Publisher’s Perspective

By Tim Douglass, Publisher of the Pope County Tribune

It was another successful Waterama in Glenwood. The event concluded last night (Sunday evening) with the annual Waterama Coronation.

Congratulations to all five candidates who ran for the honor of representing Glenwood and Waterama.  They all performed well on the stage and we know that newly-crowned Queen Kia Matt and First Princess Cacee Danielson and Second Princess Xi Li will represent the community well throughout the year.

Congratuations to Barb Ostrander, who was presented with the Minneapolis Aquatennial Commodore Award.  She was honored for her many years of service to the community and to waterama.  Barb, a native of Starbuck has been involved in the community for many years.  Barb has been the ultimate volunteer and involved in myriad of local ommunity, school, business and church projects and organizations.  And, as was pointed out at the coronation, Barb was the 1984 Waterama Second Princess and named Miss Congeniality that year.

“She told all the candidates and the visiting royalty, “you are just getting started.”  She also thanked the Waterama Brass, the Aquatennial representatives and the community for the award.

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The annual Waterama Celebration again filled the community with people and visitors.  It seemed there were a lot of people at all of the events from streeet dances to parades to all the activities.  The weather cooperated.  Despite a bit of rain during the church service in City Park and the Minnewaska Rotary Pancake Breakfast, it was a beautiful week.  The rain didn’t last long on Sunday morning and the pancake breakfast was as successful as usual.  The Rotarians thank the community for their willingness to support the breakfast.

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Some may have noticed a different looking flag atop the American Legion and VFW Beer Garden tent.  That was the Ukranian flag waving along side the American flag.  There were a lot of positive comments about the flag and how it was a welcome statement of support for Ukraine by our veterams.  There is a Ukrainian family that is currently living in Glenwood, and I’m told that they too appreciated the local veterans flying the Ukrainian flag along with the American flag.  That family, I was told,  was overwhelmed with emotion about the flag display and said they feel very welcome in Glenwood.

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It was also nice to see the Pope County Law Enforcement recognized this year as Grand Marshal of the Waterama Grande Parade.  Sheriff Tim Riley and Chief Deputy Nathan Brecht represented all local law enforcement in the parade and it was nice to see they received applause all along the parade route.  Law enforcement officers in this area, including Glenwood and Starbuck Police Departments do important service work and we thank them for all they do.

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On the appreciation note, one group that is often overlooked is the Glenwood City Crew.  The Public Works department, led by Andy Jorgensen, did a fantastic job of getting the city ready for the big week.  There are a lot of things the crew does that are simply expected, but they should be credited for going above and beyond to get the entire city ready for Waterama and making sure everything runs smoothly during the week.

And a big thank you to the Waterama Brass–Terry Jones, Angie VanZee and Sarah Iverson and their families–for all the work and dedication.  Their year-round work, along with all the  Waterama Board members’ work, is the reason it all came together this week.  Thank you to all Waterama volunteers and visitors.