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RETIREMENT Q&A: Departing ng WBL
council coun members reflect on their tenures PAGE 6A
Rods reel in nostalgia BY KRISTINE GOODRICH EDITOR
PAUL DOLS | PRESS PUBLICATIONS
The giant fishing pole affixed to the front of David Tarnowski's Mahtomedi home is a handmade operational piece of advertising. It's a three-times upsized example of the one-of-akind fishing rods he custom creates in his basement. A chemist by day, Tarnowski has a side businesses making novel gifts for fishermen. His specialty is ice rods using repurposed hockey sticks and baseball bats as the handles. Tarnowski uses sentimental sticks and bats as well as sticks from professional hockey players. He takes orders from nonprofessional hockey and baseball players who also like to fish. They provide a broken or no longer wanted stick or bat, and he recycles it into a souvenir rod. His latest venture is acquiring broken sticks used by NHL players and making poles to sell to NHL fans. His collection includes sticks used by Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin of the Penguins, Mike Fisher of the Predators and Henrik Zetterberg of the Red Wings. He was vague about how exactly he obtains the sticks. "From acquaintances of acquaintances who save them from the trash," he said. "I've learned a lot SEE FISHING RODS, PAGE 7A
Sliding into the new year Catherine Wanka, 4, and her brother Croix, 6, get an extra boost of power from their grandmother Lori Henderickson at the top of an embankment during an end of the year sliding session in White Bear Lake Thursday, Dec. 31.
Nonprofit offers Christian financial mentoring BY KRISTINE GOODRICH EDITOR
A local accountant volunteers countless hours helping Christians gain financial stability. Jim Dutcher of Vadnais Heights is co-founder of a small nonprofit called the Financial Stewardship Mentoring Program. The organization pairs volunteer financial and spiritual mentors with individuals and couples struggling to make ends meet. A free 10-week program developed by Dutcher and co-founder Beth Keister aims to help participants prioritize their spending, start paying off their the debt and learn what the Bible teaches about personal finances and giving back.
Working in pairs, nearly 40 trained volunteer mentors help 25 to 30 individuals/couples each year. In 2016 the founders hope to expand their network of mentors and provide financial guidance to more people in need. Dutcher and Keister got their start in financial ministry by teaching Crown Financial Ministries classes at churches. While they said the classes provided sound principles, they found the group lecture format wasn't always an adequate aid for people grappling with complex financial hardship. Based on the many questions received after classes, they realized some people need individualized, intensive help.
“It's hard to do in a classroom what needs to happen to get people on a path to financial success,” Dutcher said. They started in 2005 mentoring three families using a typical monthly budgeting model. But their initial efforts were largely unfruitful, they admit. They recognized the key barriers to success and then revised their approach. They discovered a month was too long a period for successful budgeting, for example. Dutcher, a certified public accountant and financial adviser, devised a 10-week curriculum that includes a spending priority ranking system and a weekly budgeting
PAUL DOLS | PRESS PUBLICATIONS
David Tarnowski has made over 200 custom fishing poles over the last five years.
SEE MENTORING, PAGE 7A
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