Greetings to everyone after the Easter holiday!
The Shopper has grown by two inches! Printing changes led to the change in size! (Many of the WT's have grown two inches also--but we try not to announce it!)
On Tuesday, April 25th, the Relay For Life Rally will take place in the Community Center. This is the 3rd Relay Rally (try saying that fast three times!).
There is another Spaghetti Dinner. The cause is near and dear to many of the WT's--the Northern Lights Music Festival. The ad has a drawing of Kokopelli playing his flute. We doubt if there will be anyone at the music festival to rival the lure of Kokopelli, but one never knows! The Festival takes place this year from June 28-July 25. The WT's always volunteer in various ways to help out. Check out the Northern Lights website on our links on the right.
The Lions Club is hosting a Pancake Feed next Sunday, April 23rd. That is always a good event. The groups of folks arrive by church denomination--when the services are over, they go to the Pancake Feed. So the Lutherans eat with Lutherans, the Methodists with Methodists, the Catholics with Catholics and so on. Usually, we are quite ecumenical in our towns, but this "Feed" is always a little different when it is held on a Sunday.
On April 27, we will be honoring Ed Modetz as the Citizen of the Year. Ed has done so much for our town. For the school referendum, he completed his usual morning walk carrying a "Vote Yes" sign. He has also been on the Relay For Life Committee; as a cancer survivor himself, he coordinates the Survivors' walk by calling all of the local cancer survivors and setting up the reception for them in the Community Center. He serves on the local cemetery board and volunteers for just about every cause that benefits the city (and he is in his 80's!). He never misses a City Council meeting. He will be presented with a key to the City that day, which he probably won't need since no one here locks their doors anyway!
The award will be presented during a Community Meeting that night. We will get an update on the school, the hospital and the nearby Minnesota Power Energy Park. We hope that many people will attend the meeting to hear the news and to honor Ed.
There is a sign-up for the Summer Sports on April 19th for T-Ball, Little League, Girls' Softball, Babe Ruth Baseball. We've got to keep the kids busy and out of mischief during the summer. And it works!!
Earth Day is April 22 and there are some activities planned: The rural Congregational and Lutheran Churches are having an annual spring clean up at the cemetery. This writer was surprised that there isn't more going on. We're sure the students at the school will be doing something this week.
It is Tornado Awareness Week and they will be testing the sirens at 1:00 p.m. on Thursday. We'll all have to pay attention to that. They also test the siren on the first Wednesday in May, June, July, August and September. Sometimes the loud siren catches us by surprise and scares us half to death!
The annual meeting for the Wirtanen Pioneer Farm is on Monday, April 24. Laurie is very involved with it and will have plenty of work to do. The guest speaker will be discussing "Churches in Finland" and there will be a lunch served "in the Finnish tradition." We might have to check that out!
The snow is gone--finally!--so there are not any ads for snow plowing. However, this writer counted three pick-ups with plows still attached last week! Time to get them off, guys!
Interesting Ad: "Diapers for Honduras. If you would like to help, join us at St. Mark's Lutheran Church on Wednesdays at 10 a.m."
There's a pie social and bake sale at a nearby Senior Center on May 6th. More food to help add on those inches!
Getting close to golf season. There is an ad for Cart Repair.
Ready, Set, Grow. The local garden center is now open. Many of us are getting anxious to start scratching in the dirt. We've noticed that they have been busy in the greenhouses for the past month or so, getting everything planted, so we'll have to get our plants early. Then we have to tend to them before we can plant them.
"Failure to Launch" is now playing at the theatre. "The Shaggy Dog" starts on Friday.
More next week . . .
