14 minute read
Along the Shore
A community of giving
Silver Bay’s Shop with a Hero
By Chris Pascone
SILVER BAY—The holidays are an emotional rollercoaster for all families. There’s pressure on parents to outdo themselves every year, and there’s pressure on children to find the love and attention they’re craving. The holidays can be the best of times, and for some families—the worst. Christmas trees, presents, and cheery decorations don’t make their way into every home.
One community that’s been doing its utmost to balance that out for eight years running is Silver Bay, smack dab in the middle of the North Shore.
There, the police and fire departments, along with hundreds of individuals and business donors, have taken the initiative to turn Christmas into the miracle it should be for families. They’ve developed the Shop with a Hero program—a charity event with a big heart.
One Saturday morning in December, police cars and fire trucks come to pick children up at their homes, take them out to a hearty breakfast compliments of Northwoods Family Grille (Northwoods steak and eggs, anybody?), and then treat them to a mini shopping spree at Julie’s True Value. The children get to buy gifts for their whole family, and the cops and firemen wrap the gifts and deliver them to the kids’ homes. Here’s how this tight-knit North Shore community comes together to make Shop with a Hero work.
Faron Meeks, co-owner of Julie’s True Value hardware store together with his wife Angela, has been part of Shop with a Hero from day one. Meeks, who grew up in Finland, and has been a volunteer firefighter in Silver Bay for 23 years running, calls the program “well-funded” by generous community members.
Meeks supports the program through his own business, putting out a fireman’s boot at the cash register all year round. “We probably raise $600 dollars just in that boot,” recounts Meeks.
But he’s not the only one. “The community has really taken off with it. We have businesses who call us and say, ‘Hey, I haven’t gotten my letter yet,’” laughs Meeks, referring to the donation requests that he and his team of volunteers send out to raise money for the kids. These donations go a long way to make kids’ Christmas dreams a reality.
Does Shop with a Hero have a budget? “Not really,” Meeks says. “It’s hard to say ‘no’ when you’re giving back to the community. It’s been a lot of fun. It’s very well appreciated, and very well supported.”
So how do kids get chosen for the program? Meeks and his team tap into the William Kelley School, a grades K-12 regional school that serves Isabella, Finland, Little Marais, Beaver Bay, and Silver Bay. There, teachers and administrators are resources for referring families to the program. “We don’t care if we have to drive all the way to Isabella to get a kid to bring him or her to Shop with a Hero. We’re going to do it if we see the need for it,” explains Meeks.
The school provides a list of families that have applied for the program. “We’ll just look at this list, and if there are eight of them on there that we think are a good fit for the program, we’ll try to take all eight. Some years we’ve had up to seven or eight families, sometimes we’ve had four families. We really don’t have a limit,” Meeks says.
Well, except for the number of squad cars available. “Obviously, we wouldn’t be able to do 20 kids—we wouldn’t have enough cop cars and firetrucks to pick them all up.”
Once families are selected, one child from each is chosen to shop for all the siblings and parents. “Usually, we try to get the oldest kid,” says Meeks, “who knows what’s going on—what the family’s needs are.” The program encourages the selected kids to come in with their parents, or whoever’s involved, to pre-shop and find items which are the best fit.
On the day of, the children get a ride in the squad car and a free breakfast, and then “a pretty big chunk of money” to use at Julie’s True Value. “Sometimes it will be $50 to $100 per person in the family,” says Meeks.
So how do you wrap so many gifts? A lot of people come in to help. “After the kids finish shopping, we bring them back to Northwoods Grille, and we have a big table set up there. Between the firefighters and their families, and people who just show up to help, we wrap all their gifts together with the kids.” Then the police and firemen drive the kids home with their Christmas bounty, and help carry all the boxes inside.
Word of mouth has spread through the close-knit first responder family, according to Meeks. “This started with the Silver Bay Fire Department and the Silver Bay Police Department, but we have Lake County Sheriff’s Department deputies who come, and we’ve had state troopers.” That’s a lot of heroes.
Besides the individual gifts that the children select, families also get a tote of household items compliments of Julie’s True Value. It’s “everyday essential needs stuff, like toilet paper, paper towels, envelopes, and notebooks, pens and pencils for the kids,” says Meeks, who’s “in a pickle” as the Assistant Fire Chief, but also owner of the business that provides the shopping. “My wife and I didn’t want to make any profit. We wanted to give back. So, what we did was donate the profit that we make off of Shop with a Hero back to the families, through the essentials totes.”
This spirit of giving that permeates the Silver Bay community is a way of showing love to families that deserve it. Thanks to these heroes, the Christmas rollercoaster is more about ups than downs.
World of Wheels
Nostalgic indoor fun
By Naomi Yaeger
SUPERIOR—On a gray, cloudy Saturday afternoon, the music and lights inside the World of Wheels Skating Rink in Superior gave the area a warm and cheery atmosphere. Children skated, or attempted to. Some used a skatemate, a device made of PCP tubing that looks like a miniature walker.
Adults skated with them or stood on the sidelines. Within minutes, three separate birthday parties reported the fun their groups enjoyed. These parties filled the venue with laughter and excitement.
Chris Monroe, a grandmother on skates, was there to celebrate her granddaughter Selah’s 8th birthday. Selah had invited several friends.
“I like the retro vibe here,” Monroe said. “The staff is really great.” The party had just finished eating pizza in a birthday room to the side of the rink.
Selah’s friend, Sloan Scouten, age 7, was accompanied by her mother, Kelly Mullan.
“It is something to do indoors in the winter. There are skate sessions on the weekends and school holidays. It’s safe here,” Mullan said. “There are adults who work here, so it’s not like the kids are out running on their own.”
Another birthday celebration brought Ebba Nelson and her family and friends from Mountain Iron to the skating rink to mark her 11th birthday. Ebba spoke of her love for skating, while her friend Savana Tuonela, a basketball player, admitted to some apprehension about falling. Jackie Nelson, Ebba’s mother, fondly remembered her own college days spent skating at the rink. The birthday girl proudly mentioned her acquaintance with the DJ.
Speaking of the DJ, in the background, music from the song YMCA by the Village People played. The lyrics: “Young man, there’s no need to feel down. I said, young man, pick yourself off the ground.” The DJ and floor guard, Axel, skated onto the floor. “Stand up straight,” he announced into the microphone as if following the lyrics’ suggestions. “Bend down low,” he said as he crouched down himself. The skaters followed his directions as if playing a Simon Says game. Many skaters needed to hold on to their plastic skatemates for support. The music and disco lights continued the whole time.
Soon, the lyrics of Ghostbusters filled the rink. “If there’s somethin’ strange in the neighborhood, who ya gonna call? Ghostbusters.”
Axel skated over for an interview. “What that (the game) is doing really is helping skaters get used to bending their knees while on skates,” Axel said. He continued, “If I can make any warm-up a game for them, then it’s way easier to teach them to get comfortable on any skates.”
Axel is his DJ moniker. His real name is Alex Morro. He said he works at World of Wheels about four days a week.
Then he skated back to his soundboard behind a wall near the skate rental area. “Do you want to write a novel?” he asked. “When I was seven, this place saved my life.” He first sought refuge at the rink because bullies taunted him after school. Soon, Morro was skating himself. At age 12, he was “working” at the rink, putting skates away.
“I remember him when he was a little squirt,” said World of Wheels owner Steve Grapentine. “He loves skating, and he’s good with people.”
Grapentine purchased the rink in April 2008. He had worked at a rink in the Twin Cities for 28 years while working full-time in the grocery business. He retired early and moved to Superior to own World of Wheels.
“I love roller skating, watching people have fun and creating fun,” he said of becoming a rink owner.
Speaking of creating fun, each month he plans themed events. In November, he planned a Taylor Swift Skate Night, featuring all Taylor Swift music.
For New Year’s Eve, he’s planning two parties, one in the afternoon for children and one in the evening for adults.
The oldest World of Wheels skater was 85 years old, according to Grapentine.
An adult morning skate on Wednesday is for anyone. “Most coming are in their 60s, some 70s and 80s—looking for something to do,” Grapentine added.
“It is good for your heart and muscles, and keeps you moving,” Grapentine said. To learn more about World of Wheels, visit: wowskatecenter.com.
Woolsock
Minnesota’s most homespun music festival
By Chris Pascone
STURGEON LAKE—Did you go to a small rural elementary school in the 1980s, like me? Did you have to do square dancing as an obligatory unit in gym class? Did you consider throwing yourself under a truck on the way to school for those three weeks every year to avoid the “shame” of dancing with 3rd grade girls?
That was my thinking during those miserable square dancing days each winter. It felt like a rare form of punishment, seamlessly worked into the public school gym curriculum. I could never understand it. Why not basketball? Or indoor soccer? Please, anything but that rickety old record player forcing those entirely awkward moments of elementary school hell on me. Our PE teacher was the “caller.” Listening to him joyously telling us to “do-si-do” around the gym floor is my worst childhood memory.
Thirty-five years later, I’m doing it. For fun. With my own family. What happened?
Two musicians—Kyle and Cooper Orla, of the Tamarack Dance Association in Duluth—created Woolsock Winter Camping and Dance Festival. This festival takes my most feared childhood memory—the round dances and square dances of my youth, and combines them with one of my greatest passions—winter camping. Imagine having your daughter pull you out of your cozy tent, dug deep into the snow, to go dance to live folk music with 125 other wacky people on New Year’s Eve? That’s Woolsock.
Woolsock is Minnesota’s Woodstock—in winter. Taking place December 29-31 this year, Woolsock is a two-night getaway hosted at YMCA Camp Miller in Sturgeon Lake. Kyle Orla describes Woolsock as a “weird idea,” but clearly the festival’s cult following is all on board. “It’s New Years, it’s this fun time of year, and this is just a special way to experience it, instead of watching the ball drop on TV,” says Orla.
The live music thumps literally 24 hours a day at Woolsock. There’s groups of people strumming traditional fiddle over coffee in the morning. There’s guitar players making music over lunch. And then the dancing begins in the evening and goes into the wee hours of the morning.
Woolsock is a collaborative festival where the participants also host workshops. Many of the workshops are about music, but choices range far and wide. If you’ve got a talent—shoot! Last year there were workshops like sock darning, beginner book binding, making seed smashers (“like a firecracker, but bird seed”), and “learn to ice fish” on Sturgeon Lake (zero fish were caught, but this year will be different…).
But it all comes back to the music. Workshops go on all day long in the Camp Miller dance hall. Learn dance calling, playing for dancers (“FAST!”), and waltzing for beginners. For Orla, “It’s important to know that music is 90 percent of the festival. It’s a music and dance festival that happens to take place in winter.”
Orla recounts how every year there are some people who say “Oh, I didn’t realize this was a music weekend.” Orla doesn’t miss a beat: “It doesn’t matter if you’ve never done it. Just know that that’s a big part of how our time is spent.”
So how does it feel to participate in this folk dance jam in the snow? Sam Karns of Duluth, who goes to Woolsock every year with his wife and daughter, calls it “incredible and unique,” and not without reason. “We don’t normally go cross country skiing on a frozen lake with 20 other people, or share a meal at a table full of strangers/new friends, or get to listen to amazing musicians play the night away, or do the New Year’s countdown around a massive bonfire under the stars—all in one place, over the course of a single weekend.”
Karns says that despite the spectacular nature of the event, “It all feels comfortable and easy. The organizers and attendees create an atmosphere without judgment or expectation (other than a little bit of volunteer time), so even though we’re not at home, we feel as if we are.”
The “family reunion” atmosphere makes Woolsock an amazing social event for Karns. “We get to see friends from all over the Upper Midwest, and for many of them, Woolsock is our one and only get-together of the year.”
Perhaps the best part of all is the kid-friendly spirit that permeates Woolsock. “It’s an opportunity for the little ones to be wild and free, and safe. Woolsock is the village we all dream about where the big kids watch out for the little ones, the adults help each other, and the spirit of camaraderie and care is truly present,” explains Karns.
More and more families are staying in the Camp Miller cabins (you don’t have to sleep in a tent to attend). Woolsock was originally held at the Clair Nelson Recreation Center, in Finland, but moved to Camp Miller in 2022 as it continued to grow. Now there are more housing options, instead of families all sleeping in one communal room. And when you need a break from the dancing and the cold, you can hit Camp Miller’s communal sauna, too.
Woolsock is still very much a homespun, word-of-mouth event. It’s capped at 125 people this year. For Orla, “Man, this thing’s been growing, but I kind of feel like it has some natural bumpers, because it’s not your average festival. Not many people want to go winter camping and party in the snow.”
If you’ve got kids, bring them too. Maybe they’ll be more willing to try square dancing than I was back in the day.
For more information, check out the Woolsock Facebook page.
