Minnehaha Funeral Home

Valley, Iowa, with her sister, Shayla Louwerse. Willow Creek offers clothing for women of all ages. The store started in Jaron and Kadee’s home as an onlineonly shop (shopwillowcreek.com) in February 2019. Six months in, during a “rally in the valley” promotion, the sisters did a trial run with a retail storefront in downtown Rock Valley. “The Rock Valley community came in strong and helped out and they decided to keep going,” Jaron said. Rock Valley is something of a clothing mecca with the popularity of Nearly New Town and The Economy Shop which draw customers from a vast geographic area. Willow Creek opened in its current location in November 2020. “They’ve never looked back. They have just kept growing and they can’t thank their customers and the Rock Valley community enough,” he said.

Even though Jaron and Kadee grew up just a mile apart and both called Hudson home, they didn't meet each other until they were 20 and 17 because Jaron went to Netherlands Reformed Christian School through 10th grade and graduated from Rock Valley Public High School. Meanwhile, Kadee graduated from Western Christian High School in Hull. The couple married in 2015. Their daughter, Tatum, is four years old and is very active in gymnastics in Sioux Falls and hopes to be in accelerated gymnastics this fall. She also enjoys swimming in their backyard pool with her friends and cousins. “She’s the sweetest little girl you'll ever meet. She's too nice. She gets that from Mama.” Two-year-old Kyzer is a “wild man” who is always on the go. “He’s a little shadow of Tatum. She jumps in the pool – he jumps in the pool. He wants to be in gymnastics like her, so he’ll join their ‘Ninja Warrior’ course up there. He's an onery one and a stubborn little boy. He probably gets that from me.”

Hudson natives Jaron and Kadee Van Beek found the ideal home and farm just north of Worthing. Kadee commutes to Rock Valley to run Willow Boutique.

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SILOS AT SUNSET

PHOTO BY JOEL SCHWADER. facebook.com/joelschwader1

Jolene and Wade Burggraff with their children, Layne and Taylor Kuper, and Sommer Burggraff.

HELPING NEIGHBORS IS JUST WHAT COUNTRY PEOPLE DO

By Bob Fitch

Don’t underestimate the generosity or the memory of farm folks.

Twenty-nine years ago, Wade Burggraff helped his neighbors who suffered damage from a tornado which swept through the Colton area. “There was a line right across here that was taken out. I went to the neighbor’s with my dad’s skid loader to move trees and used my dad's truck to haul trees, doing all kinds of stuff.” Wade thought no more of it – because helping neighbors is just what country people do. Fast forward almost three decades and a big wind blew into this part of the countryside again. When the derecho struck on May 12, 2022, Wade and Jolene Burggraff’s acreage was hit hard as were many farms in the region. “I bet we had at least 16 to 18 huge evergreens that were probably 75-100 foot tall – every one of them tipped over or broke off,” Wade said. Part of a grain bin crashed into the house and the garbage dumpster blew end over end and landed near the house.

Their daughter, Sommer, was home alone in her upstairs bedroom. After watching a tree get blown down, she moved down to the main level, but it was even more chaotic there. Glasses and dishes in the kitchen were knocked