stroy and photo by Bobby Anderson, staff Writer

Given the option, few people would turn down a good, home-cooked meal.
But sometimes circumstances just don’t make it possible.
That’s why Cynthia St. Peter decided to create Mealfull to give everyone – even those who can’t afford it – the opportunity to have comfort food.
“Even though I’ve turned 63 I have an entrepreneurial spirit,” the company founder said. “When I get bored I create something.”
After retiring from a 40-year music ministry career, St. Peter found she still had a passion to create.
“Food – it’s a win-win for everyone,” St. Peter said. “Feeding people is just a basic need. Whether they’re homeless and they can’t afford it we’re going to give it to them. If they’re shut-ins and can’t get out of the house we’ll get it to them.
“And if they’re millennials and they just wished something was on their porch when they got home it’s going to be there.”
Mealfull operates out of Earth Elements Kitchen in the historic Farmer’s Market District in Oklahoma City.
All food is locally-sourced, farm-to-table..
Breads are baked fresh at 4:30 a.m. by St. Peter’s chef, who then prepares that day’s offerings.
“My heart is in three special places,” she said when asked what the business looks like.
ON THE GO
With 15 years as a single parent, St. Peter knows first-hand there is a need for quality food for busy people.
“It would have been great if there was a food delivery service that actually cooked it, it was delicious and they brought it to you,” she laughed.
Busy people get up early and work late. There’s really no desire to shop then come home to cook.
All too often the drive-thru is the default first-choice for busy people.
“We stop at a fast-food place and pack on 40 pounds,” said St. Peter, who admitted even when she worked as a chef she would go through the drive-thru at the end of the day.
Today’s millennials encounter a job market like no other in history. St. Peter sees her own daughter’s embedded in the rat race, with little time to slow down between work and family.
Mealfull can have hot selections waiting for them on their front porch or can go inside and stow them away in the fridge.
STAYING IN
Another facet of the business is providing meals to seniors in their homes.
“They don’t feed themselves. They have the money but they make friends with the pizza guy so that’s what they order every night,” she said.
“Wonderful, comfort food” is how St. Peter describes her menu, which rotates weekly. And it’s not just a drop-off solution.
Another option Mealfull offers is going into a client’s home and cooking the meals on-site.
“I have a real passion for Meals on Wheels but it makes me sick they don’t have the time to visit,” she said. “It’s drop off and go.”
That allows for hot food and good company – something many seniors are starved for.
ZERO WASTE
At the end of the day, MealFull coordinates with local social workers. St. Peter prides herself on a zero waste policy.
“We deliver the food to the homeless at their under-the-bridge camp,” St. Peter. “We have so much waste in the food business. If we were a restaurant we would have to throw it away. But we’re not … so we can do whatever we want to do with our food at the end of the day.
“That’s a very exciting part of what we’re doing.”
For the past 10 years, families have hired St. Peter to go into their loved one’s homes to cook for them.
“Families would hire me because their parents wouldn’t eat,” she said. “They wouldn’t cook for themselves because they couldn’t. They wouldn’t eat because they would think they weren’t hungry – especially those with dementia.
“I would serve them and they would woof it down. It was just taking care of our brothers and sisters.”
St. Peter quickly became a part of the family, going into the home and serving not only as a provider of sustenance but a source of peace of mind for the children who worried about how their mother or father was doing living alone.
HOLIDAY DINNER
Mealfull is also offering the option of ordering an entire holiday dinner for as few as two to as many as 12. Feasts include slow-roasted turkey breast, sliced spiral ham and a cornucopia of sides and desserts.
Delivery is offered at no extra charge.
Orders are now being accepted through Nov. 17 or while supplies last.
Got to mealfull.com for more information or call 405-568-6684.

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Oklahoma (BCBSOK) and INTEGRIS have reached a new contract agreement. The timely agreement comes just days prior to the current contract’s expiration – good news for the thousands of BCBSOK members who depend on INTEGRIS facilities and doctors across Oklahoma.
“Reaching an agreement was always our goal,” said Bruce Lawrence, president and chief executive officer of INTEGRIS. “Both INTEGRIS and Blue Cross and Blue Shield want what is best for our patients – and that is to continue offering high-quality, convenient and affordable medical care and coverage to the people of Oklahoma.”
The two-year agreement means BCBSOK members can seek services at INTEGRIS facilities throughout the state, including: Oklahoma City, Edmond, Enid, Grove, Miami and Yukon. BCBSOK members in the Blue TraditionalSM, Blue Choice PPOSM, Blue Preferred PPOSM, BlueLincs HMOSM, Medicare AdvantageSM and Medicare Supplemental plan provider networks will receive in-network benefits at INTEGRIS facilities as well as with more than 600 INTEGRIS doctors. As part of the agreement, INTEGRIS hospitals and employed physicians will also participate in BCBSOK’s exchange product Blue Advantage. That effective date will be announced soon.
“We are pleased to reach a new agreement that allows our members to continue receiving care at INTEGRIS at in-network rates and benefit levels,” said Ted Haynes, president of BCBSOK. “We take very seriously our role as steward of our members’ health care coverage dollars. This agreement underscores our commitment to provide our members access to quality, cost-effective health care and ensures members are treated by in-network health care providers when going to an in-network facility. We look forward to continuing our long-term relationship with INTEGRIS.”
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Oklahoma and INTEGRIS thank the people in all the communities where INTEGRIS operates for their patience and support during this negotiation. BCBSOK and INTEGRIS worked diligently behind the scenes to resolve contractual issues and to prevent any lapse in coverage for BCBSOK members.

by Bobby Anderson, Staff Writer

Brad Whinery’s mother and father were pioneers in the Oklahoma funeral industry.
Sixty years later, Brad Whinery is still innovating how Oklahomans lay their loved ones to rest.
“What it’s provided us is an opportunity to help other people,” Whinery said of his family’s Oklahoma legacy. “We’ve always been a family that likes serving other people.”
Whinery firmly believes you should pay your last respects and not your life savings when a loved one passes.
He’s helped literally thousands of Oklahomans select a lasting and dignified cremation option that meets family needs and budgets.
And now Oklahoma’s first cremation-only garden is providing even more options for those laying their loved ones to rest.
REFLECTION POINTE
Whinery has helped honor and remember loved ones by integrating the beauty of nature with the beauty of the celebration of life at Reflection Pointe.
The first thing you’ll notice upon entering the grounds is the peaceful sound of water cascading over a granite wall. A waterfall is a magnificent feature that also serves as a permanent resting place. Your loved one’s ashes can be placed behind a black granite plaque on the backside of the waterfall.
The water pools into two reflection ponds surrounded by a garden with bistro-style seating. The waterfall offers several options for memorialization, including black granite plaques with room for an inscription or custom, engraved portrait. It is the only area where a bronze plate can be placed to give a person’s name with their birth and death date. The waterfall and garden area have limited availability.
Another area is known as the Ossuary.
Oklahoma artist Jay Hylton was commissioned to design the Ossuary at Reflection Pointe Gardens. The bronze and steel sculpture with the rotating ball reflects the perpetual connection to one another.
The Ossuary provides an elegant, affordable and permanent memorial option for cremated remains. Families place their loved one’s ashes into the Ossuary through the opening in the bronze ball. A family can add their loved one’s inscription to the surrounding granite cenotaph as a testament to their enduring legacy. The Ossuary and cenotaph also have limited availability.
Pet owners recognize they don’t just have an animal they have a family member.
Whinery recognizes that dogs and cats are much more than pets. They are important members of our families and deserve to mourned and be memorialized in a dignified way. The first of its kind in Oklahoma, Furever Friends is a special space where pets and pet lover’s remains can be buried separately or interred together. This special memorial garden is designed to represent the unique bond between pets and their owners.
The entire property is tranquil and uncluttered.
Built on an eight-acre wooded area, visitors can stroll through the park, reflect at the waterfall or sit on the grounds without walking around above-ground monuments like traditional cemeteries. As unique as the life you are remembering, Reflection Pointe also offers the options of scattering ashes in the meadow or placing them in the Ossuary or a niche inside the waterfall.
Reflection Pointe Gardens uses GPS technology and smart microchips to locate your loved ones’ site and access online memorials. Visitors simply download an app to their personal smartphone, or borrow a tablet from the office to self-navigate the gardens.
As you walk through the gardens you can view digital memorials of friends and loved ones that not only give more than important names and dates, but also a keen insight into the unique life presented.
Videos and photos bring a person’s memory back to the forefront of visitors.
“When someone visits a grave they’re not given a name and a date they’re given a life story,” Whinery said.
Last summer, Whinery invested in a 360-degree virtual property photo shoot. So far the feedback has been tremendous.
No matter where they live in the world, loved ones are able to virtually visit the final resting place any time they want.
And one of the best parts is services at Affordable Cremation and Reflection Pointe are often only a fraction of the cost of just a grave opening in the Oklahoma City metro.
That’s not including the traditional funeral-associated costs of buying a monument, a vault – not to mention a lot which easily boosts prices into the thousands of dollars.
It’s another milestone in the Whinery family’s commitment to helping loved ones pay their last respects and not their life savings.

Photography and Text by Terry “Travels with Terry” Zinn t4z@aol.com

Most people may only think of Mount Rushmore when they think about South Dakota. While it is not to be missed there are other attractions which need to be recognized.
The entire city of Deadwood is a national historic landmark. In Deadwood
you can ponder the truth at the foot of Wild Bill’s grave in Mount Moriah cemetery (along with Calamity Jane’s), tour Adams Museum and House, pan for gold at the Broken Boot Mine, choose from various guided tours, or take a self-guided walking tour into the past that puts the Wild West into perspective. You may even run into an incarnation of Wild Bill himself, either at the number 10 saloon or on horseback inspecting main street.
And there’s plenty of casinos for your gaming pleasure along with some fine eateries. One such is Kevin Costner’s Diamond Lil’s, where I had a pleasant Martini during sunset over main street. Costner’s memorabilia and costumes from his films are on display throughout the dining room, and if that was not enough finery, the top floor hosts a fine dining restaurant complete with piano and beveled glass décor.
Deadwood, South Dakota, is full of surprises such as Costner’s founded and funded Museum of the Tatanka (Buffalo) Museum right outside of town. Even with expert Lakota interpreters, displays of costumes worn in “Dances With Wolves”, and historic explanatory panels, the best part of Tatanka is the monumental 17 part sculpture of an Indian hunt near a buffalo jump. With wafts of movie theme music and the rustling of Dakota grass, this hill top venue is the pride of South Dakota, itself. Hats off and congratulations to Kevin Costner for giving back to America with the preservation and inspiration found at Tatanka: Story of the Bison interpretive Center and Sculpture. (For more information you may visit http://www.storyofthebison.com.
Up to 60 million Bison once roamed the Great Plains of North America. By the close of the 19th century, it was estimated that less than 1,000 bison survived.
This is their story… “I believe today that this place is bigger than the dream I had for it. What it means to anyone that comes here will be up to them. Tatanka was not designed as the white man’s version of the Native American. Rather it stands as a centerpiece for two cultures, one whose very lives depended on the buffalo and one who saw it as a means to an end. It recognizes and accepts that this is our mutual history. It can also represent the chance to move forward.” Kevin Costner, Attraction Founder/Owner
The badlands is another South Dakota wonder. (www.nps.gov/badl/index.htm) Roaming among the many outcroppings of natural time sculptured stone you are transported to another world. Containing the world’s richest Oligocene epoch fossil beds, dating 37-28 million years old, the evolutionary stories of mammals such as the horse and rhinoceros arise from the 244,000 acres of sharply eroded buttes, pinnacles, and spires.
Hill City calls itself the Heart of the Black Hills. The history of Hill city reaches back into Pennington County’s oldest archives. In 1876, it was the first settlement established in conjunction with the initial discovery of Black Hills gold in French Creek, 13 miles south of where Hill City sits today. Miners came from far and wide to prospect in and around this small mountain town, now referred to as “The Heart of the Hills.” Although the first settlement in the count, it was the second community to develop in the greater Black Hills area, springing up shortly after the town of Custer.
In addition to livening up the local scene in the dark of winter, Open Stage Concerts gives new talent and seasoned acts alike a supportive place to hone their craft. It also helps local promoters find and hire performers for summer shows and festivals. Local and regional singer/songwriters and poets are regulars, but storytellers, dancers, jugglers, and joke tellers are welcome too. The audience’s free-will donations help support their scholarship program and art education grants for local kids.
Open Stage concerts at the High Country Guest Ranch will be held February 9 and 23, and March 9 and 23, with doors open at 5:15 pm with the buffet starting at 5:30 pm.
Other Hill City attractions are the Museum at Black Hills Institute and the Black Hills Institute of geological Research and the South Dakota State Railroad Museum which might quench your curiosity.
While on your way to other South Dakota sights you may wish to explore Deadwood and Hill City.

Mr. Terry Zinn – Travel Editor
Past President: International Food Wine and Travel Writers Association
http://realtraveladventures.com/author/zinn

Photography and Text by Terry “Travels with Terry” Zinn  t4z@aol.com

Preceding the Red Earth Festival in Oklahoma City is the informative, entertaining and thought provoking Sovereignty Symposium. Being established in 1988 the Symposium is about to celebrate its thirtieth anniversary in the historic Skiving Hotel. For two days, June 7 and 8 the most prestigious speakers from the Judicial and Native American Leaders and artist gather to share their knowledge and expertise.
The mission statement of the Sovereignty Symposium states: “The Sovereignty Symposium was established to provide a forum in which ideas concerning common legal issues can be exchanged in a scholarly, non-adversarial environment. “
Oklahoma Supreme Court Justice Yvonne Kauger has coordinated the Sovereignty Symposium since its inception. About its formation Justice Kauger says, “We did it because John Doolin kept going to the National Association of Chief Justices and they have an Indian law committee, but he went three times and came back and said, “They’re never going to do anything. They talk about it, they say they’re going to
have a seminar, they say they’re going to do this. They haven’t done anything and they’re not going to do anything.” And they still haven’t.
So he said, “We’ll just do our own.”
“Governor Bellmon was very instrumental in helping us, and Ed Edmondson, and we did it. And now we’ve been doing it, and no one gets anything for doing this, they pay
their own way. We have the best legal scholars in the world and they pay their own way and they get a T-shirt for coming and our thanks.”
Of particular interest and creativity is: SIGNS, SYMBOLS AND SOUNDS, moderated by the talented, WINSTON SCAMBLER, Student of Native American Art, who has gathered for his seminar: FRITZ KIERSCH, Assistant Vice President, Point Park University, Pennsylvania; ERIC TIPPECONNIC, (Comanche), Historian, Artist, and Professor, California State University, Fullerton; JASON MURRAY, (Chickasaw), Independent Scholar & Professor, Formerly of the University of South Dakota; POTEET VICTORY, (Cherokee/Choctaw), Artist; BRENT GREENWOOD, (Ponca/Chickasaw), Artist and Musician; JOSHUA HINSON, (Chickasaw), Chickasaw Language Revitalization Program and GORDON YELLOWMAN, (Cheyenne), Peace Chief, Assistant Executive Director of Education, Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes.
Winston Scambler is the youngest moderator, as he is an upcoming senior at Heritage Hall and wise beyond his years. Scambler continues the seminar “Signs, Symbols and Sounds,” he began last year.
“I attribute my initial interest to my grandmother, Justice Kauger. She was adopted into the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribe and is called the Mother of the Red Earth Powwow.,” Scambler proclaims. “Through her Influence I’ve grown up with Native American Art and really love it.”
With the guidance of photograph Neil Chapman, Scambler educated himself in art with assistance from the archives at the Oklahoma History Center, before forming his seminars.
One of his favorite artists and speakers this year is Eric Tippeconnic. “Eric likes to talk about the symbols he uses, as it means something different to everyone. You’ll see a lot of hand prints and horses,” says Scambler. “This year he is doing something really contemporary with his series called, Briefcase Warriors.”

Other sessions with their moderators include:
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT with JAMES C. COLLARD, Director of Planning and Economic Development, Citizen Potawatomi Nation;
LAND, WIND AND WATER with PATRICK WYRICK, Justice, Oklahoma Supreme Court;
TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION: GENERATIONAL/HISTORICAL TRAUMA AND HEALING with NOMA GURICH, Vice Chief Justice, Oklahoma Supreme Court;
ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION WITH FORMER ASSISTANT SECRETARIES OF THE INTERIOR FOR INDIAN AFFAIRS, with JOHN REIF, Justice, Oklahoma Supreme Court.
Since its inception in 1988, the Sovereignty Symposium has award the status of “Honored One” to unique individuals whose life time contribution to the world, the United States, the State of Oklahoma and their personal communities are without peer. Past recipients include Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, the first woman appointed to the United States Supreme Court; former Attorney General Janet Reno, Astronaut Commander John Harrington and Cherokee Chief Wilma Mankiller.
This years Honored Ones, are Former Assistant Secretaries of the Interior for Indian Affairs: Thomas W. Fredricks, Ada E. Deer, Neal McCaleb, Carl Artman and Larry Echo Hawk..
The Friend of the Court for this year goes to Kris Steele. The Ralph B. Hodges-Robert E Lavender Award for Judicial Excellence Award goes to Oklahoma Supreme Court Justice Seven Taylor (Retired).
Benjamin Harjo, Jr. (Seminole & Shawnee), designed and donated the logo for the Sovereignty Symposium. The Lighthorseman depicts an Indian policeman framed in a star. In Indian Territory, the Five Civilized Tribes had a body of men, the Lighthorsemen, who served as a mounted police force. The Lighthorsemen helped the United States Army to keep peace in Indian Territory and to drive out white intruders. Considerable latitude was given to the Lighthorsemen in enforcing the judgments of the courts. Harjo has won many awards in major Native American art shows in the United States. His generosity is appreciated in designing and in donating the logo.
General Admission of $300 for both days may be found with your registration at, www.thesovereigntysymposium.com or sovereignty.symposium@oscn.net
You may want to add on to your cultural entertainment, the Red Earth Festival and Powwow June 8 and 9th at the Cox Convention Center near the Skirvin Hotel in downtown Oklahoma City The festival includes dance competitions and a high quality Native American art show and sale. https://www.redearth.org/

The Grand Chapter of the Order of the Eastern Star presented the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation with a check totaling $10,175 at its annual conference on Sunday.
The donation will fund OMRF research on cancer and other diseases, such as lupus, heart disease and multiple sclerosis. With this donation, the Grand Chapter of the Eastern Star has now donated a total of $331,058 to OMRF research since 2002, when it selected OMRF as its charitable beneficiary.
The donation was presented at the Scottish Rite Masonic Temple in Guthrie.
Eastern Star members support OMRF through individual donations made at chapter meetings statewide, including marches and various donations made in memory of loved ones. Overall, 47 additional chapters have also made individual gifts to the foundation.
OMRF Vice President of Development Penny Voss described the Oklahoma Grand Chapter of the Eastern Star as the definition of philanthropy.
“The long-time support from the members of the Oklahoma Grand Chapter of the Eastern Star has a huge impact on OMRF,” she said. “Each year their gifts go directly to our scientists to help in their quest for new treatments and cures for diseases that affect all of us. We are truly grateful to every member for their belief in our mission to help people live longer and healthier lives.”
The Order of the Eastern Star is the largest fraternal organization in the world to which both men and women may belong. It counts approximately one million members across the globe and is dedicated to furthering charity, education, fraternity and science.
It has approximately 8,000 members and more than 90 chapters in Oklahoma, including groups in Bartlesville, Blanchard, Broken Arrow, Clinton, Enid, Guthrie, Hennessey, Lawton, McAlester, Muskogee and Woodward.