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Look for the good in 2024

FD community sacrifices time, possessions and more to help those in need

By Kelby Wingert 9 min read

After a year like Fort Dodge had in 2023, it can be hard to be optimistic for 2024.

Tragedy abounded with several homicides and accidents over the last 12 months. For many people, when they think of 2023 in Fort Dodge, that's what they'll remember. For me, a journalist who reported on many of these tragedies -- and then some -- those events will forever have a place in my memory. But so will all the good that happened in Fort Dodge in 2023.

When I sat down to write this story, I honestly didn't have to look hard to find people doing good in our communities.

At the beginning of the year, UnityPoint Health -- Trinity Regional Medical Center surgical nurse Amanda Wilson was contacted by the Be The Match donor registry -- she was the match for a young child who needed a bone marrow transplant. After traveling to a hospital in Washington, D.C. to selflessly undergo a medical procedure to donate her bone marrow to a complete stranger, Wilson told The Messenger she'd be happy to do it again if she were to match with another patient.

"Absolutely I would do it with no hesitation," she said. "If it was my kid, I'd want a donor to be as willing as I was. The little bit of inconvenience was nothing compared to what the recipient went through."

Every February, Doug Passow, of Clare, keeps the memories of his niece and nephew alive with the Gene Giraffe Project. Ava and Jackson Passow were each just toddlers when they died from GM1 gangliosidosis, an inherited disorder that progressively destroys nerve cells (neurons) in the brain and spinal cord.

According to the Genetic and Rare Diseases Information Center, fewer than 5,000 people in the U.S. have GM1 gangliosidosis.

After Ava's death in 2012, Doug created the Gene Giraffe Project, a 501(c)3 charity to raise awareness and funds for children with rare diseases.

Possibly the most visible of the Gene Giraffe Project's impacts is seen on Rare Disease Day each year on the last day in February -- Doug Passow and his mother, Barb Passow, bring dozens of stuffed animals they've collected over the year through donations to give to patients at the UnityPoint Health -- Fort Dodge Pediatrics Clinic for comfort when they have to visit the doctor.

In 2023, the Passows brought 131 stuffed animals to the clinic. They also brought many stuffed animals and burp cloths to the Birth Center at Trinity Regional Medical Center for staff to give to patients.

In September, a newly "planted" church in town, Ames-based Harvest Vineyard Church, organized its second annual "We Heart Fort Dodge" day of service. Dozens of community members -- not just church members -- spent the day doing a series of service projects across Fort Dodge.

The volunteers did things like hand out quarters at local laundromats, cleaned up city recreational trails, served a meal to police officers and first responders, gave free snacks to Iowa Central Community College students and more.

"We wanted to do this thing because we want to love our city in tangible ways," said the Rev. Maggie Davis, of Harvest Vineyard Church-Fort Dodge. "It's just a day of kindness."

A couple years ago, Charles Clayton, director of Athletics for Education and Success, began the DRIVE Reentry Program for individuals being released from prison to help them get back on their feet and get their lives back on track. Drive is an acronym for Determination, Resilience, Initiative, Values and Encouragement.

"When you're released," Clayton told The Messenger in March, "there's a thousand unwritten sentences that you still face -- housing, landlords, getting a job, transportation. I might not be from Fort Dodge. I don't have a ride or a vehicle to take my test in. I don't have a positive network or social group at all. What am I supposed to do to reconnect? You need to belong to something in life."

Clayton said that the program helps the recently released take care of those things. A lift to take their driver's exam and a vehicle for the road test. Rides to job interviews. A list of landlords that are not hostile to renting to felons.

"Some guys just come here to use the gym," he said. "It's one guy that needs transportation to a doctor's appointment. We had another one we took to Boone for a custody hearing so he could get his kids back."

When Algona Police Officer Kevin Cram was killed in the line of duty on Sept. 13, 2023, that pain reverberated across north central and northwest Iowa. I don't think I've ever been more proud to be from Fort Dodge than when word began to spread of all the high school football teams and communities who were coming together to raise funds to help the Cram family through that unspeakable tragedy.

It wasn't just Fort Dodge, of course, but it's part of what I think makes the Fort Dodge region so great. In just a few weeks, the Fort Dodge Senior High and St. Edmond football teams raised more than $40,000 through touchdown pledges and more donations -- and that's not even including private individual donations or the tens of thousands raised by other area teams and communities.

"Regardless of what the total turns out to be, it says something good about the people of our corner of the world who come together in the face of tragedy," The Messenger wrote in a Sept. 30, 2023, editorial. "It also shines a glimmer of light into what must seem like endless darkness for the Cram family."

In October, Fort Dodge became the first community in Iowa to install a Safe Haven Baby Box. This came after efforts from State Rep. Ann Meyer and State Sen. Tim Kraayenbrink to pass a law through the state legislature to allow for the devices.

Prior to that, if a parent wanted to surrender their infant under the Safe Haven Law without fear of prosecution for abandonment, they would have to hand the child to an employee at a hospital, health care facility or fire station in a face-to-face interaction.

With the Safe Haven Baby Box now located on the northeast side of the Fort Dodge Fire Department firehouse at 1515 Central Ave., parents who find themselves in a situation where they feel they need to give up their baby can have a layer of anonymity for their sacrifice.

When a large apartment fire displaced eight families -- many of whom lost nearly everything they owned -- within hours I was seeing posts on different Fort Dodge area social media groups from people asking how they can help. Many of those posts were in a Facebook group called Sharing Kindness Fort Dodge, which was started by Stacie Coppinger in 2020.

In fact, if you want to see people doing good for others in our community on a nearly daily basis, check out the Sharing Kindness Fort Dodge Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/groups/527442601384878.

Every Iowan knows that almost nothing is more important during the winter than a warm winter coat. But for many in our community, a warm, well-fitting winter coat can be an expensive luxury.

What warms my heart every winter is seeing the various winter coat drives collecting and distributing such a necessity to those in need.

In November, Community Health Center (CHC) of Fort Dodge and Shimkat Motor Co. collected hundreds of coats of all sizes to be given out for free during the Coats for Kids drive-thru distribution at CHC. Roughly 1,000 area kids from infants to high schoolers are able to bundle up this year because of the program.

Since 2017, Linette Nelson and Troy Schroeder have organized the Operation Warm it Forward coat rack outside of Schroeder's Memories in Focus studio at 521 Central Ave. The coat rack stays outside 24/7 and anyone is invited to come up to take what they need, or they can hang up coats they wish to donate. Around 150 to 250 coats pass through Operation Warm It Forward each year, Nelson said.

Some years, the coat rack can begin to look sparse, like it did just a few weeks ago when Kati Frahm and Tammy O'Tool stopped by to fill it up with coats donated by Decker Truck Line Inc. employees. O'Tool is the vice president of administration at Decker, and Frahm is the communications coordinator.

"We definitely haven't had the coat rack as full as we have in the past," she said. "But with what Kati and her team just did to get all those coats gathered, definitely helped us restock it."

Shimkat Motor Co. and Nestle Purina Pet Care also brought donations collected by their employees, she added.

Every year, Nelson also organizes Fort Dodge Santa's Helpers, which is a community effort to help those needing a little extra support over the holiday season. Among other things, they provide a holiday meal and Christmas presents for the residents at Youth Shelter Care of North Central Iowa.

Here are some other recent highlights of good:

• Holly Jolly Christmas Project provides Christmas tree kits to dozens of low-income families

• Local residents and families were "adopted" for the holidays through various community agencies like Upper Des Moines Opportunity Inc. and the YWCA of Fort Dodge.

• Service clubs collected nearly $3,000 in groceries for local food pantries during a "shopping spree" at Fareway.

• Dave Ristau donated $10,000 in honor of his late wife, Lis, to the Almost Home Humane Society of North Central Iowa to help purchase a transport van for the animals.

• Fort Dodge Ford Lincoln Toyota fed thousands during its annual Thanksgiving dinner at the dealership.

• Dennis Hunter donated a 1995 Buick Regal to the United Way of Fort Dodge's Wheels for Work program.

• Several community cleanup events were held throughout the year by various groups and organizations.

• First Baptist Church opened its SALT Center (Shining A Light Together) to provide a cooling center for homeless individuals during the heat of summer, and a warming center during the winter.

None of us know what 2024 has in store for Fort Dodge -- or the world around us -- but my challenge for all of us is to always look for the good happening around us, and to try to be the good that's happening in Fort Dodge. It's not that hard.

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