People

For information on how you can help the Haslett-Marroquin family, who lost their home to a fire on November 23, please click here.

At their November 2011 board meeting, the Northfield Healthy Community Initiative (HCI) Board approved mini-grants to support five projects and activities designed to benefit and support Northfield youth. 

HCI offers mini-grants to projects and activities that:

•provide the opportunity for young people to develop positive intergenerational relationships with caring adults and/or
•connect Northfield youth with their communities (ex. neighborhood, school, wider Northfield)

Applications are reviewed monthly and are due by the second Monday of the month.  Visit www.northfieldhci.org/mini-grants for more information and to access the easy-to-complete application.

Click "Read more" to see this month's funded applicants.

The Rice County Chemical Health Coalition is sponsoring a training on the impact of energy drinks on youth.  The training will be offered twice on Tuesday, November 15, 2011.  It will be held from noon-1:30 p.m. at the Northfield Community Resource Center (RSVP required).  It will be repeated from 7:00-8:30 p.m. at the Faribault Middle School (no RSVP needed).

To RSVP for the Northfield training (where space is limited), please contact Heather Kuehl (hkuehl@ricecountychc.com OR 507-403-9696) by Friday, November 11.  No RSVP is necessary for the Faribault training.

Hi everybody! My name is Marika, and I’m the intern who’s been posting human interest stories like Spotlight on Bob Gregory-Bjorklund and Northfield Knits. I’ve been writing for Northfield.org since Spring, and I thought it was about time I introduced myself!

A native of Washington, I became addicted to writing when a neo-noir detective story I wrote for my 4th grade class (inspired by Calvin and Hobbes’s Tracer Bullet) won an award at a center for the literary arts called the Richard Hugo House in Seattle. I got to read it in front of an audience while wearing a 1940’s fedora that my dad helped me find at a thrift store. Since then I’ve been writing almost constantly.

I am currently a junior at Carleton College, working towards a BA in Philosophy (although I take a lot of English classes). After Carleton, I hope to go into journalism or publishing.  So I was beyond thrilled when, upon my return from a study-abroad program in London with Carleton’s English department (and after crossing my fingers all Spring break,) I got the job at Northfield.org last spring. It’s been a fantastic opportunity to hone my journalistic writing skills while getting to know the Northfield community.

Carleton College and the League of Women Voters are screening the critically acclaimed "Miss Representation" at the Weitz Center for Creativity Cinema on Monday, November 7 at 7:00 p.m.

The event is free and open to the public.

Directed and produced by Jennifer Siebel Newsom, “Miss Representation,” which premiered at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, explores how the media’s misrepresentation of women has led to the underrepresentation of women in positions of power and influence.

Learn more about the film at missrepresentation.org.

Check out the official trailer at YouTube.

Read the press release @ Carleton College.

Chuck Perkins, a volunteer coach with the Northfield High School Raiders football team, is the September/October 2011 recipient of the Healthy Community Initiative (HCI) “Making a Difference” Award.  The award celebrates those groups and individuals in the community who have a positive influence on Northfield youth.

“We’ve often referred to him as our positive energy coach,” head coach Bubba Sullian said of Perkins.  “He’s always got a lot of energy, and he does a great job of pumping the kids up – it’s something he’s always brought to our coaching staff and our teams.”

First National Bank of Northfield announced today the addition of Mark Moors to its Board of Directors. Moors, a Northfield resident, most recently held the position of president/owner of Moors Capital Management. He retired in 2010 having served as an independent investment advisor to dozens of clients in the area. He’ll join the seven-member First National board, which provides strategic direction to advance the organization’s mission to provide top-notch, relationship-based banking solutions.

Moors, who will officially begin his duties at the November 18 meeting, will bring with him a career’s worth of banking and financial expertise. His responsibilities steadily grew from a position as a commercial banking officer to a district president for Wells Fargo Bank’s south suburban district of Minneapolis, where he managed 15 banks with $1.5 billion in deposits and 350 employees. His tenure includes seven years as president of Wells Fargo Bank in Northfield.

First National CEO David Shumway said, “Mark will make an excellent addition to our board. He brings with him a valuable balance of knowledge, understanding the complexity of the banking arena as well as the unique service opportunities that arise in community banking. He knows Northfield and he knows the financial industry as a whole. We’re confident he will help First National grow in a way that will benefit the business and community.”

On November 8, voters in the Northfield School District will be asked to vote on operating and capital projects levies to support the Northfield Public Schools.

High school students in the Mayor’s Youth Council (MYC) recognized that while there has been considerable community discussion about the levy, the voice and opinions of local youth have been largely absent from the conversation.  In the end, they noted, the outcome of the levy vote will have a significant impact on local young people.

The MYC is charged by the Northfield City Council with working to increase youth input into civic affairs.  As a result, the MYC educated themselves on the upcoming levy and spoke with high school students about the vote.  The MYC members did not advocate for one side, but instead only provided information about the levy costs and impact.

The Rice County Chemical Health Coalition is sponsoring a training on the impact of energy drinks on youth.  The training will be offered twice on Tuesday, November 15, 2011.  It will be held from noon-1:30 p.m. at the Northfield Community Resource Center (RSVP required).  It will be repeated from 7:00-8:30 p.m. at the Faribault Middle School (no RSVP needed).

The training will be led by Jay Jaffee, the Minnesota Department of Health’s Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse Prevention Coordinator.

To RSVP for the Northfield training (where space is limited), please contact Heather Kuehl (hkuehl@ricecountychc.com OR 507-403-9696) by Friday, November 11.  No RSVP is necessary for the Faribault training.

For an informational flyer on the training, please click HERE.  Continuing education credits are available.

Patricia Wegman has offered up a bunch of photos from her fall gallery, which you can visit by clicking here or on the thumbnail to the right.

St. John’s Hall, 500 West Third Street, is the site of the Fourth Annual Justice Fair, to be held on Sunday, October 23, from 3-5 p.m. Judith Stoutland invites all to see a variety of ways Northfielders are working for justice and peace. Groups of all ages - young people to retirees working for local, national and international causes, will have displays of information depicting their work. Scheduled the day before United Nations Day 2011, the fair is appreciated by those who have their work on display and by those who attend who learn about and get involved in the work being done by friends and neighbors on the Northfield area. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, passed in 1948 by the United Nations is a foundation for this event.

Longtime Northfield resident Gordon Mickelsen just wants a little more room. For the past 11 years the retired housebuilder has filled every nook and cranny in his home with a variety of wooden carvings of local and more exotic wildlife: from trout, quail, and herons to a dolphin, a colorful puffin, and fanciful birds.

In connection with its 2011 Equity Summit in Detroit this November, PolicyLink is sponsoring an "Equity Map" contest, and you have an opportunity to vote for a map created by Northfield native Alice Hargreaves, who has created a map showing access to corner stores in metropolitan Detroit.  You can vote for Alice's map here by clicking the rating stars. Alice grew up in Northfield until her family moved to Massachusetts a few years ago, and she's now a senior at McGill University majoring in Geography and Development Studies. The creator of the winning map will receive a scholarship to attend the Equity Summit.

According to Alice, her map "reveals which neighborhoods have low access to fresh produce. More importantly, it shows us the potential for corner stores to 'fill in the gaps' and increase the accessibility of fresh produce for Detroit residents. The idea of the healthy corner store is part of the Obama administration's Healthy Food Financing Initiative, which provides financial incentives and support for corner store owners who sell fresh produce."

For the third time overall and second consecutive year, Northfield has been named as one of the “100 Best Communities for Young People” by the Amercia’s Promise Alliance.  Sponsored by ING, the competition recognizes communities across the country that focus on reducing high school dropout rates and providing service and support to their youth.

“In a nation where 7,000 students drop out of high school every day, we hope Northfield’s initiatives inspire other communities across the nation to take action to solve the challenges facing their young people,” said Marguerite W. Kondracke, America’s Promise Alliance president and CEO.  “Northfield is especially deserving of this recognition due to their efforts to ensure that their young people graduate high school and go on to lead healthy, productive lives. Northfield refuses to let the challenges they face determine the future for their young people. Instead, they are helping their youth prosper and become contributing members of society.”

The Northfield application was organized and written by high school juniors and seniors in the Mayor’s Youth Council (MYC).  The MYC is a City Council-appointed commission charged with assuring a youth voice in community decision-making.

As the Arts Coordinator at ARTech, a teacher at Northfield Arts Guild, and Artistic Director of the fall musical at Northfield High School, Bob Gregory-Bjorklund wears many hats. I got to talk to him about all of them, as well as how great Northfield is, his favorite theater memories, and his past life as a singing waiter. 

How did you end up in Northfield?

“Long story short , Anne and I moved to the cities in ‘83 and when we started looking for houses we realized that we didn’t really want to live in the city,” begins Gregory-Bjorklund.

“Anne’s sister and her family live here, and our son Willy is an only child. We were certainly drawn to the community itself and at that time we were homeschooling so we had a lot of flexibility. All of that attracted us to this place.”