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“Where Fillmore County News Comes First” Weekly Edition
October is Breast Cancer Chatfield schools Awareness Month achievement gap pages
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Monday, October 23, 2017
Farmers Coop and Farmers Win courting merger idea
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Volume 33 Issue 5
Larson resigns from Kingsland Board
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New digs for JuliaClaire page
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Canton • Chatfield • Fountain • Harmony • Houston • Lanesboro • Mabel • Ostrander • Peterson • Preston • Rushford • Rushford Village • Spring Valley • Whalan • Wykoff
Two-time cancer survivor lives each day to the fullest By A nnie Lewis annie@fillmorecountyjournal.com
Harmony resident, Mary Ann Johnson was diagnosed with breast cancer twice. She is one of only two known cases where the identical cancer came back to the same lump. “I guess I’m a special case,” Johnson chuckled. Photo by Abbey Norby
When Harmony resident, Mary Ann Johnson was told she had breast cancer in 2014, she couldn’t believe her ears. “I was feeling fine. It was a normal day and then you’re told you have cancer…you’re whole world changes in an instant.” After hearing the news, Johnson called her daughter, who immediately came from the cities to help her mom navigate through the maze of tests and treatments. Johnson knows a bit about cancer since her father died of colon cancer, sisters and brothers on both sides of the family had other cancers and one sister had breast cancer. She also lost a daughter to leukemia in 1972. “Because there’s cancer in my family, I’ve always been proactive, doing monthly self-exams and getting mammograms every year,” Johnson said. “Then at age 72, my doctor explained that there were several thoughts on
women my age having mammograms every year and that some could have them every other year. So I skipped my mammogram in 2013.” When Johnson went back for a mammogram the next year, they found something. It was Stage 3 cancer. Surgery was done to remove the lump and one lymph node. Then she endured 33 radiation treatments. All was well for a couple of years. Then in 2016, Johnson was diagnosed with cancer again. “I remember telling my son that it came back and he said, ‘Not again, I thought you were cured!’ I remember thinking, do I really want to go through this again? Then I remembered that God doesn’t give us more than we can handle and I knew I’d be alright.” This new cancer required surgery to remove 15 lymph nodes, with five having the same cancer that was in the lump See MARY ANN Page 11
Fit Express and Active PT partner in Preston Mabel-Canton school board selects another new member already sharing a space with be done, and so she hired conB H W y
annah
ingert
hannah@fillmorecountyjournal.com
tractor TD Fetterly to help. “He was very integral in being creative with renovating an old building,” Mathison said. When the renovations were finished 4 ½ months later, the building had an handicapped accessible ramp on the front entrance, two new bathrooms, new flooring, three physical therapy rooms, and more. All of the original offices had to be torn out and new ones built. “It was a lot of work!” Mathison said. But in the end, it was all worth it. Mathison applied for and See PARTNERSHIP Page 2
By A nnie Lewis
annie@fillmorecountyjournal.com
Two new Mabel-Canton school board members have been chosen in the last two months. In September, the board selected Diane Wilder to replace Jeff Rein who resigned in August. And at its October meeting, they selected Lizzie Hershberger to replace Bobbie Vickerman, who moved out of the district. Hershberger, mother of four and former Amish teacher, was interviewed at a special meeting held prior to the October 17 board meeting. Another candi-
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date, Dustin Tollefsrud, was interviewed last month. Each were given the same questions to answer. School board members agreed that both were outstanding candidates and it was a difficult choice. A motion was made at the board meeting to appoint Lizzie Hershberger. The nomination was approved unanimously. Both Wilder and Hershberger will serve through December 2018. The board approved the hiring of Russell Larson for head basketball coach for the 2017-18 season. Russell replaces Doug See NEW MEMBER Page 8
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“The partnership increases business for both companies,” Fit Express owner Linda Mathison said. “If someone comes in that I’m not comfortable helping, I can refer them to Active PT and vice versa.” In the beginning of October, Fit Express and Active PT moved into the same building to operate side by side. Mathison knew that she wanted to expand Fit Express in Preston and so began looking for a new location that would give her more space. The Fit Express in Spring Valley was
Active PT, a physical therapy company out of Rochester and she felt that it would be a great partnership for Preston as well. She approached Dr. Brian McQuilken, co-owner of Active PT, to ask if they were interested. Active PT had an office in Preston already, but felt that combining the two businesses into one building would be beneficial to their patients, as it was in Spring Valley. Mathison ended up purchasing two of the buildings that used to belong to Northwest Aluminum. There were a lot of renovations that needed to