Corn Days, hometown pride, rural healthcare honors, a handmade gift, and 1,776 pork chops
Sometimes good news arrives with a parade. Sometimes it comes wrapped in a handmade quilt. And sometimes, because this is Iowa after all, it comes on a stick.
Here are five good things worth a little High Five this week around Northeast Iowa and beyond.
✋ 1. Waukon Corn Days Brings the Hometown Fun August 14 ~ 15
Sweet corn, music, shopping, a parade and plenty of hometown fun are headed to Waukon this weekend.
Waukon Corn Days returns Friday and Saturday, August 14 ~15, continuing a community tradition rooted in the area’s agricultural heritage and what some longtime residents may remember as “Threshing Days.”
Friday brings Crazy Days shopping specials downtown, followed by a community meal from 4 ~ 8 p.m. on West Street SW. The meal includes a brat or hot dog, chips, watermelon, all-you-can-eat sweet corn and water for $10. Families can also find a Kidz Zone, balloons, caricatures, a pedal tractor pull and live music from Uptown Jazz.
Saturday keeps things rolling with more Crazy Days shopping, WW Homestead Dairy’s annual car show, a local-vendor Summer Market at White Haus Social and a garden tractor pull.
And at 10 a.m. Saturday, Waukon will turn red, white and blue for an American Pride Parade celebrating America’s 250th birthday.
Sounds like a pretty good excuse to get out, eat some corn and wave at somebody you know.
HIGH FIVE, WAUKON! ✋
✋ 2. Allamakee County’s Queen Heads to the Iowa State Fair
Allamakee County will have one of its own represented at the Iowa State Fair this week.
Reegan Benzing, crowned the 2026 Allamakee County Fair Queen in July, is advancing to represent Allamakee County in the Iowa State Fair Queen competition, with coronation scheduled for Saturday, August 15 in Des Moines.
Whether or not the crown comes back to Northeast Iowa, having a local young woman step onto the State Fair stage representing her home county is already something worth cheering about.
GOOD LUCK, REEGAN ~ AND HIGH FIVE FROM HOME! ✋
✋ 3. Veterans Memorial Hospital Earns Recognition for Rural Stroke Care
Here is one that matters far beyond trophies and certificates.
Veterans Memorial Hospital in Waukon has received the American Heart Association’s Get With The Guidelines® ~ Stroke Rural Recognition award for its commitment to acute stroke care.
The recognition is based on measures that matter when minutes count, including timely treatment, brain imaging, communication with emergency medical services, stroke assessment and coordination for hospital transfers.
For a rural hospital, where distance and transportation can create additional challenges, having skilled people prepared to act quickly is especially important.
That makes this more than good news for the hospital.
It is good news for the communities depending on it.
HIGH FIVE TO THE VMH EMERGENCY TEAM! ✋
✋ 4. A Handmade Quilt Carries a Whole Lot of Caring in Postville
Sometimes the smallest-looking good news carries the biggest heart.
Staff members at Veterans Memorial Hospital’s Postville Medical Clinic recently presented young patient Brandon Benda with a handmade quilt while he continues battling acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
Clinic nurse Alisha Henderson made the quilt, with the gift presented from the entire staff. Henderson said Brandon is an extremely tough little boy who remains in the clinic staff’s thoughts every day.
Medicine treats an illness.
But a handmade quilt says something else:
We see you. We are thinking about you. And you are not just another name on an appointment schedule.
That deserves one especially big…
HIGH FIVE, POSTVILLE CLINIC! ✋❤️
✋ 5. Because Nothing Says “Iowa” Quite Like 1,776 FREE Pork Chops on a Stick
LOLOLOL… we promised you five good things.
Nobody said one of them couldn’t be pork. 😂🐷
The Iowa Pork Producers Association is celebrating America’s 250th anniversary at the Iowa State Fair by giving away 1,776 Pork Chops on a Stick on Sunday, August 16.
The giveaway begins at 11 a.m. inside the Pork Tent, with fairgoers entering from the north side near the Animal Learning Center. It is limited to one pork chop per person and continues while supplies last.
And apparently even the pork chops are getting dressed up for the occasion this year: the Iowa Pork Producers Association says every Pork Chop on a Stick sold at the fair will be smoked over applewood.
One thousand seven hundred seventy-six free pork chops.
For America’s 250th birthday.
At the Iowa State Fair.
We really don’t think we could make that more Iowa if we tried.
HIGH FIVE ~ WITH THE HAND THAT ISN’T HOLDING THE PORK CHOP! ✋🐷
Good things do not always make the loudest headlines.
Sometimes they look like neighbors gathering downtown.
A young woman representing her county.
A rural emergency team receiving recognition for work that can save lives.
A handmade quilt placed around the shoulders of a child going through something difficult.
And, every once in a while, 1,776 pork chops on sticks.
We’ll take all five.
Until next week’s High Five, keep looking for the good goin’ ’round town ~ because it is still out there.
Word ’Round Town
Northeast Iowa Community Living
word-round-town.com
Keep Goin’ ‘Round Town
There’s always another story waiting just around the corner.