.’ When all nine babies are safe at home, the moms plan to get together, which gives one pause to think about the gaggles of soccer moms in three SUVs in a few years. “It was a team approach,” says Paul, maternal fetal medicine specialist at MoBap … and father to his own set of triplets! “These nine babies are the players on the field, but they would not have the success they’ve enjoyed without the support provided by moms, dads, doctors and nurses.” Oy, gevalt! You saw it here first, maybe.
