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Strenge sets record at state fair
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PRIZE PIG — Ethan Strenge shows his Grand Champion market gilt at the 2019 Minnesota State Fair. (Photo by Empire Imagery)
By JIM LUTGENS
Publisher
Almost everyone in New Richland knows of Ethan Strenge.
He’s the kid who grew up with a misshapen face, the result of a rare form of cancer that forced the removal of most of his right cheekbone. It hasn’t been pretty, and Strenge — who was diagnosed 14 years ago — became known around town as the kid who overcame so much.
Now he can be also recognized as a state record holder.
Strenge, who turned 18 in July, earned Grand Champion honors with his market gilt at the Minnesota State Fair, netting a record $17,500 in the auction ($10,500 selling price, $7,000 donations). He also won the use of a Featherlite livestock trailer for one year. The money, of course, is set aside for college, but first there’s his senior year at NRHEG High School, and another year that promises to be just as eventful (more on that later).
Strenge’s path to state began with Grand Champion honors at the Waseca County Fair. He accepted the optional trip to the state fair, where there were more than 100 market gilts in seven classes. After winning his class, it was on to an extremely competitive final round.
“The judge looked at a lot of pigs, but he looked at mine the most,” said Strenge.
Count on him
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Kruger helps raise hopes, expectations for NRHEG football
FIRST AT LAST — NRHEG head football coach Marc Kruger, right, embraces Jacob Schuller after the Panthers’ section championship victory over WEM at Janesville last October. The Panthers’ 2018 and continuing motto: “Count on Me.” (Star Eagle photo by Chris Schlaak)
By JIM LUTGENS
Publisher
Last year, expectations were not exactly high for the NRHEG High School football team.
And they did not get any higher when the Panthers hired first-year head coach Marc Kruger, a product of Albert Lea High School, where they rarely win football games.
So what did Kruger’s Panthers do? They surprised everyone, winning their first-ever section championship while finishing 9-3 and reaching the state semifinals.
“It was a perfect season,” said Kruger. “The last game for every team is real bad, but we were able to look back at it pretty quickly and realize how well we did.”
How did the Panthers win so many games when Kruger won so little at Albert Lea?
“In Albert Lea, we had our own issues,” he said. “The kids would never buy in to what they were doing. Kids from Albert Lea would go on to play in college, and everyone wondered, why can’t Albert Lea be better? The kids never bought in.”
This did not happen here last year, according to Kruger. The NRHEG kids bought into the system and the Panthers won. It also didn’t hurt that they had 10 talented seniors, three of whom are on college football rosters.
Blazing Star seeks to restore native prairie habitat
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NATIVE MINNESOTA - Dustin Demmer works hard to bring back native plants that were once common across MInnesota prairie. (Star Eagle photo by Melanie Piltingsrud)
By MELANIE PILTINGSRUD
Staff Writer
Dustin Demmer is the entrepreneur behind Blazing Star Gardens, a business just a few miles west of Clarks Grove, that seeks to re-propagate some of Minnesota’s native prairie flowers and grasses by growing the seeds – and knowledge – that people need to be successful when they decide to implement prairie restoration projects.
Demmer grows plants from native Minnesota prairie grasses and flowers that you would have seen here long ago. He sells some of the plants at Souba Greenhouse & Garden Center in Owatonna in the spring, but, from most of the plants, he harvests the seeds, cleans them, and then sells those top quality seeds to wholesalers, who then mix them with other native plant seeds for use in prairie restoration projects.
Such projects are becoming increasingly popular. But why are they so important? Demmer explains: “A lot of people are starting to become concerned about monarchs, bees, pollinators, and they’re wondering why they don’t see any in their gardens, and it’s because most people have planted daylilies and hostas and stuff that we brought over from Asia, Africa and Europe, and those plants don’t have the same insect associations as the plants that the insects in America [..] evolved with. Most people know that monarchs need milkweed to lay the eggs, because it’s the only thing the caterpillars eat, but a lot of insects have the same kind of specific relationships with really specific species of plants. Another example is: painted lady butterflies need either pussytoes or sweet everlasting or pearly everlasting, which are all native perennials – perennials that, if you were to come here a thousand years ago, that’s what would have been growing.”
Up for the challenge
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Rajala rides 625 miles, raising $3,260.80 in June
DID SOMEONE SAY CHALLENGE? — New Richland resident Laina Rajala rode her bicycle 625 miles in June, raising $3260.80 for the Children’s Cancer Research Fund. (Submitted photo)
By JIM LUTGENS
Publisher
Laina Rajala is never one to back down from anything.
So when she discovered the Great Cycle Challenge, and the way it benefits the Children’s Cancer Research Fund, she was all over it.
It started slowly enough. Rajala rode her bicycle 82 miles and raised $615 in 2015.
This past June, she pedaled 625 miles to raise $3,260.80, bringing her five-year total to 1,430 miles and $7,753.01.
Finding the motivation to do it, according to Rajala, was not difficult.
“Ethan Strenge was my original inspiration when I started participating,” said Rajala. “He and his family have gone through a lot since his cancer journey began (I think 14 years ago!). As a cancer survivor myself, I know it's an ugly disease at any age, but kids should get the opportunity to be kids and not have to fight for their lives. I bike for the kids that can't, and I keep that thought in mind when I'm out there.”
Rajala says there are some staggering statistics that she’d like to see change, that every two minutes a child is diagnosed with cancer and 38 kids die of the disease every week.
Krueger looks like perfect fit for Ellendale
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FAMILIAR TURF — Ellendale native Tiffany (Moon) Krueger is the new city clerk in Ellendale. (Star Eagle photo by Jim Lutgens)
By JIM LUTGENS
Publisher
It seems like a perfect fit.
Tiffany Krueger grew up and lived in Ellendale and had performed city clerk duties for three communities when the Ellendale City Clerk position opened up.
Still, she had to think about it.
“I was a little hesitant, actually,” said Krueger.
Why?
“Well, there’s a lot of drama that goes into local politics,” she said. “I live here, I grew up here, so everyone knows me. I’ve never worked for a town that I’ve lived in. Sometimes people forget you’re not an elected official. You clock out. It’s difficult to draw that line between community and family. But I thought of all the good I could do for the city.”
So Krueger applied for the job and was hired, attending her first city council meeting July 11.
She does seem like a great fit. A 1998 graduate of NRHEG High School as Tiffany Moon, she earned a degree in business administration and management from Southwest State University, working for six years as city clerk at Hayward. During that time she was contacted by Hartland and Freeborn and at one point worked for all three communities.
“I learned a lot,” she said.