Neighbors October 17, 2019Serving Chilton,

Kiel & New HolsteinTri-County news

Pieper takes on new role in cancer fight

Over the years Kiel dentist Dr. David Pieper has raised funds and worked to create awareness about the fight against prostate cancer.

By Mark SherryKiel dentist Dr. David Pieper has been

a strong proponent in the fight to find a cure for prostate cancer as his own battle with the disease was chronicled in a 2016 story in the Tri-County News.

Dr. Pieper has supported and encour-aged others to give to zerocancer.org, the organization which is helping to fund research toward finding that cure. In each of the last four years he also has traveled to Washington, D.C. to lobby for additional funding for research.

Recently, Pieper got to experience a different side of this battle—as one of the people who reviews grant proposals for studies on how to combat the disease.

Pieper served as a consumer reviewer for the Congressionally Directed Medi-cal Research Programs’ (CDMRP) Prostate Cancer Research Program (PCRP), participating in the evaluation of research applications submitted to the PCRP. He spent three days in the nation’s capital in early September serving on a panel with another consumer reviewer and 11 scientists.

As a consumer reviewer, Pieper was a full voting member at the meetings to help determine how the $100 million appropriated by Congress for fiscal year 2019 will be spent on PCRP research.

Consumer reviewers are asked to rep-resent the collective view of patients by preparing comments on the impact of the research on issues such as diagnosis, treatment, and quality of life.

Consumer advocates and scientists have worked together in this partner-ship to evaluate the scientific merit of research applications since 1997. Colonel Stephen J. Dalal, director of the CDMRP, expressed his appreciation for the con-sumer advocates’ perspective during the

scientific review sessions. “Consumer advocates are an integral part of the CD-MRP’s scientific review process. They provide a key ingredient to the review process, the patient’s perspective, which is real and urgent. The collaboration of consumer advocates alongside the scien-tists’ subject matter expertise is a truly unique collaboration that is difficult to find in most medical research programs.”

Pieper explained that this effort is run through the Department of Defense which is looking to eliminate death from prostate cancer and enchance the well-being of service members, veterans, and all men experiencing the impact of the disease. Any gains made by the mili-tary-run program, of course, will spill over into benefitting the general public, Pieper said.

One benefit of the PCRP is that it fills gaps not addressed by other funding agencies for supporting groundbreak-ing, high-risk, high-gain research while encouraging out-of-the-box thinking.

Pieper was nominated for the position by the Zero organization the last time he attended a summit in Washington. He said there were a total of 27 studies which applied for grants. He and the other consumer reviewer divided the grants in half to read through them and grade them on how they believe they would impact consumers.

Dr. Pieper said most of the studies dealt with advanced prostate cancer as there is a higher rate of the disease among service men.

The group on which Pieper served re-viewed and graded the studies but anoth-er panel will be awarding the three-year grants. “There were some really intense and very practical ideas,” he said, adding that one grant application was 110 pages.

Pieper explained that if prostate can-cer is caught before it metastasizes it is almost 100 percent curable, although he added there is not a reliable chemo-therapy treatment for prostate cancer.

Asked if he would like to be invited back to be a consumer reviewer again, Pieper said, “I hope they do.” He added,

“It made me feel better about govern-ment spending,” pointing out that each study application was thoroughly scru-tinized.

“It came full circle for me,” Pieper said. “I’ve been out in Washington ad-vocating for these funds.”

The Kettle Moraine Corvette Club of-ficially marked the 50th anniversary of their organization with a formal banquet at Millhome Supper Club in Kiel on Sat-urday, Oct. 5.

Over 114 guests were in attendance for this celebration and enjoyed an evening of story-telling and reminiscing of how the club began in 1969. Over the past five decades the club has grown to 131 members strong and boasts a combined car collection of 136 Corvettes.

Recognized and incorporated by the State of Wisconsin, the Kettle Moraine Corvette Club (KMCC) is a non-profit car enthusiast organization with one common passion—that of Corvette. The group meets the first Wednesday eve-ning of each month at 7:30 p.m. Town & Country golf course in Sheboygan is the site of meetings October through April with rotating locations throughout Sheboygan and Manitowoc counties dur-ing May through September. In addition to monthly membership meetings, the club organizes quarterly brunch out-ings, weekend trips including overnights,

Corvette Club marks 50th anniversary

Kettle Moraine Corvette Club’s official 50th anniversary member photo was taken at Road America’s Winner’s Circle.

low-speed autocross activities, staffs the Corvette Corral at Road America, hosts member road rallies, Salvation Army bellringing, and support of other chari-ties in surrounding communities.

New members are always welcome. Prerequisite for membership is adults age 18 or over who own or lease a Corvette. About 45 percent of current members

reside in Manitowoc County, 49 percent in Sheboygan County, and 6 percent elsewhere in Wisconsin or out of state.

Current KMCC Club Officers are President Mary Lou Haen and Secretary Bob O’Keefe, both of Sheboygan; Vice President Gary Hoppe of Manitowoc; and Treasurer Rick Waldbauer and NCCC Governor Dick Huibregtse, both

of Sheboygan Falls. Board of Directors at large include Ed Wendorf of Kewaskum, Ron Epping of West Bend, and Herb Buhl of New Holstein.

For more information on the Kettle Moraine Corvette Club visit www.KMC-CWI.org, on Facebook, or call (920) 565-4400.