Three local residents will be recognized at this year’s Santa’s Holiday Parade for their lifelong involvement within the community. Dorothy Kupka, Paul Morgan and Dick Zak will serve as grand marshals for the 25th annual parade, to take place at 4 p.m. this Friday.
Dorothy Kupka
    Kupka, a long-time Cresco resident, said she was pleasantly surprised to hear the news that she had been picked as one of the 2008 grand marshals.
    “I’m blown away,” she said.
    Kupka is a recently retired drive-up teller from C US Bank, where she worked for 29 years.
    “I knew when I retired I couldn’t just sit home. I had to get out and be with the people,” Kupka said.
    Kupka fills a lot of her time volunteering in the community. She has been a hospice volunteer for about eight years, and is also a volunteer through RSVP (Retired Seniors Volunteer Program), through which she assists the activity director at Evans Memorial Home. Kupka is also a member of the Wa-tan-ye service group. She is also a mentor with Helping Services for Northeast Iowa.
    She moved to Cresco in 1954 from Spring Valley, and graduated from Cresco High School in 1959.
    She has two daughters, Deb of Saude and Dawn of Decorah, and two grandchildren, Derrick, 21, and Kacee, 18.
    In her free time, Kupka enjoys baking, reading and spending time with family and friends. She wishes everyone a happy holidays.
Paul Morgan
    Morgan was also surprised when the parade committee asked him to serve as a grand marshal this year.
    “It makes me very proud,” Morgan said. “I feel honored to be asked.”
    Morgan has spent most of his life living, working and volunteering at various organizations in Cresco. After graduating from Cresco High School in 1937, he spent time working on a farm and later a dairy creamery in town.
    “My whole life has been connected to dairying,” said Morgan.
    In 1942, he enlisted in the Air Corps. During his time in the service, he worked as a radar mechanic throughout WWII, a job that required so much secrecy that the FBI was required to do background checks on everyone employed in that department.
    “The FBI has a file on me,” Morgan joked that he likes to tell people.
    He then went to gunnery school, where he trained on B24 planes.
    After completing his time in the service, Morgan took up farming once again. He farmed in Bremer County for seven years and in Howard County for two years, before he suffered a stroke that prompted him to quit farming. Morgan later spent seven years as a farm manager in Illinois, where he established a new record for milk for 305 days and 365 days for Holstein cows.
    He later moved back to Cresco, and worked at a dairy plant for 12 years. In 1972, he married his current wife, Evelyn Morgan.
    Morgan retired last year from working as manager of the Alert Manor Apartments for 22 years.
    Morgan has also spent a great deal of his time volunteering in the area.
    “I’ve tried to be active in things in the community,” he said.
    He belongs to the Methodist Church, has been a charter member of VFW Post 4561 for 63 years, helped organize a 4th of July parade with the Chamber of Commerce in 1976 and has served as commander, district commander and state surgeon for the VFW.
    Perhaps one of Morgan’s longest lasting contributions to Cresco and one that has had a lasting significant impact on local youth, occurred in the fall of 1976 when he and Dick Zak initiated the Veterans Day Program at the high school. Morgan has participated in the program each year since its inception.
    “I feel that’s the most important project that the VFW and the Legion have all year,” Morgan said.
    Since its first year, the program has expanded from the high school to area elementary schools, the junior high school and local nursing homes.
Dick Zak
    Also a grand marshal for this year’s parade, Cresco resident Dick Zak worked side by side with Morgan in organizing the first Veterans Day Program at the schools.
    “I have gone to some of these myself and I guess I really believe that this has to be one of the most inspirational and honorable things the veterans are doing for our young people in Howard County,” said Vickie Grube, a member of the parade committee. Grube said Zak’s and Morgan’s involvement with the VFW is one of the main reasons they were nominated and chosen to be honored at this year’s parade.
    Zak is a lifetime member of the VFW and American Legion. He has served as district commander, and was also a member of the Howard County Veterans Memorial Construction Committee. Along with others, he planned the dedication program for the memorial and served as the Master of Ceremony for the dedication on Nov. 11, 1992. Dick’s late wife, Norma Zak, was active in the American Legion Auxiliary.
    Zak served in the Air Force in WWII.
    He is also a lifetime member of the Knights of Columbus, and served as KC District Deputy at the state level with four councils under his direction for four years.
    He is also a former member of the Cresco Chamber of Commerce and the Cresco Wildlife Club.
    Zak worked as an electrical contractor in the area for over 40 years. Through Zak Electric, he completed wiring jobs for a large number of local businesses, including Donaldson, Company, Inc., Evans Memorial Home, Cresco Lanes and did the wiring for the Cresco Theatre restoration project.
    He also taught a high school course on basic electrical wiring in Cresco and Riceville.
    “I think it’s wonderful,” Zak said, of being named grand marshal. “As you get older, the only thing you appreciate is that people appreciate you.”
    The three grand marshals were nominated for the honor by people in the community.
    “There are so many individuals and/or groups who do so much for bettering the lives of others I wish there was a way that everyone could be honored,” Grube said. “There are also some who are so humble, quiet and relentlessly giving that they would never even consider that this honor would be done for them.”
    The Annual Santa’s Holiday Parade will begin at 4 p.m. Friday in front of the Cresco Fitness Center and will travel down 3rd Ave. to North Elm St. Parade entries can begin lining up near the Fitness Center at 3 p.m.
    The three grand marshals can be seen near the front of the parade riding in a convertible.
    Beginning at 3 p.m. on Friday, parking will not be allowed on N. Elm St., due to concerns over safety of children.
    Local 4-Hers will sell hot cider, hot cocoa and baked goods on N. Elm St. across the street from Leuthold’s during the parade.
    Following the parade, Christmas carols will be sung at the Courthouse and lighting of the holiday decorations will take place.
    Kids will have the chance to drop off their letters to Santa during the parade to letter carriers walking along the route who will send them Santa at the North Pole. They can also drop them into a special box to the North Pole at the Post Office. Kids should  include their return address, so they can receive a reply letter from Santa.