The Christmas holiday was over, but Shawano County residents had one more gift to deliver. The gift was a communitywide gesture of compassion for a homeless woman who got stranded in Shawano this holiday season while a snowstorm was bearing down on her. One after another, residents dipped into their pockets and contributed enough money to buy the woman a bus ticket back to La Crosse, where she lives. Jasmine Kranz, who arrived safely in La Crosse

Another potential candidate has filed to run for a Shawano County Board seat, bringing to 11 the number of possible contested county races in the April election. Wesley Bucholz has filed a campaign registration statement to run against incumbent District 2 Supervisor Patrick Hoffman. The district includes Wards 3 and 4 in the city of Shawano. Neither has yet turned in nomination papers with the 20 signatures necessary to get on the ballot.

Several city projects and initiatives started in 2015 are still on the plate for Shawano officials going into the new year. One initially expected to have been wrapped up months ago is a decision on the fate of the former Shawano Medical Center. The city thought it had a deal with ThedaCare and a developer to turn the old hospital property into a medical residency training center, but that deal fell through in August. Since then, city and ThedaCa

Dozens of local residents braved below freezing temperatures to participate in the 16th annual Polar Bear Plunge on New Year’s Day at the Lighthouse Pub and Restaurant. More than 30 signed up to take the ice cold dip. “One year we had 80,” Lighthouse owner Jeff Stachowiak said. “That was the coldest year, when we had the most people.

With senior center Ania Smith back in the rotation Wednesday, the Menominee Indian High School girls basketball team could run its offense through her. Smith got 22 points, including 11 from the free-throw line, and senior guard Taylor Mahkimetas scored a game-high 24 points as the Eagles defeated Oconto, 72-61, in the championship game of the Gresham Holiday Tournament. “Our offense runs through Ania (Smith).

Aaron Rodgers realizes he might be held to a standard higher than the average NFL quarterback. Thirty touchdowns to just seven interceptions with more than 3,500 yards passing entering Week 17 might be a spectacular season for any other quarterback. That’s just average at best for Green Bay’s Rodgers, the two-time NFL MVP. “Well, I should be, based on production. And I’m OK with that,” Rodgers said when asked about bigger expectations for him.

A 30-point loss on the next-to-last game of the regular season rarely inspires a great deal of confidence in your team’s chances of doing much in the postseason. Sometimes a loss like that is enough to make you want your team to miss the postseason altogether and avoid the nationally televised embarrassment. The Green Bay Packers have already qualified for the playoffs, though, so there’s no slipping out the back door on this one.

Henrietta Maybelle (Goldacker) Anderson, 90, of Embarrass, passed away Tuesday, Dec. 29, 2015, at the Pine Manor Health Care Center in Embarrass. Henrietta was born on Dec. 24, 1925, in Toledo, Ohio, as the daughter of the late Max and Maybelle (Spencer) Goldacker and married Richard A. Anderson Sr. in Wittenberg on March 29, 1946.

Shawano Police Department Dec.