A traveling memorial honoring Iowa’s fallen veterans at the Iowa State Fair this week, and is scheduled be in Council Bluffs and Treynor, afterward. “Remembering Our Fallen” is a 40-by-10-foot display with pictures of Iowa veterans who died in the line of duty. Inlaid on each soldier’s military profile picture is an image provided by the family with memorabilia, red roses and handwritten letters. The memorial was created by Omaha resident Bill Williams and his wife.

“We had read a story about a father who had lost his son and his concern was that he would be forgotten,” Williams says. “That’s when we came up with the idea to create an exhibit of the pictures of the fallen, not to sit in a museum but to travel from town to town.” In 2011, Williams and his wife made the first memorial as a tribute to fallen Nebraska veterans. After officials from Bellevue University saw it, they sponsored exhibits for more states, including Iowa. Williams wants to create memorials for all 50 states.

“We have ten exhibits now and we’ve been notified of four new deaths in those ten states just in the last week and a half,” Williams says. “As soon as we hear about the latest fallen, we’ll find the photo online and we’ll run a picture of it, 8-by-10 or 5-by-7, and then we’ll put it in a frame and it travels with the exhibit.”

Williams only includes veterans killed in action since September 11th, 2001. He says he’ll continue adding soldiers until the United States ceases military operations in Afghanistan. Bob King, executive director of the Iowa Department of Veterans Affairs, says unlike most memorials, this one allows the public see the faces of veterans. “You go to the cemetery and there are no faces, but you walk down through here and there’s Paul Fischer’s face and there’s Bruce Smith’s face and there’s David Kirchoff and Michael Deutch and David Resisnski,” King says. “It brings the remembrance a lot, lot closer to home.”

Retired Navy veteran Dean Kluss of Clarion, says the memorial may help people who haven’t served in the military understand the sacrifice soldiers make. Kluss says, “Today, while we’re here at the fair having a good time, there are people that are in harm’s way that potentially may give their life today for us to be able to enjoy these kind of freedoms.”

After the fair ends, the exhibit will move to cities throughout the state including Cedar Falls, Council Bluffs and Treynor.

(Radio Iowa)

The outbreak of cryptosporidiosis or “crypto” continues as many kids are returning or getting ready to go back to school. State medical director, Patti Quinlisk says the believe the cases of the disease will soon ease up. “We think a lot of it may be due to swimming pools and stuff, which means once the swimming pools are shut down and kids are back in schools, at least that one type of spread should be stopped,” Quinlisk says. “But of course we don’t it to then get into the schools and other places and start spreading in other venues.”

Swimming pools generally close for the summer season on the Labor Day weekend. Crypto is caused by a parasite that lives in the intestines of humans and animals and is spread in feces. Dr. Quinlisk says the best way to stop it is to cut off the source. “Bottom line is, let’s keep kids home who have diarrhea or if you’re an adult, you shouldn’t go to work with diarrhea. And everybody wash your hands and we should get this under control,” Quinlisk says.

She says it won’t help if kids aren’t following the proper technique for handwashing. “Which is again, warm water and soap and sing Happy Birthday twice while you’re doing it, and that means your hands are clean” according to Quinlisk. “So most in school if they don’t have diarrhea and wash their hands correctly then there shouldn’t be that much of a risk. But you have to be sure they do those two things right.”

Well over 300 cases of crypto have been reported so far this year when there were a total of 328 all of last year. Polk County reported 170 cases through early July alone. Crypto can lead to watery diarrhea, sometimes accompanied by nausea, vomiting, stomach cramps and low grade fever.

(Radio Iowa)