April: Briefly in the News

The latest news featuring Bethany Christian Services, Shelter Insurance, and more.

Local Family Opens Movie-Based Interactive STEM Program
Six Pixels Studios, a Florida-based youth education franchise, announces the opening of a new location in Columbia. Owners Matt and Adelle McAllister discovered Six Pixels Studios while looking for a program for their children. The enrichment program is built around movie making, YouTube, photography, stop motion, animation, and prop design. The Columbia location will offer after-school opportunities, birthday parties, and special events across the year as well as a summer camp.

Bethany Christian Services Launches New Program
Bethany Christian Services, a global nonprofit that supports children and families, announced that the Safe Families for Children program will expand from St. Louis to Columbia. The program was founded in 2003 as a solution for parents and families experiencing traumatic poverty, addiction recovery, homelessness, unemployment, and other circumstances that would make the family unit vulnerable. Bethany Christian Services has partnered with the Boone County Children’s Services Fund to launch this program.

“We may be connected more than ever online, but if families don’t live near relatives or have a trusted friend or neighbor in their community, a sudden upset in their lifestyle might completely upend their family.”
– Christine Corcoran, Columbia regional branch director

Clean Air Columbia Receives Award
HomeAdvisor Pro has named Clean Air Columbia a recipient of the Best of HomeAdvisor Award for 2019. An air duct cleaning and sealing company, Clean Air Columbia has been providing services to the Mid-Missouri area since 2004. Clean Air Columbia specializes in air duct cleaning and sealing for both residential and commercial clients — customer service and satisfaction are some of the factors that resulted in this award, which is limited to the highest-rated professionals who have a minimum of three HomeAdvisor reviews over a period of six months.

U.S. Cellular Invests $13 Million in Missouri
U.S Cellular announced that it made a $13 million investment in its network infrastructure, store environment, and statewide communities in Missouri in 2019, including nearly $12.6 million to enhance the network experience for Missouri residents through upgrades that improve coverage, capacity, and data speed. To better serve consumers and small business owners and create an enjoyable in-store shopping experience, the company invested $352,000 to update, redesign, or relocate seven retail stores in Missouri.

Socket Supports Local Nonprofit
Socket donated $5,000 to the Central Missouri Foster Care & Adoption Association. This donation will help support the association’s Odyssey Program, which helps foster parents get personal care time while also providing children in foster care a time to have fun and be with other children who are in foster care.

FDA Approves Additional Mo-99
NorthStar Medical Radioisotopes, a global innovator in the production and distribution of radioisotopes used for medical imaging, is one step closer to opening their Columbia facility. They recently announced that the Food and Drug Administration has approved the addition of two molybdenum-99 (Mo-99) filling lines at the Columbia location. Mo-99 is a medical radioisotope used to produce technetium-99m (Tc-99m), the most widely used diagnostic imaging radioisotope in patient health care. The Columbia facility is part of NorthStar’s ongoing expansion plans to increase production and capacity of domestic, non-uranium Mo-99 for the U.S. health care system.

Shelter Insurance Invests in Strategic Insuretech Partnership
Shelter Insurance recently established a strategic partnership with SixThirty, a St. Louis-based venture fund that specializes in enterprise insuretech and fintech startups and technologies. This partnership enables Shelter to mentor SixThirty portfolio companies, develop disruptive insuretech technologies, and assist with startups’ strategic planning. The startups will have access to Shelter’s deep insurance expertise as well as their network of businesses and partners across all insurance verticals.

Columbia Eye Consultants Optometry Forms New Partnership
Columbia Eye Consultants Optometry has partnered with Vision Health Eyecare Center in California, Missouri. Through this partnership, CECO will have six locations in Mid-Missouri and will allow VHEC to remain locally owned and operated. Together, these two well-established practices will increase efficiencies, improve patient care resources, and ensure the presence of privately owned, medically oriented optometry in Mid-Missouri for years to come.