FROM THE ASSOCIATE EDITOR By Robb Murray APRIL 2020 • VOLUME 15, ISSUE 4 PUBLISHER Steve Jameson EDITOR Joe Spear ASSOCIATE Robb Murray EDITOR CONTRIBUTORS Bert Mattson Diana Rojo-Garcia Jean Lundquist Kat Baumann Dan Greenwood Nicole Helget Pete Steiner
PHOTOGRAPHERS Pat Christman Jackson Forderer
PAGE DESIGNER Christina Sankey ADVERTISING Danny Creel SALES Joan Streit Jordan Greer-Friesz Josh Zimmerman Marianne Carlson Theresa Haefner ADVERTISING Barb Wass ASSISTANT ADVERTISING Sue Hammar DESIGNERS Christina Sankey CIRCULATION Justin Niles DIRECTOR
Mankato Magazine is published by The Free Press Media monthly at 418 South Second St., Mankato MN 56001. To subscribe, call 1-800-657-4662 or 507-625-4451. $35.40 for 12 issues. For editorial inquiries, call Robb Murray at 344-6386, or e-mail rmurray@mankatofreepress.com. For advertising, call 344-6364, or e-mail advertising@mankatofreepress.com.
6 • APRIL 2020 • MANKATO MAGAZINE
Tales from the beat
W
hen I started my job at the Mankato Free Press, it was everything I ever wanted. Jobs in journalism — especially in a high-quality-of-life state such like Minnesota — were hard to come by. Plus, I’d spent three years in college here and the place was kind of growing on me. My first “beat” in The Free Press newsroom was what we in the business call “cops and courts,” which put me in contact with police officers and firefighters on a daily basis. And I got along with most of them. I was very early in my career here when I met Amy Atkins, whose name would later change to Amy Vokal. She was young and idealistic, just like me. Today, we’re both 50 years old and working at jobs we never would have predicted we’d still be at. Our cover story this month is a profile of Vokal, whom I interviewed a few weeks ago. And as sometimes happens, I forgot to ask her one of the questions that prompted us to do this story in the first place. So I had to call her back later to get her thoughts on being the first female director of her law enforcement agency. Vokal sort of brushed off the question. But not in a way that would suggest she didn’t want to answer it; it seemed to genuinely catch her off guard, and she seemed sincere in saying it’s not something she thinks much about. Well, I think about it. I think about that kind of stuff a lot, actually. As a journalist, and father of a daughter, you wonder — in a glass-half-full kind of way — how long it’ll still be a question to ask, given the progress we’ve made on equality. Then again, given the progress we’ve made on equality — in a glass-half-empty kind of way — if feels like we’ll be asking
this question for a while. When my daughter was born, I’d hoped that, by the time she grew up, we’d be a lot further along in this process than we are. Yet here we are, 2020, and we’re still asking women for their thoughts on how it feels to be the first female whatever. Vokal might not think much about it, but I guarantee you there are girls out there who saw her ascend to that position and were inspired. For that we should be thankful. And I think you’ll come away from this piece knowing a lot more about Amy Vokal than you did before. Also in this month’s Mankato Magazine, we’re starting a new feature called Let’s Eat! We’ll be diving into the best local restaurants telling the stories the people who run them and the food they’re proud of. We’re kicking it off with Pappageorge’s Restaurant, home of some of the best steaks — and service — in town. And we’re confident we’ve got enough great places in southern Minnesota to keep this featur going for years to come. Check our Familiar Faces feature this month, which gets up close and personal with radio deejay TJ Palesotti. TJ, known for local radio and Maverick hockey games, recently got a new gig at Alpha Media. We’re just happy he’s not leaving town. Finally, we’re thrilled and honored to have the work of wordsmith (and former Free Press staff writer) Joe Tougas, who tells us some of the stories behind his impressive autograph collection.
Robb Murray is associate editor of Mankato Magazine. Contact him at 344-6386 or rmurray@ mankatofreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @freepressRobb.
