Stories you might have missed from around Wisconsin.
Racine: Downtown Racine’s only brewery closes.
Another Wisconsin brewery has poured their last pint, if only for the time being. Racine’s Littleport Brewing Co. has closed — it hopes temporarily — as it plans to sell its building to pay off its investors. The brewery posted on Facebook that it was closing Jan. 9 since “a couple of our original investors decided they wanted their investments back in their entirety, forcing us to put our building up for sale to resolve the matter.” The brewery owners felt that Littleport was growing at a consistent pace, but that it was not quick enough to satisfy the investors. The owners are looking for a new site and are hoping to reopen the brewery in some form later in 2025. The Journal Sentinel quoted Littleport’s statement, “Littleport Brewing Company will survive and be reincarnated with a more focused effort at a new site. Stay tuned for more news. We haven’t been sunk, we are just in dry dock.” The brewery opened in April 2021 and was the only brewery in downtown Racine. Full Story
Fond du Lac: Parents affected by overdose help bring aid kits to 8 locations in Fond du Lac.
Tragedy can either crush a person or drive them to reach outside themselves for the greater good. Fond du Lac resident Sue Fischer’s son, Kevin, died in March 2020 of fentanyl poisoning. After his death, Fischer said two of her children, along with Kevin’s friends and former bandmates, held a fundraiser that raised $10,000. Fischer says the family is using the money to help prevent other parents from losing a child to the opioid crisis. That’s why she donated to an effort to install nine overdose aid kits at eight locations in Fond du Lac County. Fisher said she hopes having more resources available in the community will raise awareness around the dangers of fentanyl. Fischer told WPR “I have friends I went to high school with that have lost their children, plus other friends in town, from laced pills, from poisoning. When I grew up, we did drugs, but you didn’t have to worry about this. People don’t think it’s going to affect them.” The overdose aid kits, or OAKs, are being donated to organizations by local family members who lost loved ones to an opioid overdose. The kits contain overdose reversal drug Narcan, as well as fentanyl test strips that can detect fentanyl in other drugs. Full Story
Howard: Northeast Wisconsin’s first Safe Haven Baby Box to open in Howard.
Safe Haven Baby Boxes prevent illegal abandonment of newborns by raising awareness, offering a 24 hour hotline and implementing Safe Haven Baby Boxes as a last resort option for women who want to safely surrender their child with anonymity. The fourth Safe Haven Baby Box finds a home in northeast Wisconsin. A year ago, the Knights of Columbus at Saint John the Baptist Church in Howard learned about Safe Haven Baby Boxes. So, they got to work trying to bring one to the village. “It seemed like a no-brainer,” said Jerry Mader of the Knights of Columbus told NBC 26. Howard Fire’s newly installed baby box is one of the first in the state. “We all pray that anyone who finds out that they’re going to become a parent can be a good one,” Mader said. “But if they can’t, or they won’t, for whatever reason, there’s a child that still needs to be protected and taken care of.” According to the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families, anyone can leave an unharmed newborn fewer than three days old in one of these boxes without legal trouble. When the baby box is used, the outside door will lock after someone places a newborn inside the bassinet and closes it. Within two minutes, someone should be there to bring the baby to the hospital. Full Story
