Contributing writer

Alice Thibodeau had recently turned 50. She went with her daughter Jodi and two grandchildren to McDonald’s in Maple Grove.

Alice Thibodeau’s picture books take readers on imaginative journeys with rhymed couplets — “Let’s see, Let’s see. What else can I be?” — and the author’s belief in pursuing dreams and talents.
Children’s book author Thibodeau received 39 rejection letters before Little Leaf Press offered to help her self-publish. To date, she has self-published six books in her series under the pen name Alice Palace.

Her daughter looked at her and said, “Mom, is there something you’ve always wanted to do and never done? Something you haven’t told anybody about?”

There was. Thibodeau had always wanted to be a children’s book author. She already knew the story. She knew the main character, where he lived, even his name.

“But I don’t know how I’ll ever do it,” she said.

“You don’t have to know how,” Jodi said. “You just have to do it.”

Thibodeau, a resident of Elk River for 40 years, has published six books to date, under her pen name Alice Palace, with a seventh on the way.

Fifteen years have passed since that fateful, fortunate mother-daughter talk at McDonald’s. And these days it’s Thibodeau who’s urging audiences to just go ahead and do it: make your plan, follow your dream and write.

Alice Thibodeau has published six books.

Thursday, May 23, Thibodeau, will be presenting “Self-Publishing Made Easy” at the Elk River Library. The free workshop begins 6:30 p.m. and is one of the author’s occasional forays into teaching for adults. Her audiences are usually much younger.

Since 2002, when her first book “My Little Cabin” hit the bookstores and library shelves, Thibodeau has been traveling the state and entertaining elementary schools and story time groups with the ongoing adventures of Marvin and his wildlife friends.

Her colorful Northland-inspired picture books, written and illustrated by Thibodeau, are geared for the younger set, but the themes of exploration and imaginative adventure are universal.

The author will be putting on a seminar on May 23 at the Elk River Public Library.

Of her own journey to publication, she said, “I just knew I had an idea. I didn’t know how to do any of it until Jodi said, ‘Do it, Mom.’”

Her self-publishing workshop is partly how-to and partly an inspirational pat on the back. Publishing can be a tough nut, and Thibodeau learned it first hand.

The author spent two years researching and preparing her first book. Research included burrowing into the children’s section at the Elk River Library and reading every picture book she could get her hands on.

That done, she wrote her story. Then she looked for an illustrator.

he Elk River Library was where Alice Thibodeau spent time researching before writing.

“But that was going to be too expensive. So I decided to do it myself,” she said.

Drawing was one of those things she wanted to try but wasn’t sure she had the ability. She’d done a lot of drawing in school but that had been years before.

Still, she plunked down with pen and paper one night and took a stab at illustrating a couple white-tailed deer. And the picture turned out pretty well. So she kept on until she had the entire book illustrated.

She had 40 copies printed, mailed each one to a children’s book publisher and waited for their responses. What she got was a common occurrence for first-time authors.

Alice Thibodeau’s life as a children’s author began in 1999 when her daughter Jodi asked if there was something she wanted to do but hadn’t done yet. The answer was 2002’s “My Little Cabin,” Thibodeau’s first picture book. She has since added five more titles to the series.

“I opened the first letter — a form letter — and it started ‘Regretfully …,’” said Thibodeau. She received 39 rejections before she heard from the last, Little Leaf Press, which responded: “Your book has value and we would be happy to help you self-publish.”

Self-publish? One door closes, another one opens.

Thibodeau self-published “My Little Cabin,” which introduces Marvin, who in this first installment is so excited about the family kayak trip he dreams about it the night before.

Each page carries Marvin and his readers on another leg of his dream journey, meeting spiders, deer and kingfishers, passing under bridges, traversing rapids, until at the end he returns safely to bed with his animal friends gathered about him.

In addition to writing the series about Marvin and his wildlife friends, Alice Thibodeau illustrates them with collages, incorporating hand drawings and photography. She photographed crappies, caught at her lake cabin, for this image.

Other books in the series include “My Little Lighthouse,” “My Little Fish House,” “My Little Pine River,” “My Little Sailboat” and “My Little Mountain.” The books can be found in gift and bookstores around the country, locally at Elk River’s Kemper Drugs and online at bearpawbooks.com.

Writing and illustrating, said Thibodeau, has been life changing.

“I realized I had hidden talents,” said the author, who leaves her audiences with the message that if they plan for a dream and pursue it, “They’ll realize they can do things they never thought they could.”

The post Dreams do come true appeared first on Star News.

Contributing writer

Angie Roberts is the energetic and energizing entrepreneur behind The Noble Quilter. The Elk River store opened four years ago and has since become the place to go if you know a fat quarter from a bolt and prefer your creative blocks to come quilted.

You’ve probably seen the rustic stone-sided storefront next to Pearle Vision on Holt Avenue. Maybe you’ve even poked your head inside.

Noble Quilter owner Angie Roberts says having her store picked by Quilt Sampler magazine as one of the best in the nation “was like winning the Super Bowl.”

If you have, you’re not alone. In April, a motorcoach bused some 50 quilters all the way from Nebraska just to shop in Roberts’ store. And six months before, a select group of quilting aficionados converged on The Noble Quilter for a hush-hush photo shoot.

Those six months have been agony for Roberts, who was vowed to silence, until now, about the good news.

The spring/summer issue of Quilt Sampler, a publication of Better Homes and Gardens, hits stands early May with its top 10 list of favorite quilting shops. And, yes, The Noble Quilter made the cut.

The full-color spread calls Roberts’ store a “passion place” and describes the marriage of fabric, food and fun as a combination that feeds “the souls of quilters seeking kindred spirits.”

Colorful rainbows of fabric array on shelves. Quilts decorate walls and drape over furniture. The 26-seat classroom overlooks a pond that provides a home for ducks and geese. And there’s always something going on.

Classes provide instruction on everything from beginning quilting to tote bags, applique tablemats and quilting block patterns. Clubs meet there several nights a month.

Debra Oscarson quilted the design created by Angie Roberts and showcased in the current issue of Quilt Sampler.

“I call them my clubettes,” said Roberts, who keeps drinks and snacks on hand for hungry clubettes and quilters.

The Nebraska quilters were treated to homemade cinnamon raisin bread, still warm from the oven, made by one of the local quilters.

It’s those small touches that have put the store on the national map.

Interestingly enough, the owner wasn’t always into quilting.

“I’ve had a job since I was a teenager,” she said. For a number of years, she was employed as a technical writer for engineers.

“But when my second child was born, I became a stay-at-home mom. And there aren’t many of those anymore. So I was going stir crazy,” she said.

The May issue is out on newsstands today.

Her husband Robbin suggested she take up a hobby. She chose quilting.

“And I take things to an extreme. Therein lies the basis of my shop,” she explained.

The Noble Quilter opened July 2009, and nearly every day since, Roberts has spent at the shop or thinking about it.

That devotion is felt by customers like Flo Bird, Elk River, who said she comes to The Noble Quilter not just for the creative outlet but for Roberts.

“Angie’s wonderful,” she said, adding that she never leaves the store “without buying something.”

So many colors, so many choices at The Noble Quilter.

To be considered for Quilt Sampler’s top 10 list, Roberts had to sit down and fill out a lengthy packet.

“They wanted to know what kinds of classes we offered. They wanted to see a newsletter. They wanted to know why they’d drive 100 miles out of their way to come to my store,” she said.

She sent in the packet and then forgot about it.

A while later, the magazine’s editor, Jennifer Erbe Keltner, turned up at The Noble Quilter for a trunk show and salad luncheon organized by Roberts and her staff.

“At the end of the day, she said, ‘I’d like to talk to you in your office.’ I was like oh, OK,” remembers Roberts, who had no idea what the editor wanted.

Noble Quilter staffer and expert quilter, Doris Harland prepares fat quarters for sale at the store. Fat quarters, a quarter of a yard, are a common size fabric sample.

Once they were safely tucked in the office, Keltner said, “I am so excited because I never get to do this in person. Your store has been selected as a top 10 shop.”

Running a business is never easy. For Roberts, it has meant spending time away from her family. It’s meant working three and a half weeks without a day off and 70-hour weeks.

What Keltner told her was just what she needed to hear.

“The staff has put their heart and soul into this store. I’ve put my heart and soul into this store,” Roberts said. And to get that recognition, she said, “was like winning the Super Bowl.”

Angie Roberts calls Flo Bird, Elk River, one of her snowbird quilters. When spring hits, Bird is back in Elk River and at The Noble Quilter, taking classes and working on quilts like this one.

The post Sew Wonderful! appeared first on Star News.

by Bruce Strand
Sports Editor

ERHS students devoted to painting, drawing, pottery, sculpture, speech, vocal music, instrumental music, dancing, creative writing, theater, digital and video art, and photography are front and center each year at Evening of the Arts. This year’s expo Thursday featured student demonstrators Greg Pearson (colored pencil), Nikita Skorykh (wheel throwing), Clare Waldroch (jewelry), Cayla Weatherly (shading), Tyler Cundiff (watercolor), Jake Schroeder (wheel throwing), Hannah Smith (hand building), Olivia Rossi (stipple), Kelsy Wakeman (watercolor), Madie Ley (jewelry), Scott Rehling (painting), Brandon O’Connor (clay decorating), Jordan Tarnowski (jewelry) and Hank Galinski (wheel throwing). Performing were concert choir, percussion group, Native Hoop Dance, Native Drum and Song, Red Elk and Black Elk jazz bands, Cantabile girls sextet and the cast of “Seussical.” Writers Club (poetry) and Speech Team performed. United Nations of ERHS presented cultural artifacts and attire, and had resident experts to answer questions, for 10 nationalities. Friends of Jim Loso had a silent auction for a legacy scholarship honoring the popular clay teacher who died last year.

The post Arts in the Spotlight appeared first on Star News.

Editor

Several hundred people flowed in and out of the Elk River Arts Alliance and Reading  Frenzy Corner for a grand opening party last Saturday.

Exciting to Arts Alliance board chairman Dave Raymond was the dozens of new faces he saw at the event, which marked the group’s third move in two years.

Photo by Bruce Strand. Author Eric Dregni chatted about his books.

“We hope this is just the start of a good thing,” Raymond said. “We’re looking forward to getting this kind of collaboration in the future.”

Sheri Olson, the owner of Reading Frenzy, was pleased about the new faces and book sales.

“I think people are seeing that this is a package, and it has so much to offer,” Olson said. “We’re getting a real good feeling, and we’re getting excited about this summer.”

The Arts Alliance, which offers a full slate of arts classes, had its pottery classroom on display and Barbara Boulka gave a demonstration.

Photo by Jim Boyle. Barbara Boulka demonstrated pottery, a class the group offers.

A rare American Swedish Institute exhibit was an added draw.

Author Eric Dregni of Hackensack and potter Barbara Boulka of Dayton were special guests.

“I was amazed,” said Eric Dregni, who read from his book “In Cod We Trust,” as part of the opening festivities. “I had never seen anything like this in Elk River.”

The author, who sometimes stops here while traveling from his south Minneapolis home and Hackensack, said, “It’s exciting to see this revitalization of the downtown. “I see this as a real cultural center for Elk River.”

The post Arts Alliance pleased with grand opening’s turnout appeared first on Star News.

Members of the 257th Military Police Company stood in formation, something Andrea Stai knew was going to happen, and gave her the chance to predict where to best sit to have a good view of her husband, Staff Sgt. Nicholas Stai.

by Jim Boyle

Editor

Homecoming was just as Staff Sgt. Nicholas Stai imagined it, but the final hours and minutes of his 11-month separation from his family proved to be some of the most excruciating.

Staff Sgt. Nicholas Stai spoke with his nephew Landon Matheny and his niece Brianna Matheny along with their mother (Stai’s sister) Andrea Matheny at the homecoming for the 257th Military Police Company out of Monticello. Stai’s oldest daughter, Alexis, is at the far left in the photograph.

His excitement had been building as members of the 257th Military Police Company boarded coach buses in St. Cloud to make their way to the Monticello Armory.

Stai saw people  he knew who had camped along the parade route. He waved at them, and they waved at him and the others.

When the bus finally stopped, the commander rose and offered his last instructions to the riders.

“He was brief, but he said what he needed to say,” Stai said. “But it seemed like forever.”

Inside the gymnasium  at the Monticello Community Center were Stai’s wife, Andrea, and four children, ages 3, 5, 7 and 11. The Buffalo family was among the well-wishers, family and friends who packed the gym April 11 to welcome home the 257th Military Police Company.

Photos by Stephanie Lesniak
Spc. Harloff and Spc. Cushenberry along with Staff Sgt. Schmidt made their way from the bus to the armory and now were within moments of seeing their loved ones.

“We were so excited,” Andrea Stai said. “I was so excited to have him back. That was it. I was happy. I was truly happy for the first time in 11 months. Come on home, buddy, I thought to myself.”

Andrea Stai had positioned herself and their kids where she thought her husband would be when they entered the raucous gymnasium and fell into formation. She had an idea from her work as a Family Readiness Group coordinator work at drills.

“It worked out way better than I even thought it would,” she said of their location directly across from their husband and daddy.

And when they were finally released from their deployment, Nicholas Stai’s four children came running to him. Andrea Stai followed closely behind.

“I got down on one knee and they all hung on me,” Stai said. “It was just as I pictured it would be.”

Alexis, 11, is the oldest of the four. Then there’s Aiden, 7; Calleigh, 5; and Olivia, 3.

Skype, thank you card connected Stai family

Before this reunion, the family’s contact was limited to occasional Skype sessions and one special trip to Elk River that linked them on the Friday before Veteran’s Day.

“The kids missed their dad,” Andrea Stai said. “It was hard for them, in a lot of ways more difficult for them than me.

Submitted photo
The family of Staff Sgt. Nicholas Stai turned out for the world’s largest thank you card for the 257th Military Police Co. Andrea Stai crouched down with Caleigh, 5, and Olivia, 3, as their oldest daughter, Alexis, 11, and son, Aiden, 7, leaned in for a photo on Veteran’s Day weekend last November at the Elk River American Legion.

“They had their feelings and emotions. … Sometimes I knew what to say and how to deal with it, and sometimes it kind of came out of left field.”

Of course, every birthday and event at school was a little bittersweet. But after about three months of absence, the Stai family minus one fell into a new normal.

“You still have moments, all the way down to little Miss Olivia,” Andrea Stai said. “But not necessarily every day.”

These moments were among the many reasons she helps coordinate the Family Readiness Group and she supports Yellow Ribbon groups near and far.

When news of a world-record-setting venture to get a 16-by-48-foot card signed by as many people as possible to welcome the unit home, she knew she had to do it.

She couldn’t make it to the Minnesota Vikings game or a number of high profile card signings, but when it was said to be making a stop in Elk River, where she had a fellow FRG coordinator, the decision was easy.

A few sections of the world’s largest thank you card hung in the armory for the welcome home ceremony for the 257th Military Police Company out of Monticello.

“It felt positive, like we were doing something to support our soldiers and to bring an awareness to what they were doing,” she said. “I think the card was a very cool thing.”

Several sections of the card were hung at the homecoming. The Stais, having signed it at the level of Olivia, could easily see their signatures.

So could Nicholas Stai.

“It felt good to see we had so much support back home,” he said.

The 120-plus members of the 257th Military Police Company left Minnesota May 28, 2012, for training prior to their overseas deployment.

According to a Minnesota National Guard Operation Enduring Freedom unit overview background sheet, the unit conducted operations in the northeastern part of Afghanistan.

Nicholas Stai said members of the 257th were in Afghanistan training members of the Afghan National Army to take over a jail they had been overseeing. The group specializes in detention operations.

Sgt. Austin embraced a loved one as another, smaller one, ran to embrace him.

When their work was done, the 257th arrived at Fort Bliss, Texas, March 23 and completed its demobilization process.

The unit completed numerous medical and dental exams, mountains of paperwork and re-employment counseling, education benefits, medical benefits and reintegration during its stay at Fort Bliss.

They headed home April 11. The 257th arrived first at the St. Cloud Regional Airport before making its way from the secured Minnesota National Guard Aviation Facility to Monticello.

That night, the Stai family enjoyed a walk around Buffalo Lake. They went down to the water and skipped rocks.

“It was perfect,” Nicholas Stai said. “It was just what we needed.”

Deployment second for Staff Sgt. Stai

Nicholas Stai’s longest deployment was an 18-month run in 2004 and 2005 when he was part of the 216 Air Defense Artillery Battallion in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. The unit earned a Valorious Unit Award for its work.

After that he became a full-time noncommissioned training officer for the 257th Military Police Company. The unit deployed once between Nicholas Stai’s two deployments, but for that one he stayed back.

Sgt. Austin and a loved one share a tender moment together.

He has spent 3.5 years as an administrative officer and the last 4.5 as a training officer. This last go around, three of the four training officers had to go. He was proud to serve this way again.

“It’s important to be able to protect my family and the people around me and our community,” he said. “Just being able to serve is a wonderful thing.”

He appreciates when people appreciate what he and his comrades and their families back home endure.

Thank you card making big statement

The thank you card, a project of the Minnesota Army National Guard and the Elk River American Legion, made a nice statement.

The two organizations joined forces last year, and they continue to work on their goal of getting 257,000 signatures, Master Sgt. Charlie Bebus said.

The 257th returned home a month earlier than expected.

Mike Beyer, the commander of the Elk River American Legion, said it’s the Legion’s intent, once this group has progressed in their reintegration, to throw a party for them at the Legion.

“This is our way to give back,” Beyer said last year of the efforts to get signatures on the card and to host a welcome home party.

Andrea Stai said she would gladly attend such an event.

Time away not easy for those left at home

“I see first-hand every day the amount of service and what soldiers and families give up and the hardships,” Andrea Stai said.

Things went well on the Stai family home front during Nicholas Stai’s deployment to Afghanistan, but it wasn’t always easy.

“It was challenging, but we did OK,” she said. “You just kind of hang on and do what you need to do each day. The schedules and routines hold it together pretty well.”

The Stais kept busy and tried to do fun stuff, but it was never as fun as it could have been.

“You never let go of that worry, and you never let go of that feeling that something’s missing,” Andrea Stai said. “It’s there, lurking in the corner of every holiday and every event you go to.”

Faith helps. So does technology that linked them about every other week for about 10 to 15 minutes for Skype time. A few times, they could Skype for nearly an hour.

“When Nick was in Iraq, the webcam was not really workable,” Andrea Stai said.

With Skype, each child got some one-on-one time. It was limited, especially on school nights.

There were times when Andrea Stai especially missed her husband. One of the more memorable times was during Olivia’s potty training escapades.

Andrea Stai was downstairs when Olivia became determined to flush her toilet paper down, despite the fact that the toilet had clogged.

It overflowed the bathroom, “and I came up the stairs to water dripping down the steps of our split level.”

It went through the floor and down onto the ceiling of the downstairs bathroom, where it wrecked the light fixture.

“That was very memorable — and difficult,” Andrea Stai said. “Our poor 3-year-old didn’t know any better. She just kept flushing.”

Andrea Stai took on that assignment and others. She also had help from neighbors and family that live close by. Not all military families are as supported.

Stai advocates for  Beyond Yellow Ribbon

Andrea Stai says she didn’t tap the fledgling Yellow Ribbon group in Buffalo at all.

“They were just getting started, and I didn’t know who to talk to,” she said. “I knew a few people in the Monticello Beyond the Yellow Ribbon group, but I didn’t have too much cause to use them personally.”

Others have, and the Monticello BTYR group reached out to the families of eight newborns to provide gifts and diapers.  They also help with baby-sitting duties at FRG meetings that Andrea Stai has led.

So she’s become a big advocate for the BTYR groups, including the one in Elk River. She was impressed with the turnout out this past November at the card signing.

“It was nice to see so many people come out and sign the card,” she said. “It wasn’t our first chilly night, but wasn’t winter yet and it was cold. There was definitely a good turnout. It was nice to see the support from the Elk River community.”

When completely assembled, the size of the card should get it in the Guinness Book of World Records.

“My biggest pride and joy is keeping members of the 257th in the thoughts and prayers of people, reminding them there are still people overseas in a war,” Bebus said.

Staff Sgt. Liz Lindskoog, a recruiter for the National Guard along with Bebus, said at one point there were  over 100,000 signatures, but 257,000 signatures may have been a stretch to achieve. Signatures will continue to be sought up until Memorial Day, Lindskoog said.

“It has been a lot of fun to help with this,” she said.

Of men and women from the 257th Military Police Company, a few of them are reportedly from Elk River. They will be among those invited to the Elk River American Legion welcome home party.

The post ‘Come on home, buddy’ appeared first on Star News.

Contributing writer

For 40 years Sharon Tracy has lived in Elk River. And for most of that time, she’s carried a promise she made to herself: One day she’d travel to Croatia and visit her mother’s birthplace.

ubmitted photos
Josie Pergl Layman always dreamed of going back to Croatia but died before she could. So February 2013, her youngest daughter, Sharon Tracy of Elk River, made that journey for her.

Her mother, Josie Layman, was born Josipa Pergl on Jan. 13, 1906, in Croatia. A bare three months later, baby Josipa and her parents boarded a ship and steamed to America. The immigration officials at Ellis Island altered the family name to Berger and it stuck.

“I wanted to go to Croatia because my mother was never able to,” said Tracy, a lifelong educator who spent much of her career teaching in Coon Rapids.

Her mother was widowed at 45 and raised five kids on a factory salary.

One of Josie’s dreams was to see her homeland. But when she died at 73, the dream went unfulfilled. That’s when Tracy, the youngest of her children, decided that if she ever had the opportunity she would make the journey.

St. Josip Catholic Church (seen in the distance) in Grubisno Polje, Croatia, hasn’t changed much—on the inside—in the 107 years since Sharon Tracy’s mother was baptized there.

Her opportunity arrived last summer when a group of friends, “world travelers,” Tracy calls them, announced they were taking a cruise to Croatia. Did she want to come?

Tracy talked it over with her husband. An international cruise, not to mention airfare to get there, was spendy.

“But Harvey encouraged me. He said, ‘When are you going to get the opportunity again?’” she said.

So Valentine’s Day of this year, she took an afternoon flight out of Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport to Zagreb.

Sharon Tracy’s second cousin Zdravko acted as chauffeur, translator and guide. He took her to see the house where her grandfather grew up (and where family members still live) and here to Velika Barna, her grandmother’s village.

Tracy had signed up for the cruise, but she arrived ahead of schedule so she could make her pilgrimage to her mother’s village far to the west.

Curiously enough, before she left Minnesota, she’d been introduced to a distant relation living in Florida. Tracy was interested in finding out how to get from the airport in Zagreb to tiny Grubisno Polje. He’d been there three times. Could she hire a driver?

“He said, ‘I’ve got a better suggestion. I can call your second cousin and he can pick you up,’” Tracy remembers him saying and wondering at the idea of having family back in the Old Country.

It was this second cousin, Zdravko, and his two sons, Jan and Tin, who met Tracy at her hotel and drove her through the bullet-ridden villages, reminders of the Balkans war of the 1990s, that dotted the countryside.

Sharon Tracy didn’t know she still had family in Croatia. During her visit, her second cousin Zdravo and his family, (Left to Right) Jasna, Tin, Zdravko and Jan, hosted her in their home in Virovitica.

Zdravko’s wife Jasna welcomed Tracy with open arms and food—good Croatian food like Josie used to make.

The next morning, after Jasna’s homecooked breakfast, Tracy and Zdravko set off for the church where her mother had been baptized 107 years before.

St. Josip Catholic Church hadn’t changed much. The baptismal font was in the same spot. The priest produced a church ledger, and in the slanting cursive script, Tracy made out the name of her mother.

“I sobbed my heart out,” she said. “It was about fulfilling the promise I made. And my mother had been in that church.”

Later, Zdravko took her to see the farmhouse where her grandfather was born and the village where her grandmother grew up. The journey seemed complete. But there was still one surprise left.

Sunday morning, the day Tracy was to leave to join the cruise, Zdravko suggested they make one last trip. This time it was to see a white-haired gentleman named Franjo, who as a boy had corresponded with a Croatian family living in America. Zdravko thought that family might have been Tracy’s.

Tracy had compiled a family history, which she took with her to Franjo’s. The old man took one look at the photo of Tracy’s uncle and exclaimed, “I know this picture. I wrote to this man.”

He’d also written to Tracy’s grandfather, asking him to send an American fountain pen. Franjo never got a response.

Over half a century later, his eyes welled up as he told Tracy, “I thought I had asked for too much.”

In fact, Tracy’s grandfather had died.

So, when she returned to Elk River in March, she bought a fountain pen and mailed it to Franjo with the message, “I know my grandpa would have wanted you to have this.”

Tracy went overseas to discover her mother’s homeland and returned with an expanded Croatian family.

Of her journey, she said, “This is not going to end. We correspond by email.”

The post Journey back to her roots sprouts new connections appeared first on Star News.

Contributing writer

Pick up Midwest Living’s current travel issue, and you’ll find the magazine’s list of the 12 best pizzerias in the Midwest.

Only one Minnesota restaurant made the cut. And it’s not in the Twin Cities.

Pompeii Pizza owner Frank Galli says the key to a good pizza is the crust. But Pompeii also makes its own fresh mozzarella every day.
Pompeii Pizza owner Frank Galli says he’s seen a bump in customers since Midwest Living and Minnesota Monthly featured his downtown Elk River pizzeria.

One of the 12 best pizzerias in the Midwest, according to the magazine, resides right here in Elk River. If you’ve traveled to downtown and smelled the aroma of baking crust and bubbling mozzarella wafting at you, then you know the destination.

Pompeii Pizza has been attracting local devotees of the savory Neapolitan thin-crust pie since 2010. Located on Jackson Avenue, it’s the brainchild of Frank Galli, the food entrepreneur who also thought up Diamond City Bread in 1996.

You can now find Diamond City’s loaves in food co-ops around the state. Galli sold the bakery years ago, but he hasn’t gone far—geographically, at least.

Pompeii sits above the bakery and, like its sibling, is starting to enjoy a following that extends beyond its storefront.

Pompeii’s pizzas go from the traditional—a Margherita with red sauce and basil—to the out-of-the-ordinary, like the Fig e Prosciutto.

“We were very pleased to get two significant mentions in the press recently,” said Galli.

Minnesota Monthly’s pizza issue, March 2013, singled out Pompeii as a “destination pizzeria.” Midwest Living showcased Galli’s restaurant not once but twice: in the travel issue and in an April 2013 article on Midwestern-style pizza, touting Pompeii as “the rookie who wasn’t.”

The piece also featured a shot of manager Alec Hendrickson stretching the mozzarella, made fresh every morning.

Hendrickson, a graduate of the New York Restaurant School, is a chief ingredient in Pompeii’s success. He’s the artisan behind the menu, which changes every three to four weeks to incorporate seasonal produce, while also offering favorites like the Margherita pizza, made with tomato sauce and basil.

Friday, March 29, KSTP’s Twin Cities Live brought a video crew to town to film manager Alec Hendrickson and owner Frank Galli making their signature Neapolitan pizzas. Hendrickson changes up Pompeii’s menu every three to four weeks to incorporate in-season produce. He also helps make the fresh mozzarella.

This past Friday found Galli and Hendrickson going about their usual lunch hour, but with a camera crew tagging along. Seth Holst and Kerry Klatt of Twin Cities Live, KSTP’s weekday talk show, paid a visit, “because we heard Pompeii Pizza has excellent pizza and we like excellent pizza,” said Holst.

Holst brought along a Totino’s Party Pizza and asked Galli, “What’s the difference between a party pizza and a Pompeii pizza?”

Twin Cities Live’s Seth Holst was astounded by the spread Pompeii Pizza put out for them to sample. He asked a couple Pompeii Pizza customers to help him polish off one of the pizzas, while Kerry Klatt filmed them for the show.

A good crust, to start with, said Galli. “It’s really the balance of the crust and the ingredients.

You’ll never see an “everything” pizza at Pompeii because, said the owner, “it’s overloaded with toppings.”

Instead, Hendrickson opts for tasteful—and unexpected—combinations.

“We’ll use asparagus, avocados and pesto,” he said. “In the fall, we do beets and squash, and cranberries around Thanksgiving.”

Photos by Britt Aamodt
Friday, March 29, KSTP’s daily talk show Twin Cities Live made a trip to Elk River for some “excellent pizza,” said TCL photographer Seth Holst.

The Fig e Prosciutto pizza pulls together fig spread, feta, mozzarella, mixed greens and prosciutto. The Uva gets its zip from jalapeno jelly.

That sort of diversity and inventiveness is what drew Robin DeWitt to have Pompeii cater her husband’s Christmas party at work.

“I did it because Frank makes great food,” she said. “Pompeii catered a whole Italian meal for the party.”

DeWitt also happens to be one of Galli’s neighbors. She owns Blue Egg Bakery on Main Street, which opened a year ago in the former Don’s Bakery location.

Like Hendrickson, DeWitt and her bakers take a traditional food item and give it a spin. One of the recent bakery case standouts is the chocolate Oreo donut.

Pompeii doesn’t limit itself to pizzas. Salads, sandwiches, a selection of wines and desserts fill out the menu.

And like the other downtown business owners, she’s happy when her neighbors succeed, because all of them have a common goal of drawing more customers to downtown.

Wendy Simenson has worked at Kemper Drug for 28 years and been the co-owner since 1999. To her, Pompeii’s success is a signpost of a new era for downtown.

“I really started to see it when Granite Shores went from condos to apartments,” she said. With a growing resident population, “now we have more people wandering through the store.”

Galli said he’s seen a significant bump in customers since the magazine articles. But that doesn’t mean Pompeii can rest on its media buzz.

“There’s a lot of great pizza in Minnesota, and we’re truly one of them,” he said. “I sincerely believe that, and I’ve got to prove it to myself every day.”

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Editor

Siri Freeh can’t pinpoint when she accepted Christ into her heart as a child, but the winner of Miss Minnesota can tell you when she recently felt, for the first time in her life, the absence of the Holy Spirit.

The Detroit Lakes area woman was on the floor and crying in the bathroom of her hotel room in Reno, Nev. It was about 1:30 a.m. on Jan. 12 and the end of the Miss America pageant was nearing. A wintertime cold that had settled in her body swirled in her head as she realized her chances for a crown had slipped away.

Photo from http://www.sirifreeh.com/my-blog.html
Miss Minnesota Siri Freeh competed this year in the Miss America contest in Reno, Nev., where she realized her purpose was not so much to compete but to be a light for others at the pageant and around the state of Minnesota as she promotes several of her passions in life.

“Where are you and why  aren’t you here?” Freeh recalled asking God in a live interview in front of the congregation at Christ Church in Otsego with the Rev. Greg Pagh.  “Why is this happening?”

It didn’t take Freeh long to realize her purpose at the Miss America Pageant wasn’t to compete, as much as it was to let her light shine for the Lord. She uncovered it in Scripture and by remembering the words of her mother who always encouraged her to “be a light for others.”

That made her a perfect pick for the Christ Church in Otsego’s LightShine series, based on Matthew 5:16 where Jesus says, “Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”

A 23-year-old nursing student at the University of Minnesota with a 4.0 GPA, Siri plans to pursue her doctorate in cardiovascular research. She is a member of the U of M’s Honors Program and works tirelessly to maintain the balance between her academic and career goals and her creative passion for lyrical ballet.

Her rise as a child

Freeh is the oldest of three girls of David and Rhonda Freeh.  She is primarily of Norwegian descent with small parts German and Irish in her heritage. The name “Freeh” is German, she said, and means “rises early” which Siri said happens to be true of her.

Freeh grew up on a hobby farm in Lake Park by Detroit Lakes. The Freehs had cattle, horses and chickens.  As a young girl she dreamed of being a marine biologist or more specifically a “dolphin doctor.” She told Pagh she even had her room painted with an ocean life mural.

Life for her got difficult when she entered middle school in the public school system.

“Suddenly science and math was not cool,” she said.

She was focused on acceptance, and her grades dropped. It was at parent-teacher conferences her mom made the decision to begin home schooling.

At the time, Freeh thought of it as a “death sentence.” Instead, it was the best thing that could have ever happened, she said.

She discovered herself while being home-schooled.

“It gave me a chance to get away from the clutter of the negative peer pressure and instead focus on what it was I loved to do and my strengths and talents,” Free told Pagh.

That meant her involvement in 4-H, ballet and piano would flourish. She also grew closer to her mother.

She did not consider herself to be the kind of person who would be in pageants. She was more of a Tom Boy and considered herself to be an ugly duckling.

At the request of  a friend in 4-H, she entered the Becker County Fair Pageant at 15 years of age.

“This was definitely not me,” she said. “I was coming out of the awkward years.”

Her mother encouraged her to be a light. “She told me: ‘You’re there to be testimony, you’re to be a witness,’” Freeh recalled.

Freeh ended up winning unexpectedly. She went on to win again the following year.

She finished her high school education at Park Christian Academy in Moorhead by completing her senior year there and then it was on to North Dakota State University. Somewhere along the way, she decided to pursue a degree in nursing. Despite carrying a 4.0 grade point average, she didn’t get into their nursing program. “I was devastated,” she said.

So she took another year of classes and then applied to a couple different schools. She was one of 90 from a crowd of 600 applicants accepted into the University of Minnesota’s nursing program.

This move to Minneapolis also made Miss Minnesota a possibility, she said. She competed twice in three years, and upon winning, found herself able to let her light shine for an even wider audience.

Miss Minnesota is an official preliminary of the Miss America Pageant. As Miss Minnesota 2012, Siri won over $10,000 in scholarship funds and prizes. She competed for the title of Miss America 2013 live on ABC from Las Vegas at Planet Hollywood but did not make the final 15.

As Miss Minnesota, Freeh promotes her personal service platform of “Living Heart Strong,” which was inspired by her father who was admitted to the emergency room after abnormal EKGs.

In addition to her personal service platform, Siri will utilize her role as a goodwill ambassador for Children’s Miracle Hospitals to bring attention to children who are faced with life-threatening illnesses.

As if that’s not enough, she also promotes STEM schools that emphasize science, technology, engineering and math.

She still has a certain awe surrounding her crown. “Miss Minnesota was not in the game plan for me,” she said. “You never anticipate where life will lead you.

“You can’t control your outcome, but what you can control is doing your best every day with what God has given you that day.”

She advises youth to focus on things that are going to matter in the long run, like grades, homework and being involved in the community. She struggled with this as a pre-teen.

“I didn’t know how to act because I was trying to be everybody else and I couldn’t find myself,” she said.

Miss America Pageant 2013

Freeh had arrived to the pageant on Thursday, Jan. 10, not feeling well and powered her way through her sickness and the competitions. She told members of Christ Church she met a wide array of challengers. Some were sweet like herself. Others were clearly cut-throat, wanting to win at all costs. She could tell by  their words and actions, whether it was things they said or their apparent eating habits.

Siri Freeh was interviewed by the Rev. Greg Pagh during Christ Church’s recent LightShine!: Where Life Meets Passion series. The pastor asked her about her experiences growing up, competing in the Miss America pageant as young woman and her life moving forward.

Freeh, who had sensed God’s hand in her rise to this place in her life, would come to lean on Him.

“It seemed like Miss America was the next step, and then it didn’t happen,” Freeh told Pagh.

She had some tough questions for herself.

“Is he any less good or less in control just because he didn’t do what I had anticipated as the final result?”

Freeh concluded that he was not. Quite the opposite, instead.

Thinking back she questioned what she had to be so mad about.

In her role as Miss Minnesota, Siri Freeh joined Miss Minneapolis, Samantha Phillippi at Eaglepoint Elementary for Jump Rope for Heart. Freeh, a 23-year-old nursing student at the University of Minnesota with a 4.0 GPA, plans to pursue a doctorate in cardiovascular research. Part of her platform is “Living Heart Strong.”

“For the first time, I couldn’t feel God,” she said.

Then she came across some Bible verses, including 2 Corinthians 12:8-10: “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in your weakness,” she read.

“I knew that verse before, but it had never been more real that at that point,” she said.

She also read 2 Timothy 1, which offered the advice to never be ashamed to testify for the Lord and join with him in the suffering for the sake of the Gospel.

Freeh concluded God was calling her to lay down any power or control she thought she had over this pageant and allow him to be seen and his work to be done.

“There are going to be times that God is going to call you to be a light on a very public stage,” she said.

Siri Freeh, who talks about losing interest in school in middle school when she became ultra focused on acceptance, now encourages youth to pursue school with a passion in her promotion of STEM programs across the state. “Because of my own passion for research and science, I absolutely love the partnership that the Miss America Organization began one year ago!,” Freeh stated in her blog at www.sirifreeh.com/my-blog.html.

Instead of competing at Miss America, Freeh found herself praying with some contestants. She provided a positive energy that made people comment on it.

“They never saw my anger,” she said.
“I was very open. It’s because I have Christ in me, and it’s because I have an eternal focus instead of just this crown.”

She says she knows her outer beauty will fade.

“I can’t be investing in this (outer beauty),” she said. “I’ve got to be investing in things that matter.”

LightShine! series recordings online include one on Sen. Kiffmeyer

Christ Church in Otsego LightShine series lifts up the unique testimonies of people who are letting the light of Christ shine through their daily work,  according to the Rev. Greg Pagh.

It’s carried out in a Q-and-A format. Pagh interviews each of the individuals to “provide a unique window into the personal story, character and passion” of these guests.

“I have had prepared questions going in but there have been wonderful surprises in every interview,” Pagh said.

Submitted photos
Sen. Mary Kiffmeyer, R-Big Lake, during her interview with the Rev. Greg Pagh of Christ Church in Otsego.

Miss Minnesots Siri Freeh was the subject of the first interview in the series. Freeh’s complete interview with the Rev. Greg Pagh is available online at Christ Church’s website, as are interviews with Sen. Mary Kiffmeyer, R-Big Lake; Ryan Daniel and Billy Steele of The Sounds of Blackness; Rick Heeren of Harvest Evangelism; Pastor Stacey Jones of Urban Jerusalem Church and WWII Veteran Marshall Harris.

They can be found at http://christchurchotsego.org/LightShine.htm.

The post The long walk…has only just begun appeared first on Star News.

by Joni Astrup

Associate editor

Gina Hugo calls it “the green menace” and says it’s not a question of if it will arrive in Elk River, but when.

An emerald ash borer

The menace is the emerald ash borer, and when it arrives it poses a threat to the more than 10,000 ash trees in Elk River.

“Emerald ash borer is here in Minnesota. It is spreading. It is being detected in new areas regularly,” said Hugo, a resource conservationist for the Sherburne Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD). The emerald ash borer has been found as close as Shoreview in Ramsey County.

Emerald ash borer attacks and kills all species of ash trees. There are nearly one billion ash trees in Minnesota, Hugo said, more than any other state in the nation.

In a recent presentation to the Elk River City Council, Hugo said it’s crucial to prepare for the emerald ash borer in advance, rather than waiting until it is detected. By then, she said, populations are often already quite high.

SWCD is facilitating an urban forestry program with participation from Elk River and other cities in Sherburne County. The goal of the program is to assess, manage and plan for the trees in Sherburne County.

A tree-lined street in Toledo, Ohio, in 2006, before emerald ash borer infestation. Photo by Dan Herms, Ohio State University

Three years later, in 2009, after the invasive insect spread to the neighborhood. Photo by Dan Herms, Ohio State University

As part of the program, SWCD is working with city staff to develop an emerald ash borer preparedness plan for Elk River. It also is working with various agencies and volunteers to complete tree inventories this summer for Elk River and other cities in Sherburne County. The agencies include St. Cloud State University, the University of Minnesota and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, but volunteers will play a key role.

“The on-the-ground work is going to need to be done by volunteers,” Hugo said.

Volunteers will receive training in May on tree identification, data collection and tree measurements. To volunteer, contact Hugo at ghugo@sherburneswcd.org or call 763-241-1170, ext. 101.

SWCD also intends to make provisions for replanting trees.

About the emerald ash borer

•Emerald ash borer is an insect that attacks and kills ash trees. The adults are small, iridescent green beetles that live outside of trees during the summer months. The larvae are grub or worm-like and live underneath the bark of ash trees. Trees are killed by the tunneling of the larvae under the tree’s bark.

•Emerald ash borer is native to eastern Asia but was discovered in Detroit, Mich., and Windsor, Ontario, in 2002. Indications are it may have been introduced to this area as early 1990. Emerald ash borer has been spread in ash firewood, nursery stock and possibly other ash materials to a number of new areas.

•All ash trees are susceptible and millions of ash trees have been killed in infested areas already.

•For more information, go to the Minnesota Department of Agriculture site at www.mda.state.mn.us/plants/pestmanagement/eab.aspx

Source: Minnesota Department of Agriculture

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Parker Elementary School students milked a cow cut-out at a county fair-type celebration.

School administrators at Twin Lakes Elementary School donned capes and spoke in comic book terms.

Meadowvale Elementary School students played bingo and competed in a book bowl.

And Lincoln Elementary School kids got up early and came to school with their parents.

What do these seemingly unrelated events all have in common? They were all part of “I Love to Read” festivities across Elk River elementary schools in recent weeks.

Lincoln teachers served breakfast in the lunchroom to attract an overflowing crowd of readers and guests.

Twin Lakes Elementary School administrators pointed out how even Super Heroes love to read. They also brought in local author and businessman J. Brian Calva, who by day works in sales and marketing for Beaudry Oil Companies. He donned a Super Man costume to the delight of the children. Calva, or Super Beau as he was known on this day, read a book he authored with his wife, Renae, to bright-eyed and eager first-graders. The book, “The Princess of Igotchu,” offers a take on the Calva family’s own personal experience of adopting their baby girl, Olivia. It was a hit with the kids.

Calva’s message to the kids was becoming a good reader is very important and that anyone can write their own book if they try.

Twin Lakes’ theme was read was “Be a superhero … Read!”

Students learned the more they read, the more superpowers they will have.

If students achieved their reading goal each week, they would receive a piece of Bazooka bubble gum with a “Bazooka Joe” comic on their weekly media center visit.

Principal Dan Collins made appearances throughout the month as Capt. Green, a superhero who is green friendly and promotes the ideas of recycle, reuse and reduce.

Throughout the month, media specialist Kathy Lewin traveled between classes with a cart of iPads. Students K-5 created a variety of comics. K-2 students created a comic of themselves, with thought bubbles proclaiming: “I am a superhero reader!”

Older students created a comic related to the curriculum; Martin Luther King Jr., Abraham Lincoln, Mount Rushmore or Tall Tales. The comic included six boxes with pictures students captured with six speech bubble facts.

Local cartoonist and author Duane Barnhart also visited.

Parker Elementary School students, meanwhile, celebrated at month’s end with a County Fair, complete with games and activities to highlight the school’s reading of “Charlotte’s Web” and other activities throughout the month.

Meadowvale Elementary School offered its first Meadowvale Book Bowl. There were seven teams competing and the winning team  was: “The Book Devourers.” They represented Meadowvale at the district Book Bowl on March 14.

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