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If it’s round, she can play it
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NRHEG grad places in national tourney
STRONG SHOWING — Molly Hlebichuk, left, and Alexis Anderson, runners-up in the women’s B doubles division at the 68th National Handball Collegiate Tournament, proudly show their medals. (Submitted photo)
Alexis Anderson never expected to become a handball player.
But it’s safe to say she’s glad she did.
Anderson, a Minnesota State-Mankato University freshman and a 2019 graduate of NRHEG, competed in the 2020 National Handball Collegiate Tournament at the University of Texas in Austin, Texas on Feb. 19-23. Collegiate handball players representing 36 institutions from around the world participated in the five-day event.
Anderson, who participated in four sports at NRHEG, needed one more credit for her fall quarter at MSU and wanted to stay physically fit, so she decided to sign up for the handball course. Never having played handball, she was excited to try a new sport. When she attended the class, she found out she was the only girl. But that did not bother her. She was up for the challenge.
Anderson’s instructor and MSU’s handball coach, Dr. Michael Wells, saw her playing and was impressed with her skills and asked how long she had been playing handball. He was surprised to hear she had never touched a handball before. He encouraged her to join the MSU handball team and, with his continued persistence, he recruited her for the squad.
Bittersweet day
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Yard signs delivered to seniors
READY — From left: Sharon Ramaker, Larry Jensen, (window) Robin Eder, Teri Korman, (window) Brooke Krohn, Oliver and Carrie Petsinger, Geneva Fire Chief Curt Boswell, (window) Wendy Schultz, Daniel Nydegger, (window) Angie Aaseth, Mark Domeier, (window) Brenda Dobberstein, Doug Anderson, Randy Schott, Deb Bently. Below is Andrew Bailey. (Star Eagle photos by Eli Lutgens)
By ELI LUTGENS
Editor
It was a somber day for NRHEG.
Typically, graduation is a group event where every senior is together one final time. The class of 2020 will not get the typical experience. They will not experience a senior prom, Baccalaurette, or even, their final day of class. What they get is bittersweet.
With 17 days left until the official conclusion of the 2019-20 school year, seniors were delivered yard signs and good wishes Monday night across the school district, complete with caravans led by fire trucks.
It's hard to imagine what seniors are going through, the thoughts going through their minds. Some people say graduation is for the parents more than the seniors. That may be the case. As school buses made their rounds Monday night, one comment stuck out, "This is kind of fun," said one volunteer firefighter from Geneva.
Caravans quickly formed as the faculty made their rounds of deliveries. The stops were short and the conversations brief as cars started lining up behind the school bus, fire truck and fire truck vehicle. As the sirens and horns honked, Deb Bentley, Brook Olson and Robin Eder all ran out to greet the high school senior at each stop.
Delivery caravan set for seniors
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EMPTY FEELING — NRHEG instructor Shawn Larson’s classroom sits empty as Gov. Walz has extended the Distance Learning order through the end of the 2019-2020 school year.
The nearly 60 members of the New Richland-Hartland-Ellendale-Geneva (NRHEG) Class of 2020 can expect some rather noisy visitors the evening of May 4 beginning around 6 p.m. Community members and school staff will be lining up behind leader vehicles and driving to the homes of each class member, where they will share their good wishes and deliver an individually prepared gift.
School staff and others are invited to gather by 6 p.m. in their vehicles near either of the district’s two school buildings. There, participants will be organized behind leader vehicles and will follow delivery routes focused around each of the district’s towns.
“The people of the NRHEG community are constantly contacting us, asking what they can do to help support these seniors,” says NRHEG Athletic Director Dan Stork. “We thought this would be a very visible, very cheerful way to show the Class of 2020 that their communities are thinking of them, and want to see their accomplishments acknowledged.”
Robran stays busy during ‘stay-at-home’ directive
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AT-HOME PROJECT — Marilyn Robran exhibits one of the hand-sewn quilts, for which she is well known. (Star Eagle photo by Melanie Piltingsrud)
By MELANIE PILTINGSRUD
Staff Writer
Marilyn Robran of rural Hartland hasn't had any trouble keeping busy during Minnesota's 'stay-at-home' order. Robran is a well-known seamstress, whose talents already landed her picture in these pages a couple of years ago when she donated a quilt to a church bazaar in honor of her late son. So when the Alden Fire Dept. needed face masks for their crew during the COVID-19 pandemic, they knew just who to contact.
Using a pattern she found on Facebook, Robran uses cotton or cotton blend materials to cut out the masks, and then irons on interfacing to add a modest amount of stiffness. Then, she sells them for $3 each.
Sewing the masks is a breeze, but Robran had to think outside the box store to find material. She had cotton fabric already on hand, but Robran couldn't get to Jo-Ann's to look for extra thin interfacing, so she went to A-Best Sew & Vac in Albert Lea, which keeps interfacing in its inventory for projects like machine embroidery. “He got me a roll of the thinnest they had,” said Robran.
So far, Robran has sewn nearly 60 face masks, including:
• 12 for the Alden Fire Dept.
• 12 for the Manchester Fire Dept.
• 12 for her cousin in the Twin Cities
• 10 for her sister
• 5 for her husband's sister
• 1 for their local postal carrier
• 1 for the office postal worker in Hartland
Teachers deal with challenges
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HOME SCHOOLING — From left: Amy Shaw, Corbin Delacruz, Emily Delacruz and Tatianna Delacruz work on a school project from home.
By DEB BENTLY
Contributing Writer
As with any complex, large-scale endeavor, there are differences in perspective. But there seem to be two statements NRHEG teachers can agree with unconditionally:
“I miss seeing the kids,” and, “This is a lot of work.”
As they finish the second week of the Distance Learning plan required of all Minnesota schools, teachers have encountered circumstances which range from delightful surprise to heartrending disappointment—much like any other day at school. But the surprises and disappointments have changed.
Of the roughly 75 teachers employed by NRHEG, 50 responded to a survey asking for their impressions and experiences. When asked to rate the program overall, 40 indicated they felt things were going well, and another six provided a neutral rating. When asked to evaluate how much work the program requires, all but two rated distance learning as requiring more work, with 34 saying it calls for “quite a bit more” effort to operate online instruction.
“I thought my life revolved around school before,” commented one teacher. “But now I start my day between 6 and 7 a.m. making sure everything is online and ready to go, and I’m often still communicating with students up until 7 p.m.”