Sunday, February 28, 2016 | community | ProgreSS 2016 | albertleatribune.com | Page B1
Where are they noW?
Catching up with successful athlete brothers from 1970s WendorFFS moved to a.l. becauSe oF the city’S rePutation oF groWth In July 1965, a family of nine moved west from Austin to Albert Lea. The Wendorff parents and seven children settled into a large house on Vine Avenue — immediately making it their home. Unknown to them, they moved into an active neighborhood where big families were the norm; six to 10 children per household was a perfect environment for all-day, into the evening yard and neighborhood games, and the near future of teenage athletics. The Wendorffs came to Albert Lea for its reputation as a growing and bustling city at the intersection of Interstates 35 and 90. Industry was strong and varied, but Wilson & Co. dominated the economy and the air. Similar to Hormel back in Austin, as father Harold Wendorff said, “The noon whistle and smell of the plant equaled money and plenty of it.” Harold Wendorff was an entrepreneur businessman, proud Marine veteran of World War II and was active in the Masons, Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars, Chamber of Commerce, Rotary, amateur baseball and the Twins ticket organization. Mother, Beverely Wendorff, was a registered nurse with a focus on the operating room, while raising a bunch of active children. She was the loving sergeant of the house,
The Wendorff boys, Paul, Brad, Rich and Jim, stand with their father, Harold Wendorff, on their front porch in 1979. Provided and the children all knew it. There were two girls, then four boys, capped off by another girl. The older girls didn’t have a lot of athletic opportunities back in the ’60s. They were good AAU summer swimmers and enjoyed Dick Clark’s Bandstand in the
Paul Wendorff 1971
afternoon. The last child and daughter saw more sports available to her, participating in basketball, volleyball and track. The four boys were active all day — everyday. They spent time with the vast neighborhood numbers of boys; pick-up games of
baseball, basketball, football and kickball went on and on. Many of the teens had and began using barbells and weights; wooden benches sitting in backyards or in garages were not uncommon. The father built an actual baseball bullpen in the backyard, complete with a pitcher’s mound with rubber, an in-ground home plate and chickenwire backstop with a basketball rim set above. The family spent countless hours back there playing, raking, watering and having a mini Twins environment. The unusual thing about the neighborhood is that the high school football field (Abbott) was in the neighborhood with practice fields, the stadium, backstops and lots of green grass to play on. Albert Lea’s Park and Recreation system of summer parks was an additional stimulus as the family gravitated to Morin Park to play organized baseball, box hockey, tether-ball, running games and all the summer fun. Onto Southwest Junior High School then to the Senior High School the family went, each boy developing their own path. Jumping from sport to sport as the seasons changed, and they excelled. They said they owe it all to their parents, whose encouragement, never criticizing, solid meals and great sleep grew them well.
Brad Wendorff 1973
• Lettered cross country, baseball and track • Cross country co-captain • Big Nine, regional, state competition
• Baseball pitcher • Golden Gloves boxer • Regional Golden Gloves boxer
Rich Wendorff 1976
Jim Wendorff 1978
• Lettered cross country, basketball and track • Big Nine basketball scoring champion • All-state basketball, first team
• Swimmer, set a variety of school records • Big Nine and region relay records • State champion medley relay team
What happened to the Wendorff boys after graduation? Paul Wendorff went on to college to run cross country and indoor and outdoor track. He captained several teams, earned all-conference awards, set school records and in October 2015 was inducted with his teammates into the Minnesota State University, Mankato Athletics Hall of Fame. Distance running came about by surprise, but 60,000 miles later
and a body transformation, made it much easier. Brad Wendorff, after pitching baseball, won the regional Golden Gloves championship at a record young age of 16, when he knocked out a 26-yearold. He then proudly served in the Marine Corps. Rich Wendorff continued playing basketball at the
collegiate level, first at the University of Montana and then at Rochester Community College, where he was All-Conference, All Region XIII, league scoring champion and basketball captain. He finished his basketball career at Winona State University, where he won the NSIC Scoring Championship in ’78 and ’79,
was NSIC All-Conference 1st team, and basketball captain.He became the 11th player in WSU history to score more than 1,000 points — accomplishing this in just two years. Jim Wendorff continued his swimming career at Wisconsin-Eau Claire and later was active in triathlons and openwater swims.
—Information and photos provided by Paul Wendorff
Page B2 | AlbertleAtribune.com | Progress 2016 | Community | sundAy, FebruAry 28, 2016
alBert lea historian extraordinaire By Colleen harrison
colleen.harrison@albertleatribune.com
One Albert Lea transplant has garnered a reputation as the Albert Lea area’s selfappointed historian. Ed Shannon said he has been interested in history and the past itself for as long as he can remember. Shannon, now 88, is originally from Baker, Oregon. He went into the United States Army straight out of high school, actively serving from 1945 to 1947. During that time he served overseas during the U.S. occupation of Korea. In 1947 Shannon moved to Minnesota and attended college in Mankato. He graduated in 1950 and then went to Fort McCoy in Wisconsin as part of his Army Reserves duty. After finishing his reserve duty, Shannon said he was a school teacher for a number of years before moving to Albert Lea in
Why Albert Lea?
Shannon said Albert Lea is a nice place to live and he likes the history of the town. 1958. He worked different jobs at places like Land O’ Lakes and Olson Manufacturing for years, before starting at the Albert Lea Tribune on Aug. 6, 1984. “I came to the Tribune, and that was it,” he said. First hired as a writer — covering everything from law enforcement and car wrecks to features, play reviews and even some sports — Shannon was most known for his historical lifestyles features, weekly column and the daily Peek at the Past in the Tribune. His lifestyles features often looked into aspects of Albert Lea history and the surrounding
www.edwardjones.com
You talk. We l You talk. We listen. In person. In person. see history, Page B4
Ed Shannon spends a lot of his free time volunteering for the library at the Freeborn County Historical Museum. colleen HArrison/Albert leA tribune
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Page B4 | AlbertleAtribune.com | Progress 2016 | Community | sundAy, FebruAry 28, 2016
Moving a school district forward
new lAke mills leAder sAys he is imPressed with city
Why does Kohagen live in Lake Mills?
Kohagen and his family moved to Lake Mills over summer 2015, after Kohagen accepted the superintendent job in July 2015. He said he and his wife wanted a small, close community to raise their children in, and they think they’ve found it in Lake Mills.
By Colleen Harrison
colleen.harrison@albertleatribune.com
LAKE MILLS — The Lake Mills school district is looking toward to the future, with the help of new superintendent Chad Kohagen. Kohagen officially started with the district July 1, 2015. His last 16 years were spent in Oelwein, Iowa, eight as a high school principal, and the rest as a kindergarten through eighthgrade physical education teacher and then as an assistant principal and activities director. He said he originally got into the education field because he enjoyed working with children, and P.E. was his favorite class growing up. “What better job to have than to play games and teach motor development?” he said. “Teaching through movement is a big thing for me.” When he first looked into interviewing for the Lake Mills position, Kohagen said he and his wife were looking for another small community to raise their children in. He and his wife, Casey, have four children: one 10-year-old and 7-year-old triplets. Kohagen’s wife was familiar with Lake Mills as she had previously worked with West Hancock schools, and had nothing but positive things to say about the area. After Kohagen first interviewed for the position in March 2015, he agreed with his wife’s impression of the town. “I was impressed as soon as I came into the community,” he said. “Lake Mills is one of those communities people like to raise their families in.” Kohagen said he drove around the town when he first interviewed and appreciated the appearance of
HISTOry Continued from Page B2
Freeborn County area. At times, Shannon also wrote about cities in nearby counties. His column, “Between the Corn rows,” ran every Friday in the Tribune from 1984 until Shannon’s retirement in 2011 — with just three exceptions. Since retiring from the Tribune on Dec. 20, 2011, Shannon has volunteered at the library inside of the Freeborn County Historical Society three times a week. “I wasn’t ready to just retire,” he said. “It was something to do.” Shannon said he has always been interested in history, which may have first been piqued when he was a child by hearing of his grandparents’ journey on the Oregon Trail. As he grew up, that historical fascination came with him and was transferred to Albert Lea. Two local figures that
Chad Kohagen is in his first school year as the superintendent of Lake Mills schools. colleen hArrison/Albert leA tribune the community and how it seemed its inhabitants took pride in the town as a whole. He also liked that, even for a smaller town, it seemed to have an ideal amount of industry going for it. Since becoming a member of the community, Kohagen said he likes how everyone seems to have a “We’re in this together” kind of mentality. “Everyone seems to be on the same page and open to new ideas,” he said. “They’re very open to moving forward.” That open mentality will help with the school district’s plans for the future, Kohagen said. Something the district is working toward is making its schools compliant with the one-to-one initiative. The initiative is a push for each student to have some sort of device to take to all their classes and to take home with them, such as an iPad or a Chromebook, among others. According to Kohagen,
Shannon said encouraged his look into Albert Lea’s history were the late Bidney Bergie and Kevin Savick, who Shannon said often helped him gather information for his historical features. Someone who still helps Shannon with his historical digging is Linda Evenson at the Freeborn County museum. He also credited Tribune readers — sometimes even ones from out of state — who he said have been helpful in contributing ideas and information over the years. Besides his work at the museum, Shannon continues to stay busy with his family and within the community. He is a member of the American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars and Disabled American Veterans, and starts most of his mornings with a visit to the senior center in Albert Lea. Shannon and his late wife, Elaine, were married for over 62 years and have four children, six grandchildren and two twin great-grandsons.
By the numbers $150 milllion Amount of money earmarked each year by the statewide Teacher Leadership and Compensation system to benefit schools.
16 Years Kohagen spent educating in Oelwein, Iowa.
8
Kohagen first got his start in education as a kindergarten through eighth grade physical education teacher. He then went on to coaching sports, being an assistant principal and activities director and then a high school principal before coming to Lake Mills.
Years he spent working as a high school principal in Oelwein.
more with the Google platform and has a panel putting together a plan on how to reach the district’s technology goals. The panel is made up of school administrators, teachers and Internet providers. Kohagen said the group
makes its decisions together and relies on each other’s input and guidance to find the best approach for the school district and its students. He said there isn’t a time frame yet on when the district plans to be completely one-to-one,
Iowa is second in the country in having one-toone schools. He said he thought Maine was first in the number of schools following the initiative. Kohagen said, while the district isn’t completely one-to-one yet, it is doing
as it’s still working on infrastructure and narrowing the focus of its plan. Something else helping the district move forward is the statewide Teacher Leadership and Compensation system. According to Kohagen, the system promotes teachers into leadership by providing more resources for instructional coaching, training, substitutes and opportunities for teachers to go into other classrooms — all of which the state potentially provides financial compensation for. Kohagen said $150 million is earmarked each year by the Teacher Leadership and Compensation system to go toward different schools that apply for the grant by submitting a detailed plan of what the system resources would fund and how they’d be applied. In addition to updates on the technology and education fronts, Kohagen said he is interested in pursuing the possibility of solar panels on the school buildings. If they could significantly provide energy and make the buildings more viable, they are something he’d like to look into down the road. So far, Kohagen said the community has been receptive and extremely encouraging with all of the education proposals and initiatives. “I’ve been very impressed with the community as a whole,” he said. “We all look out for each other.”
By the numbers 1,410 Columns Shannon said he wrote for the Tribune
3,517
Articles for the Tribune that Shannon said have his byline
27 Years Shannon worked at the Tribune (plus four months) His great-grandchildren are in Waconia, and his other children and grandchildren are spread out in Minnesota and Wisconsin. Despite his family living in other towns, Shannon has stayed in Albert Lea and has no plans of leaving any time soon. “It’s a nice town,” he said. “It’s a real nice place to live.”
What may be one of the most unusual dolls in the region was created by Agnes Boss in 1992. It’s based on the late Bidney Bergie, who gained area fame for his popular slide show photo presentations based on city and county scenes of the past. On the upper right are six photos showing how the doll was created. In the foreground is a photo of Bergie standing next to his doll. Ed Shannon said Bergie and Kevin Savick encouraged his look into Albert Lea’s history. colleen hArrison/Albert leA tribune
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Page B6 | AlbertleAtribune.com | Progress 2016 | Community | sundAy, FebruAry 28, 2016
Habitat for Humanity sees increase in projects thanks to teamwork By Jason Schoonover news@albertleatribune.com
Through the 2015-16 school year, Riverland Community College students, volunteers and soon-to-be homeowners have all been hard at work building a home in northeast Austin. As Habitat’s Executive Director Brigitte Fisher looked around at Riverland students working on wood floors and walls of the budding home on a chilly November afternoon, she couldn’t help but be excited. “The energy here is amazing,” she said. The Freeborn/Mower Habitat chapter has seen a wave of activity in recent years, whether it’s through building houses, fixing up properties or its ReStore in the Sterling Shopping Center. The work to build its most recent home for Gabait Nagid and Nasra Damin and their family was just the latest example of what’s built the recent success
of the Freeborn/Mower Habitat for Humanity: partnerships. “Then big results happen,” Fisher said. “Then you really are starting to make a difference. And that’s what happened with us, ‘We just said, ‘Hey, we can’t do this alone. Who’s with us?’ And then its just been snowballing from there.” The turnaround was perhaps best displayed when the Freeborn Mower/Habitat for Humanity was asked by Habitat International to present at a regional A Brush With Kindness gathering with representatives from many surrounding states. The premise of Freeborn/Mower’s presentation was on how the chapter was able to serve so many families through its home repair programs. Freeborn/Mower leaders also did a statewide webinar on the same topic. “There’s a lot of focus on our affiliate right now, others who are struggling to serve a handful of families
wondering how we’re serving 30-plus families,” Fisher said. “The reason for our success has been our partnerships. As soon as you decide, hey, poverty is a big giant problem and set aside your pride and say, ‘We can’t tackle this on our own,’ you look at who else is concerned [and] come together and partner up.”
Breaking away from housing issues
When Fisher started with Habitat, she admits the group needed a boost. Community partnerships have provided the boost in both communities. In Austin, it’s Vision 2020’s Community Home Improvement Project, the Austin Housing and Redevelopment Authority, Riverland Community College, and smaller partners like many churches, concerned community members and more people. In Freeborn County, Fisher said it’s the United Way, the HRA, Shinefest’s Rocking the Block, which
she said is similar to CHIP, and more. When Fisher started, the CHIP program hadn’t yet begun, and the affiliate hadn’t built a house in a year and the group was in a bit of a lull. “We needed a new surge of energy,” Fisher said. “We needed a new spark, and CHIP really was that spark.” CHIP was created in 2013 by Vision 2020’s Community Pride and Spirit Committee, Freeborn/Mower Habitat for Humanity and the HRA. CHIP’s goals are to help homeowners preserve their homes by intervening with needed maintenance to improve the overall appearance of homes in Austin and to build connections among residents. CHIP’s 2015 goal was to help 20 families, making for close to 40 homes that have been helped by the volunteer-based program over the last three years. “The biggest changes were we are positively
affecting families, and that’s the bottom line is we’re serving more families,” Fisher said. “We have larger support.”
Building projects
Though the home at 1206 Ninth St. NE is habitat’s 22nd home in Austin, it’s the first being built predominantly by Riverland Community College students and their instructors. For many years, habitat relied on the work of volunteers for building its house and often had to hire construction contractors to help lead the work. By the end of a projects, Fisher said volunteers were spread pretty thin by the work required. “We really have struggled with that in the past, with having enough volunteer labor so that we’re not exhausting the volunteers we do have,” she said. But now Riverland is taking the lead and building the house. In past years, Riverland students have
helped habitat when they could, but students also built their own house, which they’d sell at the end of the year. Predominantly, Riverland carpentry students are building the house, but some electrical program students help as well for about 16 total students working on the program. For Riverland, the college now doesn’t have to spend as much money on supplies and financing for the house, those come through habitat. With budget constraints and a dip in enrollment, Alms said it means the carpentry program and college don’t have put up financing and the risk that came with eventually selling the house. But that also takes away the potential for future profit. “It’s an excellent opportunity for the students to see a home being built from start to finish,” Riverland carpentry instructor Walt Alms said. “It’s been a very See HaBitat, Page B8
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Sunday, February 28, 2016 | community | ProgreSS 2016 | albertleatribune.com | Page B7
Group focuses on family and fun By cathy Hay
By the numbers
news@albertleatribune.com
Via Facebook on her laptop, Belinda Krysan offers a portal to exploring all types of family fun in the Albert Lea area. Live music, school open houses, pizza fundraisers, art classes — all this and more are posted on the “Happenings in Albert Lea, MN” page. Krysan and her husband Craig moved to Albert Lea from Eagan six years ago when he started working for a local implement dealer, now KEI/Kibble Equipment. Krysan worked as a nurse before deciding to stay home full time with their daughters, Lauren, 4, and Reagan, 2. The couple both grew up in communities smaller than Albert Lea and are passionate about living here. “I really like all the events they put on for families,” she said. “That’s huge for a community this size.” While people often focus on the county’s aging population, she finds plenty of events for families, like the movie “Frozen” shown at Fountain Lake Park last summer and The Big Freeze, with a carnival and
1,353 and growing Members for “Happenings in Albert Lea” page on Facebook
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Belinda Krysan offers a one-stop shop for fun family events on the “Happenings in Albert Lea MN” page on Facebook. With almost 1,400 members, the group offers a continual feed of activities, classes and news for area residents. cathy hay/For the albert lea tribune other activities for children earlier this month. But Krysan was a bit frustrated with finding out about events, especially after moving from the metro area with numerous restaurants, venues and activities. “It was difficult to find
out what’s going on or I’d find out after the event,” she said. While home on New Year’s Eve in 2013, she started “Happenings in Albert Lea” on Facebook, aiming for a one-stop shop for families to find things to do. She
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places. Members can also post events and news to the Happenings page. Posting photos is the key to getting people’s attention, she said. By logging on in the morning and at night after her daughters are in bed — and in the afternoon if the girls take a nap — she finds time to update “Happenings” without it consuming her life. In mid-February, the Happenings group totaled 1,353 members, with more coming in spurts. It’s a closed group so she can vet people to make sure content is appropriate for families and focused mostly on the Albert Lea area. Her criteria for joining the group is pretty simple: A prospective member has a Facebook friend already in the Happenings group, is a mutual Facebook friend of hers or lives in Albert Lea. She’s starting to notice more members from surrounding towns like Emmons and Glenville. “I want everyone to share and post stuff on there, to involve themselves in Happenings,” she said. “It’s not my group, it’s everyone’s group to share family appropriate things in Albert Lea.”
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Page B8 | AlbertleAtribune.com | Progress 2016 | Community | sundAy, FebruAry 28, 2016
Habitat Continued from Page B6
good, positive project for us this year.” While volunteers are still helping on the project, Riverland has had to ensure that its students and instructors take the lead and that habitat volunteers aren’t completing work that the students would need to do as part of their learning process. For example, if students need to learn to hang doors, they’d be in trouble if a volunteer completed that work over a weekend. Habitat picks families with a need and an ability to pay. Fisher said one of habitat’s key goals is to address the need for housing, and most new homeowners it works with live in some form of substandard housing, whether its due to overcrowding, poor pluming or heating, or mold. “i think people are looking at us as leaders in the fight against poverty housing,” she said. but applicants have to be willing to partner, and each
applicant has to complete where we are.” 250 hours on the project — Nuckolls remembers so a husband and wife have looking at the space when it to complete 500 hours. opened and wondering how she’d fill it. Now she wonders if they’ll have enough ReStore another big success for space for all the items. ReStore opened about habitat has been its ReStore, a store that sells used 10 years ago in a corner items — mainly building and just grew, but it was materials and household never meant to be a store items — at a lower price and wasn’t really successful with all proceeds going to selling items. “it just wasn’t retail habitat. the ReStore celebrated friendly, nor was it ever its one-year anniversary intended to be,” Fisher in its home in the Sterling said. “it was built just to be Shopping Center in Decem- a storage warehouse for our ber, and all say it’s been a construction materials.” Now the focus is on retail highly successful year. “it’s been phenomenal and they have a retail space, here,” said Lynn Nuckolls, which she said has made a big difference. ReStore’s manager. at Sterling, the ReStore is ReStore moved from a warehouse-type space in more centrally located and northeast austin to 1415 accessible to donors and First ave. SW in the Sterling customers alike. they have Shopping Center, where it a donation drop center, and opened in December 2014. they have the ability to go in its first year, it saw out and pick up donations. “if you have the stuff, 13,582 transactions as sales jumped from about $30,000 the shoppers are going to a year to $154,000 a year, come,” Fisher said. “So we really put focus on getting according to Nuckolls. “it’s gone wild. People in good quality donations.” Habitat prices items low know we’re here,” she said. “People feel safe coming to to keep the products flowing
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through the store. the ReStore mainly carries furniture and other housing and decorative items like cabinets, lighting, plumbing, doors and more. “We’re getting amazing furniture,” Nuckolls said. the ReStore also serves a vital purpose of recycling furniture, and Nuckolls estimated the store has kept 100 tons of furniture out of andfills in its first year at the Sterling center. Nuckolls is using analytics to grow sales, and she plans to start honing her focus on items that bring ReStore and habitat more money and that will sell more quickly.
goals for the future
the plan is that in a few years, habitat leaders want the proceeds from the ReStore to fully fund a build all on its own. Nuckolls said they have a responsibility to address and work toward fixing austin’s lack of affordable housing, and the ReStore will play a key part. Nuckolls also has aggressive goals to boost ReStore’s sales. She wants to
reach $250,000 in sales this year and $400,000 in sales in three years, but donations need to keep coming in for that to happen. “the donations have to keep coming in. We’re donor-centered,” she said. another key will be manpower. ReStore, like habitat, currently has limited staffing levels and are heavily dependent on volunteers. ReStore had been in a warehouse facility, where it wasn’t very accessible and wasn’t climate controlled. CHiP Coordinator brent Johnson said donor and volunteer support will drive continued success for ReStore. “We’re always trying to get out there to even find more volunteers or more people who want to donate,” he said. Habitat’s other leaders have plenty of hopes for the future. Johnson said they’re hoping to grow their presence in albert Lea and Freeborn County. Since the offices and ReStore are both based in austin, along with the avid support through CHiP, a higher percentage
of the work has come in austin in recent years. but Johnson would like to see it get closer to 50-50 for the towns. “We want to make sure we can get over there and serve them as well,” he said. as with all habitat’s projects, volunteers and community support will be key. Habitat is taking on a bigger role with Rocking the block and is working to partner with the United Way and business leaders. “We want to get over there definitely more and the way to do it is to keep on working at it,” Johnson said. in the future, habitat’s mission will continue to be to bring homes to community and hope, so they want to continue having a big effect on families, neighborhoods and the community as a whole. “We would love to be able to build more houses a year,” Fisher said. “and we’re getting closer to being able to do that, and this partnership is definitely going to be helpful to get us to that.”
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