Feature Stories from the Star Eagle pages.
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BREATHTAKING - A monarch butterfly rests on a milkweed flower along a local road. A bee feeds on native bee balm in an area conservation plot. The study of native plants--including both milkweed and bee balm--is an important element of studying monarch butterflies. Star Eagle photo by Deb Bently
By DEB BENTLY
Staff Writer
Wendy Caldwell, executive director of Monarch Joint Venture, has been studying monarch butterflies and their interconnectedness with the environment since her college days beginning back in 2007. She is ready, though, and even anxious to learn more.
The organization she leads is based in the Twin Cities, with offices in California and Michigan. Its purpose is to serve as a clearing house for information and recommendations to assist the many people, groups, businesses and agencies which have a stake in monarch butterflies and their annual migration. “We want to help them make their efforts as efficient as possible,” she explains. At the current time, well over a hundred groups from all over the country have partnered with the organization.
It seems everybody is fond of monarchs.
“Pretty much everyone has a connection with them,” observes Caldwell, “whether it was raising a monarch in a classroom as a child or watching as hundreds of monarchs flew overhead during a southward migration.”
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By MELANIE PILTINGSRUD
Staff Writer
After eight years of ministry at Ellendale's Vibrant Life Assembly of God, Patrick and Kalyna Stitt and their five children have decided to become missionaries to Japan.
Patrick Stitt, originally from Ireland, moved to England as a teenager with his parents. There his father taught sociology and social policy, and his mother was a health care nurse. Stitt came to the United States in 2004 to go to Bethany Global University.
Kalyna was born in Rochester, Minn., the daughter of a military family, who was used to moving constantly. She, too, felt called to the ministry, and chose the Bethany missionary school where the two met.
Patrick Stitt is grateful for the reception he and his family received at Vibrant Life Assembly of God. “It's been wonderful,” says Stitt. “When I started out, I sucked. I was so bad. I had no clue what I was doing, was just a terrible preacher, a terrible pastor all around, and they just still loved me, and they were just really kind to me. If you go to the Cities and you pastor a church, and you do poorly, you're their employee, so you're going to need to fix that or move on. In rural Minnesota, it's like, 'Yeah, he might suck, but he's our pastor and we love him!' It's the goofy cousin that you just love anyway. But they gave me the grace to grow.”
Despite the good fit at Vibrant Life, Patrick and Kalyna Stitt felt called to the mission field. “God just put a burden on our hearts for people who would never get the chance to hear the Gospel,” says Stitt. He and his family learned that Japan is the second least reached country in the world. Per Stitt, it is the only country where Christianity is legal and yet is still on the decline.
The Stitts reached out to missionaries in Japan and, through them, gained the opportunity to go to Japan to run a church for two weeks. Stitt went there with his oldest son, Jack.
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By DEB BENTLY
Staff Writer
Dan Lewer and Chris Olson have not simply “taken over” the meat processing business located on South Ash Avenue in New Richland. They are in the process of transforming it.
Oh, it’s true that the business looks much the same, at least for now. It still offers the same long-standing services and products, and even has many of the same employees. Customers need have no concern their needs and interests are being met. But at the same time, bigger things are going on behind the scenes.
“We both have children who are devoted to agriculture,” observes Olson who, with Lewer, has been an owner and operator of Neighbor’s Meats since May 2021. “For the sake of our community and for the next generation, we want to be part of building a farm-to-table system that is sustainable for everybody.”
Both Olson and Lewer have close ties to the meat processing business: Lewer’s grandfather and uncle, Gerald and Keith Hullopeter, were owners of the business on South Ash Avenue in New Richland from the 1970s to the 1990s, and Olson’s grandparents worked for them.
Two generations later, the two families remain connected, with Olson and Lewer having been close friends and associates for more than 16 years, including most recently working together at the Hope Elevator. Both also continue to operate their respective family farms, one facet of which is raising beef cattle.
Both had long been aware that the current system of food distribution in the U.S. has too many “middle men.” Farmers would market their cattle to large processing plants, which, because they were buying in volume, paid a relatively low price for the animals. Farmers then paid to ship their cattle to the plants, where the large companies reportedly made significant profit for each pound returned to stores and distribution centers.
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New Richland Ambulance Director Sarah Sundve served as the interhim director of the department for three months before she was hired as the department head in March.
By MELANIE PILTINGSRUD
Staff Writer
Sarah Sundve, who grew up on the county line between New Richland and Hartland and graduated from NRHEG, has an important job to do in our communities; she is an EMT and, as of March 22 of this year, the director of the ambulance crew in New Richland.
Sundve, the daughter of Jim and Kathy Peterson, became a first responder in 2014, and has worked as an EMT since 2016.
Sundve doesn't like to let the grass grow under her feet. She is married and has three children, two step-children, and two grandchildren, yet she also finds time to work full-time at Mayo Clinic Ambulance Service out of Albert Lea/Austin, besides directing the ambulance crew in New Richland. How does she do it? She loves it.
“When I started as a first responder, I loved helping people and wanted to do more and learn more,” said Sundve of why she decided to become an EMT.
On May 20, the New Richland ambulance had an open house, where Sundve encouraged those interested in volunteering as a first responder or EMT to ask questions. She is eager to dispel doubts, saying, “You may not think it is something you can do, which is what I thought and now I do it full-time and love my job.”
Those wanting to apply to become an EMT in New Richland can stop in at city hall for an application, call Sara Jo Vulcan at 507-465-3514 or email Sarah Sundve at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. “We will be able to help you in the process,” said Sundve. “Each person that applies goes through a background check and city council approval before being officially hired.
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GRAND OPENING — On Saturday, June 19 Make it Happen Nutrition at 140 Broadway Ave. N., New Richland, held an open house for its Grand Opening. Above, the owner, Stephanie Garcia, helps blend a protein shake. Summer hours for the new wellness shop will be 6:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m. Monday-Friday.
By MELANIE PILTINGSRUD
Staff Writer
The grand opening of Make it Happen Nutrition took place on Saturday, June 19 from 8 a.m. – 5 p.m. The new beverage shop, located at 140 Broadway Ave. N., New Richland, specializes in nutritious teas, energy drinks, and shakes to boost energy and metabolism, and provide a nutritious source of protein. Stephanie Garcia, owner, said the place got pretty busy during the grand opening.
“About seven years ago, I tried Herbalife,” says Garcia, who has been living in New Richland for the past six years. “I worked at a health club for a little while then.”
It was because of her experience with the global franchise Herbalife Nutrition that Garcia started dreaming of owning her own health club. At the nutrition club in Waseca, Garcia noticed a lot of people from New Richland stopping in, which is why she thought it would be “awesome” to have a nutrition club available in New Richland.