The Wright and Cromwell Area News

07/30/2007

Wright News by Jennie K. Hanson July 30, 2007

This year’s Grand Marshals for the Harvest Fest Parade will be Lincoln and Jeanne Hansen.  Please congratulate them on their fine work for our community when you see them.  Harvest Fest will be held the weekend of September 7th, 8th, and 9th in Cromwell, MN.  This is usually a huge event, so mark your calendars.

The YOT Meeting scheduled for Tuesday, August 14 will be held at 1:30 at the Bethany Lutheran Church, Cromwell.  We will have a special organ music concert from a representative from Schmitt Music.  The whole community is invited, so be sure to mark it on your calendars.

The Cromwell Methodist Church will host a Pie & Ice Cream Social on Friday, August 3 beginning at 6:30 p.m.  These yummy desserts will be followed by a Hymn Sing and a Silent Auction.  Come along and have some fun with us.

On Sunday, August 12th, the Cromwell Methodist Church will hold their annual Church Picnic at the home of Eric and Kathy Collman on Prairie Lake.  The 10:30 service will be followed by a Pot Luck Luncheon.  All are welcome to attend.

Save the date!  There will be a Chili Feed fundraiser honoring Kevin Davis on September 22 from 1-4 at the Island Lake Campground Park.  Watch for more details.

Grace Krogh was surrounded by her family, her sisters and their families at their Mattson Family Reunion.  From ages 3 months to 93 years, there was plenty of visiting and fun events planned for everyone.  The events included a picnic at Enger Tower, Duluth; a dinner cruise on the Vista Star; a day at the Krogh farm; a hayride; several musical gatherings and group choral music; the scenic Lake Superior shoreline and of course, Betty’s Pies. Relatives came from California, Utah, Arizona, Wisconsin, Missouri, Kentucky, Connecticut and yes, even from London, England.  Grace and her family would like to thank all of their neighbors and friends for your part in making our ‘Cromwell Day’ a huge success.

Dave and Michelle Hedin attended the wedding of Shelly Tillman recently. Shelly is the daughter of Wendy Clark of Cromwell.

Our sympathy to former Pastor Ed Nieman and family as his mother, Mildred Nieman, recently passed away in Iowa.  The Nieman’s are now living and working in Brycelyn, MN.  I have their address if you would like to send a card.

I’ve been doing some research and found that the School in Wright, the school at Lakeside and our U. S. Post Office were all built in 1908.  That means that next year they will all be 100 years old.  I’m sure there will be some extra celebrations planned for these anniversaries.  Wouldn’t it be great if Wright School and Lakeside School had a joint 100th Anniversary celebration at Wrong Days next year?

Is there anyone out there who would be interested in restoring a old horse drawn school bus?  The Kingsley Family still owns the bus that was used to bring children to school back before motorized busses were in use.  The Cromwell Area Historical Club would like to have this project done before it is too late.  Please c all me for more information on this.

There will be a circus at the Barnum Fairgrounds on August 5th.  See details at the area businesses.

Devon Egge, Mandy Egge, Jakob Slyster, Keegan Warner, Josh Oliver, Jamie Bridge and Brianna House were at Camp Vermilion the week of July 23rd – 27th.  They had a great time.

100 years of marriage!  Who could be married that long?  Well actually two couples will be celebrating.  The 60th Wedding Anniversary of Art and Florence Newgren and their daughter Geraldine and Ed Nynas’ 40th.  So, come to the Open House Anniversary on Saturday, August 4th, 2007 at the Sno-Gophers Building, North Hwy 73, Cromwell, from 2 – 4 PM.

There will be a concert at the Bethany Lutheran Church in Cromwell on Sunday, August 5th at the regular 10:30 AM worship service. Sweetwater Revival will be performing and I hear that they are really great!  Don’t miss this one!

The Farmer’s Co-op Store Annual Meeting will be on Thursday, August 9th at 6:30 PM.  Come and join they for their up-date on the store and there will be entertainment, and lunch, too.

The Wrong Days Committee would like to announce that they took in over $6,000.00 this year and with expenses taken out, there should be $ 3,500 to $4,000 left over for park expenses and improvements.  Dennis Cieluch, would especially like to thank Deb Johnson and Jody and Blaine Schatz for their above and beyond help with donations, help, and promotion of Wrong Days. Several other groups had fund raising events in conjunction with WD and they also did well.  So, all in all, this year’s Wrong Days was one of the best one we’ve had. Thanks to all the volunteers who worked so hard to make it happen.

I got a wonderful email from Cheryl Saaristo the other day and would like to share parts of it with you.  So here it is:

For those of you reading this I ran into Jennie Hanson at Johny Hakala’s service today in Cloquet.  I wouldn’t feel right if I didn’t talk about him. He was such an awesome giving, caring person.  You know I will really miss him.  He and his X-wife Sue did daycare for Leah in Cloquet from the time she was 6 months old to about 3 years old when we moved to Wright. They were the best daycare we have ever had.  Johny and his family really acted like she was part of the family, they made her part of their family-even going so far as to getting her and the other daycare kids Christmas presents when I know they were really hurting for money themselves.  A lot of people had really fallen behind on paying them for daycare, some just didn’t pay.  They purchased presents for 40 some daycare kids.  How amazing is that.  I have seen their kids grow up and we continued to be friends with them all.  I would like to say it was the entire family including their kids that took care of Leah and all of the daycare kids.  They were all the BEST .

This is what an amazing person Johny Hakala was.  Brian was in KY before he went to Iraq.  Johny was the only person to come and check on me and the kids.  I was out of fuel oil with out any money to buy anymore or wood.

After my surgery he helped me when I didn’t have anyone and was on crutches I couldn’t even get down the stairs to build a fire.  I am very happy and proud to say he never had anything else on his mind and never ever did or said anything inappropriate-he wasn’t like that.  He did it because I needed the help and he cared about the kids and I, “ that was the kind of person he was.” All of our stuff was already in KY.  Plus, I was on crutches after my surgery with a pulmonary embolism.  I really didn’t have anyone else to help me and I really needed the help.  I was working 40 to 58 hours a week with 2 hours of travel time a day in addition to raising 2 young kids on my own.  Johny came there to build a fire in the wood stove and take out the garbage or whatever I needed.  In the summer I paid him to mow the lawn and cut some trees down but other than that it was out of the goodness of his heart.  I don’t think he ever had extra money but he also never asked me for even gas money to drive from his house all the way to my house.  He was a good man and a very good friend to my family and I.  I have been lucky and thank God for knowing him, he will be greatly missed.  I know he also helped others out as much as he could.

How did this happen?  Why weren’t any of us there for him in his great time of need.  I feel so guilty.  I haven’t talked to Johny for a long time, only once I think since my family got back from D.C.  He told me he cried when he found out about Brian and he was almost crying when he told me.  I am the one crying now, why wasn’t I there for him.  Please God forgive me for not being a better person and making time to help him in his terrible time of need.  I will miss my friend.  I am so sorry Johny for not being there for you.  We all get hung up in our own lives not realizing how short life can be.  My husband and I both almost died last year (both in our 40’s).  Johny in his late 40’s.  I just want everyone to know what a good man he really was.  There is a lot to be said about a man like that, that did that “just out of the goodness of his heart” with no ulterior motive other than to be a good person.

Alcoholism has wrecked an entire family and changed how many lives by one man who was an alcoholic.  Alcohol is a depressant-that took a wonderful husband, father and a selfless friend to many.  In the 10 years that I have known Johny I have only seen him drunk or drinking once.  I know some people knew the alcoholic, I didn’t.  He did tell me how he struggled and how bad he felt about it and how he was when he was drunk he was very sorry about that.  He was a good person that alcohol stole from us.

By Cheryl Saaristo

Again, thank everyone for all pulling together and helping out our family in our terrible time of need.  Thank you all for the prayer chains, pulling together and building our garage in Wright.  There is a lot to be said about family and friends.  Speaking about family Dot Richards will be greatly missed by 100’s of people.  Look at how many lives she affected in such a positive way.  When we are walking outside and there is a smell in the air of good cooking it is most likely Dot cooking up a storm in heaven FOR EVERYONE.

That’s all from Lake What’sitallabout?  Have a great rest of the summer!