Community supper, auction to benefit premature twins

PALISADE -- Friends and family of a Palisade family plan a fund-raiser to help pay for medical and travel expenses as two tiny, new babies gain weight and strength in incubators in the University of Colorado Hospital in Aurora, Colo.

Jensyn Lynn and Jaysek Lee Weiss were born April 2 at a hospital in Denver, two months before their due date of June 11 and 21⁄2 days after their mother was flown from Great Plains Regional Medical Center in North Platte in the early stages of labor.

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Rather than waiting until June, the babies were born on their father's 30th birthday. Jensyn weighed 2 pounds, 14 ounces; her big brother, Jaysek, weighed 3 pounds 6 ounces.

The babies' parents, Jaime (Walgren) and Jason Weiss, are renting an apartment in Aurora and spend as much time as possible at the hospital. Jason is an electrical technician with Southwest Public Power in Palisade; Jaime has been a para-professional teaching at the elementary school in Palisade. She plans now to be a stay-at-home mother of twins.

The babies' grandparents are Rex and Kathy Walgren of Wauneta and Don Weiss, Linda Vlasin and Rick Vlasin, all of Imperial. Their great-grandparents are Bob and Sharon Walgren of Wauneta, Ila Sjuts of Columbus and Raymond and Bernita Greeley of Imperial.

To help supplement the couple's insurance, family and friends plan an "Indian Taco and Sopapilla Supper" and benefit auction Saturday, April 26, in the Legion Hall in Wauneta.

Supper will be served from 5 p.m. until 8 p.m. MT and will cost $6 for "all you can eat." Thrivent Financial for Lutherans will supplement the funds raised.

The auction will start at 7 p.m. MT, and matching funds will be provided by Modern Woodmen of America.

Donations may be sent to Pioneer Federal Credit Union, 102 S. Main, Palisade, NE 69040; Valley Bank and Trust, 202 N. Tecumseh, P.O. Box 219, Wauneta, NE 69045; or First State Bank, 348 Broadway, P.O. Box 939, Imperial, NE 69033.