Employees of Peoria-based Heart of America Red Cross Blood Services Region will hold an informational picket beginning at 5:30 p.m. today (Thursday, May 26) to protest Red Cross’s failure to bargain in good faith for a first-ever union contract.

These workers voted overwhelmingly nearly four years ago to form their union with the American Federation of State, COunty and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Council 31.

Red Cross used legal maneuvers to delay counting the votes from that union election until September 2010 — and even then refused to bargain with the union until February of 2011.

The National Labor Relations Board has issued several charges against Red Cross for failure to bargain in good faith with the union.

WHO: Members of AFSCME Council 31 employed by Heart of America Red Cross Blood Services
WHAT: Informational picket for respect and a fair contract
WHEN: Today, Thursday, May 26, 5:30pm
WHERE: Red Cross, 405 W. John Gwynn Jr. Ave., Peoria

The 8th annual Whitney’s Walk Spaghetti Supper will be held on Monday, June 6 from 4:00 – 7:00 p.m. at the Brimfield Grade School Cafeteria located at 200 Clinton Street in Brimfield. The event raises funds to support the Mental Health Association of Illinois Valley and its programs which promote depression awareness and suicide prevention.

The cost for an all-you-can-eat spaghetti dinner is $8 for adults and $4 for children aged 3 to 10. Children under 2 years can eat for free. Delicious desserts are available for a donation. Carry-outs are available.

For more information call (309) 692-1766 Ext. 216 or check out www.whitneyswalkcom.

Lawmaker joins with Arthritis Foundation to hold event

State Rep. Jehan Gordon (D-Peoria) is joining with the Arthritis Foundation of Greater Illinois to host a forum on understanding specialty tier medications on Tuesday, June 7 at 9:30 a.m. at the RiverPlex Recreation and Wellness Center, located at 600 NE Water St. in Peoria.

“Specialty tier medications place a significant financial burden on people with chronic illnesses, which result in some patients having to stop taking their prescribed medication because they simply cannot afford it,” said Gordon. “It is absolutely unacceptable that we have categories of drugs that seem to be virtually unregulated when it comes to the cost passed on to consumers.”

Medications are usually divided into tiers that determine the amount of co-pay an individual pays for prescription drugs. Tiers are often labeled “generic,” “preferred,” and “non-preferred,” and each tier has a set amount that an individual is required to pay for the medication. For example, medication co-pays are often $10 for generic, $30 for preferred and $60 for non-preferred. In response to the increasing costs of specialty drugs for chronic diseases, many health plans have instituted a fourth tier, called “specialty tier” that requires individuals to pay a percentage of the cost of the most expensive medications as opposed to a fixed amount, often costing hundreds of dollars per prescription.

Specialty drugs are usually prescribed for patients with serious chronic diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions like Crohn’s disease, lupus, multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, and hemophilia. Transplant patients are also charged specialty tier prices. Dr. Dennis McManus of OSF St. Francis Medical Center will lead a short presentation and then a panel of experts will take questions from patients and those in attendance.

“There should not have to be a choice between medication and the other necessities in life,” said Gordon. “This forum will help to raise awareness over a very serious issue that individuals are facing, and I urge all constituents, particularly the thousands that are fighting chronic illnesses, to stop by our free event.”

For more information on the Specialty Tier forum, please contact Gordon’s constituent service’s office at (309) 681-1992.

It is with great sadness OSF Saint Francis Medical Center shares the news that Sister M. Canisia Gerlach, 96, died at 5:45 a.m., Thursday, May 26, 2011 at OSF Saint Francis.

Sister Canisia was born August 29, 1914 in Sindersfeld-Kirchhain, Germany. She entered the convent at Bad Pyrmont, Germany on February 23, 1935 and made her Perpetual Profession of Vows in 1943. She received her Registered Nurse’s Diploma at St. Francis School of Nursing in Peoria; C.R.N.A. at St. Francis School of Anesthesia; Bachelor of Science Degree in Nursing at Creighton University; and Master’s Degree in Healthcare Administration at St. Louis University.

In 1960, Sister Canisia was named Administrator of OSF Saint Francis Medical Center, a position she served in for 38 years until her retirement in September 1998. During her time as Administrator, Sister oversaw the completion of two major building projects including the Gerlach Building. The $40 million critical care addition opened in August 1986 and was named in her honor.

During her time as Administrator, Sister visited patients almost daily to ensure the care they received met her high standards. “I don’t believe that you can administer a hospital just from your office or desk,” Sister Canisia said in 1986. “You must be visible and see that the care you insist be given is also carried out in a very professional, caring way.”

Sister was beloved by not only the staff at OSF Saint Francis but throughout the Peoria area as well.

Visitation for Sister Canisia will be 2:00 – 8:00 p.m. Monday, May 30, and 9:00 -10:00 a.m. Tuesday, May 31, 2011 at the Motherhouse, 1175 N. St. Francis Lane, East Peoria. The Funeral Service will be 10:00 a.m. May 31 at the Motherhouse. Burial will be in the Mater Dolorosa Cemetery at the Motherhouse. A memorial mass will also be celebrated Friday, June 3, 2011 at 10:00 a.m. in the OSF Saint Francis Medical Center Chapel.

Memorial donations in Sister Canisia’s name may be made to the OSF Foundation, 530 NE Glen Oak, Peoria, IL 61637. Please specify if the donation is for OSF Saint Francis Medical Center, Children’s Hospital of Illinois or the Sister Canisia Nursing Scholarship Fund.

DATE CHANGED For the 2nd Annual Taste of Morton. Due to the forecasted weather for Thursday, the Taste will now be held on Friday, May 27th from 4:00 – 8:00 p.M. at the Field Shopping Center in Morton.

Now in its ninth season, the Peoria Bach Festival has grown from one concert and two church services in 2003 to an entire week of events. The Peoria Bach Festival 2011 will be held from June 3-12 at Trinity. Featured instrumental works will include the Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D Major (which includes the famous “Air on the G String”); Brandenburg Concerto No. 3; and Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 featuring Kathryn Reed-Maxfield, harpsichord. Featured choral works include the Easter Oratorio and the motet “Jesus, Priceless Treasure.” The Easter Oratorio will conclude this year’s festival and was chosen to complete the story that began last year with the performance of the St. Matthew Passion. As always, there will be entertaining and delightful noon concerts and several lectures so that we can probe Bach’s music and theology on a deeper level. For more information, please call (309) 676-4609 or visit www.peoriabachfestival.org.

The following Red Cross volunteers are heading to Joplin tomorrow, May 26th.

· Buzz Cunningham of Metamora is heading to Joplin to work in Disaster Public Affairs.

· Leah Laxton of East Peoria is heading to Joplin to work as a Client Casework supervisor. Leah has been very busy this spring. She deployed to Texas for the wildfire response in April and then transferred directly from Texas to Alabama for the tornado response.

· Karen Huber of Peoria is heading to Joplin to work in Client Casework. Karen has also been quite busy this spring. She deployed to Mississippi for tornado relief in late April.

Buzz, Leah and Karen will join one other local volunteer:

· Milo Streitmatter of Toulon who is in Joplin, MO. Milo is working as a Logistics chief.

Amendment offers families with children choice when both being deployed at the same time

Congressman Aaron Schock (R-IL) successfully introduced an amendment during debate on the National Defense Authorization Act of Fiscal Year 2012 that passed the House today.

Schock’s amendment allows a service member with a minor dependent – a child under the age of 19 – to request a deferment of deployment to a combat zone if their spouse is currently deployed to a combat zone.

“We ask an extraordinary amount from our all volunteer military, especially over the last decade during our country’s involvement in multiple simultaneous conflicts, so I think in return the least we can do is give dual-military families an option available to them if both spouses are deployed during the same time period,” said Schock.

Based on 2009 statistics, there are approximately 93,130 active duty military personnel who are married to other active duty military personnel, also known as dual-military families. This makes up 6.6% of the active duty force. Of those, 39,647 have minor dependents, or about 2.8% of the active duty force. In 2006 alone, there were approximately 500 families with a minor dependent that had both dual marriage members deployed at the same time for more than six consecutive months.

The Schock amendment would grant a service member a deferment of current deployment until such a date as to when both parents would not be subjected to dueling deployments in combat zones.

Congressman Schock was encouraged to offer the amendment after the family of United States Army Specialists Ron Gebur, who was killed in Iraq in 2006, reached out to him. Army Specialists Gebur had been deployed with his unit since the previous year. At the time of his death, his wife Bethany had received her orders to deploy to Iraq. Her deployment orders would have required her to leave well before her husband was scheduled to return home, leaving their 9 month old son, Gage, without either parent to care for him.

Army Specialists Ron Gebur was highly decorated for his service in the Army receiving the Bronze Star Medal, the Purple Heart Medal, the Good Conduct Medal, National Defense Service Medal, the Iraq Campaign Medal, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal and the Combat Infantryman Badge.

During debate on the amendment, Schock spoke out in support of his amendment, “Today, I’m offering an amendment that would give dual-military families with children some flexibility, knowing that they have an option to defer concurrent deployment into a war zone,” said Schock. “We need to ensure that these families don’t have to choose between serving their family, and serving their country.”

The National Defense Authorization Act is expected to pass the House later this week on Thursday.

The Boy Scouts of America, W. D. Boyce Council will honor Beth Mangold at the 2011 Ottawa Lawn Social. The event, hosted at the home of Jerry Halterman, will take place on Friday, June 10, 2011. The celebration is chaired by Larry and Bonnie McGrogan, the 2010 recipients of the Good Scout Award. The McGrogans and the W. D. Boyce Council will honor Beth Mangold for her years of service and giving back to the community. Beth has been involved in numerous youth development programs including as a Scout leader for the Ottawa Friendship Adventure Scouts. She has also served as the executive Director of the Ottawa Friendship House.

The Ottawa Lawn Social begins at 6:00 p.m. on June 10th with individual tickets starting at $100. Eagle Sponsorships are also available for $5,000 and includes ten couples tickets, listing in the event program, and recognition at the event and in all other related media. To purchase tickets, contact Josh Reck at (815) 431-0118 or via e-mail at josh.reck@scouting.org.

The event will benefit Scouting in and around the Ottawa area. These include: camperships, training, program supplies, insurance, camping facilities, local unit support, communication, day camp and summer camp.

Offers Legislation to Preserve Neighborhood Pharmacies Access to Diabetes Supplies

Congressman Aaron Schock (R-IL) has introduced legislation known as the Medicare Access to Diabetes Supplies Act, H.R. 1936, aimed at preserving the ability of the nation’s seniors to continue receiving their diabetic testing supplies from their neighborhood pharmacist. As the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) prepares to implement the second round of the competitive bidding program, Schock stresses that it’s imperative for Congress to exclude these local pharmacies in order to prevent a reduction in diabetes testing supplies, higher prices, and the possibility of reduced essential services that seniors currently rely on. His legislation would permanently exempt these testing supplies furnished by small community pharmacies from CMS’s competitive bidding program.

“Without help 97 percent of local pharmacies would be impacted by this change,” said Schock. “This comes down to ensuring that the decisions made in Washington don’t adversely affect neighborhood pharmacies and the seniors who rely on them on a regular basis for many of their health care needs.”

While Schock’s legislation exempts small pharmacies, defined as those with 10 or fewer stores, from future rounds of the competitive bidding program, these pharmacies would still be subject to the Medicare Part B fee schedule for durable medical equipment, so no pharmacy will be able to arbitrarily raise prices. The bill would also exempt retail pharmacies that provide home delivery of such supplies as diabetic testing supplies to their patients who are unable to leave their home due to health reasons.

Under the Medicare Modernization Act, the Health and Human Services Secretary, was required to begin a program of competitive bidding. However, because of concerns, the program was not fully implemented and in fact only lasted a couple of weeks. Included among the many reasons for delaying the program was that there were suppliers without an actual location in or near the bid area who thus would be unable to provide their equipment and services to Medicare patients, the providers were unlicensed which is a violation of state standards, and some of the bidders included companies who had no experience in providing the items they were bidding on.

“I have heard from many local and independent community pharmacists in my district, as well as seniors who are worried, and they have expressed their concern that what in theory might seem to be good for business will in fact do more harm than good,” said Schock. “I support the purpose of the competitive bidding program, but after learning more I believe that we need to take action so that this problem is stopped before it continues and no financial blow is felt by seniors.”