Fifth graders use new ‘electronic mail’ to correspond with pen pals

Nov. 19, 1964 –A Glenwood youth was dead and a Starbuck girl injured following a single car roll-over. This was the county’s fourth highway fatality of the year. The car in which the pair was riding left the road about a mile west of Glenwood and rolled over several times after it hit the ditch.

County 4-H’rs celebrated with their annual awards banquet. Among those receiving awards were Adele Swanson, the 4-H Key Award and the Archer-Daniels Award; Harold Anderson and Mrs. Sewald Odegaard, alumni awards; Mrs. Dan Gaffaney, the Gold Clover Award for 4-H leadership; Clara Bjerke and Philip Rolig, Goodfellow Awards; LeRoy Lundebrek, plaque; and Beverly Gunvalson, the Pope County Tribune’s award to the dress revue queen.

Three members of the Glenwood Lakers football team were named to the 22-man All Conference team of the west Central Conference. They were Mike Shea, Bill Gilman and Doug McIver. Other team members were from Wilmar, Litchfield, Benson, Morris, Montevideo and Sauk Centre.

Nov. 21, 1974 – Pope County highway engineer Robert Ellestad was quoted in the Tribune saying that area road signs were making expensive targets for marksmen. The cost of replacing one of the signs was $27. At least 80 percent of the county’s road signs had been damaged by gunfire. Vandals had also stolen ab number of the signs.

Dr. Gordon Lee and Dr. James Reinhardt  had moved their practices over to the new Glenwood clinic adjacent to the Glenwood hospital. The clinic would be connected to the hospital by a corridor. The building across the street from the hospital, which had served as the doctors’ clinic would become an apartment building. 

Anna Schmitz, of Villard, the county’s oldest resident, celebrated her 103rd birthday at her home. Three of her five children, 10 grandchildren and 26 great-grandchildren were among those who attended the party. 

Nov. 22, 1984 – Two metropolitan duck hunters who had spent the night marooned on an island in Lake Johanna were rescued by Department of Natural Resources personnel. Area law enforcement officials were notified that the two were missing by the wife of one of the men. Temperatures during the night dropped, and the lake froze while the two were on the island.

Villard Mallards’ girls’ basketball coach, Jan Kapaun, said that all five starters from the previous year would be returning for the 1984-85 season. They were Pat Rode, Kim Novak, Ginene Reichmann, Jennifer Thurk and Sheila Jensen. Boys’ coach Bill Capp was expecting the return of Randy Albers, Bob Dalen and Todd Rajdl though the team had lost Marty Laumeyer, Bill Stalker, Mike Randt and Mike Rajdl to graduation.

Nov. 21, 1994 –  The 17 fifth-grade students in Steve Hoffmann’s class at E.N. Nordgaard Elementary School had pen pals in Australia. Although having pen pals was not unusual, the Glenwood fifth-graders were corresponding through email, an “electronic mail” system by which letters were transmitted via computer and modem. The electronic mail exchange was taking place through the school’s hook-up to the Internet, more commonly known as the “super highway.”

The first annual community Thanksgiving dinner was to be served on Thanksgiving Day at the Minnewaska Area High School cafeteria. Anyone in the area who would be alone or would not otherwise enjoy a Thanksgiving dinner was welcome to attend.

Over 200 guests were to sit with jesters and troubadours in the royal banquet hall during the Ann Bickle Heritage Houses madrigal dinner. With music and humor, guests would begin the Christmas season during the dinner performance set for Saturday, Nov. 26.

Nov. 17, 2004 – The first Habitat for Humanity of Prairie Lakes house, located at 525 First Avenue Northeast,, was now enclosed and ready for interior construction to be finished. The house would be worked on every Wednesday and Saturday from 8 a.m. until 4 p.m. In addition to work crews, volunteer hosts for the construction site were also needed. Volunteering as a host could be for those who wanted to be involved but couldn’t meet the physical demands of construction. There were also many construction tasks that weren’t as strenuous as others.

The Glenwood City Commission pushed plans along on the new Lakeside Ballroom at its regular meeting on Nov. 9 when commissioners agreed to hire Dale Strommen, foreman of CMC Construction in Kensington, as an owners’ representative for the construction of the new ballroom. His task would be to oversee construction to ensure that quality work was being done in a timely fashion and that design plans are being adhered to.

A Glenwood man discovered a couple of counterfeit 37-cent flag stamps, and the story had made Linn’s Stamp News, a national publication for stamp collectors, Richard Cole made the discovery during the past summer. 

Nov. 19, 2014 – It was clash of the seasons down at Glenwood City Beach on Friday morning. Fall leaves still clung resolutely to the frosted trees while newly formed ice spread from Lake Minnewaska’s now snow-covered shore. Instant winter blanketed much of the Midwest last Monday when a storm system dumped more than a foot of snow across the area. A snowfall depth of 13.2 inches was measured at the Glenwood airport, and Starbuck came in at more than 15 inches. As the sign proclaims… lifeguards are off duty. 

Glacial Hills Elementary fifth-grader Cheyenne Taylor got very special letter in the mail in October. She received a large envelope Cheyenne found a handwritten letter from Michelle Obama and a signed photograph of the Obama family. “At the beginning of the year in fifth-grade social studies Glacial Hills Elementary, the class discussed how our government works and who leads our great country,” fifth-grade teacher Kaley Poegel said. “Students were asked to write to a political leader and address any concerns they had for our country.” Cheyenne wrote a heartfelt letter to Michelle Obama and after many weeks of anticipation, received a response. Poegel said the class also received response letters from the governor’s office, and even more impressively from the White House. 

Lacey Entzi competed in the girls’ swimming state tournament on Thursday in Minneapolis. Lacey qualified in the 200 freestyle and the 500 freestyle. The Minnewaska eighth-grader was taking part in the state meet for the second year in a row. Lacey finished in 19th in the 200 free preliminaries with a time of 2:00.38. In the 500 free Lacey swam a time 5:25.32, good for 21st place.

Deb Hoven, a former kindergarten teacher at Minnewaska Area Elementary School, returned to MAES last Friday to talk to students about her recently published book, Light Up The Year. Sharing her spirit of adventure, Hoven told MAES kids, “Grandmas and grandpas can learn and try new things, too!” She also shared her love of the holidays and of creating art – a perfect combination for her book, which follows a feisty and festive string of lights through each month as they avoid being out back in the box. Hoven told the group of kindergartners above no matter their goal, “Don’t ever say ‘I can’t.’ You can do it!”