Cinco de Mayo fiesta making a comeback

Jake Spitzack Staff Writer

TheWest Side took a hard hit in 2020 when the pandemic forced the cancellation of the neighborhood’s wildly popular Cinco de Mayo festival. At that time, the St. Paul Festival and Her-

Storm Chaser

Tim Spitzack Editor

When the calendar flips from April to May, Valarie Namen starts to get a bit antsy. It’s not from spring fever. No, it’s quite the opposite. She wants bad weather and is normally planning a trip to find it. For the past 13 years, the Mendota Heights native has

West Side Boosters president seeks to boost the club’s bottom line

Jake Spitzack Staff Writer

itage Foundation, which had organized the celebration since 2009, indicated it would be back, but that never happened under their leadership. Last fall, members of the West Side Boosters Club saw the writing on the wall and began planning to resurrect the event, albeit on a much smaller scale. The Foundation declined to say why it dropped the event.

To the relief of many, the cherished Cinco de Mayo Fiesta will return this year 10 a.m.-5 p.m., Saturday, May 6, at Parque Castillo, 149 Cesar Chavez St. The event will feature bands, a lowrider show, softball tournament, 40 food and vendor booths, and more. Proceeds will go toward youth sports programs sponsored by the Boosters Club.

“It’s exciting to be able to do this and to know it’s run by the community,” said club president Bob Cruz. “We’ve had a lot of people reach out to do this…. A lot of vendors

Shortly after being named president of the West Side Boosters in January, Bob Cruz did something unprecedented in the club’s 53-year history: he applied for a grant. Yes, it’s taken this long for the Boosters to use one of the most common fundraising tools but it’s not surprising. Many small nonprofits that are led entirely by volunteers shy away from grant writing because it is time-consuming and can be a daunting experience.

As of press time, Cruz was waiting to find out if he received a grant from USA Football to buy football shoulder pads. Now with some experience under his belt, he will apply for other grants this summer to offset the high cost of purchasing hundreds of pieces of equipment for all the sports they offer: football, flag football, basketball, baseball, softball, volleyball and cheerleading.

“We’ve been doing this [sponsoring youth sports] all these years just by selling tacos, beer and concession food,” said Cruz, who previously was club vice president for nine years. “To keep growing the way we need to, we have to figure out a way to get bigger amounts of money.”

The club serves about 400 kids each year and Cruz hopes to double that number within five years, which will traveled across the country searching for that ominous natural phenomenon that most people pray they’ll never experience: a tornado.

Namen has seen dozens of tornados in her lifetime and hopes to see many more. She is among the rare breed who are willing to put themselves in harm’s way to achieve a goal. As proof, she is a member of the Zero Meter Club, which is a storm chaser’s way of saying they have been far, far closer to a tornado than one should be.

The reason people chase storms varies. Some do it for scientific investigation. Some to capture media coverage. Some for the adrenaline rush. Others, like Namen, do it to satisfy their deep curiosity of storms and to witness the magnificent power of nature, and to capture those images on film.

Namen’s fascination with storm chasing was piqued by the 1996 blockbuster, “Twister.” She found herself doing more and more research on storm chasers and the powerful effects of tornados and soon discovered there were – and still are – many tour operators that cater to people like her.

One day she made the call.

“My first tour was in 2010,” she said. “I couldn’t find anyone to go with me, so I went alone. Unfortunately, we got skunked.”

Things improved from there, however. In all her years of storm-chasing she has seen a tornado in all but three tours. Most outings are quite eventful, with one producing seven tornados.

“When you see one coming it’s just mind-boggling to watch,” said Namen. “The cloud formations are stunning. You have these moments that are so amazing, like the sunsets you see after a storm. It’s crazy-cool stuff that you get to witness.”

Most tour groups are small and travel together in