Winners Luke and Daniele Milijour perform their Disney themed dance at the Upper Peninsula Hospice Foundation fundraiser, Dancing with the Stars Marquette County Style Thursday. The seventh annual event will be held Wednesday and Thursday at Northern Michigan University’s Forest Roberts Theatre. (Photo courtesy of Bethany Vaughn)

MARQUETTE — U.P. Home Health & Hospice announced on Monday that this year’s Dancing with our Stars, Marquette Style event will be postponed to May 2022 due to COVID-19 restrictions.

The postponement also was made at the request of the cast to put on the “best event possible,” organizers said.

The event, which is for the benefit of the U.P. Hospice Foundation, began in 2013 and has been the sole fundraiser for the hospice foundation.

Organizers said they hope the event again will take place at Northern Michigan University’s Forest Roberts Theatre in 2022.

“While it was a difficult decision to postpone DWOS Superheroes & Villains Edition to Wednesday, May 25, and Thursday, May 26, 2022, it was made for the well-being of our dance couples, dance professionals, logistical coordinators and our community,” organizers said in a statement. “With this change, the majority of the cast originally committed to 2020 will continue with their journey to perform in DWOS Superheroes and Villains.”

All sponsorships will carry over to the 2022 performance. Anyone who purchased tickets for the performance may keep their existing seats and use them for the 2022 performance.

To support the hospice foundation, visit https://uphomehealth.org/hospice-foundation/.

Anyone with questions or wanting to request a refund on tickets may call U.P. Home Health & Hospice at 906-225-4545.

NMU updates case numbers

NMU has reported 12 active COVID-19 cases, which include six on-campus students, four off-campus students and two employees. The active positivity rate is 0.18%.

According to the NMU’s COVID-19 reporting dashboard, found at nmu.edu/safe-on-campus/dashboard, there have been 62 positives — 37 off-campus students, 18 on-campus students and seven employees — from Jan. 4 through Monday. The 62 cases amount to a 0.94% positivity rate.

Aspirus announces vaccination availability

Since the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services announced further expansion of Phase 1B of COVID-19 vaccine eligibility, adults age 50 and over with medical conditions and disabilities, caregivers of children with special health care needs and adults age 50 to 64 are now eligible.

Individuals within these newly eligible groups can request vaccinations through Aspirus and appointments will be made available based on vaccine supply, officials said.

The vaccine allocations Aspirus has received of late have allowed it to meet second-dose needs, but have not allowed it to adequately reach previously eligible groups like adults 65 and over, said Jessica Bessner, director of regional pharmacy for Aspirus in the Upper Peninsula, in a news release.

“If supply improves, Aspirus is ready and has the capacity to ramp up vaccinations dramatically,” Bessner said.

Aspirus is scheduling those who are eligible as closely as possible to the order in which requests are received. This can vary based on vaccine supply, eligibility phase and location.

Local health departments have supported Aspirus’ efforts by sharing some of their vaccine supply with it, Bessner said.

“We appreciate this collaboration but ask people to recognize that it will take time to vaccinate everyone in the groups that become eligible,” she said.

To date, Aspirus has provided more than 4,000 first-dose vaccinations to eligible community members in the Upper Peninsula, with about 3,500 individuals having completed the series. Aspirus has also provided vaccinations to more than 5,700 health care workers, EMS, first responders, and fire and police personnel.

To request a call for COVID-19 vaccination through Aspirus, individuals are requested to use the MyAspirus patient portal. Requests also can be made by going online to aspirus.org/vaccine. Aspirus schedulers are contacting those who are eligible when appointments become available.

Those who have submitted a vaccine request are asked to avoid calling Aspirus for vaccination status updates, it said, to reserve staffed phone lines for outreach scheduling and for patients calling who are experiencing active symptoms or have care needs.

Updates are being provided to those who remain on Aspirus’ call-back list through the MyAspirus patient portal and email.

Bay College to hold hybrid graduation ceremony

Bay College will honor the Class of 2021 with a hybrid commencement ceremony on April 24, with all graduates to have the opportunity to participate in an in-person commencement experience walking across the Besse Theater stage in cap and gown.

All participating graduates and a limited number of guests, speakers and key elements of the ceremony will be recorded during scheduled commencement events and included in a large-scale virtual event.

The complete ceremony will be available for viewing online on commencement day via the college’s website and social media sites.

To commemorate that day for graduates, Bay College has partnered with Sign UP Graphics to offer purchase of Commencement Cutouts, priced at $11 each to fill the theater as graduates walk across the stage. If interested, contact Sign UP Graphics at Jean@signupprinting.com or 906-789-7446 by March 19.

MML responds to Senate vote

Bill Wild, mayor of downstate Westland and board president of the Michigan Municipal League, issued a statement about the U.S. Senate voting to approve direct aid to local governments in the American Rescue Plan.

“We applaud the Senate for committing much-needed $65 billon of direct aid to all local governments to help our communities recover and rebuild from the devastation caused by COVID-19,” Wild said. “This aid will provide significant and desperately needed funding to Michigan communities of all sizes as they work to assist our communities, businesses and residents in emerging from the coronavirus pandemic.

“We would especially like to thank Michigan U.S. senators Debbie Stabenow and Gary Peters for their leadership in getting this package approved.”

The league also supports the following statement released by the National League of Cities, officials said.

“As the American Rescue Plan makes its way back to the House of Representatives, and ultimately to President (Joe) Biden’s desk, we urge lawmakers to preserve the essential aid they have secured for our local governments on the front lines,” it said.

The NLC said the vote is an “important acknowledgement of the urgency with which we all must work to ensure our municipalities have the resources to put an end to the pandemic. In particular, our nation’s small municipalities — which have been passed over in all previous federal relief packages — will finally be able to secure the direct relief they need to ensure critical local services can continue during this critical moment.”

NMU grad adapts to pandemic

An alumnus of Northern Michigan University has started a take-and-heat meal service to help his Wisconsin business, according to a Northern Today feature.

When the pandemic affected his main revenue sources from catered events in the Fox Cities area and meals prepared for a brewery tap room, David Bennett, who earned a bachelor of science degree in 2017, opted to adapt by accelerating the launch of the meal service.

Bennett is co-owner and chef with FourOne Food Group in Appleton, which now includes the new Prepd meal service. He began working in restaurants and a summer camp kitchen while studying nutritional science at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, then transferred to NMU because of the college’s “highly regarded catering program,” according to an article in the Appleton Post-Crescent.

After graduating from NMU with a biology degree and more than a year of prep cook experience, Bennett looked at pursuing a medical or culinary career. He enrolled in the culinary arts program at Kendall College in Chicago and worked for a high-end catering business before returning to the Fox Cities.

Bennett told the Post-Crescent that Prepd has grown to serve an average of 40 customers ordering multiple meals weekly. He also said the Prepd concept was inspired in part by the increasing popularity in Chicago of meal kits.

Christie Mastric can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 250. Her email address is cbleck@miningjournal.net.