Lifestyle

When I started my career, I lived in California. I grew up in Sacramento, a town of 1,000,000. I later moved to a small town up north, Redding. Redding was a town with a population of 100,000 where the shock of living in such a “small town” was difficult to adjust to. In these towns, I’ve worked around journalism for the past 25 years. I have always loved journalism. It is the reason I sought my first job in newspapers (Accounting), just so I could be near the printed word in the hopes that maybe someday, my words could be on the page.

Cecilia Ross, 11 months old and Annie Ross two and a half years old, visited with the Easter Bunny at Wood Lake’s annual Easter Egg Hunt Saturday. Photo by Sharla Bengtson After the egg hunt outdoors, area kids gathered at the Wood Lake Community Center to gather their prizes and meet with the Easter Bunny.

The Clarkfield Prairie Cardinals hosted an Easter Egg Hunt on Saturday at Valhalla Park. They estimate that there were over 75 children who attended the event, despite the chilly weather. The photo taken at the event shows just some of the children in attendance. Photo Submitted

If you have asked about me about writing a will or have been thinking that it would be a good idea to get that legal document in place, I have great news for you! Last week I received an email from Southwest Initiative Foundation (SWIF) about a new partnership they have formed with FreeWill, an online tool to write a legal will at no personal cost. SWIF is an independent community foundation whose mission is connecting people, investing in ideas, and building communities. They support many initiatives in our region, in fact, my position at Prairie Five is funded in part with a grant from SWIF. In the email, they explain that they “believe all people and families deserve opportunities to thrive including building financial security. Planning ahead is critical to protecting who you love and what you care about, and increasing access to estate planning breaks down barriers that might stand in the way of this important task.” It goes on to say, “this resource helps you protect your families and friends, plan beneficiaries for your assets, and support the causes and communities you love. With FreeWill, you can get peace of mind and leave a lasting legacy in just 20 minutes.” The FreeWill web site is found at www.freewill.com and is very user friendly. In fact, as I was walking through the site, I decided to go ahead and create my own will. It’s easy to think that we will always have time later but in truth none of us knows what tomorrow may hold. If you would prefer to finalize your will with an attorney, the site can still be used to as a preparation tool to create a list of documented wishes beforehand.

Westberg Eischens has hired Jordan Berends to join their Granite Falls accounting office. In her role as Administrative Assistant, Berends will greet customers, answer phones, and assist with bookkeeping and other administrative duties.

Each year Medicare gives every Advantage plan, Cost plan, and Part D drug plan a rating between one and five stars. A 5-star rating is considered excellent. The stars are assigned on factors including quality and performance of the plan and come from plan details as well as feedback from customer service surveys from beneficiaries and health care providers. The star ratings for the upcoming year are assigned in the fall and are useful during the annual Open Enrollment Period when people are looking at coverage for the upcoming year and wondering if a plan they are considering is any good.

Much of the region had some snow on Sunday as a low-pressure system pushed across the state. It was pretty to see but I think many of us are over this winter and want to see the warmer weather settle-in “for good,” or at least until next fall!