The Stacy Family Feature

July 2016 Exclusively serving the residents of  Stonemill Farms  Dancing Waters  Ridgestone  Bailey's Arbor

THE STACYS:

Daughters Begin Ecuador Adventure

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Cover photo by Shannon Marie Photography

Photo by Miroslavich Photography

your NEIGHBORS

Photo courtesy of Shannon Marie Photography

THE STACYS: Daughters Begin Ecuador Adventure

By Leah Noel

We could not have chosen a better spot to raise our girls.

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bout a month ago, Greta (23) and Emma Stacy (20) started their next big adventure—in Ecuador. Emma will spend the summer volunteering in hospitals in Quito and Nanegalito (a rural mountain town) while her sister Greta prepares to start a two-year contract to teach IB chemistry at Academia Cotopaxi in Quito, Ecuador’s capital. They are the daughters of Jess and DeeDee Stacy of Stonemill Farms.

But why Ecuador? Greta and Emma are fluent in Spanish and love to travel. And Greta wants to work on education policy reform in the United States someday and hopes to gain insights on that from teaching internationally. Luckily, their mom DeeDee, a fourth grade teacher at Mounds Park Academy in Maplewood, gets to spend some time with them in Ecuador this summer too.

“When the girls were in elementary school, we often traveled to areas near Cancun, so they could practice the Spanish they were learning in school,” DeeDee says. “They were able to enjoy the language and the culture they were studying—sampling foods and talking to local people about games, songs and traditions.”

Both young women are graduates of Mounds Park Academy, a private July 2016

PreK-12 college prep school, and in 2015 Greta graduated from Smith College in Massachusetts. She is currently serving the second year of a two-year stint on the college’s board of trustees because she was student government president while attending the prestigious school. Emma attends Scripps College in California, where in addition to being recognized as a top scholar she also competes on the college swim team.

“Both girls are science geeks too,” DeeDee says. “Greta majored in chemistry and American studies at Smith and Emma is studying science at Scripps. They both excelled in speech, medaling at state, and theater at Mounds Park Academy, as well as instrumental music.” They also were members of their high school cross country, soccer and volleyball teams.

Another organization Greta and Emma were heavily involved with while attending Mounds Park Academy was Amnesty International. Each of them completed more than 60 volunteer service hours throughout their time at Mounds Park. “Greta concentrated on political issues, while Emma concentrated on tutoring at the Paul Wellstone House,” DeeDee says.

“Beyond their academic and adventurous endeavors,” Jess says, “I am just so proud of who they have become. They are so invested in their world, and so accepting of others.”

Last summer to celebrate Greta graduating from college and Emma graduating from high school, the Stacys took an extended vacation to Europe. One of the most interesting “highlights” was when they literally got stuck in Cordoba, Spain. “Jess drove down a one-way alley that narrowed almost imperceptibly until we found ourselves unable to turn around, or even back out,” DeeDee says. “Many amused folks came out to take photos of the ‘big American’ car stuck in the street. The girls were able to solicit help, and eventually we were led out by an entourage of locals.”

Back home, Jess owns a Farmers Insurance agency in Woodbury and likes to head to Montana each year to go hiking. “I have enjoyed serving the community as an insurance agent for 30 years. Getting to know people and being able to help them with the challenges of navigating the financials ins and outs of health and property insurance is a satisfying way to spend my days,” Jess says. “Still, the hiking with my brother every year is

a perfect respite from the paperwork and ringing phones.”

The family moved to Stonemill Farms 14 years ago to be closer to Mounds Park Academy. “Because it is a private school, the girls’ friends did not live in our Eagan neighborhood, but mostly lived on this side of town. Woodbury was younger then, and it has been wonderful watching it ‘grow up,’” DeeDee says.

They love living close to the neighborhood pool and watching their neighbor build a backyard skating rink each winter. “The sounds of families and children outdoors all year make for wonderful days of chatting with one another and sharing stories about our lives,” DeeDee adds. “It’s been great watching the neighborhood children grow up— kickball in the cul-de-sac, groups of noisy kids running through the backyards and young drivers practicing parallel parking in the school parking lot. We could not have chosen a better spot to raise our girls.”

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