Small Street Journal: December 9, 2016

Northwestern Bank will open their new River Prairie branch located at 1430 Rivers Edge Trail in Altoona on Monday, December 12th.  The new River Prairie location will replace the existing Northwestern Bank branch located at 2901 Mall Drive in Eau Claire and will be a full service bank. The Mall Drive location will be closing at 5 pm Friday, December 9th .
 
Junior Achievement of Wisconsin, Inc., Northwest District is pleased to announce two new members joining its Board of Directors. Lyle Jankee, vice president of pricing and network development at Marten Transport in Mondovi and John Walton, founder of Advance Laser Machining Inc., will be joining the JA Northwest district Board of Directors. Jankee has worked at Marten Transport for the past 15 years where he leads the department responsible for building a freight network that is both profitable and provides a better quality life for their drivers. Walton is a senior business development manager at Advance Laser Machining. Walton is active in the community and serves as chair of the Chippewa Valley Innovation Center and is a member of the Chippewa Valley Technical College Board.

The Royal Credit Union (Royal) Foundation gifted $50,000 to Beaver Creek Reserve for the Discover the Deep Woods exhibit. Proceeds from the 2015 and 2016 RCU Charity Classic event were combined to make the $50,000 gift. The Discover the Deep Woods exhibit includes a beaver bank crawl-through, interactive scat and track wall, and hands-on fur identification. More than 50,000 people visit Beaver Creek Reserve annually. The Charity Classic has been held annually by Royal Credit Union since 1994. The event has resulted in donations of over $227,000 to area charities. The next Charity Classic will be held June 24, 2017.

Royal Credit Union (Royal) has earned the second place national-level Louise Herring Philosophy in Action Member Service Award in the over $1 Billion in assets category. The award is made by the Credit Union National Association and reflects the good Royal has accomplished with members and in the community. Royal won the first place state-level Louise Herring Award in Wisconsin, which qualified it for the national competition. Royal has demonstrated excellence and lived its core values by eliminating 100% of punitive fees and achieving a total fee reduction of $6.7 million by eliminating fees ranging from $40 to fifty cents.

The Chippewa Valley Habitat for Humanity (CVH4H) was presented with a generous grant from the U.S. Bank Foundation this past November. CVH4H applied for a grant to procure funds for their new project of opening a local Habitat ReStore. A Habitat ReStore is a store that specializes in selling new, donated and recycled home building supplies at a discounted rate. CVH4H plans to open the ReStore in the Eau Claire area in 2017. With a ReStore established, CVH4H will be able to generate a sustainable income that can go directly into building more homes for more families. Thanks to U.S. Bank, the ReStore is closer to becoming a reality.

Nurse practitioner Alexandro Vasquez recently joined the Emergency Medicine Department at Mayo Clinic Health System in Barron and Eau Claire. Vasquez earned his doctorate of nursing practice from Brandman University in Irvine, California and a master’s degree in nursing science from the University of California-Irvine. He completed his bachelor’s degree in nursing from the University of Texas Medical Branch-Galveston. He completed his fellowship in emergency medicine at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.

Physical therapist Daniel Baehr recently joined the Rehabilitation Services Department at Mayo Clinic Health System in Eau Claire. Baehr earned his bachelor’s degree in biology and his doctor of physical therapy from Carroll University in Waukesha. His professional interests include manual therapy, balance training and working with amputees.