THURSDAY, APRIL 6, 2017 THREE SECTIONS PHONE 834-1151 hcherald@gmail.com LEXINGTON, MISSISSIPPI 39095 VOLUME 59 - NUMBER 14

“Unto the upright there arises light in the darkness.” Psalm 112:4

Holmes County 7-Day Forecast for April 6 - 12 as reported on THE WEATHER CHANNEL

SundaySunny80/54

Precip. Chance10%

MondayPartly Cloudy

81/60Precip. Chance

10%

TuesdayShowers75/58

Precip. Chance60%

WednesdayCloudy76/57

Precip. Chance20%

ThursdayMostly Sunny

65/43Precip. Chance

0%

FridaySunny67/40

Precip. Chance10%

SaturdaySunny75/51

Precip. Chance10%

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HERALD BRIEF

HERALD BRIEF

REVIVAL

Central Holmes Trojan Parker Belk (pictured at bat) makes contact with the ball during the match-up against Winona Christian School on March 23 at Winona. The Trojans lost to the Stars 9-8 but advance to play Tri-County away on Friday, April 7 at 6 p.m.

(Photo by Amy Lindsay)

The Durant Public Library an-nounced this week the line-up of events set for National Library Week April 9-15.

• Friends of the Library will have a Quarterly book sale on Monday April 10.

• Shellie Zeiglar, MLC Talk-ing Book Services Director, “Materials Available for the Elderly and Blind” on Tuesday, April 11 at 2:00 p.m. Light re-freshments will be served.

• There will be a Children’s

Durant library set for National Library Week line-up

Story and Craft Time on Wednesday, April 12 at 10:00 a.m. The teens will have mis-cellaneous games and a book review with Mrs. Joyce of the Durant Library on Wednesday, April 12 at 3:00 p.m.

• Tara Howell, MS Home Economist, will have “Coupon-ing Tips” on Thursday, April 13 at 2:00 p.m.

Come by the Durant Library and register daily for the End of Week Door Prize.

County egg hunt set for this Saturday at library

The Holmes County Chamber of Commerce Easter Egg Hunt will begin this Saturday, April 8 at 1 p.m.

The hunt for eggs is geared to-ward children ages three to ten and will be held at the grounds of the Lexington Public Library.

This event is free and children should bring their own Easter baskets to hunt eggs. Parents are encouraged to bring their cameras for a fun and egg-citing day.

Ole Miss Chancellor toheadline chamber banquet

The Holmes County Chamber of Commerce will host Uni-versity of Mississippi Chan-cellor Jeffrey Vitter to give the keynote address at the annual awards banquet set for Thurs-day, April 13.

Goodman native and Gospel artist Brady Smart will provide entertainment for the evening.

The event takes place at 6 p.m. in the Carroll Cafeteria on the Goodman Campus of Hol-mes Community College.

Tickets are $20.00 and avail-able from chamber members Jim Thompson, Watt Ervin, Ma-ria Porter, Matthew Breazeale, Ann Brown, Verlinda Alexan-der, Robin McCrory, Melissa Griffin, Jonathan Moore and Powell Rucker or by calling the chamber office at 662-834-3372.

HERALD BRIEF

HUDSON M.B.C.Hudson M.B. Church in

West will hold revival services from Monday, April 10 through Wednesday, April 12 at 7:00 nightly. There will be a different speaker each night.

UMMC CommunicationsA healthy baby home sooner.That's the goal of a new part-

nership between Children’s of Mississippi and Sta-Home, a home health agency based in Jackson.

The dilemma, said Fran Malenzi, director of newborn services for the University of Mississippi Medical Center, was that some babies, those whose health and strength are growing, could go home from the neonatal intensive care unit if parents had the support of a home health nurse stopping in to check on progress.

Without that transitional sup-port, those babies would stay in the NICU, she said.

Children’s of Mississippi “built a program with Sta-Home from the ground up,” she said, “so we can care for these babies.”

Available in Hinds, Rankin, Madison, Simpson and Holmes counties, the program began in December. Carleigh Jae Course was among the first babies to be in the program.

She and twin brother Carter,

now 6 months old, were born at about 24 weeks, Carleigh Jae at 1 pound, 10 ounces, and Carter just one ounce heavier than his sister. Carter came home after a three-month stay at the NICU, but Carleigh Jae, still on oxy-gen, stayed four months.

Sta-Home’s Shelley Fowler, a registered nurse, began visit-ing Carleigh Jae every few days,

checking her length, weight, head circumference, feeding and oxygen saturation. The bright-eyed little girl is now weaned off oxygen and weighs 11 pounds 13.5 ounces.

Mom Brittney Course of Pearl said having a home health nurse check in as part of the new pro-gram is a help in transitioning to having Carleigh Jae home. “As

Home visits help babies transition from NICU

Brittney Course (pictured left) and Shelly Fowler hold Course’s twins, Carter and Carleigh Jae. (Photo by UMMC)

a mother, it puts my mind at ease knowing Shelley is stop-ping in.”

Fowler, who previously worked at UMMC’s NICU, said working with the Course family has been a joy. “Brittney and I have become friends,” she said, “and Carleigh is so sweet.”

The Course family’s experi-ence is one UMMC and Sta-Home would like to replicate.

As the program was being created, all involved worked to define criteria to identify babies who would qualify, the process for discharging those babies to home and home health visits and communication procedures in which Sta-Home nurses can reach Children’s of Mississippi staff quickly when needed.

“We’ve built a collabora-tion with Sta-Home,” said Dr. Mobolaji Famuyide, associate professor of neonatology and NICU medical director, “so we can care for babies in our NICU and subsequently transition them into the community in a safe and time-sensitive man-ner when they are medically ready.”

“We want this program to offer the best outcomes for families,” Malenzi said. “We're seeking a good hand-off be-tween our team and the Sta-Home team, and we want to involve the pediatrician in the community who is taking care of the baby back home.”

Peggy Stewart, Sta-Home’s

Jackson provider administrator, and Brittany Edwards, director of the project for Sta-Home, both say the partnership be-tween the home health agency and UMMC is running smooth-ly for all involved.

“We’re happy to be a partner with UMMC,” said Stewart, “in helping babies have the healthiest transition from hos-pital to home.”

Billy Needham, a nurse edu-cator at UMMC, said the nurs-ing visits can be eyes and ears for physicians. “Sta-Home nurses are an extension of us at UMMC and hopefully will catch any problems early to keep kids from coming back to the Emergency Department.”

Home health nurses are able to monitor babies’ feeding and weight gain, respiratory sta-tus and oxygen requirement as well as basic developmental progress, Famuyide said. “We want to ensure that the progres-sion of the baby’s status is in the right direction.”

Communication in the pro-gram is designed to be fast, Famuyide said, “so if help is needed from us at UMMC, there will be no delay.”

Another critical facet of the program is working with lo-cal pediatricians, she said, as they’ll be the primary provider for these children in the com-munity. “We have created a system to provide a good hand-off so they are well informed when they take over.”

HCC CommunicationsThe Holmes Community Col-

lege Goodman Campus will hold an Electrical Lineman Program information meeting for those interested in being a part of the fall 2017 cohort on Tuesday, April 18 at 5 p.m. in the Science and Mathematics Building Auditorium.

The meeting is mandatory for all potential students who are interested in applying to the 16-week training program.

Qualified electrical linemen are currently in demand, and this hands-on course is taught by instructors with valid experi-

Holmes CC set for lineman interest meetingence and specialized education in the field.

The course requires partici-pants to complete 608 clock hours of training to earn the electrical lineman certificate.

Those interested must have a high school diploma or GED certificate, be 18 years of age or older, and be prepared pass a drug test as well as a Depart-ment of Transportation (DOT) physical.

Students are also required to have a CDL Class A permit to enrolled into the program.

After completion of the pro-gram, each trainee will be able

to drive commercial vehicles re-quiring Class A license, and will have the necessary knowledge and physical training to suc-cessfully work in the electrical lineman field.

Program graduates will un-derstand all aspects of the elec-trical lineman safety manual, make connections of meter loops, transformers, and other equipment on de-energized poles, assist with the framing and installation of poles and ap-paratus on the ground, read and understand general information on the REA specification book, assist in the burying of cable

and other related work, differ-entiate between an energized and de-energized structure and

recognize appropriate hazards, make basic connections and disconnections, check voltage/

amperes, and operate vehicles and equipment (bucket trucks, digger derrick trucks, forklifts, etc.) safely.

For more information, con-tact Earline Russell-Smith, Workforce Coordinator, at (662)472.9105 or esmith@hol-mescc.edu.

School district Excellence Awards set for tonight

The Holmes County School District Excellence in Education Awards Banquet is Thursday (today) at 6 p.m. in the Holmes County Arts Building on the Square in Lexington.