MARSHAL - Carlie Wagner participated in the Farm and City Days parade Saturday.
By MELANIE PILTINGSRUD
Contributing Writer
Rev. Charles Espe told those assembled for the Fire Dept. Pancake Breakfast at Farm and City Days that the Grand Marshal chosen for this year had something to do with history and something to do with animals. If the word ‘animals’ made you think of Panthers, Gophers and Lynxes, you might have guessed this year’s Grand Marshal – Carlie Wagner.
Wagner thanked everyone for the distinction, and spoke of Farm and City Days. “This is what I look forward to all the time,” she said. “It never gets old. Ever since I was a little girl, this has been something I really enjoyed. I’m really happy to be here with you all.”
Was she surprised to be chosen as Grand Marshal? “Well, yeah!” said Wagner, who was told she had been chosen prior to the announcement. “It’s super exciting, and I’m just, you know, honored to have the opportunity. I’m so happy to be here this summer, and get to spend Farm and City Days with all my friends and family. It’s so nice!”
Wagner, who completed her major in Business Marketing and Communications this spring, has been home since May, and is really enjoying her old stomping grounds.
Of her degree, Wagner said, “I really like marketing. I had an internship with Gopher Sports Marketing my senior year and I loved it. It’s exciting. It’s fun to be kind of the brains behind the operation of what goes on at big sporting events and stuff, so I think I’d really want to stick around sports with that. It would be really fun to be able to go for a professional team and get the chance to be a marketer for them. It’s exciting. It’s a really fun job.”
Wagner was in the 2018 training camp for the Minnesota Lynxes, but she currently has no obligations with them. Her plans now are to head overseas in September to play professional basketball in Zamora, Spain. “I’ll be there for about seven months,” said Wagner. “So it’s a long season. And then I’ll come back and try the WNBA thing again.” Wagner is looking forward to her first trip to Europe and to staying in the beautiful city of Zamora, which dates back to medieval times. “It is exciting. I’m kind of just dropping everything and heading over, and I’m just going to see what happens.”
Meanwhile, Wagner will be brushing up on her high school Spanish, and riding through the beautiful city of New Richland as this year’s Grand Marshal.
“The support I’ve gotten over the years is just crazy,” said Wagner, “and it’s just so much fun to be home this summer, and get to spend time with all the people that pretty much raised me and were there for me all through high school and my childhood. I’m excited for this weekend, and getting to see everybody again, and just having a good time.”