FREE PRESS MESSENGER AMERY
TUESDAY, JANUARY33, 19,2222 2016 THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER
VOL.131 120 NO. NO.1930 www.theameryfrepress.com VOL. www.moraminn.com $1.00 $1.00
ROBIN HOOD: Youth production entertains audiences PAGE 7
At long last,
COUNTRY
www.theameryfreepress.com
is here BY JESSICA DE LA CRUZ
THURSDAY,EDITOR@THEAMERYFREEPRESS.COM SEPTEMBER 33, 2222
Serving Marine-on-St. Croix, Scandia, May Township
SENTINEL BURNETT COUNTY
Amy Johnson, a 1990 graduate of Amery High School, comforts a woman who fled her home and landed on the Greek Island of Lesbos, a small island off the shore of Turkey. Johnson and her family, who live in Zurich, Switzerland, volunteered to help refugees in their journey to European countries like Germany.
Far From Home Amery native lends a hand on foreign shores BY JESSICA DE LA CRUZ EDITOR@THEAMERYFREEPRESS.COM
FREE
further. It was Bali, Indonesia is where she met her Swiss husband, Edi. They’ve lived in Zurich for five years now, and have two young children, a son, Sim, who is four, and a daughter, Charlie, who is three. Like many, Edi and Amy (who now goes by AmyJo), were touched by pictures in the media
and the middle-east refugee crisis. They felt compelled to lend a hand, not as a couple, but as a family. In a van packed with clothing, sleeping bags and mats, they drove to the border where refugees were crossing from Serbia into Hungary, and spent a weekend helping there.
VOL. 131 NO. 19 www.moraminn.com $1.00 It’s the beginning of a new era in Amery. The local stories, columns, and commentary Amery has enjoyed for 120 years are about to get a much larger audience, thanks to the Amery area’s newest online resource, theameryfreepress.com. Publisher Tom Stangl has been looking forward to the launch for some time. “Providing a website for the Amery community was among our priorities when the Johnson family purchased the Free Press in 2012,” says Stangl. “National studies have shown that people take in the news in different ways. This gives our readers another way to consume the news.” The new website contains locally reported news, sports, obituaries, columns, letters to the editor, THURSDAY, 33,calendar, 2222 classifi ed ads,SEPTEMBER community and more, in VOL. 131 NO. www.moraminn.com $1.00 of the complete addition to 19 an electronic ‘e-edition’ weekly paper. The website is fully responsive, meaning it adapts to be cleanly displayed on any electronic device from a desktop computer to a smart phone. Subscribers to the print edition will have complete access to the site and full e-edition, but Tom Stangl need to register as a Publisher, Amery Free Press current subscriber first. They can then access the e-editions by entering their subscriber number, found on the mailing label of their newspaper. Readers will have limited access for free, but can purchase an online-only subscription for as little as $5 per month. A full year of access can be purchased for $30. Editor Jessica de la Cruz encourages users to make use of the search feature in the upper right of the screen. “Content won’t display forever, but if it was ever published on the site, it hasn’t gone away. If you see something like an obituary, or a news story and want to find it later, just search a word from the story and you’ll be directed to what you’re looking for.” The new digital format is highly sharable, meaning Amery’s community news can now reach very
‘It’s a great day for the Amery community, because the great local stories we tell every week will now have a much wider audience’
COUNTY ST
Amy Johnson was born and raised in Amery to parents Darlene Johnson and the late Jon Johnson. After graduating in 1990, life would take Amy about as far as her adventurous spirit could imagine: Minnesota, Montana, Arizona, California … and
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ISANTI-CHISAGO
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Amery’s new project-based schools offer non-traditional learning path
THE SUN BY JESSICA DE LA CRUZ EDITOR@THEAMERYFREEPRESS.COM
Imagine a classroom where the last lesson in a chapter wasn’t an end—but a beginning. That’s the premise behind three new project-based schools coming to Amery School District next fall. Amery Montessori School will be available to SEE MONTESSORI ON PAGE 8
We are always accepting new patients and same day appointments are generally available
R
SEE WEBSITE ON PAGE 9
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