donnelly news

Next edition Jan 3^rd-10th

Welcome to another addition of the Donnelly news.

Weather news: well after fairly nice Christmas weekend it is back to the deep freeze this week with –0 temps and cold wind chills

St John’s/Kongsvinger news: there will be no Sunday school on Jan 3^rd. the annual meetings will be Jan 18th @ St. John’s and Jan 25th @ Kongsvinger both at noon. Service times will switch on the 18^th.

Good shepherd news: be sure to look at our beautiful new church sign when driving past the church. This boulder sign was made possible in part by memorial donations.

John Craig Beem of Alexandria passed away Dec 26^th. He was one of the pastors who led services when we had services at the Prairie Inn

Community news: the city council and Rendsville 4-h club will meet on Jan 5^th at 7 p.m. at the city hall and St John’s church in Donnelly. The bookmobile will be in town at 3:30 p.m. on main St. on Jan 12^th.

Celebrations: Morris- Benson area storm hockey peewees recently took first place at Dakota premier classic in Brookings SD, Brady Loge was a member of that team his dad Ryan was a coach

Morris Area H.S. knowledge bowl team “Morris mahogany” finished 4^th in the Concordia college meet Adam Uphoff was a member of that team

Death notices: Ruth Vipond of Herman passed away on Dec 27^th survivors include her nephew Doug Gulbrandson and his family.

Calvin Mattheis of Morris passed away Dec 24^th survivors include his daughter Barb (Wayne) Stoneburg of Willmar.  Wayne is a former Donnelly resident.

Neil Sperr, 82, of Donnelly, died Tuesday, December 30^th a memorial gathering for him will be held today (Sat) 1-3 pm at the Erickson smith funeral home in Elbow Lake.

On Christmas Eve I attended the living nativity at Faith Lutheran, candlelight services at Good shepherd-Morris and St John’s Lutheran church in Donnelly. Christmas day I attended services at Good Shepherd , the community Dinner at First Lutheran, visited some residents at the West Wing Village, to wish them a Merry Christmas and also Ruth Strand at the west central homes where she was enjoying a family Christmas dinner. I also visited Lou Eystad in the hospital on Sun afternoon; she was able to return home on Dec. 30th. She informs me that a 100^th birthday is planned for her aunt Marlys Alm in Feb.

Thank you to “Santa” for the fruit basket he left at my house last week

christmas pictures

#1 me #2 t bee royalty in Morris parade # 3 mark koepke with family and friends at Pizza ranch in July his sister pd him a brief visit #4 my new cart #5 friend Inga Mae Urke with grand prize at glenwood fair #6 t bee royalty at dance #7 kids at Santa day in donnelly #8 t bee royalty and santa #9 deaconess deb and t. bee royalty and and santa # 9 St j-donnelly #10 & 12 new signs at gslc-Morris and me at cc mall

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Morris Minn. Christmas 2014

“Silent night, holy night, all is calm all is bright” With the words of this familiar hymn I greet you once again with my annual Christmas letter.

Weather news:It was a very cold winter ,with a lot of -0 temps, and snow, a late spring again, it was late May, before major fieldwork got going, but once they got going ,farmers were able to get crops in w/out too much trouble, some local heavy rains during the early summer led to some crops getting drowned out, and major damage to the local library and St. Mary’s school here in Morris ,by mid- summer things dried out, but some timely rains gave crops a good boost. Harvest proceed without too many delays, yields were good although not as good as previous yrs. Most farmers were done by early Nov. and just in time, as winter returned early this yr. with about a ft. of snow and some cold weather on Nov 11th. Mid Dec brought some unseasonably mild weather that melted a lot of the snow, but it did not last long.

Church news Rev. Mary Dodgson who had been our interim pastor at St. John’s/ Kongsvinger since early Oct ‘13, resigned her position in Oct., she and her sister moved back to the cities. A farewell dinner for her was held on Oct 12^th, her final day here was Oct 15^th. Rev Rochelle Anderson from Morris, filled in for several weeks, until Deaconess Deb Robinson from St Joseph MN accepted our call to be the new interim pastor, her first Sun here was Nov 30^th; we had a welcoming dinner for her on Dec 7th at Kong.  Discussion is still ongoing as to the future of our parish. We had two young people confirmed in our parish this year. Other events included ss program at Kong. , Klcw advent brunch, 4th of July celebration, community block party featuring the music of the Orpheum family from Grand Rapids MN, a number of joint services and the usual assortment of pot luck meals.   GSLC news: this summer PR. Mike and Martha Hanson sold their house in Glenwood and bought the First Lutheran pastors house in Morris, moving into it on Aug 1st, his wife accepted a job teaching in Brainerd ,he stayed in Morris for a few months ,until accepting a call in that area. It is a very nice house, close to the school, and a nice big green lot next to it. PR. Martha resigned as pastor of St John’s-Starbuck in July to become a full time mother, and pastor’s wife, she helps out with ss at GS now, we shared VBS with Zion this summer, Sun a.m. adult Ed was discontinued in favor of weekly bible studies,. We had a special service to remember the victims of abortion; advent and Lenten services, the new addition has made things much nicer esp. during coffee hr. a new “boulder” sign was recently installed in front of the church funded in part by memorial gifts.  Future projects include paving the parking lot, and putting a steeple on the church. Other church events were living nativity at faith, a concert by the Hainey family in Elbow Lake, “new wine” homecoming concert at First-Morris, feed my starving children had another successful packing event in Morris again this summer, paraphrase theatre, and All state Lutheran choir concert at the LCMC church in Alex, captive free- great plains concert at the Kensington LCMC church, and Dakota road in concert at Trinity-Cyrus

Community news our annual Donnelly threshing bee featured some nice ford TRs this year with the horse pull and parade popular attractions again this year. Next yr. we will celebrate our 50^th with a double feature anything made in 1965 and farmal tractors and machinery feature. We had good attendance at ice cream social and Halloween party this year; our royalty were busy representing Donnelly again this yr. at about 2 dozen parades and other events

Family news: As I am out and about the three most common questions I get are: “how do you like living in town”, “How you are doing”? And “How is Mark doing?” While I am happy in town, and glad to have a nice home, in a nice location, I do miss the country esp. in the summer time “You can take a boy of the county but not the country out of the boy” I get my “fix” by making trips to Donnelly, usually at least once a week, often times going across country to see what the farmers are doing, how the crops look etc. I bought a good used electric golf cart this summer, after giving up on my old gas one, after it kept burning out the coil and also invested in a used snow blower (easier on my back). My health is fair, blood sugars are better, still working on getting them more consistent ,as I tell people as long as I can get up in the morning and put two feet in front of ea. other I am doing ok. Mark is also doing well too; the follow-ups to his eye surgery last fall have all been good. He is scheduled to go to Mayo in Rochester early next yr. for some tests in his skin. His sister Linda, and her sister in law Sue, surprised him with a brief visit here this summer, she is hoping that she and her brothers Jimmy and Bobby will be able to come back this summer for the Herman all school reunion. We do not see ea. other as much as we used to, as he has his interests and I have mine, and usually are not the same. I am still writing my weekly column Donnelly news for the Morris paper I continue to receive a lot of compliments for it .esp. from former residents as I have found out “you can take a kid out of Donnelly but you cannot take Donnelly out of the kid” When not doing that I spend a lot of time on-line esp. on Facebook.  I was on the road again a lot this summer traveling to many community celebrations, fairs, parades and other events in the area. The rest of my family is “status quo” my aunt Pearl lives in apt here in Morris, I go visit her on occasion, my cousin Jan and her husband Dennis still live and work in Alex, my other cousins Carl (Billy) his wife Pat and sister Elnora are still in SC, I am still a member of the donnelly community club, Stevens co genealogical society, and the Stevens co rep party.  My contact info is e-mail aeanders@fedtel.net  ph. 585-6435( h) 288-8692 (c) ad is 11 e 9^th st morris MN 56267 my website is donnellyminn.blogspot.com

One of the signs that you are getting older is the increasing # of visitations and/or funerals you wind up going to during the yr. and decreasing # of celebrations birthday parties, anniversaries etc. you go to. I did attend two significant ones this yr. a 60^th wedding celebration for some friends, and a 99^th birthday party for a former Donnelly resident at the nursing home in Morris.

Wishing you a very blessed and happy Christmas The Anderson‘s:   Allen and “Pr Buttons”

Dear Deaconess Deb this letter is a family tradition, 50+ yrs. ago my mom got the idea to start writing it after reading about it in a farm mag and started doing it.  She wrote it out long hand, and then usually found somebody to type it up for her, and had it mimeographed at the Donnelly school. As I grew up I began to help her esp. after I took typing in h.s. By then we could have it copied it at the bank. After I graduated from h.s I started doing more of it, then after she became ill I have continued on with the help from family and friends and now modern technology (i.e. computer & printer) make it a much easier job. My mom had a stroke in ’88 and spent the next 6 years in the Morris nursing home, my dad passed away in ’05 he was 97 years old. I have no brothers or sisters they were married late in life and she lost her first child was told she could no longer have other children but God knew better and a few yrs. later I came along. Mark is a former neighbor of mine who moved back up here after spending 30+ years in FL. He stayed with me for several months until he found an apt of his own, he is the one who named my cat Pr. Buttons.

donnelly news

Next edition Dec. 20^th-26^th

Welcome to another addition of the Donnelly news Merry Christmas to all my loyal readers out there. Quick reminder early deadlines for the next two weeks

Weather news: After an unseasonably mild weekend in which much of the snow melted, winter retuned on Monday with freezing drizzle in the early aft, which turned into snow later in the day making for very difficult driving conditions late Mon afternoon and eve.   It continued to snow most of Tue.

St John’s/Kongsvinger news: The Sunday school program will be presented during joint services at St John’s on Dec 21^st at 11 a.m. followed by a potluck dinner

Services on Christmas Eve will be at 9 P.M. at ST. John’s; on Christmas day they will be at 10 A.M. at Kongsvinger

There will be joint services at Kongsvinger on Dec. 28 at 10 A.M. no Sunday school

Good shepherd news: there will be services on Christmas Eve at 4:30 P.M.; and at 10 A.M. on Christmas day

The bible study that was cancelled on Dec 16^th due to the weather will be held on at 10 am on Dec 23^rd instead.

Other church news: The “Living Nativity” program will be presented at Faith Lutheran-Morris on Dec 24^th at 3 P.M. and 5:15 P.M.

Community Christmas dinner at First Lutheran-Morris at noon on Christmas day

Community news: the bookmobile will be in town on Dec. 22^nd at 3 pm

HD & CO 15^th anniversary open house today (Saturday) 8 a.m. –noon at the store in Donnelly

Death notices: none

Celebrations: tiger wrestling: Grant county invitational: Tigers 7^th; Jacob Speer 4^th 220 lbs.

Tiger gymnastics Milbank meet: Kourtney Giese 4th Place on Beam, 3rd Place in All-Around Savannah Aanerud 5th Place on Beam, 5th Place on Floor, 4th Place in All-Around; junior varsity Katie Giese placed fourth in all-around competition.

Jerry and Joan Kopacek were among the many who braved the dense fog to attended the VFW 5th District meeting in Starbuck Dec 14th.

Past week I attended the Sunday school programs at Good shepherd-Morris and Faith-Morris; open house retirement party at the soil water conversation office for George Libbon the open house at the new Thrivent office in Morris in the theater arcade building visitation and the funeral for James Peterson, his wife was the librarian when I went to school in Morris

A good crowd was on hand in Donnelly on Dec 13^th for the community club dinner and Santa’s visit. Thanks to the community club members and spouses for making and serving the delicious  meal, the threshing  bee royalty for helping with Santa’s visit ,to Santa for taking time out of his busy schedule at the North Pole to come to Donnelly to visit with the kids.  It was too mild for his reindeer, so several members of the Donnelly fire department picked him up and brought him to Donnelly.

donnelly news

Next edition Dec. 13^th-19th

  Weather news: it has been a nice week with mild temperatures and no snow although we did have some freezing drizzle one a.m.

St John’s/Kongsvinger news: There will be a confirmation service at Kongsvinger on Dec 14th at 11 A.M.

The Sunday school program will be presented during joint services at St John’s on Dec 21^st at 11 a.m. followed by a potluck dinner

Services on Christmas Eve will be at 9 P.M. at ST. John’s; on Christmas day they will be at 10 A.M. at Kongsvinger

There will be joint services at Kongsvinger on Dec. 28 at 10 A.M. no Sunday school

The parish will have a hat/mitten/scarf/gift tree in the back of both churches until about mid Dec

Good shepherd news: The Sunday school program will be presented during services on Dec 14th at 9 a.m., also on that day the church is sponsoring a youth and family ski day at Andes towers hill by Alex.  Leave the church at noon and ski until 5 p.m., call the church at 585-6868 for info on price or to sign up. Community members are welcome to come along.

The final Advent service will be on Dec. 17^th at 7p.m.; services on Christmas Eve will be at 4:30 P.M.; and at 10 A.M. on Christmas day

Other church news: Cookie factory at Faith-Morris today (sat) from 9A.M.-noon

The “Living Nativity” program will be presented at Faith Lutheran-Morris on Dec 24^th at 3 P.M. and 5:15 P.M.

Community Christmas dinner at First Lutheran-Morris at noon on Christmas day

There will be a Holiday bake sale at the United Methodist church –Herman today (Sat.) from 9A.M.-11 a.m.

Community news: on Dec 15^th the firemen will meet at 7 p.m. at the fire hall the bookmobile will be in town on Dec. 22^nd at 3 pm

Santa will be in Donnelly today (Sat.) at the community hall at about 12:30 P.M.

Open house retirement party for George Libon on Dec 15^th at the swcd office –Morris 2-4 pm

Death notices: Adele Mattheis of Morris passed away on Nov 30^th survivors include her daughter Barb (Wayne) Stoneburg of Willmar, Wayne is a former Donnelly resident

Celebrations: the Jim and Andy Aanerud families of Donnelly were recently named Stevens County’s outstanding conservation families of the year.

Kourtney Geise is a Tiger gymnastic co-captain; the tigers hosted an invitational meet on Dec 6^th they finished 4^th as a team; Kourtney finished 4^th in the all-around; at the Fergus falls meet on Dec 9th Kourtney finished 4th on Vault; 3rd on Bars; 5th on Beam; 5th on Floor; and 4th in All-Around; junior varsity:  Katie Giese 2nd on Vault; 1st on Bars; tied for 1st on Beam; 2nd on Floor; 1st in All-Around

Baily Armstrong is on the B honor roll at West Central Area schools

Past week “supper with Santa” at the Eagles ;spaghetti fundraiser at the Morris area elementary school cafeteria; holiday open houses at the museum ,the prairie  Renaissance cultural alliance and senior center, the welcome dinner for Deaconess Deb at Kongsvinger; and “a time to remember” at the Pedersen funeral home

donnelly news

Next edition Dec. 6-12^th

Weather news: the early part of the week brought some -0 temps and cold winds we also had some light snow during the past week.

St John’s/Kongsvinger news:  Deaconess Deborah Robinson from the St Joseph MN area has accepted the parish’s call to be the new interim pastor so the KLCW is combining their annual Advent Brunch with a Welcome Potluck for her. Please join us for a potluck salad, breads, and Christmas sweets dinner (Scalloped potatoes/ham and beverage furnished) following the 11 a.m. worship service at Kongsvinger on December 7th (about noon) at the Kongsvinger Parish Hall. We will enjoy food and fellowship as well as celebrate the Advent season with a short program following the dinner. All members of the Parish are invited to attend.

The “where’s the beef” raffle drawing will be held following the 8:30 a.m. services at St. John’s on Dec 7th

The parish will have a hat/mitten/scarf/gift tree in the back of both churches until about mid Dec.

The Sunday school program will be presented during joint services at St John’s on Dec 21^st at 11 a.m.

There will be confirmation services at Kongsvinger on Dec 14^th at 11 am

Good shepherd news: The Sunday school program will be presented during services on Dec 14th at 9 a.m., also on that day the church is sponsoring a youth and family ski day at Andes towers hill by Alex.  Leave the church at noon and ski until 5 p.m., call the church at 585-6868 for info on price or to sign up. Everyone welcome!

Rylin Jo Evink was born on November 29, 2014 at Stevens Community Medical Center, Morris, to Jason and Julie Evink of Morris. They are members of our Good Shepherd family.

Advent services on Dec.10 & 17^th at 7p.m.

Community news: on Dec 8^th the bookmobile will be in town at 3:30 P.M. on Main Street and the firemen will meet at 7 p.m. at the fire hall

Santa will be in Donnelly on Dec 13^th at the community hall at about 1 pm

Stevens county habit for humanity chapter will have a holiday festival Dec. 7^th 1-3 p.m. at common cup coffee house Morris

Salvation Army theme table event at Faith Lutheran on Dec 6^th starting at 11:30 am tickets available at the door

Pedersen funeral home’s “A time to remember” Dec 7^th 4 p.m. at the funeral home

The VFW Christmas Party will be on Dec 7^th at 2 pm at Old #1 South Side

Death notices: Dale Schulte of Milbank passed away on Dec 2^nd survivors include his daughter Barb (Alan) Wilts of Morris, her mother in-law is Bev (Diehl) Wilts of the Donnelly area

Celebrations: Tiger cross country Awards: boys: Dalton Lupke most improved; girls: Savannah Aanerud most valuable runner, Becca Holland was named the captain for 2015 season

Tiger wrestling team took third at the Jaguar invitational   recently, Jacob Speer was the champion at 220lbs.

Eli Daniel Greeley was born November 25 at Stevens Community Medical Center, Morris, to Cody and Christa Greeley of Morris. Grandparents are Scott and Kathy Bahr of Morris, Dan Greeley of Morris, and Nancy Greeley of Alexandria. Great grandparents are Jerry and Sharon Bahr of Morris, Gloria Stein of Morris, and Bill Greeley of Clarissa.

On Nov 29^th I attended the funeral for Chuck Walwick in Elbow Lake. While there I was informed that his aunt Avis Opheim of Sioux City Iowa had also passed away on Nov.21^st, the Walwick’s are distant relatives of mine. En-route home I stopped at the Morris hospital to visit with Lou Eystad, she is now home. Past week I attended the open house at Unger’s, the craft show at the nation guard Armory in Morris , open house at meadowland market, funeral for Shirley Henrichs at Kongsvinger, and the Kongsvinger Krusaders tip night at the Pizza ranch in Morris

Dec 3^rd I stopped into McCollar Jewelry to wish Wally a happy 77^th birthday