On the Street

• Sheryl Bakewell, broker associate with RE/MAX Lakes Area Realty, was recently honored at a luncheon held at the Calhoun Beach Club in Minneapolis. She was presented with the RE/MAX Lifetime Achievement Award.

This honors highly successful agents who couldn’t achieve this award without being fully committed to their career.

Bakewell has been working in the real estate industry for 31 years, of which 20 were with the RE/MAX system. RE/MAX has nearly 100,000 agents in more than 80 countries.

• Irene Pronek is a recipient of Knute Nelson’s (KN) Tree of Excellence award. This award is the highest level of recognition through the KN Employee Recognition Program. Pronek has been employed at KN for more than 21 years as a dietary aide. Pronek was nominated by her peers who had this to say about her: “She is always willing to help others out and helps without being asked… She is friendly and respectful to everyone… She welcomes new staff and thoroughly explains procedures… She cares deeply for the residents and treats them like family… She has over 20 years of experience and it is reflected in her quality of work… she will be greatly missed when she soon retires.”

• Cindy Karasch, owner of Alternative Senior Care, reports that Debra Cuff, Cindy Tvrdik and Lyn Arvidson have successfully completed the Senior’s Choice Certified Companion Aide (CAA) program.

These women serve as companion caregivers in the Alexandria area and are part of a large team of part-time caregivers providing non-medical services to 160 seniors in a five county area of central Minnesota.

“Alternative Senior Care is committed to providing our clients with the most professional caregivers in the industry,” said Karasch. “As a member of the Senior’s Choice, we’re able to offer each one of our employee access to the most current and comprehensive training for certification.”

The CCA program was designed specifically for companion caregivers and is a compilation of the best standards and practices available in companion care. In order to become certified, an individual must complete and demonstrate competency in 19 essential care subject modules including: professionalism, understanding aging, safe and comfortable transfers, chronic medical conditions, infection control, maintaining safe and healthy home environments, nutritional needs, meal planning and preparation, and other topics.

For more contact Karasch at (320) 763-7627 or 1-866-352-3350 or visit the website at www.alternativeseniorcare.net.

• Brad VanderTuin was recently promoted at Aagard in Alexandria from a product development engineer to engineering manager.

VanderTuin started at Aagard in 2004 as a mechanical design engineer. He worked as mechanical design engineer, project manager, product manager, and applications engineer. He will be responsible for managing mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, machine controls, machine standards, and will continue to act as a project technical lead and a member of the applications development team.

• Glenn Downing has joined Aagard in Alexandria as a service account manager. Downing has a strong manufacturing background, having served in multiple leadership roles for Banta Publications Group, RR Donnelley, and most recently with Illinois Tool Works.

Downing’s responsibilities are to act as a customer liaison. The focus of this position is to lead continuous improvement projects with the goal of zero unplanned downtime with all Aagard equipment.

• Holiday Stationstores, a Midwest-based convenience store/gas station chain, reports that Jane Pagel, store manager of the Alexandria Holiday Stationstore, will be inducted into the organization’s 2010 Pinnacle Club. The induction ceremony and celebratory events involving the inductees will take place April 20-21 in Minneapolis. The celebration includes a formal luncheon, an evening of theater and fine dining, and other special activities.

The Pinnacle Club is reserved for those elite store managers and district managers of Holiday Stationstores who, along with the assistance of their store team members, have consistently exceptional results in the areas of sales growth, expense control, age restricted sales, compliance and overall business efficiency.

Senior management will honor each of the members by presenting them with a plaque of achievement, a Pinnacle Club logo jacket and a company gift to commemorate the event.

• Patrick D. Boline recently joined Life Quest Chiropractic and Rehabilitation in Alexandria.

He is available to see patients on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday by appointment.

An open house to welcome Boline will take place at Life Quest, 510 22nd Avenue East, Suite 701, on Thursday, April 14 from 4 to 6 p.m. Residents are invited to stop in for coffee and refreshments and meet the newest member of the Life Quest team.

Tags: business, street