Historic Webster School a Successful Family-Owned Small Business for the Community

By Karlene Tura Clark

Meet the Schlenske’s. Ben and Kristin Schlenske’s built their small business Let's Go Webster LLC in September 2021. Their home and base of operations is the Historic Webster School in Webster, North Dakota. It is a small schoolhouse that operated from 1905 to 1970.

Ben and Kristin bought the historic building from the family of Thomas Webster. Thomas Webster attended the school and discovered his love of learning there. The renovation “was a labor of love for Thomas Webster,” Kristin said. When Mr. Webster passed, the family sold it to Ben and Kristin and they began Let's Go Webster LLC.

They turned it into a place for families to have fun and make connections within the community. They offer carnivals, family movie nights, karaoke, art, music, and baking classes.

Moving to Webster in July 2021, Ben, Kristin, and five of their eight children began building their business.

“We were just going to do a school for the arts, doing music lessons and art lessons and things like that… that was kind of our dream to have our own business and do it as a family,” said Kristin.

Their business continued to grow when they found a wide interest from the community.

“When we first got here, we really didn't intend for everybody to come in, and we just thought we'd do these lessons, but we found that people really love and connected to them. They really appreciated that somebody was trying to take care of this school, historic place, and we found that people wanted to come in,”

Connecting with the community was the main goal for Ben, Kristin, and their family.

Kristin said, “It's been really great for us because we've wanted to connect with the community and have things that families can do. That's really our aim is to kind of bring arts and music and things like that, not that it's not here, there's other people doing good things, but to contribute to that and make that more available and then also allow people to come and see the beauty of this historical place.”

Interest has not just come from the small town of Webster, but also from Devil’s Lake and other surrounding areas. The biggest draw being the CarniFall in October drawing over a couple thousand people to the historic school house.

They even opened their own bakery, named Breadster at Webster. Not only do they sell delicious baked goods, but they provide Bakery Bootcamp, a class for lovers of all things yum- the different events. They're especially involved in our CarniFall in the Fall, they run everything outside with my husband while I’m inside doing the bakery. We do a Christmas event with Santa Claus where they help by singing and performing different musical numbers with different instruments, so it's really great. They're extremely helpful…” the plans.”

Let’s Go Webster not only hosts pumpkin patches, and Christmas events, but Kristin teaches private piano lessons, and voice lessons, while Ben teaches percussion and art. They do it all without missing a beat. They also bring in outside instructors from around the community.

That is just the beginning. Ben and Kristin continue to add projects and events. They learn and grow according to what they love and according to community interest.

“…my kids had been begging me to do a bakery for a long time, saying we should sell baked goods, and so we had to do that…”

…in October we opened the bakery, not realizing that the bakery would just keep going. We had a lot of good responses so we've maintained that and we just keep doing that through the year too…”

Even Ben and Kristin’s children help keep things running smoothly, by helping Ben with creative endeavors and Kristin in the bakery.

“…we do bring in other people partially because it's good to have other people come in and have a different variety of artists and collaboration…”

With Let’s Go Webster going strong, there are some things in the pipeline for the Schlenske family, including soap making, a LEGO class, and a book signing event.

The LEGO class will be a master builder series, where participants will learn to build things like cars and ramps, with no kits. There will be prizes for various projects.

The book reading features author Sarah Dixon Young. She will be signing and reading passages from her book The Winning of Lady Wisdom.

They also want to explore ancestry projects for the people of the community.

“…we hope that if people have a craft or something like that, that we can provide a place for them to do that…”

Let’s Go Webster LLC is a small business that has brought families and communities together. Memories old and new run through the Historic Webster School. Ben, Kristin, and their children continue to learn and grow with their neighbors and they show no sign of slowing down.

Kristin said, “…we're really kind of dabbling in a lot of things, but it's all things that we really love to do and so it makes it really fun…”

For information about future happenings visit: https://lets-go-websterllc-104846.square.site/ https://www.facebook. com/letsgowebster/ https://www.facebook. com/breadsteratwebster

Did You Know?

“When it's really busy they're helping in the bakery. They love to help decorate, but they help do other things, and they are always helping with the movies and

“…we have a plan to do an ancestry search history of the area, and help people find ancestors through technology. We have always thought that might be an interesting thing for some of the people here, so that's on

About 400 million years ago, before trees were common, the Earth was covered with giant mushrooms. Known as Prototaxites, the giant fungus originally was thought to be a conifer