Jan. 13, the day after a 7.0-magnitude earthquake leveled Haiti’s capital city of Port-au-Prince, and collapsed everything from shacks to President Rene Preval’s gleaming white National Palace, the Caribbean chaos was felt strongly all the way in Dowagiac.

Dr. James Wierman of Dowagiac has done missionary work there for decades and he was scrambling to locate his network contacts.

His latest trip for 19 Dowagiac residents had been planned for March.

Beryle Silvernale happened to leave early, hours before the earthquake struck, and made it home safely with some of the last photos of the palace intact. The guest house where she stayed was flattened. She and her son, Dr. Troy Silvernale, joined a Grand Rapids medical rescue team.

Hilda Alcindor is known to many Dowagiac citizens because Southwestern Michigan College in May 2009 hosted a fundraising reception for the dean’s nursing school the day before she was SMC’s 42nd graduation speaker. She and the school survived, although a student died away from campus, reported SMC Board of Trustees Chairman Dr. Fred L. Mathews, who visited Haiti in December 2007.

Feb. 6, during Dowagiac’s ice festival, Dr. Wierman phoned Mathews to set in motion a four-day “hail Mary pass” that rescued eight injured children from Haiti.

They and new state Rep. Al Pscholka recounted the mission for Dowagiac Rotary Club Feb. 25 for a program chaired by school board member Mark Dobberstein.

Bishop Paul J. Bradley offers Mass Jan. 17 for quake victims.

JANUARY

Harold “Bud” Steinman was presented a plaque Jan. 5 by Walters-Dimmick Petroleum of Marshall recognizing his status as a Shell dealer for 55 years.

A firefighting family farewell filled Yazel and Clark Chapel Jan. 7 as Donald M. Coy Sr.’s colleagues saluted his 33-year career as a Dowagiac firefighter. Lt. Coy, 67, died on New Year’s Day.

Mark Barnes conducted a last-bell ceremony for Mr. Coy, who had also been a Cass County Parks Board member and Boy Scout commissioner.

Police closed Hill Street to accommodate a large American flag fluttering from atop a ladder truck.

Former Milton Township clerk Robert Ziliak, R-Niles, was elected chairman of the Cass County Board of Commissioners in a 9-6 vote Jan. 7.

The board embarked on a search for 20-year County Administrator Terry L. Proctor’s successor.

Sarah Ross, a 1992 Union High School graduate who founded 3 Mariposas (“three butterflies”) Montessori on the Dominican Republic’s north shore visits Dowagiac.

Dowagiac chiropractor Dr. Tim Dowsett Jan. 9 opens Delaware Street Grill, Bakery and Coffee Co. at 107 W. Delaware St. in Decatur.

Mayor Donald D. Lyons Jan. 11 appoints City Manager Kevin Anderson, First Ward Councilwoman Lori Hunt and citizen James Benedix to represent Dowagiac’s interests on the new Russom Park Committee with Silver Creek Township.

Southwestern Michigan College’s McKenzie Hall opens to the media for a State of the College tour Jan. 12.

Half a million dollars redirected from closing some low-enrollment programs such as aircraft maintenance let the auto technology program grow with a Kairis Building makeover.

The decision to construct student housing doubled favorable responses of high school juniors in SMC student surveys.

For Dr. Martin Luther King’s 81st birthday Jan. 15, Dowagiac pastors march from City Hall to Second Baptist Church on a sunny Sunday afternoon to hear that the civil rights leader “intended for his dream to be remembered” from the Rev. Kevin D. Crosby of Conner-Mayo AME Church.

“He wanted African Americans to be granted their citizens’ rights, and for that to be remembered.”

Dowagiac Police Department won a traffic safety award for the sixth year in a row.

Pride Care Ambulance of Kalamazoo and Coloma Emergency Medical Service (CEMS), which serves the Dowagiac area, Jan. 18 announce a merger to become the largest ambulance provider in southwest Michigan.

Hope’s Door Thrift Store opens Jan. 13 at 132 S. Front St. staffed by Apostolic Lighthouse volunteers to fund a transitional home for women rebuilding shattered lives. Jerry Ostrowski’s storefront formerly housed Marci’s Variety until a fire upstairs.

Corrina Ottinger presents $100 Jan. 21 to Marilyn Dye at St. Vincent de Paul on W. Railroad Street.

Ottinger received the money from Modern Woodmen insurance company in recognition of her volunteerism to present to a non-profit.

She selected the Catholic thrift store where her aunt works in hopes of raising awareness about what it offers the community.

More than 42 percent of Cass County Drug Enforcement Team’s 2009 arrests went down in Dowagiac, the Board of Commissioners hears Jan. 21.

Pastor Michael Shinaberry and his wife, Cara, assumed responsibilities as associate pastor/family pastor at Volinia Baptist Church Jan. 31. He grew up in Jackson, Mich. Both graduated from Christian College in Pensacola, Fla., where they lived for the last eight years.

FEBRUARY

St. Joseph’s Pop Fashion moves to downtown Dowagiac, where it will be known as Iconik, after Jessica Sherman’s clothing line.

Jim Houser wins first place for carving a 440-pound block of ice into an elephant balancing on one foot at the 14th annual Ice Time Festival Feb. 6 in downtown Dowagiac.

His precarious pachyderm was not only people-pleasing enough to draw a crowd and to wrest first place from 2009 winner Mike Evans, but also to capture Carvers’ Choice. Houser, executive chef for Parkview Health hospital system in Fort Wayne, Ind., also won Carvers’ Choice in 2009 with a hornet.

Dowagiac Union Schools Superintendent Peg Stowers is retiring effective June 30 after 32 years with the district.

The former Patrick Hamilton Middle School principal moved up from assistant superintendent in 2006 when Larry Crandall retired after 36 years with Dowagiac.

SMC presents the musical “Guys and Dolls” Feb. 19-21.

Lillian Schoetzow retires from Borgess-Lee Memorial Hospital after 34 years.

Dowagiac’s Three Cheetahs on the Run arrive home Feb. 15 after being retrofitted with additional stainless steel and an improved mounting system.

“I can’t imagine anyone short of Bigfoot being able to budget them now,” sculptor Rosetta says from Colorado.

Dowagiac property tax revenues declined 10 percent with the 2010 levy, City Council heard from auditor Ken Berthiaume Feb. 22. That’s “sizable, probably a couple hundred thousand dollars.”

Cassopolis Public Schools Feb. 23 passes a $16 million proposal to renovate Sam Adams Elementary into a K-6 building, 553 yes to 390 no, with about 15 percent participation.

With a billboard and Web site, www.rangerprideproject.com, supporters sold the modified project, which failed twice previously, as “look what we can do without any new taxes.”

Cass County’s best spellers, determined Feb. 24 at SMC, are led by Andrew Shafer and dominated by Edwardsburg.

Federated Covenant Church in Dowagiac installs Jennifer and Robert Lowe, a husband-wife pastoral team, as co-pastors.

They met in seminary in Chicago.

Billie Jean Bailey retired. her first boss, Jim Pierson, and her eighth and last, eight-year Trackside owner Donna Colley, congratulate the waitress known for baking customers birthday cupcakes.

Bailey started at Trackside 34 1/2 years ago on Sept. 8, 1975, when it was P&J’s, Pat and Jim Pierson’s pizza place.

The 1962 graduate broke in at the Barrel while still a high school freshman.

Katie Haneberg is crowned from 13 Union High School seniors Feb. 28 to reign as the 71st Miss Dowagiac since 1930.

Her “Masquerade Ball” takes place at the middle school Performing Arts Center. First Runner-up Taylor Gross, Second Runner-up Alyse Pellow and Miss Congeniality Marissa Tidey compose Katie’s court.