CURRENT minnlocal.com
Burnsville Lakeville
April 28, 2011 • V36.17
In the Community, With the Community, For the Community
Breakfast in crosshairs of BHS program ‘Breakfast to Go’ effort encourages students to start day out right BY JENNIE OLSON • SUN NEWSPAPERS
Burnsville off to 1-3 start. Page 24A
75¢
Tornado survivor, others recall 1973 event BY MICHAEL RICCI • SUN NEWSPAPERS During Tornado Awareness Week, it is perhaps easy to roll one’s eyes at the drill. But when a tornado hit Lakeville in 1973, there were no sirens to be heard. On May 9, 1973, the city was hit by a tornado that left a five-year-old boy dead and injured 10 others. Hardest hit was Connelly Mobile Home Park, near where Fleet Farm is today, which had 15 mobile homes damaged or destroyed in the conflagration. Hampton resident Kathy Fritz was in
one of those mobiles homes when the sky turned dark. She had just put her 14-month-old son down for a nap. She began noticing that something was terribly wrong, accompanied by an ominous feeling of possible death. “Pretty soon, the trailer house started moving, and I ran into the bedroom and laid down on top of him,” Fritz describing her actions to protect her son. “I remember looking up, and the mirror was breaking on our dresser, and the bed was going around in circles.”
At that specific time, Kathy was not aware a tornado was approaching. Moments later, it went through the mobile home complex. According to Fritz’s husband, the Minnesota State Patrol officers who were at the scene estimated that their home had rotated a half dozen times while 25 to 30 feet in the air before finally stopping, leaving Kathy with only minor injuries and their son amazingly uninjured. Like many other people who have TORNADO: TO PAGE 18
Students walking into Burnsville High School Monday, April 25, had the chance to take pictures with Sparky the mascot, win iTunes gift cards and eat a healthy breakfast as a part of Blazing Breakfast Week at the high school. The promotional kick-off event raised awareness for Breakfast to Go, a year-long research program through the University of Minnesota’s Department of Family Medicine and Community Life that encourages students to eat healthy breakfasts. The high school was given $11,400 by the National Institutes of Health Stimulus Funding to pay for personnel, materials and equipment for Breakfast to Go, which will last until the end of the current school year. “The main point of the research is to figure out how to increase the amount of students having breakfast at the school,” said Community Blueprint Program Director Andy Berndt, who is assisting with the marking side of the grant. “We’re working with a student group to figure out what we can do to encourage BREAKFAST: TO PAGE 20
CHECK AD INSIDE FOR FORECLOSURE LISTING! www.adamsrealty.com
Interested in learning more about what it takes to be a Coldwell Banker Burnet Agent? Call me today or visit our web site at:
www.YourColdwellBankerCareer.com Richard Tucker Branch Vice President 952-435-4300 RTucker@CBBurnet.com
Richard Tucker. Caring dad. Strategic thinker. Real estate leader.