It was a sad occasion for the city of Flint. St. Michael Catholic Church, Genesee County’s oldest Catholic church, permanently closed its doors in December 2020. “It was such a significant church,” says Father Tom Firestone, who has been Pastor of the City (St. Michael’s, St. Matthew’s and St. John Vianney churches) since 2015. “I’m sad. I tried so hard to keep it open. It was the Mother Church of the region dating back to 1843. It was the only Catholic parish in the city of Flint for 67 years.”
A successful Fenton restaurateur, Jason Warda owns three restaurant/bars in the area: The Barn, Fenton Pub and Ponemah Lakeside Lodge. The challenge of owning three such businesses during a pandemic has been very frustrating, leading him to seek a way to diversify his businesses. After taking a trip with his family to clear his head, Warda came up with the idea of pursuing an entirely different type of venture – a meat market – something he felt was missing in the landscape of the bustling city.
John Rhymes, Founder of the Institute of R.H.Y.M.E.S. has been a mentor for many years, making a positive impact on Flint’s young people. Founded in 2002, the nonprofit organization sees the value in everyone. “We want to be a catalyst for positive change,” he says. “Our goal is to equip the future generation with tools and resources to be productive and effective in life.” R.H.Y.M.E.S. stands for Reaching and Helping Young Minorities Excel and Succeed.
Giving birth can come with some powerful emotions. It can be exciting and wonderful but it can also lead to something unexpected: depression. Postpartum depression is a special medical diagnosis that is fairly common after childbirth, according to Dr. Patrick Gramith, DO, who has a family practice at McLaren Flint in Fenton. And, there is a difference between postpartum depression and the “baby blues. “The baby blues go away in about ten days,” he adds. Symptoms include very mild irritability, being more emotional, crying for no reason and difficulty sleeping.
Many expectant mothers will have three ultrasounds during their pregnancy, according to Dr. Robert Welch, Director of Maternal Fetal Medicine at Hurley Medical Center. “Most women have at least one,” he reports. An ultrasound is given for multiple reasons: to confirm the due date, establish fetus count, measure growth and possibly even learn the gender.
Are there any benefits to reading to and playing music for your baby before and after its birth? The answer to that question is a resounding “Yes!” according to Dr. Gwendolyn Reyes, a Pediatrician at Hurley Medical Center. “A baby can recognize a caregiver’s voice while in the womb,” says Dr. Reyes. “They can also recognize music. It’s a great thing to introduce them to it during pregnancy.”
Deep down, we all love to play. Be it sports, toys, board and video games, etc., it is where we dream, live, merge with society and find friends. It is important for an adult’s feeling of happiness, reduced stress, and social interaction. For a baby, play is even more important. Babies learn about the world through play. It helps them develop skills that they will use as they grow and continue through life. Skills developed through play are problem-solving, creativity, movement, spatial recognition, logic and the willingness to take risks.
Congratulations, happy parents! You have just welcomed a new little human into the world (and aren’t they cute?) No doubt, you will want to give your child the best start they can possibly have in this uncertain world. Let’s face it, it’s a scary place out there. As this pandemic has shown us, the first step in the right direction is to allow your child to grow up healthy, so protection from disease is crucial and your baby’s first line of defense is the vaccine.
In 1776, Edward Jenner, an English physician, made the biggest breakthrough in the fight against infectious disease when he created the smallpox vaccine. Smallpox can be traced back to Egyptian mummies who died 3,000 years ago. A scourge upon the world, it killed an average of 400,000 Europeans per year in the 18th century. The Americas were equally ravaged, with Benjamin Franklin also losing a son to the disease. After Jenner’s research, man had a new way to fight back and by 1979, just over 200 years after Jenner’s discovery, smallpox was eradicated. Through the years, science would go on to create more vaccines for diseases such as anthrax, rabies, cholera, typhoid, yellow fever, pertussis, measles, mumps, rubella and others. In 1955, Jonas Salk created the polio vaccine and eliminated the disease in the United States by 1996.
As the pandemic rages on, new outcomes of COVID-19 continue to be uncovered. The complications of the virus and our methods of combating it are negatively affecting not only our physical health, but our mental health, as well.
