Let's Catch Up! May '26

QUEEN OF PARKS & REC VOLUNTEERS

April is a busy month for Des Moines Parks and Recreation staff: Open park restrooms and water bubblers for the new year; hire seasonal staff for cemeteries, parks, and pools; and prepare athletic fields for baseball, softball, and soccer games.

And it’s all hands on deck to organize more than 1,000 volunteers for the mid-April Trash Bash to clean up at 100 locations around the metro, including 55 in Des Moines. Since 2008, volunteers have picked up over 657,000 pounds of litter and debris.

Trash Bash is just one event in Parks and Rec’s packed 12-month activities calendar. At the center of all volunteer efforts is Callie Le’au Courtright, supervisor of volunteer engagement.

Volunteer professionals recognize Callie’s top-drawer quality. The Association of Leaders in Volunteer Engagement (AL!VE) presented Callie with a 2025 national Exemplary Leader Award for her leadership and lifelong dedication to connecting people with meaningful volunteer service. The recognition included a $500 continuing education award.

Callie, who has a Certification in Volunteer Administration and is a Certified Public Manager, joined the Parks and Rec staff in 2008. She now supervises three employees, who coordinate volunteer activities throughout the year and oversee three community gardens.

“Volunteers are an essential part of everything we do—from coaching youth sports, to cleaning cemetery grave markers, to picking up trash along our trails,” Parks and Recreation Director Ben Page told me. “And Callie sets a high standard for what a thriving volunteer program should look like.”

It’s a huge lift to organize an army of volunteers, many who show up year after year for their special events. In 2025, more than 4,200 volunteers logged 31,000-plus hours for Parks & Rec activities. Records show that during Callie’s 17 years of service, more than 56,000 unique volunteers have donated more than $12 million in service to our Parks & Rec system.

The number of social media posts, emails, and text messages needed to promote, communicate, and organize would frazzle most coordinators. For Callie, it’s steady as she goes, week after week.

Here are Callie’s top five suggestions to organize volunteers for a successful event:

1. “Engaging volunteers is first a total team effort. Work together to craft mission-driven experiences that complete priority work.”

2. “Communication is key internally with staff and with your volunteers. We like to make sure volunteers have everything they need in advance, so they can paint a mental picture of what their experience will be like from start to finish. This helps us be more inclusive and accessible, too.”

3. “Collaborations and partnerships with other businesses, nonprofits, and organizations create better volunteer experiences and help volunteers find opportunities that are win-win for both organization and volunteer.”

4. “Treat your volunteers with respect and kindness. Make sure your volunteers understand why the work they are doing is important, and that they and your staff feel included and appreciated.”

5. “Share your organization’s story and the incredible impact of your volunteers, through videos and photos, as much as you can.”

NEW LAOTIAN ROYALTY CROWNED

Savannah Khamvilay, left, newly crowned Nang Sangkhan (Miss Lao New Year), and Vanneda Sensoukat, last year’s Miss Lao New Year, led a procession April 18 on the grounds of the Wat Lao Buddhavath of Iowa temple on East Park Avenue. Over the next 12 months, Savannah and six other local Laotian young women will represent the daughters of the mythical King Kabinlaphom at community celebrations.

How does the Laotian community choose the Nang Sangkhan? Savannah, a Lincoln High School sophomore, drew the winning slip of paper from the Laotian Giving of Alms ceremonial bowl.

EYES IN DM SKIES

The Des Moines Police Department recently completed a 10-day trial of three drones to support public safety teams. During a demonstration at police headquarters, Councilwoman Linda Westergaard and I watched Scott Rupp, above, a civilian crime analyst and licensed drone pilot, launch a drone from the DMPD parking lot and put the 18x20-inch aircraft through its paces.

During the trial, a drone provided helpful intel to officers on 395 (81%) of the 488 missions flown. In more than half of the 911 trips, a drone arrived on the scene before an officer.

DMPD Major Ryan Doty, who invited Mayor Boesen and City Council members to Scott’s demonstration, believes five drones could adequately cover the entire City. Cedar Rapids, Dubuque, Waterloo, and Altoona are among Iowa cities leveraging drone technology. However, the Skydio-branded drones, which Skydio leases for $70,000 apiece annually, are not included in the current DMPD budget.

The drones, which typically fly about 40 minutes at 40 mph on rechargeable battery packs, were equipped with advanced capabilities that feed live footage to the dispatch center or an officer's cell phone. Usually operating at 200 feet, drones can drop to 100 feet when necessary. Scott and Ryan showed Linda and me some remarkable video:

• Four individuals had broken into the abandoned concrete grain elevators at Grand Avenue and East 21st Street. Infrared video located them on a rooftop. Officers escorted them out of the building and charged all with trespassing.

• After a female made a domestic abuse call, the male returned to her apartment, stole her vehicle, crashed into a fence, fled on foot, tossed the car keys, and tried to escape police through connecting parking lots. The drone camera captured the male’s activities, including the precise location of the car keys. Police surrounded the individual, who was charged with domestic assault.

• Based on two calls about confrontations with a downtown vagrant, a drone promptly located the individual, who was caught and arrested. Senior Police Officer Matt Dahlen, who often works on downtown foot patrols, gave high praise to the drone technology. “They can get to a location a lot faster than I can on foot,” Matt told me.

• A man called 911, saying he had pulled over his car near a South Side school and was going to shoot himself. A dispatched drone that quickly arrived at the scene provided clear intel that the male had a handgun. Officers blocked traffic but did not approach the male while a dispatcher calmly spoke to him about putting down the firearm she could see he had pointed at his head. Negotiators then convinced the man to put down the gun and exit the car. He was driven to a hospital for evaluation.

• A drone sent to a South Side house fire spotted a “hot spot” at the opposite end where firefighters were positioned. Firefighters quickly responded.

• Another drone precisely located a smoldering grass fire, which had been part of a controlled burn of parkland.

MILESTONE FOR BROADLAWNS’ CNA PROGRAM

May 2 was a milestone for Hao Chen, a 2018 Lincoln High School graduate and 2022 University of Iowa undergrad. On Saturday, Hao graduated from Rush Medical College in Chicago, becoming the first in his family to earn a college degree and the first to pursue a medical career. Hao also is Broadlawns Medical Center’s first Training and Education for a Career in Healthcare (TEACH) graduate to complete medical school.

Hao had only recently graduated from Lincoln when he enrolled in Broadlawns’ 10-week TEACH paid apprentice program, where he completed basic and advanced certified nursing assistant training. That fall, Hao began studies at the University of Iowa on a Lois Dale Bright Scholarship, the first among Lincoln grads to win the full-ride award, covering tuition, room and board, books, and personal expenses. While studying human physiology at Iowa, Hao worked weekends as a nursing assistant at an Iowa City hospital and assisted with delirium research.

“I really enjoyed high school biology and science in my sophomore and junior years," Hao told me. However, he added, he wasn’t too sure about how long the path was for a medical career.

“When I was a senior, a friend told me about the TEACH program,” Hao said. “I also enrolled in a Central Campus class called Career Opportunities in Health.

“TEACH was such a cool opportunity for me. It was better than shadowing! I got to get my hands wet. And honestly, I learned a lot.”

While an Iowa undergrad, Hao and a peer started the Community Health Outreach program, a two-year elective focused on raising awareness and understanding of the social aspects of healthcare. It’s now part of the university’s Carver College of Medicine.

“Health disparity is a major problem in the United States, and this organization allowed me to support the underserved population,” Hao said.

At Rush, Hao was president of the Asian Pacific American Medical Student Association (APAMSA) chapter and led the Chicago organization to its first APAMSA Community Service Chapter Award. This spring, Hao received the 2026 Rush Medical School’s Inclusive Excellence Award.

Hao’s next stop: a three-year internal medicine residency program at the University of California-San Diego Health/San Diego Hospital.

Three other Broadlawns CNA internship program graduates are pursuing medical school careers. Abdullahi Mohamed and Edwin Rojas, both Roosevelt grads, are enrolled in Iowa’s medical school, while Tae'Shaun Presswood, a Hoover grad, is in premed at Iowa. All three are also recipients of Lois Dale Bright scholarships. The need- and merit-based grants help ensure that selected outstanding Des Moines public schools seniors can complete college without debt. The sponsoring Bright Foundation awards 12–15 Lois Dale Bright Scholarships each year.

“Hao is a whole package deal,” Bright Foundation President Meredith Dohmen told me. “He is always willing to help younger students navigate the process.”

529 ACCOUNTS FLOURISH AT NORTH

Besides being May Day, Friday was a day of celebration at North High School. North is believed to be the nation’s only high school where every student who opens a 529 savings plan immediately receives a $200 contribution to the account. The high-energy celebration in the North auditorium overflowed with enthusiasm.

Through By Degrees Foundation, students at Findley Elementary School, Harding Middle School, and North High School are encouraged to open a 529 savings account as early as kindergarten.

By Degrees’ 529 savings accounts are free to students and require only a simple enrollment form. Students can use the funds for up to five years after high school graduation for any qualified postsecondary program.

Students with 529 accounts earn up to $200 each year when they meet academic milestones, such as improving reading scores in elementary grades or achieving a higher GPA at North.

Emily Westergaard, By Degrees CEO, told me that the nonprofit manages more than 1,000 student accounts. Students have an average of more than $1,000 in their accounts. “Students with just $500 in a 529 savings account,” Emily told me, “are significantly more likely to graduate from high school and complete some form of post-secondary education.”

KEEPING UP WITH A ZOOKEEPER

What do sea lions, snow leopards, penguins, otters, and lemurs have in common? They're all part of Kirstie Summers’ daily routine at Blank Park Zoo, where a wide range of animals makes every day distinctive.

A zookeeper and supervisor at the zoo on the South Side, Kirstie and her staff of six oversee a collection of carnivores (lions, snow leopards, and tigers) and pinnipeds (sea lions and harbor seals), plus gibbons, lemurs, penguins, and otters.

This is for certain: More than one of these is not like the others!

“How a lion thinks is so different from a penguin,” Kirstie told me while we chatted at a zoo picnic table. “Training is so different!”

“We train to eliminate the stress factor for our zoo animals,” said the Des Moines-area native, who studied animal ecology at Iowa State University, worked at a Sioux Falls zoo directly out of college, then at the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha before returning home. That training leads to less stressful veterinary exams and improves overall health monitoring.

For example, Zoey, Kirstie’s favorite sea lion, was blind when she arrived at Blank Park Zoo 14 years ago. Now she can see! No miracle—just shaped behavior, daily eyedrops, and lots of consistent training.

I watched as the eight-year Blank Park Zoo keeper commanded Zoey through a series of gates, followed by an “Eye!” command. Zoey sat calmly with her lovable mug pointed high, awaiting a drop in each eye. Zoey’s immediate reward: Two eyes, two fish!

Most days, Zoey earns around 10 pounds of fish—herring, capelin, or smelt. Yes, Zoey can balance a ball on her nose, but she earns most rewards for shaped behavior, sometimes called operant behavior. When Kirstie or another zookeeper asks Zoey to roll over, they can check for wounds or abrasions on her underside, and fore and hind flippers. For that exam, she’s rewarded with more fish, of course.

Kirstie said zookeepers are especially keen on well-behaved zoo residents for routine veterinary exams. “Down” prompts the big cats to lie beside a security fence. With “Tail,” each big cat flicks its tail beneath the fence, so keepers can collect blood samples and administer vaccines. Kirstie and her staff rotate daily routines, so their charges don’t await the same keeper every day. Apparently, animals have little appreciation for days off or vacations.

Here are three morsels Kirstie served up about her day:

1. With the big cats, keepers are alone at times. “But we always have a secure fence between the animals and us.”

2. People underestimate a penguin’s power. “I’ve been whacked by a flipper, and it hurts!”

3. Misha, Blank Park Zoo’s female Amur tiger, is very territorial. “But she’s scared of the simplest things! She’s so weird! She loves to shred phone books!”

Two expansions, part of Blank Park Zoo’s 60th anniversary celebration, will soon ramp up Kirstie’s and her staff’s routines. The $6.5 million Marjorie A. Foster Lion Conservation Center, planned to open this summer, triples the size of the lion habitat. The $12 million Ruan Foundation Wild Iowa exhibit is expected to open early in 2027.

INVEST DSM HOMES ON CLINTON AVE REPLACE FIRE

Two new Invest DSM homes, on Clinton Avenue in the Oak Park Neighborhood, went on the market in late April. Invest DSM Neighborhood Development Manager Christopher Civitate told me the 60-foot-wide corner lot had a fire-damaged home that couldn’t be saved, so the lot was divided to make room for two 1,624-square-foot homes, each listed at $365,000. The three-bedroom home on the right has a pending offer.

A third Invest DSM home, on 11th Street, with an extensive remodel, went on the market at the same time and received an offer (now finalized) before City Council members could tour.

UPTICK IN POLK COUNTY COVER CROPS

The Central Iowa Cover Crop Seeder program has seeded 7,621 Central Iowa acres with cover crops in 2025. In Polk County alone, John Swanson, the Polk County Public Works water resources supervisor, reported that 2,500 acres on 20 farming operations have incorporated cover crops, most commonly winter rye and oats.

The City of Des Moines, Des Moines Water Works, and the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship are partners in the program, which helped bring specialized seeding equipment to Central Iowa.

“To date, we have seeded about 34,000 acres on 108 distinct farming operations,” John said. He added they expect to hit the pilot program’s goal of seeding 40,000 acres by this fall.

Cover crops are the best conservation tool for improving water quality and reducing flood risk, Public Works Director Jonathan Gano told me. “The City of Des Moines is eager to see a broader adoption,” said Jonathan, also president of the Iowa Environmental Council. “This is a low-cost way to help keep water and nutrients in the farm fields.”

Last year was the fifth year of a Polk County partnership with Heartland Co-op. Heartland promotes the program, operates a specialty Hagie seeder, and provides the seed (currently 14 cents per acre).

“This is a unique challenge to understand how to successfully integrate cover crops into farm operations and get successful growth,” John told me. “What I hear is it takes three to five years to see the on-farm benefits of cover crops.”

That is where this Hagie equipment has shone, John said, getting better results than drilling seed or airplane seeding.

John provided this link to a terrific YouTube video that explains the partnership and the benefits of cover crops for improving soil health and downstream water quality while mitigating floods.

Jonathan told me cover crops are used on anywhere from 1 million to 4 million of Iowa’s 28 million acres of agricultural land, so there is still quite a way to go for further adoption.

“Programs like the one we support with Heartland help get more cover crops planted upstream from Des Moines and Polk County, where it does the most good,” he said.

Is water quality on your mind? For a deeper dive on cover crops, check out this dashboard.