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Party for Rourke: Annual event utilized to help Wacholz family
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THE FIGHT CONTINUES - Finly’s Wings at Work is a nonprofit organization founded in 2018 after the Budach family lost their daughter at only seven years old. Every summer the organization holds a golfing fundraiser, followed by a concert to show appreciation. This year the concert was moved to Broadway in New Richland and asked for free will donations to help the Wacholz family. Four-year old Rourke Wacholz was recently diagnosed with leukemia.
By ELI LUTGENS
Publisher/Editor
The NRHEG community threw a party Saturday night, in New Richland.
Finly’s Wings at Work and New Richland Liquor Company worked together to host and sponsor a benefit concert performed by the Blue Ringers, to raise money for Rourke Wacholz. Finly's Wings at Work is a non-profit organization created in 2018 by Nick and Erin Budach after the loss of their daughter Finly.
Rourke is the four year old son of Chelsey and Michael Wacholz, and grandson of Kris and Lynn Wacholz, as well as Dalys and Diane Waltz. In March of 2021 he was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia.
Rourke recently started undergoing treatment. A handful of events have already happened and will continue to take place in order to help support the Wacholz family. Saturday night was a good example of NRHEG residents supporting each other in a time of need.
A large crowd attended the performance Saturday night. “What do you say for people in hard times like this?” Karl Proehl, owner of New Richland Liquor said. “All I can say is that it was a good night. It was a party for Rourke Wacholz.”
Saturday’s events became a reality after Nick Budach of the non-profit group Finly’s Wings at Work approached the Wacholz family with the idea. “We put on a concert each year as a thank you to the community,” Budach said. “This year we used it to raise money for Rourke.”
Gateway to larger issues:Monarch butterfly offers a unique look at the environment
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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.”
Stitts’ sharing the gospel in Japan: Patrick, Kalyna and their five children are moving to Osaka to become missionaires
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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.
First Board Meeting for Meihak: NRHEG School Board, 7/19/21
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By REED WALLER
Staff Writer
New Superintendent Michael Meihak addressed the NRHEG school board during its regular meeting, and his first with the district, July 19, 2021. All members were present except Board Chair Rick Schultz; acting in his stead was Vice Chair Dan Schmidt.
Meihak reported on the secondary building gym update: Curtain has been removed, support beam plaster removed and painted. A quote is being prepared on how much it will cost to repaint the walls.
Ford Metro is assessing the gym lobby entrance reconstruction, and they are working up some quotes regarding the demolition and the new construction, and the job may happen this fall, but probably around spring break.
Comments
Meihak also informed the board that the rules for Public Comments during the board meeting have been somewhat broadened to include not only “residents,” but family members of open enrolled students.
Donations
Donations were received from:
Compeer Financial, $3,000 for Ag Department; Central Farm Service Foundation, $500 FFA Grant; Land O’Lakes $500 FFA Grant; Delores Hemingway Family, $125 Ellendale Voluntary Readers and $400 Ellendale Readers program. Total: $4,625.00.
Workforce
Contract renewal was approved for Naomi Elmhorst, Certified Occupational Therapist Assistant. We share Ms. Elmhorst’s service 50/50 with JWP.
Also approved for another year was Administrative Assistant to the Superintendent Sue Kulseth.
A new hire was approved for Solveig Sundblad, 6th grade teacher at beginning wages.
K-3 Literacy Plan
The K-3 Literacy Plan is required by the State of Minnesota, and the board approved the terms of the K-3 Literacy Plan for 2021-22. The plan requires that all students are provided reading instruction that is scientifically based, that parents are notified of student progress at least annually. In K-2 students are assessed using the STARS program. Students not reading at grade level are given intervention-based practices to improve. The results are reported annually to the Minnesota Department of Education.
Ellendale Apartment question address: Ellendale City Council 7/22
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By JESSICA LUTGENS
Staff Writer
In response to a letter to the editor printed in last week’s issue of the Star Eagle regarding an ongoing apartment building project, the Ellendale City Council agreed to distribute more detailed information about the project during its second meeting of the month on Thursday, July 22. The letter, while successful in prompting the council to take further action, did not contain completely accurate information. The issues addressed in the letter have been discussed at previous council meetings as well as a public hearing earlier this month.
“We need to step up communication,” said Mayor Matt Bartsch, who will reach out to the EDA – who originally recommended the project to the council – as well as other official parties involved with the project to gather information to be released to the public.
Councilperson Steph Kibler pointed out that information regarding the project is available to the public in the form of council meetings, meeting minutes, which are posted on the city website, and the ability to contact city hall during business hours with questions or concerns.
One point made in the letter regarding the possibility of low-income housing was also addressed by Bartsch, who stated that low-income individuals and families exist in most communities, and Ellendale should provide housing opportunities to all citizens regardless of wealth or income.
Fire Department
Several individuals with the Ellendale Fire Department were present to provide updates on another ongoing project in town: a new fire hall for the department. Total costs for the project are estimated at about $507,000, though the department is eligible for a grant of up to $450,000. A request by the department for the city to agree to provide the remaining roughly $60,000 for the project was approved by the council, to the relief and appreciation of the department.