Month: September 2021

Faye Overgaard and Marsha Odom will once again be bringing back the Funds2orgs shoe drive in the Crookston community this year. Overgaard and Odom are both on the Crookston Care & Share board, and all proceeds from the fundraiser will go to the Care & Share. Funds2orgs buys the shoes from local non-profits, schools, churches, and others and redistributes them to other countries.

The project will run from now until November 30, and the goal is to receive around 2,500 pairs of shoes to re-distribute to try and help other countries grow economic opportunities.

Overgaard explained more about the organization, its great cause, and how she learned more about it. “Funds2orgs is an organization that is out of Florida,” said Overgaard. “I contacted them through their website, and shoes are purchased by the organization as they partner with non-profits, schools, churches, and others to try and implement a shoe fundraising campaign. The shoes are redistributed to small businesses in developing countries to try and help them maintain and grow small businesses for economic opportunity.”

Odom explained you don’t have to have a set of shoes to get involved, as the foundation does take just a single shoe and uses it in multiple ways. “When the shoes are not in a pair, there are other ways to use the shoe,” said Odom. “They can cut the tops off and use the pieces of the shoe and fabric to shred it and make it into something else. They also can use the rubber soles to make another top for a different shoe.”

Overgaard help put on the fundraiser two years ago, and it was very successful within the community due to the great people willing to donate. She talked more about the goal for this year and what they can do with the money for Care & Share. “2,500 pairs of shoes is the goal because that return is $1,000 for Care & Share,” said Overgaard. “With that money, we can do something substantial. It would be fun to reach 3,000 this year, but I’ll be more than happy with 2,500. That’s a lot of pairs of shoes to sort through.”

The Red River Valley Sugarbeet Museum in Crookston will help store the pairs of shoes over the next three months so that Overgaard and Odom won’t have to keep them all at their houses.

For those interested in donating pairs of shoes, the following locations will have bins from now until the end of November. You can drop off shoes during normal business hours.

IN CROOKSTON

• Hugo’s Family Marketplace
• RiverView, The Summit at the front door on the Westside
• Benedictine Living Community
• Cathedral Church and
• Hardware Hank
• First Presbyterian Church
• Trinity Lutheran Church

IN FERTILE

• A&L Foods

IN FISHER

• Cenex Gas Station

For more information on funds2orgs, you can go to their website, funds2orgs.com/.

The post CROOKSTON CARE & SHARE BRINGING BACK FUNDS20RGS SHOE DRIVE THIS FALL appeared first on KROX.

The construction project on Fisher Avenue in Crookston is officially finished. The project ran over the course of the summer and was finished as of Wednesday earlier this week.

Polk County Highway Engineer Richard Sanders talked about what the final steps were and how the project concluded. “Do you hear all the cheering in the background? Because we are done,” said Sanders. “They painted lines, finished painting the crosswalks, cleaned up the sidewalks a bit, and wrapped up with picking up all the signs.”

Sanders said he was pleased with the main lead on the project and all the efficiency it was done. “Davidson Construction out of Newfolden was the lead, and they did a great job,” said Sanders. “We didn’t have a whole lot of rain which was good for the project because it was able to finish on time, today was the day it was supposed to be complete, and today is the day that they’re done.”

Sanders said everything turned out the way they wanted it to and that the project went as well as it could’ve. Sanders gave an overview of everything involved with the project and some of the main differences that people will notice. “First, we went from a rural section to an urban section,” said Sanders. “You’re going to see curbs and gutter; you’ll see three lanes of traffic instead of two lanes of traffic. With that, we added a storm sewer as well as updates to the sidewalk and lighting. The lighting now stretches past Barrette Street to the East limits of Crookston, which will make it safer.”

Lastly, Sanders wanted to thank the local businesses and citizens for dealing with the project over the summer and being patient while it was completed. “I know it made people use different routes, and it caused farther travel, and I just want to thank everyone for their consideration during the project,” said Sanders. “Also want to thank Casey’s, Drafts Sports Bar & Grill, and the Crookston Sports Center for putting up with this project because I know it puts stress on their businesses. I’m hoping with this project done, that more people will be able to use those businesses.”

The paint used on the roadway is now reflective and will allow it to be better seen at night and during rain, making it another great benefit from the project.

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State Senator Mark Johnson, of East Grand Forks, has been selected by the Senate leadership to serve as the Acting Majority Leader after Senator Paul Gazelka stepped down as he mulls a run for Governor.  

Senator Johnson said, “I am humbled to be named acting leader until a new leader is selected.”

We will have more on the story later. 

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The Minnesota Department of Health has released the COVID numbers for today (September 2, 2021) and the state is reporting 1,904 new cases with 22 new deaths, with no deaths in Polk County. Polk County has 16 new cases, Pennington County reported 18, Mahnomen County 5, and Marshall County 2.

All the information is below.

Updated September 2, 2021
Updated weekdays at 11 a.m., with data current as of 4 a.m. the previous business day.

Testing

Minnesota Case Overview

Patients no longer needing isolation

Deaths

Hospitalizations

Case Demographics

Age

Gender

Race & Ethnicity

Likely Exposure

Not all cases among health care workers have a likely exposure as health care staff.

Residence

Cases by County of Residence

County of residence is confirmed during the case interview. At the time of this posting not all interviews have been completed.

Residence Type

• MN DOC: COVID-19 Testing of People Incarcerated in MN Prisons

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As of this week, the Crookston High School is not planning on hosting the Homecoming dance set for September 24. However, the decision is not finalized and can change in the coming weeks. The decision not to plan for one comes to try and help keep the COVID-19 Delta-Variant from spreading since the dance would be taking place in an enclosed space.

Crookston High School Principal Nicki Martinez discussed the situation more. “When I talked with Superintendent (Jeremy) Olson earlier this week, he said I wouldn’t be planning for a homecoming dance,” said Martinez. “Everything is minute by minute when it comes to COVID, but as of this moment, no homecoming dance.”

A final decision should be made later next week as Superintendent Olson will continue to look at the data, and the decision will be based on the numbers.

The dance may be up in the air now, but Martinez said everything else is moving forward as planned to try and make the week as normal as possible. “We are going to have Powder Puff; we’re going to have Pep Fest; we’re going to try and keep as many normal activities as we can,” said Martinez. “The reason the dance is different is that you have a closed-in opportunity for the spread of the Delta-Variant, which isn’t ideal.”

Martinez noted some may not be able to be vaccinated and said that could be a deciding factor in the final decision. “Some may not be able to be vaccinated, and because of that, we don’t want our own super spreader to take place here in the building,” said Martinez.

Homecoming week will begin September 20 and conclude as Crookston will host Frazee in Football at 6:00 p.m. on Friday, September 24.

The post CROOKSTON HIGH SCHOOL PLANNING FOR NO HOMECOMING DANCE ON SEPTEMBER 24 appeared first on KROX.

The Northwest Minnesota Arts Council is excited to announce the Northwest Minnesota Art Exhibit Winners. Student and adult artists residing in a seven-county region including Kittson, Marshall, Norman, Polk, Pennington, Roseau, and Red Lake recently entered into the Northwest Minnesota Art Exhibit and competed for $2,300.00 in cash awards. The winners were recognized at the Northwest Minnesota Artist Reception in Warroad on August 26.

ADULT WINNERS
1st Place $500 Debbie Aune of Gatzke in oil painting “Daddy and Son”
2nd Place $300 Heather Sabian of Crookston for sculpture “Skin Hunger”
3rd Place $200 Dennis Kinkead of Hallock in sculpture “Alarmed Dragon”

Merit $100 – Nick Reitzel of Karlstad in oil painting “Track of the Wolf Pack”
Merit $100 – Richard Jensen of Crookston in sculpture “Crow Mother”
Merit $100 – Summit Kuehn of Roseau in painting “Princessa Eagle”
Merit $100 – Nancy Vraa of Red Lake Falls in folk/traditional fine craft “Home Spun Origin”
Merit $100 – Glen Heppner of Warroad in oil painting “Jordan”

People’s Choice $100 of Irene Bertils of Crookston

STUDENT WINNERS
1st Place $300 – Kansas Jensen of Goodridge in acrylic painting “Covid Gothic”
2nd Place $150  – Aubree Bonham of Fertile in mixed media “No Evil”
3rd Place $100 – Alexis Jalbert of Ada for sculpture “Sushi”

Merit $50 – Brennon Collins of Greenbush for hand-colored intaglio print “Lake Lounging”
Merit $50 – Eskyla Manriquez of Ada in sculpture “Air Jordan 1 Chicago Black Toe”
Merit $50 – Macrina Herbel of Fertile for drawing “Vignette”
Merit $50 – Donavin Hagen of Goodridge for printmaking “Bandit”
Merit $50 – Riley Saurdiff of Grygla for drawing “Pencil Pachyderm”

People’s Choice $50 – Kansas Jensen and Aubree Bonham 

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