Chantal Smith of Springfield and her children talk to one of the vendors during the Infant Mortality Month Workshop Friday at the Miner Convention Center in Miner. The annual day-long event sponsored by Missouri Bootheel Regional Consortium coincides with September being Infant Mortality Awareness Month and included guest speakers, Dr. Poppy Daniels of Woman to Woman Prenatal Care in Springfield; Rochelle Russell, humanitarian/celebrity chef/teen mentorship of Toledo, Ohio, who spoke on the impact of maternal morality; and Julian C. Watkins, a nonprofit executive and attorney of Cape Girardeau, who spoke on the importance of male figures in today’s society.Leonna Heuring/Standard Democrat
