Progress Charities and Faith
Albert Lea Tribune
February 24, 2018
‘We’re here to serve the
COMMUNITY’
Members of the Tigersharks swim team take part in practice earlier this month at the Albert Lea Family Y. Colleen Harrison/Albert Lea Tribune
Albert Lea Family Y encourages healthy living, connections By Sarah Kocher
sarah.kocher@albertleatribune.com
I
mplemented and planned changes mean there’s something in the water at the Albert Lea Family Y. That something includes children involved in the Y’s swimming program, which youth, fitness and aquatics Director David Cheeks said is more transparent for parents and easier to understand for instructors after a national revamp in 2017. Executive Director Dennis Dieser said the Albert Lea Family Y has also planned free safety around water training for fifth- or sixth-graders — most likely sixth — next fall. “The goal would be to get every sixth-grader through swim lessons in the community,” Dieser said. See NONPROFIT, Page 2
What’s inside?
Saving souls
A job of service
Advocating for victims
Finding ways to support
St. Casimir’s in place over 100 years. Page 3
Commissioner helps others for a living. Page 3
Man passionate about helping. Page 4
Church gives food to students. Page 4
Page 2 | AlbertLeaTribune.com | Progress 2018 | charities and Faith | Saturday, February 24, 2018
Nonprofit Continued from Front Page
It is an extension of the health and wellness incentive for middle school students that offers fifth-, sixth- and seventh-graders free Y memberships. In addition, Dieser said he is hoping to convert a racquetball court into an extra room specifically for youth in this age range to further expand the program. “We’re here to serve the community,” Dieser said of the Y programs. Youth development is one of the pillars the Y has established as an area in which to do that. Cheeks said he sees their summer and sports programming as a way the Y is serving community children in that regard. For instance, the achievement gap in school is affected by education during the summertime, Cheeks said. “That’s how other kids get ahead,” Cheeks said. With the Y’s programming, that access may be changed. It also shows in the way the Y goes about sports programming for children, placing an emphasis on values over activity. “The big one is perseverance,” Cheeks said. Another foundational aspect of the Y is encouraging healthy living, which Cheeks said the Y is working on with its free diabetes prevention program. “There’s a big push with diabetes prevention with the government right now,” Cheeks said. The Albert Lea Family Y is one of close to 200 YMCAs nationally that runs this program. However, Dieser said although the Albert Lea Family Y is equipped to run it, it has been a challenge to garner interest in the program. The organization’s Livestrong project, though, has finished two years with lots of positive feedback from the community,
Members of the Tigersharks swim team take part in practice earlier this month at the Albert Lea Family Y. Colleen Harrison/Albert Lea Tribune
“We feel that collaboration and working together is the best way.” — Albert Lea Family Y Executive Director Dennis Dieser Dieser said. Cheeks said the Livestrong program offers exercise and support to those going through cancer treatment. “Really, it’s a chance to get them engaged with other cancer survivors,” Dieser said. These connections are part of what Dieser and Cheeks both see as the wider scope of the Y.
“Some people think we’re a health club, and we’re not,” he said. One of the challenges for the Y is making people aware of what that means. What Cheeks said he sees is a place for exercise, yes, but also community, meeting friends, for belonging, to keep out of trouble and to learn new skills. And on top of it all, it exists as a place for collaboration, Dieser said. It’s collaboration with Workforce Development, with whom Cheeks said they bring in placements. It’s collaboration with a laundry list of community organizations, including United Way, which helps the Y offer scholarships to community members. And it’s collaboration, Dieser
By the numbers 14
Lifeguards receiving training at the Albert Lea Family Y
150,000-160,000 Dollars the Y donates back in financial assistance to youth and families
2 Years the Y has operated the Livestrong program said, that makes the good things happen. “We feel that collaboration and working together is the best way,” he said.
The Albert Lea Family Y breaks swimmers up into two different groups for the Tigersharks swim team — one group of younger or newer swimmers, and one for more experienced swimmers.
Come Worship with Us! The Salvation Army Sundays: 9:45am - Sunday School 11am - Worship Service 302 Court Street, Albert Lea (507)373-8776
Worship Services
Sunday - 9:00 am • Wednesday - 5:30 pm Communion at all services.
Trinity Lutheran Church
501 S. Washington Avenue • Albert Lea, MN 507-373-2466 • Pastor Eileen Woyen www.tlc-al.org • office@tlc-al.org
We are a fellowship of believers in Christ, sustained by God’s Word, led by the Holy Spirit and committed to God’s vision of caring!
924 Bridge Ave., Albert Lea, MN
8:00 a.m. Sunday Traditional 10:30 a.m. Contemporary 9:15 a.m. Education Hour 6:45 p.m. Thursday Worship
507-373-8609 • www.zion4jesus.org
Ascension Lutheran Church
grace lutheran church 918 garfield • 373-6496
Emmons Lutheran Church North American Lutheran Church 490 Pearl Street P.O. Box 23 Emmons, Minnesota 56029 Pastor: Rev. Christopher Martin Office Phone: (507) 297-5471 Email: emluth@wctatel.net Sunday Worship: 9:00 a.m. Sunday School & Fellowship: 10:15 a.m.
A place to Believe, Belong and Become
Albert Lea Assembly of God Bringing people together & BECOMING disciples for christ We invite you to worship with us this week! sunday worship • 9:00 a.m. EDUCATION HOUR • 10:15 a.m. wednesday worship • 5:30 p.m.
www.gracealbertlea.org
9:00 a.m. Worship 10:00 a.m. Fellowship Pastor Mark Boorsma 507-373-3408 • mboorsma@smig.net 1101 S 69 Highway Albert Lea, MN 56007 We follow only God’s Word. Hear & delight in Salvation through Christ alone!
Sunday: 8:45 a.m. - Adult Sunday School 10:00 a.m. - Worship (Nursery Provided) 10:30-11:30 a.m. - Children’s Church Wednesday 5:30 p.m. - Supper served $2 each Family Night: 6:30 p.m. - Adult Bible Study, Repurpose Youth Group & Kidz 4 Jesus
Pastor Mark 1540 South Shore Dr. (507) 373-7989 Albert Lea, MN
Our Savior’s Lutheran Church Pastor: James Kassera 320 W. College Albert Lea, MN 373-6097 Sunday worship: 9:00 a.m. Sunday School: 10:15 a.m. www.oursaviorsels.com
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2018 | CHARITIES AND FAITH | PROGRESS 2018 | ALBERTLEATRIBUNE.COM | PAGE 3
READING, WRITING, ARITHMETIC AND
SAVING SOULS
By the numbers
CATHOLIC SCHOOL IN WELLS OPEN MORE THAN 100 YEARS
103
Years since the St. Casimir School building was built in 1915
By Sam Wilmes
sam.wilmes@albertleatribune.com
22
WELLS — Despite a decrease in the number of students who attend the school and other changes, St. Casimir Catholic School is still open, more than 100 years ago after it was founded. Sarah Oldham, a member of the school’s interim administrative team, said St. Casimir Catholic School brings the message of Jesus Christ into classrooms, guiding students to be good Christians. “That also helps guide them to be a very wellrounded individual as they move on in life,” she said. “Right now, of course, we’re at the primary grades of elementary school, but as they leave us and move on into middle school and continue to grow and develop into ultimately adults, we find that having a good, strong foundation and base not only in the full education, but also with the Christian background, that that helps provide them with good consciences. “It makes them to be good members of the community and society. They give back and they’re able to have that good base to fall back on.” The pre-K to sixth-grade school teaches core subjects along with religion, music and physical education classes. “Some of those other courses that some other schools have had to cut due to funding, we’ve been still able to provide so that we feel we’re still able to provide a very well-rounded education,” Oldham said. Classes vary from one to two students in small classes, to seven students in larger classes. The Rev. Jason Kern is the priest at
Years the Rev. Eugene Stenzel served at St. Casimir Catholic Church
33 Students enrolled at the pre-K through sixth-grade school
Students attend Mass in January at St. Casimir Catholic Church. SAM WILMES/ALBERT LEA TRIBUNE
“It makes them to be good members of the community and society. They give back and they’re able to have that good base to fall back on.” — Sarah Oldham, a member of the school’s interim administrative team St. Casimir. “He’s brought a really nice, descriptive way of how we are a vital part of the community,” Oldham said. A retired priest and Wells native, the Rev. Eugene Stenzel was a pastor at St. Casimir Catholic Church for 22 years and served as a fill-in priest for a daily mass in January.
St. Casimir’s Parochial School in Wells was built in 1915. “It’s home to me,” he said. “I was born and raised here.” Stenzel attended the school from the late 1940s to early 1950s and remembered each grade having 30
to 35 students. When he attended school there, Franciscan sisters taught students, while today the entire staff consists of lay people. Despite the reduction in
Commissioner Lee: A life of service to community LEE WORKS AT ELM HOMES IN ALBERT LEA
student numbers, Stenzel said the school is still important in the community. “It’s a real sign of progress, the fact that lay people are doing it,” he said. “It’s a
sign of the church growing, that now we have lay people doing what we thought we had to have religious people doing, but lay people are just as competent.” Oldham has three children at St. Casimir Catholic School and has been a school board member for five years. “It is just a treasured, cherished thing to hear your child getting ready in the morning and they are singing a church song,” she said. “You are able to parent them in a sibling conflict and you are able to bring Jesus into that and ask them, ‘Is that how Jesus would treat his brothers?’ or, ‘Is that how Jesus would treat his friends or his classmates?’ and they are able to just very immediately and instinctively and intrinsically just connect with that, and so it’s allowed a lot of teachable moments in very wonderful ways.” Oldham said she believes she was called by God to her job, adding she believes a Catholic education is important, deeming it “amazing” to see the Holy Spirit at work. “They will learn their reading, writing and arithmetic — we know they are going to learn that along the way,” she said. “But ultimately our mission is to make sure that their soul is saved.”
CELEBRATING 30 YEARS IN BUSINESS
By Kelly Wassenberg
kelly.wassenberg@albertleatribune.com
So much of what people experience in their youngest, most formative years can dramatically impact their lives in the years to come. Freeborn County Commissioner Mike Lee is a testament to that. Lee, 62, vaguely remembers the experience of having two great-aunts, Tia and Ella Reindal, briefly live with his family when he was a young child. He said Tia Reindal did not speak, and Ella Reindal was her sister’s keeper. They both passed away in the ‘60s, but Lee recalls how the two were inseparable and doesn’t think Ella Reindal had any other job outside of being her sister’s caregiver. When asked, he admits the memory of those two sisters may have been the reason he’s always wanted to be in a position to help others and may have very well been the catalyst behind his job now as an afternoon and nighttime residential instructor with Elm Homes of Waseca County — where he aids four of the company’s consumers in living as independently as possible in a residential setting. Lee started working with the organization in 2003. In the beginning, he worked at a home with four men in Armstrong. In 2008, he switched to a home in Albert Lea so he could be closer to home. He now works with four women who range in ages from their 40s to 50s. His job is quite simple to explain — he supervises, he serves, he protects and he teaches.
Burial vaults • Grave Markers Flowers/Wreaths • Perpetual Care
CEMETERY ASSOCIATION 17544 Hwy. 65, Albert Lea Mike Lee talks with Pauline Camerer while she eats breakfast and he goes over his daily paperwork. KELLY WASSENBERG/ALBERT LEA TRIBUNE Lee works to make sure those who live at the group home are safe and properly cared for. He aids them in daily living skills, such as cooking, cleaning, budgeting and medication administration. Sometimes this means merely supervising; sometimes they need assistance. He makes sure the women are properly dressed for the weather conditions and escorts them to outings in the community, such as going to the movies or on a shopping trip. Lee talks with them and gives them guidance and support by trying to relate to their problems and tries his best to help them work through them. Pauline Camerer, one of the people Lee serves, said Lee is a father-figure to her, which means a lot, as she lost her own father 20 years ago. That’s a role Lee is happy to take on. “I really enjoy it,” Lee said, noting the joy comes from watching the women, who have cognitive disabilities, progress through learning new skills until they’ve reached mastery
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Freeborn County Commissioner Mike Lee, who also works with Elm Homes of Waseca County, holds up a piece of artwork gifted to him by one of the women he serves. and they can move on to the next goal. Lee has been a Freeborn County Commissioner since 2011. He has been married for 40 years to his wife, Renee, who is a special education teacher at Halverson Elementary School. The couple have four children and six grandchildren.
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PAGE 4 | ALBERTLEATRIBUNE.COM | PROGRESS 2018 | CHARITIES AND FAITH | SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2018
An advocate for area victims of crime By the numbers
By Colleen Harrison
colleen.harrison@albertleatribune.com
For over a decade, one Albert Lean has been doing his part to help some of those most in need. Chuck Pownell has volunteered with the Freeborn County Crime Victims Crisis Center for 11 years, and doesn’t plan to stop any time soon. Retired and living in Albert Lea with his wife, Pownell fills his time with being a father of two and a grandfather of three, and drives veterans up to the Veterans Administration hospital in the Cities three times a week. Volunteering with the CVCC, though, is a big part of his time. Volunteering with the organization is something he had thought of for some time, but the mandatory 40 hours of training was a bit intimidating at first, Pownell said. It wasn’t until he went through the Citizens Academy with the Albert Lea Police Department that another person in the class encouraged him to start the CVCC volunteer training. While Pownell has worked in the CVCC office when the staff is out of town for meetings or manned tables at events, the majority of his duties as a volunteer consist of answering the CVCC’s phones when the center itself is closed to the public, between the hours of 5 p.m. and 8 a.m. The main focus of being a CVCC volunteer, he said, is to be a good ambassador of the organization for the community. When it comes to answering phones, Pownell and other volunteers rotate shifts of weekdays and weekends using an online schedule. The calls coming in can vary in nature, but the majority of calls tend to relate to some form of domestic violence, Pownell said. Some calls come from people out of town wanting to have loved ones in the area checked on, who
11
Years Chuck Pownell has been volunteering with the Freeborn County Crime Victims Crisis Center
40 Hours of training CVCC volunteers must complete
1 Numbers of males, besides Pownell, who volunteer with the CVCC
He said the CVCC is always looking for volunteers, and that the 40 hours of training shouldn’t be intimidating to others as it was to him. Instead, Pownell said the hours should be looked at as a small part of a bigger picture. In the past, when classes were a part of sentencPictured are members of the community gathering in New Denmark Park for a domestic violence awareness community ing for male perpetracandlelight vigil in October 2016. The Freeborn County Crime Victims Crisis Center is always looking for more volunteers. tors in cases of domestic violence, Pownell helped COLLEEN HARRISON/ALBERT LEA TRIBUNE lead some of the classes. may be in an unsafe situThe classes were set up as ation at home. roundtables, and he said there was no limit to the Volunteers carry bags filled with necessary forms amount of “crazy reaand information for people sons” some people would who may need it when volhave for getting violent unteers are on duty. Pownell with someone else in the himself has met people in home. need up at the Law EnPownell said what usually forcement Center to begin hits home for him the most the process of filing orders is when he deals with calls for protection and helping involving children in unsafe people find other resources situations. He recalled one they might need. time where a 10- or 11-year“Every time we get called old called in, saying they had been kicked out by out it’s a different situatheir parents, and had no tion,” he said. “You never know what you’re going to place to go. get called out to.” As heavy as some cases A startling realization can get, Pownell said Pownell has made while it’s still worth it, knowvolunteering has been ing he has helped make a that even in a community difference. like Albert Lea, which he “It’s knowing you’re said seems safe, there able to help these victims are people involved in the who have gone through something,” he said.”A cycle of domestic violence, either as a victim, survilot of them don’t see it as vor, abuser or as someone abuse until it gets way out trying to help. there.” Chuck Pownell has been a volunteer with the CVCC for about 11 years.
GET HEALTHY, STAY HEALTHY.
Church looks for ways to support PROGRAM DELIVERS FOOD TO STUDENTS IN NEED AT HAWTHORNE By Tyler Julson
tyler.julson@albertleatribune.com
For a little under three months, Grace Lutheran Church in Albert Lea has been doing its part to make sure children at Hawthorne Elementary School don’t go home hungry on the weekends. On Dec. 7, members of the church started their mission to deliver Ziploc bags containing one meal to each student in need at Hawthorne. The idea, simply named The Backpack Program, started after a group of church members got the idea from a Kiwanis group in Mankato. “This type of thing is
Congregation and LEAD committee member Joel Erickson said the backpack program hopes to expand to all schools in the future. TYLER JULSON/ALBERT LEA TRIBUNE going on all over the country,” said project committee member Joel Erickson. “They have an extensive program up there. I don’t know how many schools they serve, but it’s quite a few.” The group of people who started the project at the church is known as LEAD,
or Live Everyday As Disciples. They have met for over a year, and in September they began seriously researching and considering the backpack program. Erickson said the program stemmed from teachers noticing some of their
See BACKPACK, Page 5
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2210 East Main St. • Albert Lea, MN 56007 • (507) 373-2461 308 7th Avenue • Ellendale, MN 56026 • (507) 684-2881 217 West Division St. • New Richland, MN 56072 • (507) 465-8015 www.BonnerupFuneralService.com
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2018 | CHARITIES AND FAITH | PROGRESS 2018 | ALBERTLEATRIBUNE.COM | PAGE 5
PROGRAM Continued from Front Page
students were coming in on Monday feeling hungry. He said the program does a lot of good in a really simple way. “It’s crucial for churches to be looking outside of themselves and looking into the community for ways to connect and support,” Erickson said. “This congregation has had a tremendous response. They raised the money in short order for these meals, and people are really behind it, so it’s been fun to see.” The Ziploc bags come prepackaged in a box and contain nonperishable food items, such
as cereal, a small can of vegetables or fruit, a juice box and other items. Volunteer members of the project committee take turns preparing and delivering the packages to Hawthorne, where an employee of the school will take the bags and put them in the children’s backpacks on Friday afternoon. All of the food supplies are bought from a distributing company called JA Foods and are paid for using donations from the church congregation. “We get the majority of the donations from people here at Grace,” Erickson said. “We held a program over the Christmas season, and we ended up raising
over $2,000 from that alone. We also have a little seed money from when we were established, but we hope we won’t have to use that.” The program started out with 31 students who received the meals and has slightly grown since then, but Erickson said he hopes to see the program grow much more in the time to come. “We hope to expand with the help of the Kiwanis here in Albert Lea,” Erickson said. “I think the program would be a great thing to have in all schools. So, maybe if we can get a few clubs from the area to help us with funding, we can make that A typical bag put into the students’ backpacks contains juice, fruits and vegetables, cereal, dry soups and various other items. TYLER JULSON/ALBERT LEA TRIBUNE happen.”
DINING GUIDE 2018 EVERY TUESDAY NIGHT WE SERVE OUR FLATBREADS
Then come in on Sunday and have brunch with your family!
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Kids games, drawings and much more.
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Coupon expires December 31, 2018
2306 E Main St | Albert Lea
Now serving RedBridge Gluten Free Beer! Enjoy our house wines at $2.50/glass! Featuring local breweries – Mankato Mad Butcher and Organ Grinder are Fantastic!
(507) 377-2166
Albert Lea Pizza Ranch
Come in on Tuesday and enjoy ou kids night! r
Now serving several varieties of Moscow Mules! Try our Big Island Mule or the Original Moscow Mule!
Thanks to our loyal customers, we’re celebrating our 7th Anniversary!
BUFFERT YOU WAY
DAILY SPECIALS DINNER SPECIALS FROM 4 PM-CLOSE
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Open: Mon-Thurs 9am-8pm, Fri & Sat 9am-9pm, Sun. 11-4
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2200 W 9th St, Albert Lea, MN • 507-373-2007
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PAGE 6 | ALBERTLEATRIBUNE.COM | PROGRESS 2018 | CHARITIES AND FAITH | SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2018
VITALITY CENTER
Helping People, Changing Lives
314 S Broadway Ave, Albert Lea, MN
Mission: Uniting people and resources to improve lives. United Way of Freeborn County addresses the root cause of issues focused on the areas of Education, Income and Health. Visit www.unitedwayfc.org to learn more about the work of United Way and the programs we partner with! 507-373-8670 | uwfc@unitedwayfc.org
INDEPENDENT MANAGEMENT SERVICES
101 21st Street SE, Suite 1 Austin, MN 55912 507-437-6389
314 South Broadway Ave Albert Lea, MN 507-473-2719
Freeborn/Mower
LIVE LONGER BETTER – ALBERT LEA! The Blue Zones Project® is a community well-being improvement initiative designed to make healthy choices easier through permanent changes to environment, policy, and social networks. 507-402-5144 Ellen.Kehr@gmail.com
Senior Resources of Freeborn County
Mission Statement: Seeking to put God’s love into action, Habitat for Humanity brings people together to build homes, communities and hope.
Senior Resources’ Mission: To provide opportunities that promote health and well-being for the aging population and others in need.
Core Principles: Demonstrate the love of Jesus Christ.
Advocacy Information & assistance Chore Services Snow removal, lawn care, and more
Contact us for more info at: PO Box 28 | 1415 1st Ave SW | Austin, MN 55912 507-433-1349 or via email community@habitatfreebornmower.org
Family Caregivers Network Support while caring for another Ride Services Volunteer drivers help with transportation needs
507-377-7433 • www.seniorresourcesfc.org