Southeast Hospice Offers Annual Children’s Grief Camp Southeast Hospice C.O.O.L. Camp (Children Overcoming Outstanding Loss) will offer its annual one-day grief support camp to children ages 6-15 who have experienced a loss due to death of a friend or family member on Saturday, October 6 from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. The camp is free of charge for any child in the region and includes supplies, activities and lunch...

Nurse practitioners are nurses who have undergone advanced training and are able to diagnose and treat illnesses and injuries, order lab work and imaging tests, and write prescriptions. They can manage many health conditions, teach health promotion and help patients with disease prevention...

Healthcare is changing in our region, and EBO MD is one healthcare provider at the forefront of development. Tony Thompson and Josh Stephens are the founders of EBO MD, a Direct Primary Care clinic system that eliminates insurance companies and hospital chargemasters, with locations in Cape Girardeau and Jackson, Missouri...


Considering the stakes -- $50,000 in funding and mentorship -- happy hour is a breezy affair on the eve of Codefi's 1st50k startup competition. The seven teams of founders crowd around the business incubator's sixth-floor offices, chatting over pilsner glasses and peering out over downtown Cape Girardeau, sizing up the town they'll end up calling home for the foreseeable future, if they win. ...

I am not a music festival guy. But I have been to Sturgill Simpson, Judah and the Lion and Jack White and concerts in St. Louis this past year. I’ve been to stadiums and dive bars in Tokyo and Beijing. And I enjoy the occasional Tunes at the gazebo and the Southeast Missouri Orchestra at the River Campus’ Bedell. I am typically all about vinyl and first to buy tickets to “Hamilton” in St. Louis...

Principal, Richmond + Blanton in Sikeston, Missouri More than 17 months ago, I shifted my career and felt I needed a refresher and enlightenment on how to manage myself as an independent consultant. “On Managing Yourself” is a series of essays from leading business experts including the late Peter Drucker, Robert Kaplan and Clayton Christensen. ...

Delta is a site development and highway contractor specializing in asphalt paving and road construction materials. In addition to construction activities, Delta produces aggregates, asphalt paving mixtures, emulsions and other asphalt-related products. The firm operates throughout Northeast Arkansas, Southern Illinois and Southeast Missouri, with its corporate office located in Cape Girardeau...

What if, growing up, Bill Gates was viewed similarly to Michael Jordan? Or Steve Wozniak was as cool as Derek Jeter? What if STEM-related skills were as exciting and as cool as sports? What if we took the youth sports model and applied it to computer programming? No more what-ifs...

Twelve SoutheastHEALTH marketing projects received statewide recognition at the recent Show Me Excellence Awards held at Camden on the Lake in Osage Beach, Missouri. Southeast won first place for three marketing efforts, including Human Resources recruitment for nursing featuring SoutheastHEALTH nurses; the 2018 photo calendar featuring photographs taken by Southeast staff, physicians, board members and volunteers; and A Polar Express community event in Perryville, Missouri, featuring a special screening of film "The Polar Express" and a holiday food drive.. ...

Each summer, we make an appeal to you, our readers, to help us find local newsmakers. These are people not content to sit idly by when they see something that needs attention. They want to help, see progress and make a meaningful difference. For some, it’s central to their occupation. ...

The inaugural edition of B Magazine featured hospital CEOs Ken Bateman and Maryann Reese as "agents of change," more open to collaboration than their predecessors at SoutheastHEALTH and Saint Francis, respectively, while fully engaged in "healthy competition." The story reported on talks about "a jointly-owned new line of business, which would have a dramatic impact on an area of health care that the region sorely needs."...

Blame it on more efficient vehicles. Blame it on a fuel tax not indexed to inflation. Regardless, Missouri’s gas tax, which has not been raised since 1996, is short when it comes to funding roads and bridges. The Missouri General Assembly voted to increase the state fuel tax by 6 cents per gallon in 1992. The increase was phased in over several years with 17 cents per gallon the end point in 1996...

More than 67 percent of Missouri voters voted against Proposition A on August 7, so it's official: the bill colloquially known as Right to Work will be repealed. If it had been passed, Prop A would have made the paying of union dues optional. Currently, 28 U.S. states are right-to-work states; Missouri's "no" vote is the first overturning of a right to work measure since 2011...

Cape Girardeau has announced a new program to zealously enforce old and new city ordinances to increase revenue for future construction projects. Recently the city pursued charges against the carGO ride-sharing platform for delivering adult beverages without obtaining an alcohol license. Following a public outcry, the city council backed down. Since then, however, the city fathers have admitted they caved too readily...

When Dr. Chelsea Grigery, MD was in sixth grade at Sikeston Middle School, she entered the Southeast Missouri Regional Science Fair. Six years later as a senior in high school, her project about lyme disease that she completed as a mentee of Dr. Ed Masters, world-renowned lyme disease researcher, won third place at the International Science Fair in Phoenix, Arizona...

When Andrea Roseman began substitute teaching for a Sunday school class for people with special needs at Lynwood Baptist Church five and a half years ago, she never dreamed she would found Access Ministry, a ministry that provides community and Bible teaching to people with disabilities...

Farming in the bootheel of Missouri is big business. Think $1.2 billion annually. Heather Couch has played a large role in helping make this possible in Scott, New Madrid and Cape Girardeau counties since 2015, when she became the vice president and branch manager of Farm Credit of Southeast Missouri in Sikeston, Missouri. ...

Due to mismanagement issues, the Southeast Missouri Network Against Sexual Violence (SEMO-NASV) was on the brink of disintegration. Then, in 2016, Kendra Eads stepped in as the director. Eads secured new funding to get the program back on its feet, which allowed the organization to reinstate its counseling program. ...

Jeremy Ferguson says he and his wife Raelenna Ferguson began having a stirring in their hearts for people, service opportunities and community nearly a decade ago. Through overseas mission work, being foster parents and participating in other community endeavors, they began to notice racial, socioeconomic and geographic divides in their Cape Girardeau community. ...

When Tyler Cuba joined Cuba Financial Group, a comprehensive financial planning and wealth management firm, he says the industry was changing rapidly. Cuba realized being an early adopter of technology would help the firm stay relevant and expand.Now, nine years later, the business has nearly tripled, and its geographic reach has significantly expanded to serve clients in 15 states. ...

Thirty-two years ago, Bob Nations realized the gravity of the issues facing high school students. He wanted to do something to help guide students to make positive choices, but wasn’t sure how he could help. That was when a man from Sports World drove into Cape Girardeau needing directions. ...

Coalter Insurance Group has been located in the Old Town Cape District since it first opened its doors in 1985; Laura Coalter Parker has been working in the family business for the past 13 years and took over the business as president and partner after her father passed away six years ago. ...

There were more than 210 entries from all over the world for the 2018 New York Musical Festival, which is the largest musical festival in the world. From these entries, 11 were chosen to be produced at the Off-Broadway Acorn Theater on 42nd Street, July 9 through August 5...

Jessica Hill, executive director of Safe House for Women, says she has always wanted to help others through working in the nonprofit community. Her job at Safe House, she says, is to ensure the administration and finances behind the scenes run as smoothly as possible so her staff is set up for success when working in their client-centered organization...

The evidence was clear: for one, there was no physical evidence. For two, another man confessed to the murder and then committed suicide. For three, the two witnesses who had testified recanted. Yet Sikeston man David Robinson was held in jail for 18 years, for a crime he didn’t commit...

During college, LaKrisha Moore, founder of On Cue Performing Arts Studio in Cape Girardeau, created the business model behind the performing arts school she wanted to own someday. Then she put the project away in a box and forgot about it. Nearly a decade later, she found the plans her former self had made, and the timing to create the performing arts school was right. In 2015, she opened On Cue Performing Arts Studio in downtown Cape...

Four hundred. That’s the approximate number of children in foster care in Cape Girardeau, Perry and Bollinger counties. Sixty-nine. That’s the number of foster parents in these three counties. The deficit is large. Enter Crissy Mayberry, executive director of Hope for One More, a nonprofit foster care support agency in Cape Girardeau that was added to the services of Hope Children’s Home in 2014. The program’s mission is to find all children in foster care a home...

Dawn Dauer, chief banking officer at The Bank of Missouri, is all about partnerships. Willing to spend her SBA lending experience in the service of Old Town Cape, she has created a relationship beneficial to both parties, as well as to the community of Cape Girardeau...

When you need a solution to manage your cash flow easily and efficiently, let us help keep your day-to-day operations running smoothly. Montgomery Bank Cash Management Officers, Janet Jansen and Patty Harrell, provide insight on Cash Management services that save time and effort while increasing cash flow for business customers...

Finding common ground on community core values and confronting and solving difficult issues is what the Cape Chamber team is all about. From businesses to schools, churches to parents, charities to civic organizations, what do we hear frequently about job applicants? The soft stuff is the hard stuff. Regardless of industry, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to find employees with adequate soft skills — which in reality, are the essential skills for both work and life...

One of the most common challenges faced by businesses both in Southeast Missouri and across the country is the lack of soft skills. As a community, we are focused on doing something about it. The Work Ready Coalition with the Cape Chamber spearheaded the development of a strategy designed to create common language and improve the overall state of soft skills in Cape Girardeau. ...

When it comes to population health, the numbers are seldom kind to the people of Southeast Missouri. The rates of childhood poverty and low birthweight are higher there. So too are the rates of cancers, premature death, and a variety of other negative outcomes...

Robots race around a racetrack in the middle of a city complete with a pizza parlor whose slogan is “Gary’s Pizza — It’s pretty good.” A robot explores the moon, avoiding craters along the way. A robot successfully completes an obstacle course. A robot tells your fortune when you ask it any question...

There are 74.6 million people in the civilian labor force, and that number is growing at a steady clip. Statistics recently released by the United States Department of Labor show women make up 47 percent of the U.S. workforce. And listen to this: 70 percent of mothers with children under 18 participate in the labor force. ...

When you’re experiencing a life-threatening condition, such as chest pains, a head injury or severe bleeding, the Emergency Department at Saint Francis Medical Center is your best option for medical care. However, if your situation is non-life-threating, such as a sprained ankle or a sore throat, you could save time and money by going to your primary care physician or an urgent care center...

Rustic, vintage and shabby chic wedding décor is trending, and Rental Land in Cape Girardeau has these decorations and more to help you create the wedding of your dreams. “We rent everything for the wedding except the dress and tuxedo,” Amy Kasten Yates, Rental Land manager, says...

Whether it's rehabbing an existing building, building new buildings or providing housing options, with each new development there's an entrepreneur taking the lead. In this edition of B Magazine, Rex Rust, Co-president of Rust Communications, talked with local developers Scott Rhodes and Jason Coalter to get their insights on why they do what they do, what keeps them up at night and how municipalities play an important role in fostering development. ...

Southeast Missouri State University brings more than 9,000 students to Cape Girardeau from outside the county yearly. These students contribute revenue to the city; many of them need a house or apartment to call home for four years. The University requires students to live on-campus during their first two years of attending classes, unless the student is from within a 50-mile radius of campus and chooses to commute. ...

In Cape Girardeau, the Esquire Theater stands at the entry point to the town's historic downtown. It is a mess with deteriorating infrastructure. Water damage has destroyed much of the inside. For more than 30 years it's been vacant -- with the exception of an occasional church service -- and its building integrity has become worse each year. Nowadays, without major renovation, it would be unsafe for anything to take place inside. Until recently, the building's most likely fate: demolition...

For Robert Spurlock, cancer is personal: when he was 3 years old, he lost his father to a brain tumor. Because cancer has had a profound impact on Spurlock’s life, he uses his resources as co-founder of KRM to help the American Cancer Society market its annual gala event in Cape Girardeau...

Health care is changing in our region. There is a growing movement in America — practices everywhere are working to improve our health care system. We are one of those practices. We are EBO MD. Because our current, ever-changing health care system too often jeopardizes our ability to do what’s best for patients, we decided to simplify the process by cutting out the middlemen. ...

I’m one of the most private people you’ll meet. That’s why most people who know me don’t know I am a bit of a gearhead. Among the things I love most is the adventure of building something from nothing. I’ve had a wicked good time these last 18 months completely rebuilding my hotrod ‘66 Chevy truck. And she roars in high gear...

Have you found your dream house and now you’re ready to take the next step towards making it your home? Montgomery Bank, with locations in Cape Girardeau, Jackson, Sikeston and Miner,is a community bank that focuses on building relationships with their customers, and they want to help you attain your goals...

Seventy percent of general contractors in the U.S. have a hard time finding qualified craft workers, according to data from a 2017 workforce survey conducted by the Associated General Contractors of America. Robinson Construction, the fifth largest employer in Southeast Missouri according to Cape Girardeau Area MAGNET, with a total of 475 employees in 2017, says this is true not only in the U.S. but right here in Southeast Missouri...

Development is not for the faint of heart. Whether you’re investing in land, housing, commercial real estate or a historic rehabilitation project, development requires much research, financial intelligence and understanding of processes. Add in construction variables, and it would be enough to keep some people up at night. For others, it’s an exciting opportunity to cast a vision and see it through to completion...

In January 1908, the Himmelberger & Harrison (H & H) Building opened at 400 Broadway Street. It housed the headquarters of the Himmelberger & Harrison Lumber Company, as well as offices for the Little River Drainage District and the Southeast Missouri Trust Company. The first fireproof, modern office building in Cape Girardeau, it was what the January 15, 1908, issue of the Daily Republican noted as a building “only an artist could describe … with justice.”...

The Cape Chamber launched their new website, capeishome.com, on May 31, as part of their talent attraction campaign. Designed as a hub of information, this website will serve as a valuable tool for both human-resource professionals and individuals looking to relocate to the Cape Girardeau area...

Area development has been a key priority for the City of Jackson and the Jackson Area Chamber of Commerce. The local leadership of Jackson is contributing a concerted effort to improve local services and infrastructure to make the community even more attractive to potential businesses...

I've noticed Southeast Missouri has a major problem. When you look at various websites devoted to quirky tourist attractions, we're totally missing from the maps. RoadsideAmerica.com and AtlasObscura.com, for example, show a giant void surrounding Cape Girardeau...

Because marketing efforts are directed externally, they are not always readily apparent to local citizens. Through the Cape Chamber and Cape Girardeau Area MAGNET, we consistently strive to promote our region and work very closely with a variety of groups, including the Missouri Partnership — the group charged with promoting Missouri to the rest of the world — and the Missouri Department of Economic Development, to broaden our business base. ...

Availability of skilled workers trailed only highway accessibility and labor costs as the most important factors in locating a new business facility, according to Area Development Magazine. This is a major issue throughout the United States, and the Cape Girardeau area is no different. Talent attraction and retention are key pieces to any successful economic development effort...

Over the last ten years, I’ve witnessed the substantial opportunities young professionals have when they take time to consider and review a few financial planning issues early on. Although these five examples sound simple, the percentage of young professionals who don’t formalize a plan, that includes these considerations, far outweigh those who do...

On 6,500 acres of rented and family-owned land in Stoddard, Scott and New Madrid counties, Laura Hunter Collins and her brother, Will Hunter, carry on the legacy of their grandfather, W.P. ...

An online program that teaches coding languages like Java and Python to high school students in developing countries, in their native languages. This is what senior Southeast Missouri State University students and tech start-up team members Faizel Khan, Chandrashekhar Singh, Arham Chowdhury and Prathyush Viswaroopan have been working on developing over the past six months. ...

Harry Rediger retired as mayor of Cape Girardeau in April 2018 after serving two terms, eight years. Due to term limits, he could not run for re-election. Holding public office capped a long career of business success and community service. For 20 years, Rediger was manager of the JCPenney store at the Cape Girardeau mall, where he also became heavily involved in the community through civic and charitable leadership, top positions in economic development and church and hospital boards. ...

Southwest Airlines chief operating officer talks business at Codefi PHOTOS BY KASSI JACKSON Mike Van De Ven, Cape Girardeau native and chief operating officer for Southwest Airlines, is “Cape’s best-kept secret.” That’s how Glen Campbell, co-founder of LIDS, introduced Van De Ven on March 8 at Codefi’s Fireside Chat in downtown Cape Girardeau...

Semo Port added three new offices and a small conference room to the existing office building. Putz Construction of Jackson, Missouri, was awarded the contract. This will allow for staff expansion in the future and also provide another small meeting place if needed. Building addition was completed in December 2017...

Every surgery has its risk. So, every patient, before going under, has explained to them the risks particular to the surgery at hand. The patient, if they’re worried, tends to focus on dramatic complications, however unlikely. They tend not to focus as much on the boilerplate stuff like post-operative infections. After all, those are preventable...

CPU develops IT strategic plans from an angle of understanding each individual business’ unique needs. “The first step is understanding their business,” says Tom Albertson. “We take an inventory of their current environment, get the state of where things are and then prioritize.”...

Montgomery Bank needed a central place to gather and train employees from St. Louis to Sikeston, so this past year, they built the Montgomery Bank Conference and Training Center. The impressive facility, located at 526 West Main in Jackson, is a 17,000 square-foot center equipped with state-of-the-art facilities. ...

The handwritten financial plan Richard Cuba prepared for his family in 1982 hangs on an office wall inside Cuba Financial Group. While still an engineer at Procter and Gamble, the eight yellow pieces of paper detail the financial steps he committed himself to, to reach financial independence within 30 years. The frame hangs as a reminder: great things are possible with a plan in place...

Servant leadership. This was Navy SEAL Team 6 member Marcus Capone’s message to approximately 130 young professionals at the Cape Chamber’s first Emerge Young Professionals Summit in March. The day featured local business people’s insight into issues such as collaboration, networking initiating difficult conversations with bosses...

Social media has been buzzing lately about a study proclaiming that Cape Girardeau is the “most boring city in Missouri.” There’s no need for hand-wringing, though. The real news is that Cape is now large enough to qualify as a “city” under the methodology used by the study’s author, Business Insider. By including Cape Girardeau, Bollinger and Alexander counties, the “Cape Girardeau, MO-IL Metropolitan Statistical Area” can boast a population of 97,514...

Inside the 121,000 square-foot Cape Girardeau SportsPlex on a Sunday afternoon in April, it’s a whirl of color, energy and sound. Hundreds of girls are playing volleyball, many clad in neon jerseys, hair bows and knee pads. Their talent is impressive. ...

This is the Progress Edition of B Magazine, our annual look at what’s moving forward in our regional economy and the businesses that play a vital role. In addition to profiles of businesses doing important work in southeast Missouri, you’ll find stories about workplaces that inspire progress through their culture, environment and people...

Dr. Alberto Dávila will soon become a familiar face to the Cape Girardeau community, as he assumes his role as the new dean of the Donald L. Harrison College of Business at Southeast Missouri State University in June. A Brownsville, Texas, native, Dávila spent his teenage years in the metropolitan hub of Mexico City, the major industrial city of Monterrey, Mexico, and the smaller coastal city of Tampico, Mexico, after his family moved for his father’s job. ...

This isn’t Sikeston’s first rodeo — figuratively and literally. The Sikeston Jaycee’s Bootheel Rodeo recently announced its entertainment lineup for all four nights, August 8-11. The list of performers includes Chris Janson, Brett Young, Justin Moore and Travis Tritt. Add in four nights of rodeo action, and you have more than enough entertainment to enjoy on a hot summer long weekend...

EBO MD acquired Cape Urgent Care and Family Medicine located in Cape Girardeau in April, upon Dr. Byron Glenn’s retirement. New Madrid will soon have its steel mill back with new owner Magnitude 7 Metals, expecting to hire about 450 workers for the plant. The new aluminum smelter will be located at the site of the former Noranda Aluminum plant. The average salary for these jobs is expected to be about $64,000 annually. One line is expected to open in May and the second in November...

The Cape Chamber is dedicated to providing development opportunities for both business and professional growth. One of the ways we help grow our community in this way is through the Business Builders program. Business Builders is a multidimensional program available to Chamber members consisting of the following elements:...

Trying to understand the United States’ current managed health care system can be a bit like deciphering alphabet soup: DRG, EOB, HMO, PPO, HDHP, HSA.How did it get so complicated? Athena du Pre explains in her text “Communicating About Health” that in the early 1980s, the U.S. ...

Print publishes six times a year Each of the six print editions of B Magazine will have a theme. And so, it’s appropriate that the first edition with a new brand and mission be about agents of change. Consider the two major medical centers in Cape Girardeau. Both have relatively new CEOs with impressive backgrounds, a passion for this community and big dreams...

Back in my day, fake news was a perfectly cromulent art form. Dave Barry was our generation’s Shakespeare. The Onion, that bastion of journalistic truthiness, published such classics as “Clinton Deploys Vowels to Bosnia” and “Urban Planner Stuck In Traffic Of Own Design.”...

The comfort of home and the power of leading international specialty medical care sounds like an ideal combination. When SoutheastHEALTH began its collaboration with the Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery at Washington University School of Medicine in St. ...

Cape Girardeau residents Bret and Stacy Peters: rebar estimator and finance representative by day, furniture craftspeople and soap makers by night. All the time artists, husband and wife, and parents to their 15-year-old son. The duo are the founders of a natural body care line, Brickhouse Soap, and a furniture brand, DosVita Designs...

In this space of each B Magazine issue, Codefi and rustmedia team up to bring you a curation of the latest technological trends, business book reviews and news articles you should know about. Let us do the work of being cutting-edge while you sit back, do what you do and get smarter from enjoying the fruit of shared ventures. Because more good things get done when we work together...

You can’t hold it in your hand. It’s not backed by anything except mutual trust — or distrust. It doesn’t involve a third party expert advising about it. And yet, people are making — and losing — fortunes from it. Yep, we’re talking blockchain, cryptocurrencies, and Bitcoin...

In 1920s Germany, Andreas Stihl saw a need for a revolutionary portable chainsaw that would make the timber-harvesting industry more efficient. So, he created one. This invention would be the catalyst for what is today known as STIHL. Approximately 90 years later, Southeast Missouri native, Crader Distributing Company president and writer Stan Crader saw the need for the story of the STIHL company and its pioneers to be told. So, he wrote a book about it...

Healthcare is big business in Cape Girardeau. The two major hospitals, SoutheastHEALTH and Saint Francis Medical Center, represent the two largest employers in Cape Girardeau County by far. Combined, they employ almost four and a half times the number of employees as Procter & Gamble, the third largest employer. ...