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Letters to the Editor

Salutes hospice staff, volunteers

To the editor: My heart was saddened when I heard that the Paula J. Baber Hospice Home is closing. I was the volunteer coordinator for UnityPoint Hospice volunteers from 2003-2022. A lot of our volunteers spend many hours in our wonderful Hospice Home helping our patients, their families and guests and staff. This home is such a blessing to our community. When our patients would come to the hospice home, our staff would care for them so their loved ones could spend more time being with them in their final days. The hospice home also provides respite care for days when a caregiver needs ...

Urges yes vote on EMS levy

To the editor: Fort Dodge and Webster County need to assure all families have immediate emergency medical services as an essential service when someone has a heart attack or terrible car accident on a rural county gravel road. That is why I am voting yes on March 4. The Messenger has done several excellent stories explaining why we need to support this measure. One example is Paul Johnson from the Gowrie area who had a heart attack and if not for the response of many on the way to Unity Point Hospital, he would not be living today. Nobody should not have access within reasonable ...

Offers Shellabration suggestion

To the editor: I read in The Messenger paper that the Shellabration concert is being canceled this year. Why? Be creative. Why not go local and statewide and ask local bands or statewide bands to come and play? Give them some notoriety. Make it a weekend concert like they do in Des Moines, only have it be smaller bands that come and play their music. Make it an Iowa concert. Gloria Myers Fort Dodge

When will they ever learn?

To the editor: That was an excellent editorial by Jeff Robbins in the Feb. 12 edition of The Messenger. Donald Trump and Elon Musk shredding USAID will do damage to this country’s reputation with other countries that may never be reestablished. The budget for USAID is less than 1 percent of our country’s budget. Donald Trump said the USAID was giving Gaza $50 million to buy condoms and if that wasn’t farfetched enough, he upped that number to $100 million a couple days later. When will this country ever learn that Donald Trump is a liar? A company was established during his ...

Small town, big heart

To the editor: As I sit down to type this letter on behalf of my family, two words come to my head and heart…love overflowing. Recently, I received the phone call that no parent wants to ever get. Within the next 20 minutes, I found out that the youngest of the two most precious people on Earth to me was gone from this world. When you become a parent, you try to instill in them the values that you hold dear: be kind, treat everyone with respect, help those in need, and find a career that makes you happy and want to go to said job each day. After that week, which in one respect was ...

FD schools teach lesson in supporting each other

To the editor: I have had the privilege of working as a substitute teacher for Fort Dodge Community Schools since September of 2024. I have been in every building, some more than others. There are some pretty amazing things going on in each building. On Jan. 11, 2025, Middle School Assistant Principal Aaron Miller died from injuries sustained in a car accident. I was already scheduled to substitute teach at the middle school the Monday following his accident. I had no idea what to expect. Walking into the middle school that morning, I felt the impact Assistant Principal Aaron Miller ...