The amount of money collected in Geneva for cancer research is more than impressive.

But it doesn’t tell you about all the other things that go on you might not know about. Many people see the dollars but overlook the many other great accomplishments.

During the Geneva Cancer Run group’s presentation the first weekend of the Geneva Cancer Auction, DeeAnn Randall gave a brief summary of some of the things done by the local motorcycle group, in addition to donating money for research.

The motorcycle group has held the Geneva Cancer Run on the second Saturday in June for several years and they have accomplished many great things. They also know there is still a lot of work yet to do. DeeAnn said their mission is to fight cancer in different ways. Research and treatments are needed, but love and compassion are needed as well.

Several members in the group visit people going through treatment. Cash gifts have also been given to help people with whatever their needs are during difficult times.

In 2015 they visited a young mom raised in Geneva, as well as visited a 6-year-old boy in Blooming Prairie, where they discussed a five-year plan with his mother. They also visited a 60-year-old mom/grandma in Owatonna who found out she had cancer in September. She went directly to hospice and passed away in December.

They visited a dad of three who was attending a wrestling meet in Austin in which his sons were participating. The dad recently learned he only had two months to live.

They visited a mom/grandma, who is also a nurse’s aid in Waltham. She fought cancer for five years and only had a week to a month to live.

They helped a family who was hospicing their dad. The man moved in with his son in rural Lyle three years ago, knowing there was no cure. His sister, DeeAnn’s best friend, passed away at the young age of 40. He became like a big brother to DeeAnn after her older brother had been killed. Sadly, the man passed away in November.

DeeAnn shared with those gathered at the Geneva Cancer Auction that when they visit people like those mentioned earlier, they see there is a lot of work yet to do to find a cure for this dreaded disease so they continue to do what they can. Sometimes those visits are worth a whole lot more than any amount of money that can be raised or given.

She said they learn about people who need help by word of mouth and hope that if there are others are struggling, people will let them know. The local motorcycle group is on Facebook, so people can contact them if they know of someone who is struggling. Or people can pass along information to any of the people who are part of the Geneva cancer group.

DeeAnn also thanked many people who help the local group make each motorcycle run successful. Many people volunteer to help, including local fire departments and law enforcement. Others donate and serve food at the many different stops the cyclists make along the way. Others donate items for the silent auctions, people provide music at the conclusion of the run. Many who see the group and learn what the motorcycle run is all about also provide donations for the cause.

She announced that the Geneva Cancer Run was donating $2,000 to the Geneva Cancer Auction in addition to what they had already given.

DeeAnn concluded her presentation to the many people who were gathered for the Geneva Cancer Auction with, “God bless you for everything you do to fight this dreaded disease of cancer.” 

People helping people, that is what it is all about!

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Some of our Star Eagle readers have commented that they like to read about events such as family and school reunions, birthdays and anniversaries, and birth and wedding announcements.  In order to read about these important things we need our faithful readers to pass along the information to us.

Also, if you have an idea for a story that you think would be of interest to our readers, please contact me.

If you have birthdays and anniversaries you would like to include, or news to share, please contact me via e-mail, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., by postal mail, P.O. Box 192, Geneva, MN 56035; or telephone, 507-256-4405.

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Birthdays and anniversaries:

• Thursday, January 21st: Cooper Routh, his 5th, Joshua Dobberstien and Gerald Wobshcall

• Friday, January 22nd: Reese Hendrickson, Taylor Lunning, Christian Sletten, Tom Haried, Lyle Shaunce, Barbara Van Gorkom, Jeff Miller, Heather Sargent

• Saturday, January 23rd: Eugene Worke, "Emeritus" Bob Hanson, Eugene Cornelius, Rodney Sorenson, Dean Broitzman, Garnet Folie, Jeff Miller, Chris Paulson

• Sunday, January 24th: Morgan Sophia Luhring, her 11th; Renee Polzin, Greg Menefee, Mary Cunningham, Trevor Tracy

• Monday, January 25th: Calvin Thomas VanderStoep, his 7th; Sophia Mabel Olivia Mrotz, his 15th;  Max Thomas Powers Brekke, his 9th; Emma Meiners, her 8th;  Paula Olson, Vernon Simonson, Lana Thompsen, Troy Phagan, Ladawn Hatch

• Tuesday, January 26th: Andilynn Leigh Knudson, her 7th; Russell Nelson, Bonnie Peterson, Pat Reese Ceplecha, Linda Oldenburg, Angela Borchert, Donna Borchert Knudson, Amanda Abel

• Wednesday, January 27th:  Anna Mae Lee, Jon Berg, Linda Davis, Nancy Ingvaldson, Paul Larkin, Keegan Brighton,  Myrtle Peterson, Ken & Waynette Peterson, Bruce & Rose Ann Kubicek

• Thursday, January 28th: Brian Brekke, Kevin Stieglbauer, Kalei Wilson, Caleb Brocker, Ruth Paulson, Denise McGowan, Rachel Schei, Lona Berg

• Friday, January 29th: Molly Jo Wayne, her 8th, Jalen Aaseth, Rick Seath, Andrea (Hanson) Carter, George Dettman, his 86th, Kim (Harpel) Johnson, Zenobia Haberman, Stephanie Jensen

• Saturday, January 30th: Allison Grunwald, Renae Wallace, Trudy Nelson, Cody Boverhuis, Dennis Jensen, Jeanette Fetterly, Michael Robinson, Scott Morreim, Wally Wobschall, Missy (Wayne) & Sean Engel, their 7th, Paul & Diane Stollard

Let the good times carry you away on your special day!

When I was in high school, a boy in my grade stole the answer key for a major test off the desk of our social studies teacher. This classmate went and made copies for all the guys on the baseball team. But he even took it a step further. Each of the boys picked different questions to get wrong, and they even picked enough to get wrong so it wouldn’t seem suspicious. For example, a buddy of mine was usually happy getting a D on these tests, so he got enough wrong to get a C. Had he gotten an A or B, the teacher might have raised an eyebrow. It was a perfect system of cheating.

I declined a copy of those answers, but there were other times I stepped over that line and cheated in school. I once left the word list for the Spanish forms of various foods sitting on top of my books next to my desk; the teacher never noticed. It’s one reason that, when I used to give tests that counted on recall, I always told my students to put their books UNDER their desks.

I’m sure some of my readers can recall instances of cheating in their schooling. It’s not something any of us should be proud of, but it seems to be a fact of life for many people that it will be attempted at least once. There’s that time we just completely forgot about an assignment or were too busy to study for that test.

In college, we even worked out a system for our psychology class. You could take the weekly test any time between 1-3 on Friday afternoon. One person in our group would go and take the test first and then return to inform us what we needed to look up before going over ourselves. This rotated among us so we all took turns at not doing as well, but that was only about once a month.

Students cheat. However, it seems they are not being as intelligent about cheating these days. I caught two young men one day when I was correcting questions from a novel we read. As I was looking at the answers of the second student, they seemed frighteningly familiar. I looked back and, sure enough, they were word for word from the other kid. What’s worse is that most of them were wrong!

This is one reason that many questions students have to answer for me require short answers or essays. Single-word answers are very easy to copy without anyone being the wiser. However, teachers are pretty good at remembering phrasing and feeling that sense of déjà vu as we read student papers. So really? You’re just not going to get away with that!

One of my college professors amazed us one time. A fellow student in our English class was called out for turning in a plagiarized paper. This student had bought the paper from someone who had taken that class three years ago. The professor remembered that paper and even who had written it! The student who had bought the paper was dismissed from the class and received a failing grade.

This is a point we try to get across to students who get caught cheating. I very often assign a zero grade to the assignment but make the student redo it anyway. However, I warn my junior high kids that the penalties will be more severe at the high school and college levels. And if you establish a pattern of cheating in school, what will you do in a job someday? You might always look for the easy way out, even there.

My 7th graders are working on a research essay right now. We’ve gone over plagiarism and giving credit to your sources. Many of them struggle with putting things in their own words. You have to do more than just change a word or two; you need to summarize the point in a completely different format. Part of this lends itself to reading skills as well and the ability to decipher what is being said. Still, I’m almost guaranteed to have to call somebody to my desk when we’re done to talk about copying.

It’s so much easier to cheat today. Students can buy essays off the Internet, and many just copy and paste sections of things they find online. But as easy as it is to cheat, it is just as easy to catch the cheaters. When I read something that looks suspiciously NOT like a student’s writing level, I simply Google a sentence and – TA-DA! – there is the entire paper. I once caught a kid who had simply changed all the pronouns that had been in first person to third person, but forgot to in the final paragraph. That was enough for me to find the work online.

We all make mistakes. We all make poor choices at times. However, we’re discovering more and more kids walking the path of cheating. Most mornings I walk by groups of kids working on homework that should have been completed the night before. I always wonder how much they’re sharing. Sadly, the answer is probably too much.

Word of the Week: This week’s word is yobbery, which means rowdy or destructive behavior by youth, as in, “Cheating was the least of the yobbery which occurred with some kids each day at school.” Impress your friends and confuse your enemies!

After getting a brief respite from the cold, the scurs had the Weather Eye checked over one more time. Will it warm up now or have we just seen the tip of the iceberg? (no pun intended) Starting Wednesday, mostly cloudy with highs in the upper teens with lows in the low teens. Thursday, mostly cloudy with highs in the low 20’s and lows in the mid-single digits. Partly sunny Friday with highs in the upper teens and lows in the upper single digits. Saturday, partly sunny and warmer with highs in the mid-20’s and lows in the upper teens. Partly sunny on Sunday and warmer with a slight chance of snow. Highs near 30 with lows in the upper teens. Monday, mostly cloudy and cooler with a slight chance for snow. Highs in the low 20’s with lows near 10. Mostly cloudy skies for Tuesday with highs in the mid-20’s and lows in the low teens, all above zero. The normal high for January 23rd is 23 and the normal low is 4. The scurs have served notice that their favorite time of year is nearly over and soon it will be time to think about getting the lawn furniture and jarts out again.

The Full Moon for the month falls on the 23rd and generally goes by the Full Wolf Moon. It was at this time of the year that the wolves could be howling near the tribal encampments of the Native Americans. The moon also goes by the Old Moon and is sometimes called the Moon after the Yule. The Ojibwe called it the Great Spirit Moon and the Sioux, very aptly I’m sure, called it The Moon of Frost in the Teepee. While there was certainly no frost in the house at the ranch, we were just hoping it would not be the Moon of Frost in the Well Pit. No one enjoys frozen water unless you’re an ice fisherman.

While last week tested our mettle somewhat, we have to keep in mind we skated through most of November and December relatively unscathed. We’ve sawed off a lot of winter already and are essentially halfway-plus through it. Yes, it was cold, although the cold snap was certainly nothing new in Minnesota terms. Indeed we are through the coldest part of the winter which typically occurs from about January 9th-21st. High temps for the area during that timeframe average about 22 and lows a tick below 4 above. Cold enough for most people’s taste.

The cold and snow cover has some of the wildlife starting to look for food around the yard. A large group of pheasants discovered the ear corn I’d left in the feeder for them. A group of 10 was meandering around the back yard on Monday as I nursed a quick-hitting alien making its first 2016 appearance. There were three roosters and seven hens, all in good rig. They were zipping around in the plum thicket at first then fanned out across the yard, some of them hopping up and down to pick off some of the low hanging nannyberries still on the bushes. The cottontails and the squirrels have also found the corn, scattering partially eaten ears all over the grounds. It doesn’t take the pheasants long to find them. They must think they’ve struck the mother lode. 

A sharp-shinned hawk continues to be at the ranch from time to time, keeping the house sparrow population on the run. Watching it in action the other day, amazing how aggressive the little hawk was as it twisted its way around inside the brush pile and spruce trees trying to dislodge a potential lunch partner. There are plenty of jays, downies, hairies, red-bellies, chickadees and nuthatches keeping the feeders busy when the sparrows are on the run. We still have seen only the female cardinal at this point. She tends to appear most commonly during the low light times of the day and has so far been alone. Her appearance doesn’t change in the low light so not sure why she has no beau. Feel bad for her, having to sometimes tolerate the horde of sparrows by herself where the males in the past are generally not so hospitable. I’m sure there must be a male somewhere that isn’t paired up. Not to worry. Valentine’s Day is coming up soon.

So what do we as outstate Minnesotan’s do when we run into these cold snaps? Ice fishing was mentioned and now apparently there is enough ice for permanent fish houses as a few are dotting area lakes. Mrs. Cheviot puts together puzzles. I like to watch the wildlife and look for Studebaker parts. Some of us also find time to go to basketball games like this past Sunday. What a great escape from the icebox to score tickets from Vista’s noted Swedish astronomer, hop on a warm chartered bus and head to a Gopher women’s basketball game to cheer them on. That and having a little lunch prior to that in order to keep our strength up. It’s especially nice not having to drive through the Twin Cities and to actually look at it once in a while without trying to guess what some numbskull driver is up to. Did you realize the Foshay Tower is no longer the tallest building in Minneapolis? A special “thank you” to those responsible for arranging these welcome little respites from winter. I was asked by an appreciative lady on the bus if I knew the chief in charge and she asked me to thank him for her. Am doing that now. Sometimes we take a lot of this for granted and we don’t recognize it until it’s gone.

See you next week…real good then.

Remembering the life of Clarine “Kay” M. Nelson…

Funeral Services for Clarine “Kay” Nelson, of Ellendale, MN, will be held at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, January 23, at the First Lutheran Church in Ellendale. The Reverend Richard Sliper will officiate. Interment will be in First Lutheran Cemetery, Ellendale. Visitation will be from 4-7 p.m. Friday at Bonnerup Funeral Service,  Ellendale, and one hour before the service at the church.

Kay died on Tuesday, January 19, 1916, at St. John’s Lutheran Community in Albert Lea. She was 89.

She was born on October 8, 1926, in Emmons, Minnesota the daughter of Knut and Clara (Juveland) Hovland. She graduated from Emmons High School and completed Naeve Nurses Training.

The Waseca Sleigh and Cutter medallion is hidden outdoors, on public property within the Waseca city limits.

A $1,750 prize of Chamber Dollars and store certificates will be awarded to the person who finds the medallion.

Bring the medallion to Charlie’s Hardware. Clues will be published in the Star Eagle. Clues will also be broadcast on KRUE and KOWZ Radio and will be available at Waseca Area Chamber of Commerce at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..