Helen S. Boylan Foundation

Recognized for Contributions.

A group of approximately twenty people stood on stage during the Carthage Acoustic Music Festival to give tribute to the Helen S. Boylan Foundation.

The group was a partial representation of the over fifty local organizations that have received direct benefits from the foundation over the last several years.

A plaque of appreciation was presented to local foundation board member Jim Spradling as a token of the communitie’s recognition of the fund’s value to Carthage. Several of the attendees, including Mayor Mike Harris, spoke of the many projects that were made possible by the organization.

The Helen S Boylan Foundation is a private family foundation established in 1982 to continue the family tradition of commitment to enhancing the quality of life of the community through grants to qualified charitable organizations.

In carrying out its mission, the Foundation considers a wide range of proposals within the following areas: arts, education, health, human services, environment, and public interest.  

The Carthage community is blessed with several organizations that contribute to the overall standard of living that we enjoy. There is a fairly long list. Sometimes it is easy to take those organizations for granted.

The recognition of the Helen S. Boylan Foundation last Friday evening was a personal pleasure because of the support the Foundation has given the Carthage Acoustic Music Festival for the last nine years.

Other foundations and trusts that were created for the benefit of the Carthage area also deserve the recognition of the community and hopefully will be appropriately recognized on future dates.

This weekend the Helen S. Boylan foundation was singled out. A small but honest gesture of thanks.

This is some fact, but mostly,

Just Jake Talkin’.

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Weekly Columns

To Your Good Health

By Paul G. Donohue, M.D.

Bladder Infections Not Always Painful

DEAR DR. DONOHUE: Please write something about bladder infections. Can you have a bladder infection with no symptoms? -- A.

ANSWER: The signs and symptoms of bladder infections are the same for men and women. The irritated, infected bladder demands frequent, urgent trips to the bathroom so it can be emptied. People have a burning sensation when passing urine. Pain is felt in the bladder area. Sometimes blood appears in the urine.

Men have far fewer bladder infections than women. Women have a shorter urethra than men. The urethra is the tube that empties the bladder of urine. Women’s urethras open in an area that has a large bacterial population. Bacteria can ascend the female urethra without trouble. It’s harder for them to climb the male urethra. And men’s prostate glands secrete substances that have antibacterial properties.

The presence of bacteria in the urine without any signs of bladder infection is called asymptomatic bacteriuria. Doctors treat pregnant women with asymptomatic bacteriuria to prevent symptoms from arising, as they often do during pregnancy. Infected urine, even without symptoms, can lower the birth weight of babies who were in the uterus during that period.

Otherwise, asymptomatic bacteriuria in women or men, at any age, usually does not require treatment. In women, bacteria in the bladder are often transiently there. They disappear many times on their own. Treatment can lead to the development of resistant bacteria and can produce side effects. Furthermore, it is costly. The guidance from most experts, therefore, is not to treat asymptomatic bacteriuria.

Exceptions exist. Diabetics might benefit from treatment.